Hilton Simmet is a Research Associate at the Research Institute for Sustainability in Potsdam, Germany and an affiliate of the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard Kennedy School. His research uses the methods of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and political theory to examine the constitutive role that scientific knowledge plays in addressing questions of public policy.

Hilton studied social theory and physics (A.B.) at Harvard College and political theory (M.A.) at Yale University. In 2025, he 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, Hilton 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. At RIFS, Hilton is looking at the emergence of the “growth paradigm” in economic thought, and how technology has been conceived as a solution to the problem of planetary limits. He will also develop his ongoing research on the politics of the energy transition in Europe and the global South.

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