In memoriam: Taylor Binnington

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.