The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has appointed Paul L. Joskow, an economics and management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the university’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, to be president, the foundation reports.

Mr. Joskow succeeds Ralph E. Gomory, who will step down to become the foundation’s director of special programs.

The foundation has assets totaling nearly $1.6-billion and makes grants in “science, technology, and the quality of American life.”