Hilton Simmet is a Lecturer in Political Science associated with the Program of Environmental Studies at Yale University and an affiliate of the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard Kennedy School. His work concerns the role of political culture in influencing how economics frames and informs public policy and solves social problems.

Hilton studied social theory and physics (A.B.) at Harvard College and political theory (M.A.) at Yale University. In 2025, Hilton completed his Ph.D. in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, where he specialized in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and development economics. Drawing on this training, he explores the role that scientific and technical expertise play in developing solutions to problems of poverty, inequality and development. His dissertation analyzed how leading inequality economists in the US, France and India developed disparate research methods — randomized controlled trials (RCTs), distributional national accounts and “action-oriented” research — consistent with local understandings of justice and social welfare. Following his Ph.D., Hilton was a Research Associate at the Research Institute for Sustainability in Potsdam, Germany. His more recent work develops his ongoing research on the politics of the energy transition in Europe and the global South and looks at the emergence of the “growth paradigm” in economic thought, including how technology has been conceived as a solution to the problem of planetary limits.

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