With heavy hearts, SEI announces the death of our cherished colleague, Taylor Binnington, on 8 March 2025.

Taylor, 39, was a Senior Scientist at SEI US in the Energy Modeling Program and had been at SEI since 2013. Living in North Haven, Connecticut, he was based at SEI US’s Somerville office.

Taylor died in a car crash in the state of Vermont, along with his 4-month-old son. His wife and 3-year-old son suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Taylor led work on decarbonization planning and modeling net-zero greenhouse gas emission pathways. He was an accomplished trainer on energy and climate change mitigation modeling, recently leading a capacity building project for Thailand’s Ministry of Energy on integrated resource and resilience planning.

Taylor had a rare gift for setting people at ease and for explaining complicated concepts in an easy-to-understand way, says longtime colleague, Energy Modeling Program Director Jason Veysey. These qualities made him a superlative trainer, and he carried out trainings all around the world, including in Albania, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Fiji, Georgia, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lao PDR, Morocco, the Philippines, Rwanda, Thailand, Togo, the US and Uzbekistan. He loved learning about new cultures and he embraced local culture wherever he visited.

Taylor exuded kindness, humor, warmth and intelligence. The last time the US Center gathered in person from across the country in 2022, Taylor led a lively trivia contest and serenaded colleagues on his guitar – the life of the party.

He had great intellectual curiosity – he loved delving into new technical topics and discussing them with colleagues. His training in theoretical physics allowed him to see and take advantage of many connections between that field and energy systems analysis. He was also committed to representation and equity in energy and climate policy.

Additionally, Taylor was a noted expert on state-level decarbonization policy in the US. He played a key role in developing several states’ climate change mitigation plans. From 2019 to 2021, he briefly left SEI to serve as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Acadia Center, a non-profit focused on clean energy solutions in New England.

“Taylor wasn’t just an expert modeler, he was a natural-born teacher whose friendliness, generosity, and dedication to SEI’s mission of building capacity for sustainable energy development informed and inspired everyone he worked with around the world,” says Senior Scientist Charlie Heaps, Taylor’s longtime colleague and supervisor. “His loss is felt deeply, particularly since he still had so much to give and was just entering the prime of his life. We will remember and miss him as we endeavor to continue his stalwart work.”

Taylor was also a community and global volunteer. He was a member of Engineers Without Borders, a volunteer bike mechanic in the various communities he lived in, and most recently a Clean Energy Task Force member in North Haven.

Originally from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Taylor earned a Master of Science in Physical Geography from the University of Toronto, and a Master and Bachelor of Science in Theoretical Physics from the University of Guelph.

As Jason sums up: “Taylor was dedicated, adventuresome, humble and wholly committed to making the world a better place.”