Professor Leah Stokes Receives 2025 Energy Thought Leadership Award from the American Energy Society

Each year, the American Energy Society surveys the energy landscape and spotlights the most extraordinary contributions to energy and sustainability. The award categories are: people, STEM, markets and innovations, media, the arts, and more.

This year, IEE's Leah Stokes has been honored for her work by the American Energy Society, receiving the 2025 Energy Thought Leader award for higher education. 

AES has long recognized the impact of Professor Stokes’ work, naming Short Circuiting Policy the Best Energy Book of 2020. Since then, her influence has only expanded. A Professor of Environmental Politics at UCSB, Stokes co-hosts the acclaimed podcast A Matter of Degrees, and plays a leading role in the 2035 Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration of scholars that produces actionable roadmaps to cut climate pollution and strengthen community resilience.