The Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society has a new faculty director. “I want the Irving Institute to be a place for conversations—sometimes difficult ones—about the energy transition to a low-carbon future,” says Parker, a Thayer School of Engineering professor for the past nine years. “We can have an outsized influence as both a local and global forum for thought leaders.” One example: The nine-year-old institute recently announced a new master of energy transition program that launches this spring. 

This article has been updated. An earlier version mistakenly reported the age of the institute. While its new building is three years old, the institute, founded in 2016, is nine years old.