Brown, Yaszek Earn Reappointment as Regents’ Professors

Posted August 22, 2023

Marilyn A. Brown of the School of Public Policy and Lisa Yaszek of the School of Literature, Media, and Communication have each been reappointed as Regents’ Professors.

Brown was reappointed for a third three-year term. Yaszek was reappointed for the first time following her initial appointment in 2020.

They are among 16 Georgia Tech faculty appointed or reappointed to the prestigious Regents’ positions, awarded by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia for outstanding contributions to their institutions.

The title is granted to faculty members in recognition of outstanding research and scholarship. It is awarded upon the unanimous recommendation of the institution’s president, chief academic officer, dean, and three other faculty members named by the president. The nominations also require the approval of the chancellor and the Board of Regents Committee on Academic Affairs.

Yaszek is one of the leading researchers in science fiction studies. She specializes in research at the intersections of science fiction with issues of gender, race, and technology. She is an influential voice on science fiction and the vital role of the humanities in our technological age, in both academia and the wider public.

Her recent edited volume, The Future Is Female! Vol. 2: The 1970s was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Anthology.

Some of her other books include The Self-Wired: Technology and Subjectivity in Contemporary American Narrative, Galactic Suburbia: Recovering Women’s Science Fiction, and Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction.

She is frequently cited in the popular media, including in publications such as The Washington Post and USA Today. She also provided authoritative commentary for the AMC miniseries James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction,  BBC4’s Stranger Than Sci Fi, and Wired.com’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Brown, who was first named a Regents’ Professor in 2017, is Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in Public Policy, where she founded and directs the Climate and Energy Policy Lab. Her research focuses on the design and modeling of energy and climate policies, with an emphasis on the electric utility industry, energy resources on the customer side of the meter, and issues of access, equity, and reliability. She has authored more than 250 publications and six books.

She leads the science team that underpins the Drawdown Georgia climate initiative. She also is one of the few scholars at Georgia Tech with appointments to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Brown also was a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report whose authors were acknowledged in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize that was shared with Vice President Al Gore.

She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after a distinguished career at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led several national climate change mitigation studies and became a leader in analyzing and interpreting energy futures in the United States.