It is with profound sadness that the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR) remembers Loren C. Cox, a foundational leader in the Center’s early development and a long-standing contributor to energy and environmental policy engagement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who passed away on December 23, 2025, at the age of 87.
Loren joined MIT in 1978 as CEEPR’s first Executive Director, shortly after its inception. In this role, and subsequently as its Faculty Director, he helped shape CEEPR’s mission to integrate rigorous analysis with real-world policy challenges. He also lectured in the Sloan School of Management and contributed to program development that bridged technical and policy communities.
Before his long career with MIT, Loren served on the professional staff of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, where he worked on energy matters, and earlier lived and worked abroad in the Peace Corps – experiences that informed his lifelong engagement with public policy, and his international outlook on the research and professional networks that helped shape CEEPR from its beginning.
In the 1980s, he left MIT to serve as Director for Planning and Research Development at Columbia University’s Earth Observatory, but returned in 1995 as Associate Director for Program Development of both CEEPR and the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, bringing valuable institutional memory to help build industrial partnerships and ensure the financial stability of both programs.
Throughout his time at MIT, Loren brought a distinctive combination of policy acumen, institutional insight, and collegial support to researchers, students, and partners across MIT. Loren’s commitment to fostering dialogue and engaging stakeholders inside and outside academia left a lasting imprint on CEEPR. He cared deeply about the interplay between markets, institutions, and policies, and his insights helped guide CEEPR through its formative years.
He is survived by his wife, Jessica Cox, and his daughter Hilary Cox and daughter-in-law Michelle Kennedy, as well as many friends and colleagues who benefited from his wisdom and generosity. The MIT community honors his legacy and extends its deepest condolences to his family.