Vijay Modi is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University, and the Director of the Quadracci Sustainable Engineering Lab at the School of Engineering (SEAS) and The Earth Institute, Columbia University which uses software engineering to help address development issues.

His expertise is in the fields of energy sources and conversion, heat/mass transfer, and fluid mechanics. His recent work has been on energy infrastructure design & planning; solar energy; energy efficiency in agriculture, and data analytics spanning from urban settings to remote rural settings, working closely with city and national agencies/utilities to understand how energy services can be more accessible, more efficient and cleaner.

Previously, Vijay led the UN Millennium Project effort on the role of energy and energy services in reaching the Millennium Development Goals, and was the Director of Infrastructure Programs for the Millennium Villages Project. He has authored or co-authored numerous journal papers and served as the principal or co-principal of a number of research grants from government and industry.