Announcing new vice president for climate
Dear members of the MIT community,
I’m excited to let you know that we have appointed the Institute’s inaugural vice president for climate (VPC), a leader already well known and widely respected at MIT: Evelyn Wang '00, Ford Professor of Engineering and former head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Two years ago, Evelyn took a leave to serve the nation as director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), which supports early-stage R&D on energy generation, storage and use. On April 1, she returns to campus to lead the Climate Project at MIT.
In addition to taking the lead in fundraising and implementation, Evelyn will shape the Climate Project’s strategic vision. To match the importance of this new role, she will report directly to me.
Evelyn’s background and accomplishments
An accomplished inventor and skilled administrator, Evelyn brings to this urgent work a thorough understanding of the MIT community, its innovation ecosystem and connections to industry; her own deep technical expertise and record as an innovator; and a distinctive breadth of insight and managerial experience gained from overseeing a wide array of ambitious energy projects for the nation.
When Evelyn arrived at MIT from California as an undergraduate, she was already firmly rooted in the Institute’s values and hands-on problem-solving culture: Her parents met here as graduate students. (Both of Evelyn’s brothers, two uncles and her husband are also graduates of MIT.)
After earning her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, she went to Stanford for her SM and PhD. Following a postdoc stint at Bell Labs, Evelyn joined the MIT faculty, where she built a record of leading-edge innovations, including a novel system that can extract water from the air even in relatively dry climates, relying entirely on solar energy.
The technologies she and her colleagues developed draw on original, fundamental research about micro- and nanoscale heat and mass transfer. Foreign Policy Magazinerecognized her water extraction work by naming Evelyn its 2017 Global ReThinker, and in 2018, the work won the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water, which honors water-related scientific innovation. Evelyn’s lab has developed a range of other innovations, from a novel, very inexpensive system that uses sunlight to turn seawater into drinking water to an aerogel that dramatically improves window insulation, which in 2019 was spun out into a start-up.
As director of the Device Research Lab, Evelyn held several professorships, ultimately being named Ford Professor of Engineering. In 2018, she became department head of mechanical engineering, a role she held until she left for ARPA-E.
In 2021, she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 2023 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2015, the American Society of Mechanical Engineering also honored her as a Fellow, and in 2017 presented her with the Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in mechanical engineering.
Thanks to the search committee and interim VPC
I’m grateful to all the faculty members – listed below – who comprised the search committee for identifying a pool of outstanding candidates. The search was chaired by then-Vice Provost for International Activities Richard Lester, who also served as interim VPC from June through December of last year. Richard deserves our special appreciation for guiding this project from the beginning and launching it on its way.
This past summer, we announced the directors of the Climate Project’s six "missions."Work has been under way since then. Until Evelyn’s official start date, Dean of Engineering and Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer Anantha Chandrakasan will oversee the Climate Project’s strategy and operations.
Our challenge together
As I have said many times, the accelerating problem of climate change and its countless impacts represent the greatest scientific, technical and policy challenge of this or any age. The Climate Project is MIT’s strategic response.
We are tremendously fortunate that Evelyn Wang has agreed to lead this crucial work – and I’m eager to see the progress we can achieve together. Please join me in welcoming Evelyn back to MIT.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
Climate Search Advisory Committee
Richard Lester, Chair
Daron Acemoglu
Yet-Ming Chiang
Penny Chisholm
Dava Newman
Ron Rivest
Susan Solomon
John Sterman
Larry Vale
Rob van der Hilst
Anne White