Bio
Rebecca Efroymson is a Distinguished Scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
Rebecca leads research and assessments in environmental science, and her recent research on the energy transition includes energy justice. She leads a project, funded by the US Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office and partnering with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, on energy and environmental justice and social acceptability in the context of siting bioenergy. The project recently codeveloped metrics of distributional and procedural justice with stakeholders. Rebecca is the stakeholder engagement lead for the ORNL Climate Change Science Institute's (CCSI's) Science and Technology for Applied Regional Solutions (STARS) program. She was coauthor of the 5th National Climate Assessment, energy chapter. She is a consultant on Just Transitions for the multi-agency and philanthropy-funded Net Zero World Initiative.
For the past decade, Rebecca's research has addressed bioenergy sustainability, especially environmental effects such as water quality and quantity, biodiversity, pesticide use, land-use change, and ecosystem services and valuation. She coordinated a multi-agency study of environmental effects of potential biomass production for biofuel and bioproducts in the US in the 2016 Billion Ton report and updated some of the work in 2023. Rebecca coauthored the National Academies study on Sustainable Development of Algal Biofuels. She developed a causal analysis framework for land-use change with colleagues.
Early in her career Rebecca Efroymson developed ecological risk assessment frameworks for wind energy facilities, petroleum exploration and production, and rare species. She conducted ecological risk assessments for military training and testing, as well as historical chemical contamination at Department of Energy facilities and coauthored a book on the latter topic.
Frequent collaborators include Esther S Parish | ORNL, Keith L Kline | ORNL, Matthew H Langholtz | ORNL, Teresa Mathews | ORNL, Lis Blanco — National Renewable Energy Laboratory (nrel.gov), Virginia Dale - Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (utk.edu), and Patricia Romero-Lankao | Department of Sociology (utoronto.ca).
She is a former Editor-in-chief of Environmental Management and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Before coming to ORNL, she was a AAAS Science, Engineering, and Diplomacy Fellow at the US Agency for International Development. She has an M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from Cornell University and a B.A. in Biology and English from La Salle University.
Awards
Elected to rank of AAAS Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2008)
DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy-Energy Rock Star Award (2017); Oak Ridge National Laboratory Environmental Sciences Division Science Serving Society Team Award for Billion Ton report, volume 1 (2016); Special Event Award for algae chapter of Billion Ton report, volume 1 (2016); Holroyd (Science Alumni) Award Winner, La Salle University (2014); Oak Ridge National Laboratory Environmental Sciences Division Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award (2002); National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship awardee (1988-1991); Cornell University Olin and A. D. White graduate fellowships awardee (1987-1992); La Salle University full tuition scholarship (1983-1987)
Education
M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
B.A. in Biology and English from La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA