Brown Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Posted April 24, 2023

Marilyn A. Brown, Regents’ Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, has been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Brown, an internationally noted scholar in climate and energy policy, is among 269 eminent experts from academia, the arts, and private industry chosen by the organization this year and one of just two from Georgia Tech. Rafael Bras, professor in the College of Engineering and Georgia Tech’s former provost, also will join the academy — which in addition to being an honorary society seeks the counsel of its members to help solve significant global challenges via a range of cross-disciplinary research programs. 

“I’m grateful and honored to be elected to the company of such esteemed experts,” said Brown. “I look forward to working with them to foster smart and achievable policy solutions to help advance moves towards a new green economy and more sustainable tomorrow.” 

She joins 11 other Georgia Tech faculty members in the organization, including Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. 

“In its earliest days, the Academy sought members who would help address issues and opportunities confronting a young nation,” Nancy C. Andrews, chair of the academy’s Board of Directors, said in a release announcing the new members. “We feel a similar urgency and have elected a class that brings diverse expertise to meet the pressing challenges and possibilities that America and the world face today.” 

Brown already was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of just six living Georgia Tech faculty elected to the NAS and 36 who are members of the NAE. 

An international leader in clean energy policy, Brown is known for her pioneering work developing economic-engineering models incorporating behavioral and social science principles into policy analysis of energy systems. Her influential research quantified the “energy-efficiency gap,” which highlights the importance of promoting cost-effective energy conservation improvements as a tool to improve energy security and reduce the impact of climate change. 

In 2000, she led the Scenarios for a Clean Energy Future project, which at the time was the most detailed carbon-reduction analysis funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  

Later, she contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group that was a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. 

More recently, she has been the principal investigator leading the science team behind Drawdown Georgia, a multi-institution effort funded by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation to identify the most promising solutions to slash Georgia’s carbon emissions by 2030.