Stanford University Professor

Mark Z. Jacobson

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Director, Atmosphere/Energy Program
Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment
Senior Fellow, Precourt Institute for Energy

CLICK HERE FOR PROGRAM IN ATMOSPHERE / ENERGY

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
The Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy (Y2E2) Building
473 Via Ortega, Room 397
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Tel: (650) 723-6836
Fax: (650) 723-7058
Email: jacobson@stanford.edu
Follow @mzjacobson

B.S. Civil Engineering, B.A. Economics, and M.S. Environmental Engineering (1988) Stanford University
M.S. (1991) and Ph.D. (1994) Atmospheric Science, University of California at Los Angeles

Full Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Scientific Background

The main goal of Jacobson’s research is to understand better severe atmospheric problems, such as air pollution and global warming, and develop and analyze large-scale clean-renewable energy solutions to them.

To address this goal, he has developed and applied three-dimensional atmosphere-biosphere-ocean computer models and solvers to simulate air pollution, weather, climate, and renewable energy. In 1993-4, he developed the world’s first computer model to treat the mutual feedback to weather and climate of both air pollution gases and particles, and in 2001, the first coupled air-pollution-weather-climate model to telescope from the global to urban scale.

In 2000, he applied this model to discover that black carbon, the main component of soot pollution particles, might be the second-leading cause of global warming in terms of radiative forcing, after carbon dioxide. This and subsequent papers provided the original scientific basis for several laws and regulations on black carbon emission controls worldwide. His findings that carbon dioxide domes over cities and carbon dioxide buildup since preindustrial times have enhanced air pollution mortality through its feedback to particles and ozone served as a scientific basis for the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 approval of the first U.S. regulation of carbon dioxide (the California waiver).

With respect to solvers, in 1993, he developed the world’s fastest ordinary differential equation solver in a three-dimensional model for a given level of accuracy. He subsequently developed solvers for cloud and aerosol coagulation, breakup, condensation/evaporation, freezing, dissolution, chemical equilibrium, and lightning; air-sea exchange; ocean chemistry; greenhouse gas absorption; and surface processes.

With respect to energy, in 2001 he published a paper in Science examining the ability of the U.S. to convert a large fraction of its energy to wind power. In 2005, his group developed the first world wind map based on data alone. His students subsequently published papers on reducing the variability of wind energy by interconnecting wind farms; on integrating solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power into the grid; and on wave power.

In 2009, he coauthored a plan, featured on the cover of Scientific American, to power the world for all purposes with wind, water, and sunlight (WWS). In 2010, he appeared in a TED debate rated as the sixth all-time science and technology TED talk. In 2011, he cofounded The Solutions Project, a group that combines science, business, and culture to develop and implement science based clean-energy plans for states and countries. In 2013, his group developed individual WWS energy plans for each of the 50 United States.

To date, he has published two textbooks of two editions each and ~150 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has testified three times for the U.S. Congress. Nearly a thousand researchers have used computer models he has developed. In 2005, he received the American Meteorological Society Henry G. Houghton Award for "significant contributions to modeling aerosol chemistry and to understanding the role of soot and other carbon particles on climate." In 2013, he received an American Geophysical Union Ascent Award for "his dominating role in the development of models to identify the role of black carbon in climate change" and the Global Green Policy Design Award for the "design of analysis and policy framework to envision a future powered by renewable energy." He has also served on the Energy Efficiency and Renewables advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Energy and was invited to talk about his world and U.S. clean-energy plans on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Current PhD Graduate Students: