Nebojsa Nakicenovic is Deputy Director and Deputy CEO of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, and Professor of Energy Economics at the Vienna University of Technology. He is also a Co-Chair of Future Earth’s Global Carbon Project. Among other recent positions, Professor Nakicenovic was Director of the Global Energy Assessment. He has been a member of the United Nations Secretary-General's High-Level Technical Group on Sustainable Energy for All, the Advisory Council of the German Government on Global Change (WBGU), the International Council for Science (ICSU)'s Committee on Scientific Planning and Review, the Global Carbon Project (GCP), and the Austrian oil company OMV Group's Advisory Group on Sustainability.

He is also Editorial Board Member of the following journals: Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Climate Policy, Journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Energy Sector Management and Energy Strategy Reviews.

Among Nakicenovic's research interests are the long-term patterns of technological change, economic development and response to climate change and, in particular, the evolution of energy, mobility, information and communication technologies.