Massetti Named to National Academies Committee on Carbon Utilization

Posted January 13, 2022

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has named Emanuele Massetti, an associate professor in the School of Public Policy (SPP), to a committee created to study carbon utilization.

Carbon utilization refers to the use of captured carbon wastes in economically valuable products or services.

NASEM’s Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, Research, and Development Committee, established as part of the 2020 Energy Act, will identify fields that could best utilize carbon dioxide as the economy shifts towards a carbon-neutral future and study market possibilities and infrastructure needs.

The committee’s work over the next three years will provide industry, research sponsors, and researchers with information about “key challenges needed to advance the infrastructure, market, science, and engineering required to enable carbon utilization relevant for a circular carbon economy.”

Massetti said he was thrilled to begin the assignment and thanked Georgia Tech for “giving me the opportunity to grow professionally and serve in this role.”

“In the next three years, I will have the unique opportunity to work with leading global experts to assess challenges and opportunities to transform carbon emissions — one of the major causes of global warming — into a valuable input for a sustainable circular economy,” he said.

Massetti, who is on leave from Georgia Tech to work at the International Monetary Fund, will serve on the committee with 13 other researchers from universities, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations.

Massetti’s research focuses on energy, climate, and environmental policy. He is also director of the Laboratory for Integrated Economics Engineering Environment Assessment and Policy (L3EAP) and a faculty member of the Climate and Energy Policy Laboratory.

School of Public Policy presence at NASEM

Massetti is the fourth School of Public Policy faculty member currently serving on a NASEM committee.

Assistant Professor Omar Asensio was named to the National Academies New Voices Cohort in July. The group, which is serving from 2021-2023, brings diverse perspectives to global issues in science, engineering, and medicine.

Marilyn Brown, Regents Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, is a member of the National Academies committee on Data, Metrics, and Analytic Methods for Assessing Equity Impacts of Surface Transportation Funding Programs. The group studies how analysis tools can help the Department of Transportation provide equitable services for underserved communities.

Professor Valerie Thomas, who holds a joint appointment in SPP, was named chair of a committee in August. Her committee, Current Methods for Life Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States, works to determine how to use greenhouse-gas emissions from transportation liquids in low-carbon fuel programs.

The School of Public Policy is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.