Portrait of Mark Thurber

Mark C. Thurber, PhD

  • Associate Director for Research at PESD
  • Social Science Research Scholar

Program on Energy and Sustainable Development
616 Jane Stanford Way
Encina Hall East, Rm E412
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 724-9709 (voice)
(650) 724-1717 (fax)

Biography

Mark C. Thurber is Associate Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) at Stanford University, where he studies and teaches about energy and environmental markets and policy. Dr. Thurber has written and edited books and articles on topics including global fossil fuel markets, climate policy, integration of renewable energy into electricity markets, and provision of energy services to low-income populations.

Dr. Thurber co-edited and contributed to Oil and Governance: State-owned Enterprises and the World Energy Supply  (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and The Global Coal Market: Supplying the Major Fuel for Emerging Economies (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He is the author of Coal (Polity Press, 2019) about why coal has thus far remained the preeminent fuel for electricity generation around the world despite its negative impacts on local air quality and the global climate.

Dr. Thurber teaches a course on energy markets and policy at Stanford, in which he runs a game-based simulation of electricity, carbon, and renewable energy markets. With Dr. Frank Wolak, he also conducts game-based workshops for policymakers and regulators. These workshops explore timely policy topics including how to ensure resource adequacy in a world with very high shares of renewable energy generation.

Dr. Thurber has previous experience working in high-tech industry. From 2003-2005, he was an engineering manager at a plant in Guadalajara, México that manufactured hard disk drive heads. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.S.E. from Princeton University.

publications

Policy Briefs
September 2019

For wind and solar, big is (usually) better

Author(s)
cover link For wind and solar, big is (usually) better
Policy Briefs
September 2018

Gas-to-Power Value Chain

Author(s)
cover link Gas-to-Power Value Chain
Policy Briefs
June 2018

Gas-fired generation in a high-renewables world

Author(s)
cover link Gas-fired generation in a high-renewables world

In The News

gettyimages 1047163044 gas flaring 3
Blogs

Thurber: Why it's difficult to reduce gas flaring

cover link Thurber: Why it's difficult to reduce gas flaring