Inside CIT: Engineering News

Leading Environmental Economist Remembered

Carnegie Mellon University Professor Lester B. Lave, one of the nation's leading environmental economists, died on May 9, 2011, at the age of 71.

Lave was the Harry B. and James H. Higgins Professor of Economics at the Tepper School of Business, a professor of Engineering and Public Policy, director of the Green Design Institute and co-director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center. He served as the head of CMU's Department of Economics for eight years. With the exception of five years at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Lave spent his entire career at CMU.

Much of Lave's research focused on the challenges of balancing environmental and other risks with economic and social objectives. For the past 15 years, Lave devoted great attention to two problems: green design and restructuring and improving the electricity system. His work in the Green Design Institute, which he helped found, focused on finding environmentally acceptable ways of manufacturing, using, disposing of, and recycling products. Lave was also one of the founders of the Electricity Industry Center, which is the largest interdisciplinary group of its kind working on all aspects of the electric power industry.

In recognition of his contributions to environmental and public health, Lave was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1982. He was a past president of the Society for Risk Analysis and has served on committees of the National Academies of Science and Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Medical Association.

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