Dr. Jennifer Wilcox

Biography

Jennifer Wilcox is the Presidential Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Chemical Engineering, focusing on Energy Policy. She oversees the Clean Energy Conversions Lab and previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the Department of Energy. Before her appointment at Penn, she held the James H. Manning Chaired Professor position at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Wilcox collaborates with Isometric as Chief Scientist and is a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute, working on advancing policy support for investments in research and development related to industrial decarbonization and carbon removal solutions, aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050. She is also the author of the textbook 'CDR Primer' on carbon capture. In 2023, she was named one of TIME's 100 influential climate leaders in business. Her research addresses the nexus of energy and the environment, developing strategies to mitigate and adapt to the climate impacts of fossil fuel dependency. She examines the role of carbon management technologies, including direct removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and the capture of emissions from industrial sources. Wilcox's research funding primarily comes from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and private sector sources. She has served on several committees for the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society to assess the feasibility and scalability of carbon dioxide removal methods. Currently, she is a member of the Editorial Board for the journal Energy & Environmental Science.

Research Interests

Awards