Energy policy professor, former ORNL manager to discuss sustainable energy

The 17th Annual Dick Smyser Community Lecture Series opens on Thursday, June 26, featuring Professor Marilyn Brown, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Lab in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The title of her June 26 lecture is “Technologies and Policies for a Sustainable Energy Future.” It’s sponsored by Friends of ORNL. The event is free of charge and will be held at the American Museum of Science and Energy at 300 S. Tulane Ave. in Oak Ridge.

Before moving to Georgia Tech in 2006, Brown managed the Efficiency, Renewables, and Electric Grid Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is also a board member of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

A reception featuring snacks will be held in the museum lobby starting at 5:30 p.m. June 26, and the lecture starts at 6:30 p.m. in the museum auditorium.

“This talk should be of interest to the general public,” a press release said.

“How can we energize industrialized economies and pull a billion people out of poverty without over-heating the planet?” the press release said. “Transitioning away from carbon-intensive fossil fuels and using energy more efficiently are two promising approaches to a sustainable energy future. But fossil fuels dominate the official international and domestic energy forecasts. To diverge from these predictions, we need to reform policies from the global down to the local scale of governance. This talk will highlight some of the successes in the U.S. and globally that illustrate creative and promising approaches.”

Brown is an endowed professor of energy policy in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, where she directs the Climate and Energy Policy Lab. She is a national leader in the analysis and interpretation of scenarios for a sustainable energy future, the release said.

In 2010, she joined the board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider, following President Obama’s nomination and U.S. Senate approval. She has written two textbooks on climate and energy issues, and has authored more than 250 publications. Among her honors and awards, she is a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, for contributing to the report on Mitigation of Climate Change. Brown has served on six committees of the National Academies of Sciences, including the Committee on America’s Climate Choices and the Board of Energy and Environmental Systems. She co-founded the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance.

The Friends of ORNL, or FORNL, is an organization formed to facilitate and maintain a beneficial association of those who have an interest in ORNL. FORNL provides a mechanism for members to keep in touch with co-workers, retirees, and current ORNL activities by providing the community at large with presentations and events, the release said.