Joe Romm: key obituary facts
Is Joe Romm dead? Yes. Joe Romm died on September 14, 2026, at age 66.
Cause of death: Joe Romm's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Joe Romm known for?
He was an American author, editor, physicist and climate expert.
More about Joe Romm
Born: 27 June 1960.
Place of birth: Middletown.
Place of death: Washington, D.C.
Gender: male.
Occupation: physicist, climate activist, writer, journalist, blogger, expert.
Nationality: United States.
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Middletown High School.
Employer: Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.
Awards: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Also known as: Joe Romm, Joseph Romm.
Joe Romm, born Joseph Jacob Romm, was an American researcher, author, editor and physicist who died September 14, 2026, aged 66.
Born in Middletown, he attended Middletown High School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the 1990s, Romm served as principal deputy assistant secretary at the U.S.
Department of Energy, later rising to acting assistant secretary. In 2006, while at the Center for American Progress, he founded Climate Progress, a blog focused on climate change that later became part of the ThinkProgress website. Time named the blog one of its “Top 15 Green Websites” and described Romm as “The Web’s most influential climate-change blogger.” His writing advocated reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy security through efficiency and green-energy technologies. Romm published 10 books and numerous articles on climate change, clean energy and communications. Hell and High Water, published in 2006, examined climate observations and forecasts, policy and technology responses, and political efforts to undermine climate science. His 2015 book, Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know, presented climate science in a question-and-answer format. In 2009, Rolling Stone included him on its list of “100 People Who Are Changing America,” and Time named him one of its “Heroes of the Environment.” He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.