Brown is now the third Regents Professor in the School of Public Policy. Prior Regents Professors are Barry Bozeman, former professor in the School of Public Policy who is currently at the Center of Organizational Research and Design at Arizona State University, and  Regents Professor Emeritus Nancy Nersessian in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, and the School of Public Policy.

Marilyn Brown is a Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in Public Policy, where she created and currently directs the Climate and Energy Policy Lab. Her research focuses on the design and modeling of energy and climate policies, with an emphasis on the electric utility industry, energy efficiency, and resources on the customer side of the meter. She has authored more than 250 publications and six books.

Brown’s deep expertise in climate and energy policy helped shape numerous reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, including one that led to the organization receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She has served on eight committees of the National Academies and is in her second term on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee. Since 2010, she has been a Presidential appointee to the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority where her efforts have helped put the agency on a track to reduce its CO₂ emissions in 2020 by 40% below 2005.

The BOR also approved the renewal of the title of Regents Researcher for Helena Mitchell (Public Policy). Mitchell was the first in the Ivan Allen College to be awarded this title. 

Each year, the college deans may nominate two academic faculty members for the Regents Professor title and one research faculty member for the Regents Researcher title. The Georgia Tech Research Institute may nominate two research faculty members for Regents Researcher. The titles are awarded upon approval of the USG chancellor and its Committee on Academic Affairs only with unanimous recommendation of the university’s president, the executive vice president for research, the chief academic officer, the appropriate academic dean, and three other faculty members.

During their October 10 meeting, the BOR also approved the renewal of the title of Regents Professor for Mark Hay (Biological Sciences), Dimitri Mavris (Aerospace Engineering), and Lora Weiss (Georgia Tech Research Institute).