Sally M. Benson

Sally M. Benson, who joined Stanford University in 2007, is the Precourt Family Professor in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences; she studies technologies and pathways to reducing greenhouse gas emissions including geologic storage of CO2 in deep underground formations and energy systems analysis for a low-carbon future. She is the Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Carbon Storage and the Stanford Carbon Removal Initiative. She served at the Director and Co-Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy from 2013 to 2020. She also served as the Director of the Global Climate and Energy Project from 2009 to 2019.

Prior to joining Stanford, Benson was Division Director for Earth Sciences, Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Sciences and Deputy Director at LBNL.

Professor Benson currently serves on the Board of Directors for Climate Central and from 2008 to 2020 on the Board of Directors of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Currently she also serves on the Advisory Boards for Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Argonne National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Princeton’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative, Princeton’s Adlinger Center, Japan’s Initiative for the Cool Earth Forum, Climate Vault, and the Lahore University of Management Science in Pakistan. Over the past several years she participated in a number of National Academy of Sciences, Secretary of Energy, and National Petroleum Council research needs assessments related to carbon management. She also is on the Editorial Board for Energy and Environmental Sciences.