Francis Vanek

Hello, welcome to my homepage!

I have undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Asian Studies (Japanese language concentration) from Cornell University (1991), and a doctorate in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania (1998).

I work as a Teaching Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University.

One of my roles in CEE is to advise Masters of Engineering projects, usually dealing with feasibility of sustainable energy, transportation, or green building systems. 

Here are some examples completed between 2004 and 2026:

I am the lead author of textbooks entitled Energy Systems Engineering: Evaluation and Implementation, 4th Ed. (2021) and Sustainable Transportation Systems Engineering (2014), both from McGraw-Hill, New York.

I also teach courses on sustainable transportation, renewable energy, and engineering economics at Cornell.

Another interest of mine is the application of systems engineering and the systems approach to problem solving.  You can see an example of a collaborative project between Cornell and Corning Incorporated with which I was involved by looking at the final report or the related journal paper that was published in the journal Modern Economy.

In the past I have served as a volunteer member of the board of the S.T.E.V.E.N. Foundation (Sustainable Technology and Energy for Vital Economic Needs), a non-profit institute that focuses on research on small-scale alternative energy and appropriate technology.

Lastly, I live with my partner Catherine at the Ecovillage at Ithaca, a cohousing community located two miles west of downtown Ithaca, NY.

Thanks for visiting!


Last updated October 10, 2026