Margaret Taylor

Margaret Taylor

Energy/Environmental Policy Research Scientist/Engineer
510-847-1879

Bio

Margaret Taylor is a Research Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the Fulbright Canada Research Chair in the Environment and Economy at the University of Ottawa (2018-19). She is also affiliated with several units at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a professor from 2002-11 with a primary appointment in the Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP). She was also an Engineering Research Associate in Stanford University’s Precourt Energy Efficiency Center from 2012 until it closed in the summer of 2018, as well as the Stanford co-Chair of the Behavior Energy Climate Change conference, 2013-18.

Margaret has a broad interdisciplinary education and professional experience that bridges engineering, the social sciences, and the environmental sciences; her degrees are from Columbia University and from Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy. Margaret also has legal and Capitol Hill experience in the areas of international trade, energy, and the environment.

Margaret’s research advances “Clean Energy Innovation Decision Science” (CEIDS), or the study of human and organizational decision-making as it relates to the development of technologies and practices that can help stabilize the climate while meeting the needs and aspirations of a growing global population. Margaret is particularly interested in two topics: (1) how clean energy technologies are invented, incorporated into commercial designs, and adopted and used by consumers and organizations; and (2) how innovations interact with existing governance structures at different jurisdictional levels. See “Clean Energy Innovation Decision Science” (CEIDS) at LBNL for more detail: https://seeds.lbl.gov. 

  • Technologies Margaret has studied include: plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, mobility as a service, energy efficient products, commercial buildings with flexible energy loads, pollution control for power plants, solar photovoltaics, wind power, concentrated solar power, solar water heating, and others. 
  • Policies/programs Margaret has studied include: demand response, permitting and interconnection reform for distributed energy resources, low-emission and zero-emission vehicle standards and incentives, cap-and-trade programs, minimum efficiency performance standards (MEPS), green procurement, power plant air pollution standards, renewable portfolio standards, public R&D programs, and more.
  • Analytical tools Margaret has experience with include: discrete choice experiments and latent class analysis; linear regression, survey design, structured interviews, network analysis, learning curve/experience curve analysis, patent analysis, content analysis, etc. 

Margaret’s research has been published in leading academic journals (e.g., PNAS) and has received awards from a variety of organizations (e.g., the Fulbright Scholars program, divisions of the Academy of Management, the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, a chapter of the Society for Risk Analysis, etc.). She is also an accomplished public speaker and enjoys opportunities to present to audiences both within and outside academia.

Education

Engineering & Public Policy, PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, 2001
Environmental Science (Geochemistry) and History (American), B.A., Columbia University, 1993

Publications

2024

2022

2019

2018

2015

2013

2012