Joseph Romm Joins the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media

Joseph Romm

Joseph Romm, a leading expert on climate solutions and clean energy—and on communicating about these issues to the public—has joined the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media (PCSSM) as a Senior Research Fellow.

Romm holds a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and has authored countless articles and 10 books in the areas of climate change, clean energy, and communications. In the 1990s, Romm spent five years working on climate solutions at the U.S. Department of Energy. For three years, he helped to run the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, ultimately serving as Acting Assistant Secretary, where he oversaw $1 billion in R&D and demonstration of low-carbon technologies. This included renewables, building efficiency, industrial decarbonization, energy storage, bioenergy, hydrogen, and electric cars.
 
In 2008, Romm was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for “distinguished service toward a sustainable energy future and for persuasive discourse on … sustainable technologies.” In 2009, Rolling Stone named him one of 100 “people who are reinventing America,” and Time named him “Hero of the Environment” and “the Web’s most influential climate-change blogger.” Romm was Chief Science Advisor for the Emmy-winning docuseries, “Years of Living Dangerously.” His Oxford University Press book, Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know, 3rd Edition, was called “the best single-source primer on the state of climate change” by New York Magazine.

Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science and the director of PCSSM, said, “We welcome Dr. Romm to Penn and we look forward to working with him in advancing the study and practice of effective climate communication. I have personally known Joe for nearly two decades, since the time I was an early career climate scientist who found myself caught in the crosshairs of the climate change denial machine. Joe was one of the first scientists to confront industry-funded disinformation and taught us valuable lessons about science communication, lessons which I’ve taken to heart as I have focused more of my own time and effort on climate communication. We are now at a major crossroads when it comes to urgency of climate action, and I couldn’t be more delighted that Joe is joining us at Penn at this critical juncture in the climate battle.”

At Penn, Romm will be conducting research and producing a series of white papers examining the scalability of key proposed climate solutions, including the recently released “Are carbon offsets unscalable, unjust, and unfixable—and a threat to the Paris Climate Agreement?”  

Click here for more information.

 

Arts & Sciences News

The College of Arts and Sciences Launches New Data Science and Analytics Minor

The program aims to give students a foundation that can be flexibly tailored to best support any major course of study in natural and social sciences.

View Article >
Roos Honored by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The Alice and C. C. Wang Award in Molecular Parasitology recognizes work “making seminal contributions to the field of molecular parasitology.”

View Article >
New Grant from Panda Express Establishes Postdoctoral Fellowship in Asian American Studies

The Fellowship will support a total of five postdoctoral positions over the next three years.

View Article >
Karen Goldberg Named 2023 American Chemical Society Fellow

She joins 41 other scholars recognized for their “outstanding achievements in and contributions” to the field.

View Article >
Marisa Kozlowski Receives 2023 Edward Leete Award from ACS

This honor recognizes “outstanding contributions to teaching and research in organic chemistry.”

View Article >