Carnegie Mellon University

Lester B. Lave

Lester Lave was a visionary researcher and Carnegie Mellon University icon. One of the nation’s leading environmental economists, he was the Tepper School of Business’ Harry B. and James H. Higgins Professor of Economics, professor of engineering and public policy, founder and director of the Green Design Institute, and co-founder and co-director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center.

lester-lave-vertical-resized.pngThroughout his career, he advanced environmental science, policy, and regulatory approaches, applying economic and risk analysis to problems affecting the lives of millions.

Lave earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Reed College and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Except for five years as a senior fellow with the Brooking Institution, he spent his career on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon, which he joined in 1963.

He published or contributed to 400 publications and 28 books, including the influential “Air Pollution and Human Health,” written with doctoral student Eugene Seskin.

A beloved teacher and respected administrator, Lave spent eight years heading CMU’s Department of Economics, was an acting dean at the Tepper School. His appointments spanned the Tepper School, the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, and the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management. He was the primary mentor to 40 doctoral students.

Among his many honors, Lave was elected to the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine and both chaired and served on numerous study committees.

He received the prestigious Richard Beatty Mellon Environmental Stewardship Award from the Air and Waste Management Association and the Society for Risk Analysis awarded him its 1998 Distinguished Achievement Award.

In 1987, CMU honored Lave with its George Leland Bach Teaching Award.

"I have the job of focusing my work on highly controversial issues and generally have the fun of showing that the conventional wisdom is wrong. Also, studying policy in Washington is like facing an enormous buffet of the most attractive desserts you have ever seen. It is irresistible at first, but the appeal of spending no more than a few days or weeks on a problem such as acid rain or energy policy begins to pale after a while. You long to settle down with one of these issues to find something more than a Band-Aid or political compromise. [The Tepper School] is the idea place for my work.”