Carnegie Mellon University

M. Granger Morgan

M. Granger Morgan

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

  • Wean Hall 5220
  • 412-268-2672
Address
Department of Engineering and Public Policy
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Bio

  • Carnegie Mellon 1974 -

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.

Select Publications

M. Granger Morgan and David Keith, "Improving the Way We Think About Projecting Future Energy Use and Emissions of Carbon Dioxide," Climatic Change, 90(3), 189-215, October 2008.

Kirsten Zickfeld, M. Granger Morgan, David Frame and David W.Keith, "Expert Judgements About Transient Climate Response to Alternative Future Trajectories of Radiative Forcing", Proceedings of National Academy of Science, 107, 12451-12456, July 13, 2010.

Katharine Ricke, M. Granger Morgan and Myles R. Allen, "Regional Climate Response to Solar-radiation Management", Nature Geoscience, 3, 537-541, 2010.

M. Granger Morgan, Sean T. McCoy and 15 others, Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Removing the legal and regulatory barriers, Taylor and Francis, 274pp. 2012.

Kyle Siler-Evans, Inês Lima Azevedo, M. Granger Morgan, Jay Apt, "Regional Variations in the Health, Environmental, and Climate Benefits of Wind and Solar Generation," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences110, 11768-11773, 2013.

M. Granger Morgan, "The Use (and Abuse) of Expert Elicitation in Support of Decision Making for Public Policy, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences111(20), 7176-7184, 2014.

Michael J. Ford, Ahmed Abdulla and M. Granger Morgan, "Evaluating the Cost, Safety and Proliferation Risks of Small Floating Nuclear Reactors," Risk Analysis, 2017.

M. Granger Morgan, Parth Vaishnav, Hadi Dowlatabadi, and Inês L. Azevedo, "Rethinking the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide," Issues in Science and Technology, 2017.

Rachel Dryden, M. Granger Morgan, Ann Bostrom, and Wändi Bruine de Bruin, "Public Perceptions of How Long Air Pollution and Carbon Dioxide Remain in the Atmosphere," Risk Analysis, 2017.

M. Granger Morgan, Theory and Practice in Policy Analysis: Including applications in science and technology, Cambridge University Press, 590pp, 2017.

Selected Honors and Awards

  1. EPA Federal Advisory Committee Act Impact Award
  2. Society for Risk Analysis Outstanding Educator Award
  3. American Physical Society Joseph A. Burton Forum Award
  4. American Society for Engineering Education Chester F. Carlson Award
  5. Federation of American Scientists Public Service Award

Courses Taught

  • 19-701 Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Policy Analysis
  • 19-705 Workshop Applied Policy Analysis

Assistant

Patti Steranchak - (412) 268-1085