M. Granger Morgan
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Engineering and Public Policy, Heinz College
M. Granger Morgan is the Hamerschlag University Professor of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon. 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 CMU, Morgan co-directs 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 B.A. from Harvard College (1963), where he concentrated in physics, an M.S. 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
1968 Ph.D., Applied Physics and Information Science, University of California, San Diego
1965 MS, Astronomy and Space Science, Cornell University
1963 BA, Physics, Harvard College
Media mentions
Engineering and Public Policy
Seed grant spotlight: Improving electric-power resilience
College of Engineering researchers Maryam Hamidi, Ramteen Sioshansi, and Granger Morgan are developing a robust optimization model that is capable of analyzing threats to the grid and providing commensurate responses that improve its resilience and mitigate supply disruptions.
Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation
Seed grant spotlight: Improving electric-power resilience
College of Engineering researchers are developing a robust optimization model that is capable of analyzing threats to the grid and providing commensurate responses that improve its resilience and mitigate supply disruptions.
CMU Engineering
Hubs: A step towards a hydrogen future?
Hydrogen is sometimes considered a secret ingredient in the recipe for a net-zero future. As a team of Carnegie Mellon researchers points out, hydrogen offers many advantages, but it’s not a panacea.
Carnegie Mellon University
Seven Engineering faculty awarded grants from Scott Institute
Seven faculty from the College of Engineering received project funding from this year’s Scott Institute Seed Grants.
Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation
Scott Institute seed grants advance clean energy research at Carnegie Mellon University
ince the Scott Institute’s founding in 2012, a core initiative has been the Seed Grants for Energy Research program. With this funding, researchers across the university receive important early-stage support for developing cutting-edge energy research.
Science
Morgan and Apt discuss the benefits of a mixed portfolio of low-carbon technology
Granger Morgan and Jay Apt discuss the benefits of a mixed portfolio of low-carbon technology in terms of reducing greenhouse gases as quickly as possible.
Earth.Org
Morgan and Karplus talk carbon capture facilities
EPP’s Granger Morgan and Valerie Karplus talk about streamlining the process of building carbon capture facilities with Earth.Org. “Right now you’re looking at 6 to 10 years and up to 12 years, potentially, to get through all of these regulatory steps,” Karplus says.
Engineering and Public Policy
Quantifying barriers to establishing sequestration wells
Recent work from the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) estimates the time required to develop, approve, and implement a geologic sequestration site in the U.S. by identifying six clearance points that must be passed for a site to become operational and provide insights into how this timeframe could be reduced.
CMU Engineering
Quantifying barriers to establishing sequestration wells
Recent work from CMU researchers estimates the time required to develop, approve, and implement a carbon capture and sequestration site and provides insights into how this timeframe could be reduced.
ABC News
Morgan discusses Earth’s climate health with ABC News
ECE/EPP’s Granger Morgan discusses Earth’s climate health with ABC News. “Experts don’t agree on exactly where the limits are, or how much the planet’s different systems may interact, but we are getting dangerously close,” he says.
CMU Engineering
U.S. natural gas pipelines vulnerable to electric outages
Interdependencies between the natural gas and electric grids could cause cascading outages during hazardous events, particularly in California, the Midwest, the Gulf Coast, and the Eastern US.
CNN
Morgan discusses power grid security concerns
EPP’s Granger Morgan discusses the challenges of securing power facilities as physical attacks by domestic extremists increase. Given that high-voltage power lines and facilities are often nestled in remote locations, Morgan warns of the need to better protect the grid and make it more resilient to attacks.