When the renovated D.M. Smith Building opens this fall as the home of the newly named Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy, it will showcase a policy innovation lab, thanks to the generosity of Marilyn Brown, Regents’ Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the Carter School, and her husband, Frank Southworth, adjunct principal research scientist in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The Marilyn A. Brown and Frank Southworth Policy Innovation Lab, established through the couple’s philanthropic support, demonstrates their deep commitment to Georgia Tech, policy analysis, and energy and sustainability research. The D.M. Smith Building is ideally suited for this space, not only as the new home for the Carter School, but also because renovations to the building are being designed to make it one of the few platinum LEED-certified buildings on Georgia Tech’s campus.

Brown envisions a “world-class policy analytics and visualization lab” that will support research seminars, conferences, and speaker engagements, providing a space, she says, “where we can host high-level scientists and policy experts from around the world in an appealing environment.” The lab will also feature displays and interactive exhibits, such as the recently released Drawdown Georgia Greenhouse Gas Emissions Tracker.

Brown and Southworth have led distinguished academic careers. Brown began her academic career at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she met her husband, an assistant professor in civil engineering. The two went on to work as research scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

In 2006, Brown joined the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. That year, Southworth became a joint faculty member (at Georgia Tech and Oak Ridge) and then joined the Institute full time in 2012. With a focus on transportation planning, he has produced widely used datasets and software tools for federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department
of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He has also served on regional and national review panels in both freight and passenger transportation, including the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Freight Task Force and the American Transportation Research Institute’s Research Advisory Committee.

Among her many notable career highlights, Brown served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a team of scientists, energy, and policy experts who were awarded, with former Vice President Al Gore, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their reports on global climate change. She served two terms as a presidential appointee to the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider.

At Georgia Tech, Brown received the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award, the highest recognition given to a professor at the Institute. She leads the Carter School’s Climate and Energy Policy Lab, which she established, and she played a critical role in creating the Master of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Management degree program. Drawing inspiration from former president and Georgia Tech student Jimmy Carter’s commitment to clean and secure energy, Brown’s current research estimates the impacts of alternative policies in the interconnected U.S. system of energy supply and demand.

Cassidy Sugimoto, Tom and Marie Patton Professor and Carter School Chair, said, “The Marilyn A. Brown and Frank Southworth Policy Innovation Lab, and the recent naming of the School in honor of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, will further solidify the Carter School’s place on the national and international stage of energy policy and sustainability research.” The lab and the Carter School will advance Georgia Tech’s broad commitment to sustainability through data-based approaches to solving the energy challenges facing society in the 21st century.

To make a gift or commitment to Georgia Tech’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy, or for more information on spaces available for naming in the D.M. Smith Building, contact Lauren Kennedy, director of Development in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, at lauren.kennedy@dev.gatech.edu.