PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University's M. Granger Morgan has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Morgan, head of Carnegie Mellon's Department of Engineering and Public Policy, was one of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 12 countries named to the academy for their outstanding research endeavors.
"I am delighted with this honor. The work I have been doing on describing and dealing with uncertainty in environmental science, technology and policy is highly interdisciplinary in nature. I am delighted that the NAS has recognized its contribution," said Morgan, who also directs the National Science Foundation's Climate Decision Making Center and co-directs the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center.
Pradeep K. Khosla, dean of Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering, praised Morgan for his legacy of public policy leadership in science, technology and the environment. "Granger has been a consistent voice in helping this nation realize the need to curb carbon dioxide emissions," Khosla said.
Much of Morgan's work has focused on methods to describe scientific uncertainty and incorporate it into public policy decision-making. He has also worked extensively on risk analysis. With colleague Baruch Fischhoff and others, Morgan has pioneered improved methods for communicating with the general public about technical risks. For more than a decade, Morgan has studied climate change and its potential impacts. A recent report he and fellow Carnegie Mellon faculty Jay Apt and Lester Lave wrote for the Pew Center on Climate Change showed that the nation can largely eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation over the next 50 years with just a 20 percent increase in the delivered price of electricity.
Morgan serves as chair of the EPA Science Advisory Board, the Electric Power Research Institute Advisory Council and the Scientific and Technical Council for the International Risk Governance Council of Geneva, Switzerland. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute for Electric and Electrical Engineers, and the Society for Risk Analysis.
He holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University, where he concentrated in physics; a master's degree in astronomy and space science from Cornell University; and a Ph.D. from the Department of Applied Physics and Information Sciences at the University of California at San Diego.
About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation. A small student-to-faculty ratio provides an opportunity for close interaction between students and professors. While technology is pervasive on its 144-acre campus, Carnegie Mellon is also distinctive among leading research universities for the world-renowned programs in its College of Fine Arts. For more, see www.cmu.edu.