Jennifer Wilcox
Presidential Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Energy Policy
Contact
Email: jlwilcox@seas.upenn.edu
Research Website | Publications
About
Jennifer Wilcox is Presidential Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, with a home at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. At Penn, she oversees the Clean Energy Conversions Lab.
Most recently, Wilcox served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the Department of Energy. Before coming to Penn, she was the James H. Manning Chaired Professor of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Wilcox also works with Isometric as their Chief Scientist and is a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute, where she leverages her expertise to help accelerate policy support and investments in research, development, and deployment of industrial decarbonization and carbon removal solutions in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
She is the author of the first textbook on carbon capture and, most recently, the CDR Primer. In 2023, she was named one of the TIME 100 most influential climate leaders in business.
Research Interests
Wilcox’s research takes aim at the nexus of energy and the environment, developing both mitigation and adaptation strategies to minimize negative climate impacts associated with society’s dependence on fossil fuels. This work carefully examines the role of carbon management and opportunities therein that could assist in preventing 2° C warming by 2100. Carbon management includes a mix of technologies spanning from the direct removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to its capture from industrial, utility-scale exhaust streams, followed by utilization or reliable storage of carbon dioxide on a timescale and magnitude that will have a positive impact on climate.
Funding for her research is primarily sourced through the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and the private sector. She has served on a number of committees including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society to assess feasibility, scale and costs of carbon dioxide removal methods. She is currently a member of the Energy & Environmental Science Journal Editorial Board.
Research Areas
Catalysis and Reaction Engineering; Energy and Environmental Engineering; Separation Science
Educational Background
Ph.D.: University of Arizona (2004)
M.S.: University of Arizona (2004)
B.A.: Wellesley College (1998)
Awards
2019 Max-Planck Sabbatical Award, Inst. for Dynamics Complex Technical Systems
2017 Air & Waste Management Association Stern Award on Mercury Capture
2007 Army Research Office Young Investigator Award, Energy Conversions Division
2007 ACS Petroleum Research Fund Young Investigator Award
2005 NSF Career Award, Combustion & Plasma Division