Key research areas

• SDG interlinkages
• Green and low-carbon hydrogen

Teaching and course supervision

• WASCAL – International Master’s Program in Energy and Green Hydrogen (IMP-EGH)
• Participatory Modeling (since Fall 2022)

Publications

Sota, R., Venghaus, S. (2026) Talking past each other: a review of the quantitative study of interlinkages between the sustainable development goals. Energ Sustain Soc 16, 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-026-00572-0

Conference presentations and posters

Movsessian, M., Kottrup, M., Sota R., Letmathe, P. (2023). People, technology, and the environment: The role of green hydrogen in Senegal’s sustainable development path. Aachen Hydrogen Colloquium 2023, Aachen. https://h2-cluster.de/aachen-hydrogen-colloquium-2023

Sota, R. and Venghaus, S. (2023). A review of quantitative methods to study SDG interlinkages. 11th International Conference of Industrial Ecology, Leiden, The Netherlands. https://is4ie.org/events/isie-conferences/94

Venghaus, S. and Sota, R. (2024). Participatory Modelling for the Sustainable Design of Hydrogen Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Applied Energy Symposium MIT A+B, Boston, MA, USA. https://applied-energy.org/mitab2024/program

Sota, R. and Venghaus, S. (2025). A participatory modelling approach to system dynamics for exploring cultural barriers and opportunities in the international green hydrogen trade partnerships of Germany. EcoMod 2025 Conference on Economic Modeling, Stuttgart. https://editorialexpress.com/conference/ecomod2025/program/ecomod2025.html

Sota, R. and Venghaus, S. (2025). Empirical estimates of cost of capital for industrial-scale green hydrogen projects in Germany. American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Meeting. New Orleans, LA, USA. DOI: 10.22541/essoar.176763137.75228369/v1 (poster)

Sota, R., Torkayesh, A. and Venghaus, S. (2026). Mechanistic mapping of decentralized hydrogen systems to the SDGs via LLM-informed selection of indicators. Aachen Hydrogen Colloquium. Aachen. https://h2-cluster.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026_05_06_Flyer_AHC_2026.pdf

Theses supervised

M. Esken (January – June 2024) – A socio-economic perspective on a local hydrogen economy for medium-sized industries in the Rheinische Revier – A system dynamics approach. Thesis jointly supervised with the Institute for a Sustainable Hydrogen Economy (INW-4) at Forschungszentrum Jülich.

A. Viver Altamirano (January – April 2026) – Bridging Technology Innovation and Sustainability: An Energy Efficiency Modeling. Evaluating Thermophotovoltaic Technology (TPV) as a Potential Solution for Waste-Heat-to-Power.