Alycia Leonard

Alycia is a Senior Research Associate in Energy Systems within the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on sustainable and inclusive energy systems design, which accounts for both large-scale economic opportunities and local community needs. She uses mixed-method and multi-disciplinary approaches, combining data-driven spatial analysis and machine learning with nuanced consideration of policy context and stakeholder perspectives. Alycia presently holds a Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Research Fellowship where she is investigating whether value-aligned energy access interventions can be predictively targeted to match local context. She also collaborates with the Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) and Strategic Hydrogen Integration for Low-Carbon Development (SHIELD) research programmes. Her current geographies of focus are Kenya, Zambia, and Ukraine. Alongside her research, Alycia is the Training Director of the Schmidt AI in Science Faculty Fellowship Programme at Oxford. She has also taught Oxford undergraduate students in circuit analysis, digital electronics, communication networks, computer vision, signal analysis, project management, and engineering ethics. Alycia completed her DPhil in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar, and her BEng in Electrical Engineering at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

• Geospatial design of energy access systems.
• Green hydrogen development and export.
• Economic, environmental, political, and cultural sustainability of energy services.
• Resource curse dynamics in renewable energy systems.
• Subnational energy planning (i.e. at district or county levels).
• Application of machine learning in energy system planning.
• Practical strategies to incorporate local values and needs in energy system design.

For a full listing, please refer to Google Scholar and ORCID.

• Egli, F., Schneider, F., Leonard, A., Halloran, C., Salmon, N., Schmidt, T. & Hirmer, S. (2025). Mapping the cost competitiveness of African green hydrogen imports to Europe. Nature Energy, 10, 750–761. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01768-y
• Leonard, A., Nguti, K., Flores Lanza, M., & Hirmer, S. (2025). Shedding light on vulnerability: Intersectional energy planning for development. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 211, 115199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2024.115199
• Hirmer, S., Tomei, J., Yang, P., Leonard, A., Trotter, P., Millot, A., Egli, F., van Dam, K., Beltramo, A., & Stringer, M. (2024). Inconsistent measurement calls into question progress on electrification in sub-Saharan Africa. Nature Energy, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01609-4
• Leonard, A., Ahsan, A., Charbonnier, F., & Hirmer, S. (2024). Renewable energy in Morocco: Assessing resource curse risks. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 192, 114210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2023.114210
• Kebir, N., Leonard, A., Downey, M., Jones, B., Rabie, K., Bhagavathy, S. M., & Hirmer, S. A. (2023). Second-life battery systems for affordable energy access in Kenyan primary schools. Nature Scientific Reports, 13(1), 1374. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28377-7
• Müller, L. A., Leonard, A., Trotter, P. A., & Hirmer, S. (2023). Green hydrogen production and use in low-and middle-income countries: A least-cost geospatial modelling approach applied to Kenya. Applied Energy, 343, 121219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121219
• Leonard, A., Ahsan, A., Charbonnier, F., & Hirmer, S. (2022). The resource curse in renewable energy: A framework for risk assessment. Energy Strategy Reviews, 41, 100841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2022.100841
• Hirmer, S. A., Mazzone, A., Leonard, A., & Conforti, C. (2022). The power of language: Exploring values, empowerment dynamics and communication strategies for gender-inclusive energy service design in rural Uganda. Energy Research & Social Science, 85, 102379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102379
• Leonard, A., Wheeler, S., & McCulloch, M. (2022). Power to the people: Applying citizen science and computer vision to home mapping for rural energy access. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 108, 102748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2022.102748