Laura Taylor to Lead the Energy, Policy, and Innovation Center as Interim Director

The Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) of the Georgia Institute of Technology is excited to welcome Laura Taylor as the interim director of the Energy, Policy, and Innovation Center (EPICenter).

Taylor is currently serving as chair of the School of Economics in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech. Prior to joining the faculty in 2018, she was the director of the Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy at North Carolina State University and associate director of the Environmental Policy Program at Georgia State University (2001 – 2015).

Taylor has extensive experience measuring the broader economic benefits associated with improved air, water, and ecosystem quality and is an elected fellow and past president of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. She has held numerous advisory board positions, including the environmental economics subcommittee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s science advisory board and the legislative research commission advisory subcommittee on offshore energy exploration for the North Carolina General Assembly.

“I’m excited about Laura Taylor’s experience and her vision for deepening engagement of EPICenter with the academic units and faculty on campus,” said Tim Lieuwen, professor and David S. Lewis Jr. Chair in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering and executive director of SEI. “EPICenter exists to connect the deep expertise and convening power of Georgia Tech to real-world problems faced by regional decision-makers, and she has a wealth of experience in this applied mission.”

Taylor’s research has received funding from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Interior, and the National Science Foundation. Her current research focuses on the economics of environmental management and includes topics at the intersection of energy systems and human health, exploration of household responses to water conservation policies, and benefits of hazardous waste site cleanup for neighboring communities.

“I am thrilled to lead the Energy, Policy, and Innovation Center,” Taylor said. “With the rapid advances in clean energy in the Southeast and across the nation, I look forward to engaging the research faculty across Georgia Tech and amplifying the strong energy policy research that’s happening here.”

About EPICenter

Operating as a division of the Strategic Energy Institute, EPICenter was created to provide an unbiased and interdisciplinary framework for stimulating innovation in energy policy and technology for the Southeast. Based out of the campus of Georgia Tech, the center draws upon regional and national expertise within academia, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and research facilities.