Reilly, John

John Reilly
Co-Director Emeritus, MIT Joint Program
Senior Lecturer, Sloan School of Management

Phone: 

617-253-8040

Office: 

E19-429L

Focus Areas

Managed Resources, Infrastructure & Investment, Energy Transition, Policy Scenarios, Climate Policy, Air Quality & Health, Regional Analysis, Multi-Sector Dynamics

Bio

Dr. Reilly is a Senior Lecturer at the Sloan School of Management and served as Co-Director of the Joint Program from 2010 through August 2020. As an energy, environmental and agricultural economist, he is focused on understanding the contribution of human activities to global environmental change and the effects of environmental change on the economy and society. A key element of his work is the integration of models of the global economy (representing human activity) with models of the ocean, atmosphere and terrestrial vegetation. The main goal of this integrated approach is to enable the design of policies that can effectively limit the contribution of human activity to environmental change, to facilitate adaptation to unavoidable change, and to understand the consequences of the deployment of large-scale energy systems that will be needed to meet growing energy needs.

Centered on the integrated assessment of climate change, Dr. Reilly’s work is published in more than 150 articles, reports and volume chapters. He has served in multiple capacities on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was the Co-Chair of the US National Agricultural Assessment on Climate Variability and Change, served on early committees in the Federal government that shaped the direction of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, and participated in a wide range of other advisory committees. 

Prior to joining MIT in 1998, Dr. Reilly spent 15 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, and previously for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Institute for Energy Analysis, Oak Ridge Associated Universities. He holds PhD (1983) and MS (1980) degrees in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS (1978) degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Education + Credentials
B.S., Economics and Political Science, University of Wisconsin, 1976
M.S., Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1979
Ph.D., Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1983

Recent Publications

Journal Article
Gurgel, A., J. Reilly, J. Morris, C.A. Schlosser, X. Gao, M. Yuan and K. Tapia- Ahumada (2024). Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 29(27) (doi: 10.1007/s11027-024-10119-3)
Journal Article
Mhawej, M., X. Gao, J.M. Reilly and Y. Abunnasr (2024). Journal of Hydrology, 630, 130782 (doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.130782)
Conference Proceedings Paper
Gurgel, A., K. Narayan, X. Gao, C.R. Vernon, J. Morris, C.A. Schlosser, J. Reilly and S. Paltsev (2023). American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting,
Journal Article
Picciano, P., Q. Minghao, S.D. Eastham, M. Yuan, J. Reilly and N.E. Selin (2023). Nature Communications, 14, 5543 (doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-41131-x)
Joint Program Report
Lin, G., A. Gurgel and J.M. Reilly (2023). Joint Program Report Series Report 367, July, 8 p. [PDF]

News + Media

News Release
Joint Program News | 
Mar 18, 2024
News Release
Joint Program News | 
Oct 06, 2023
News Release
MIT News | 
Sep 19, 2023
Joint Program News | 
Mar 30, 2023
News Release
Joint Program News | 
Oct 07, 2022
In The News
National Observer | 
Sep 06, 2022