Robert H. Socolow

Dr. Socolow, a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University, is best known for his creation of the famous “carbon wedge” model with Stephen Pacala to visually and simply portray the massive energy sub-sector transformations that will be needed to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions over the next 50 years.
His model is widely cited as a guide to action and has earned him considerable publicity including a recent full-page photograph in Time Magazine.
He was the Director of Princeton University’s Center for Energy and Environmental Studies for two decades, and now teaches in both the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Dr. Socolow’s current research focuses on how the global energy system responds to global and local environmental and security constraints.
His specific areas of interest include carbon dioxide capture from fossil fuels and sequestration in geological formations, nuclear power, energy efficiency in buildings, and the acceleration of deployment of advanced technologies in developing countries.
He is the co-principal investigator (with ecologist Stephen Pacala) of Princeton University's Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI), a ten-year project supported by BP and Ford.
He co-chaired the Workshop on Fuels Decarbonization and Carbon Sequestration, sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Energy.
He was a member of the Fusion Review Panel of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
Dr. Socolow earned a B.A.
in 1959 (summa cum laude) and Ph.D.
in theoretical high energy physics in l964 from Harvard University.
He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the Leo Szilard Award by the American Physical Society and the Axel Axelson Johnson award from the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.
Dr. Socolow is a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies of the U.S.