Climate Project: Our new mission directors

Dear members of the MIT community,

I’m delighted to announce the faculty members who have agreed to lead the six Climate Missions at the heart of the Climate Project at MIT.

Decarbonizing Energy and Industry

• Elsa Olivetti PhD ’07, Materials Science and Engineering

Restoring the Atmosphere, Protecting the Land and Oceans (co-leads)

• Andrew Babbin, Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
• Jesse Kroll, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Chemical Engineering

Empowering Frontline Communities

• Miho Mazereeuw, Architecture

Building and Adapting Healthy, Resilient Cities

• Christoph Reinhart, Architecture

Inventing New Policy Approaches

• Christopher Knittel, MIT Sloan

Wild Cards

• Benedetto Marelli, Civil and Environmental Engineering

You can learn more about each of the new Climate Mission directors on MIT News. 

We are planning a September event for the community to hear from these dynamic leaders and to discuss with them their early thinking on shaping the missions. Space will be limited, so if you would be interested in attending, please let us know. 

The mission directors will be absolutely central as the Climate Project seeks to marshal the Institute’s talent and resources to research, develop, deploy and scale up serious solutions to help change the planet’s climate trajectory. They will begin right away, while we push to conclude a national search for our new vice president for climate, to be announced in the fall.

I’m very grateful to Vice Provost Richard Lester and the climate search advisory committee, who conducted the wide-ranging internal search, and to the many community members who suggested an excellent pool of candidates.

And to the faculty members taking on these pivotal roles: We are immensely grateful for your skill, commitment and leadership, and we are enthusiastic about what we can achieve together.

Sincerely,

Sally Kornbluth
President