Upcoming

Monday, June 10, 2024

9:00-10:00 am EDT,

1500 central Europe time

online

6:30 - 7:30 pm Indian Standard time

Amazing work is underway in India in energy efficiency, circularity, and resilience. MIT alums are contributing important energy efficiency solutions, which go beyond no-carbon electricity generation and will allow the country to leapfrog over the Western world's conventional (and wasteful) energy system.

Speakers will include: Manya Ranjan SM ’10, IIT Kanpur Visiting Professor Anna Agarwal SM ’08, PhD ’14, Arjun Gupta SM ’11, Smart Joules, Mudit Narain SM ’07, Blume Ventures.

Around the Network

On Saturday, June 1, 2024, three alumni/ae professors were featured during the MIT Technology Day, Organizing for Impact: MIT's Emerging Climate Solutions. The video recording captured the talks and discussions. Asegun Henry, SM ’06, PhD ’09, covered how his research on Putting Sun Power in a Box is being developed in his startup, Fourth Power (at 24:53). Desirée Plata, PhD ’09, lead for the MIT Methane Network, started with a quick and simple video showing how methane in the air warms the planet (at 1:31:49) and then addressed The Race for Methane Mitigation. Yet-Ming Chiang ’80, ScD ’85 (at 1:47:50) spoke about Reinventing Industry, transforming 100-200 year old processes, like making Portland cement, to lower carbon emissions. He pointed out that MIT's work and solutions fit successfully with ARPA-e's motto, "if it works, will it matter?" His startup, Sublime Systems, is piloting a process to change the process for creating cement's calcium silica with electricity.

EESN Survey: Are you electrified? or not?

Are you one of those in our alumni community who already have solar on your roof or in your neighborhood? are you already plugging in your electric vehicle?

EESN Chair Sarah Simon '72 heard from John Bothwick '74, when he attended the 50th Class reunion and stopped by the EESN table. Electricity in his state, Hawaii, is expensive, and he, like many people, has had panels on his roof supplying his own power for some time. After adding a battery storage system, he doesn't fear outages any more.

Take a couple of minutes and fill out the survey. Initial responses showed that 4 of 10 already have solar. Help us gather more data.

- Can we do more to encourage the energy transition?

At the May Tech Group meeting, Jim Papadopoulos '79, PhD '86, presented information on the ability of ammonia to meet the need for no-carbon fuels before the usual discussion period. Bruce Parker '69 leads these discussions on technical issues in climate, and the many ways warming occurs, such as radiative forcing, methane contribution or geoengineering to increase albedo or block radiation.

Alumni/ae News

Modernizing Siting for a Decarbonized Future is the theme of the June 14, New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable program. MIT Professor Larry Susskind, MCP '70, PhD '73, will speak during the session Siting Energy Infrastructure: New National and Local Approaches. More information and registration to attend in South Boston or on-line is here. Dr. Jonathan Rabb, PhD '92 is the convenor of this series, which have been held 4-6 times per year since 1995. Raab Associates, Ltd. has worked on numerous FERC, ISO, utility and agency projects since 1980. including the current FERC/NARUC Federal-State Joint Task Force on Electric Transmission.

Fred Salvucci '61, SM '62, will keynote the annual awards dinner of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section ( of ASCE). A former Secretary of Transportation of Massachusetts, Mr. Salvucci will cover the challenge of intense flooding from climate change in his talk: Infrastructure Investment: Social and Political Leadership and the Critical Role of Engineers.

On June 1, organizer Megan Lim, MBA 24, delivered a letter to President Kornbluth, urging that MIT set an “Earthshot” goal of 2035 for campus decarbonization and that MIT should partner more closely with students and alums in the mission. She was delighted to hear the President including it in her remarks on Tech Day.

Dr. Bethany Patten, EMBA '13, has been appointed Director of Policy and Engagement for the MIT Climate Pathways project at Sloan.

In the Bloomberg Green Daily newsletter and online, Zahra Hirji SM '13, recently reported on the threats of heat waves to older adults and carbon emissions from synthetic textile fashion.

Howard J. Herzog ’74, SM ’75, CHE ’80, Senior Research Engineer, MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) spoke at the May Lecture of the Cardinal & Gray Society. He spoke about his research on carbon capture and storage (CCS) and how it could help mitigate climate change.

@ MIT

President Sally Kornbluth contributed to the Tech Day program. Organizing for Impact: MIT’s Emerging Climate Solutions, first with a brief intro to the Climate Project emphasizing that "MIT does big things that matter," from Building 20 breakthroughs for winning World War II to the "most ambitious project yet, the problem of our overheating planet." (1:28:33 - 1:30:40).

She returned to a fireside chat with MIT Alumni Association President, Robert Wickham '93, SM '95. After a quick update on free speech on campus (2:22:10), she laid out in depth (2:25:20) the organization she has set up for MIT to best find and deploy climate solutions. She with seed resources from the MIT administration, half as much again from The Sloan School of Management, and the commitment of students for a decarbonization "Earthshot" and the network of alums A $50m investment in technology solutions and some $25m (2:29:56) the DeCarb letter for student participation in this "Earthshot."

On Monday, June 17 and Tuesday, June 18, the MIT World Real Estate Forum at the Media Lab to celebrate its 40th Anniversary. Among the speakers are Sloan Professor Roberto Rigobon who will lead an interactive game on valuing environmental performance. Heather Clark, Senior Director of the Building Center for the White House Climate Policy Office, who will keynote the theme: Transitioning the Real Estate Sector to Zero Emissions.

MIT currently has a Job Opening for the Vice President for Climate (Job Number 240500). Apply if you (or a friend "have an "extraordinary record of intellectual, strategic, and managerial accomplishment in climate and sustainability" and " demonstrated ability to lead a dynamic, creative, intellectually deep and action-oriented research community."

About EESN

Educate, Connect, and Act

The EESNetwork and its groups welcome all MIT alumni/ae to help make a difference in speeding up the transition to a clean sustainable economy and environmental restoration.

• New EESN home page
• EESN webinar list with links to available slides and recordings.
• MIT Links: MITEI, ESI, MIT Climate Portal, MIT Office of Sustainability (MITOS)