M. Granger Morgan

Hamerschlag University Professor of Engineering, Engineering and Public Policy, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Heinz College
Co-Director, Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making
Associate Director, Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center

Bio

M. Granger Morgan is the Hamerschlag University Professor of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He holds appointments in three academic units: the Department of Engineering and Public Policy; the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and the H. John Heinz III College. His research addresses problems in science, technology and public policy with a particular focus on energy, electric power, environmental systems, climate change, the adoption of new technologies, and risk analysis. Much of his work has involved the development and demonstration of methods to characterize and treat uncertainty in quantitative policy analysis. At Carnegie Mellon, Morgan co-directs (with Inês Azevedo) the NSF Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making and (with Jay Apt) the university's Electricity Industry Center.

Morgan is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At the National Academies, he serves as the NAS co-chair of the Report Review Committee and has chaired a variety of consensus studies. Morgan is a member of the board for the International Risk Governance Council Foundation and of the Advisory Board for the E.ON Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen. He is a member of the DOE's Electricity Advisory Committee and of the Energy Advisory Committee of PNNL. In the past, he served as Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as Chair of the Advisory Council of the Electric Power Research Institute. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, the IEEE, and the Society for Risk Analysis. He holds a BA from Harvard College (1963) where he concentrated in Physics, an MS in Astronomy and Space Science from Cornell (1965) and a Ph.D. from the Department of Applied Physics and Information Sciences at the University of California at San Diego (1969).

Education

• Ph.D. Applied Physics and Information Science, University of California, San Diego, 1969
• M.S. Astronomy and Space Science, Cornell University, 1965
• B.A. Physics, Harvard College, 1963

Research

Research interests are focused on policy problems in which technical and scientific issues play a central role. Methodological interests include problems in the integrated analysis of large complex systems; problems in the characterization and treatment of uncertainty; problems in the improvement of regulation; and selected issues in risk analysis and risk communication. Application areas of current interest include global climate change; strategies for deep decarbonization of the energy system and economy; the future and resilience of the electric power system; risk analysis including risk ranking; health and environmental impacts of energy systems; security aspects of engineered civil systems; national R&D policy; and a number of general policy, management, and human resource problems that involve science and technology.

M. Granger Morgan, director of the Scott Institute from September 2012 to July 2014, was the preivous department head of Engineering and Public Policy. He discusses the vision for the Scott Institute at CMU, and how its research, education and outreach is leading the transition to a sustainable energy future.