Ultra Small-Scale Engineering with City-Scale Impact
Spring 2022 ILP's in-person conferences will be open to fully vaccinated individuals only, excepting those individuals who have a medical condition or religious exemption. Conference attendees will use an application developed at MIT -- Tim Tickets -- to grant campus access or scan into an event.
Nano technology is all around us – in the buildings, infrastructure, and transportation systems we rely on every day. But nano’s impacts on the built environment are accelerating, helping make cities more sustainable, efficient, smarter, and healthier. Please join us as we present, discuss, and explore nano-enhanced cities and how the world is evolving from the nano-scale up. We’ll help redefine your understanding of what nano technology is and how it is reinventing the built environment as we know it.
This event is brought to you through a collaboration of the Center for Real Estate, MIT.nano, and the MIT Industrial Liaison Program.
REGISTRATION FEE
Registration is closed, onsite registration will be a available at the conference
* Startup Exchange Member: Complimentary Send email for code. * MIT Alum: 70% discount Send email for a discount code. * Sloan Exec Ed & Professional Education Member: 70% discount Send email for a discount code.
Visiting MIT: https://www.mit.edu/visitmit/
Where to Stay: https://institute-events.mit.edu/visit/where-to-stay
Registration Questions: ocrevents@mit.edu
ACCOMMODATIONS
Limited number of rooms are available at Boston Marriott Cambridge for $289 USD group rate per night. (Last Day to Book: Monday, March 21, 2022) Book your room now.
John Roberts has been Executive Director of MIT Corporate Relations (Interim) since February 2022. He obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at MIT and returned to the university after a 20-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, joining the MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) in 2013. Prior to his return, John worked at small, medium, and large companies, holding positions that allowed him to exploit his passions in synthetic chemistry, project leadership, and alliance management while growing his responsibilities for managing others, ultimately as a department head. As a program director at MIT, John built a portfolio of ILP member companies, mostly in the pharmaceutical industry and headquartered in Japan, connecting them to engagement opportunities in the MIT community. Soon after returning to MIT, John began to lead a group of program directors with a combined portfolio of 60-80 global companies. In his current role, John oversees MIT Corporate Relations which houses ILP and MIT Startup Exchange.
Mr. David Martin joined Corporate Relations on August 15, 2018 as Program Director for the ILP. Martin comes to OCR with deep and broad knowledge and expertise in program management, innovation, commercial and government contracting, and strategic planning. In his most recent position at Altran (Burlington, MA) as the VP Programs, Dave had many major accomplishments including leading an innovation team to develop new technology in the beverage-filling industry, and managing client-facing relations supporting sales and execution of projects. Before that, he was at Windmill International as VP, Product Development, R&D. There he spearheaded the move into new markets for an innovative satellite communications product including through the SBIR program where he secured funding and sponsorship. Martin also leveraged other government programs collaborating with the DoD and congressional contacts. He began his career in the US Air Force as an Active Duty Captain and served for 10 years as an Acquisition Manager, Scientist, Test Director, and finally as Executive Officer in the Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications Systems in the Pentagon. Martin also served in the US Air Force Reserves before joining Windmill. Mr. Martin earned his B.S., Physics from MIT, and his M.S., Systems Management from the University of Denver. He also earned a Certificate in Information Systems at the University of Denver.
Dr. Andrea Chegut is a research scientist at the MIT Center for Real Estate and the Director of the MIT Real Estate Innovation Lab, which investigates innovative products and technologies, financial value, and economic growth impacts in the built environment. Dr. Chegut also heads entrepreneurial research for DesignX, a venture accelerator for student and faculty firms from MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning that focuses on design, cities and the built environment. Her applied and published academic research is in asset pricing of innovative commercial and residential real estate products, entrepreneurial firm performance, and design and technological progress in buildings. Dr. Chegut has a PhD in financial economics with a concentration in real estate and has worked at the intersection of innovation, urban economics and real estate finance for over a decade.
In addition to research, Dr. Chegut teaches classes on technology and innovation, real estate finance, data science and machine learning at MIT. Prior to her work at MIT, Andrea had a career in securities asset pricing, mortgage back securitization and worked across Europe on developing asset pricing models for commercial real estate, green buildings and digital infrastructure.
Admir Masic is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. In 2018 he was appointed DMSE Faculty Fellow in Archaeological Materials at the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology at the MIT and continue to serve till present day. The Masic Lab @MIT investigates the nanochemomechanics of mineralization and biomineralization processes of materials ranging from construction materials to archeological and biological materials. At the core of the lab’s expertise are in situ and operando spectroscopy techniques that permit resolving in time and space hydration, fracture, self-healing and carbonation processes by observing nanoscale structural changes induced by loading and chemical reactions in highly heterogeneous environments. With applications that span from Roman concretes to modern Portland cement concrete, from nacre to kidney stones, from ancient colors to Dead Sea scrolls, the ultimate goal of Masic’s lab is to translate the fundamental knowledge gained in the lab into engineering design tools for a sustainable development of materials for construction, energy, and the environment.
Carlos Portela is the d’Arbeloff Career Development Professor in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Dr. Portela received his Ph.D. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, where he was given the Centennial Award for the best thesis in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, and he received degrees in Aerospace Engineering (B.S.) and Physics (B.A.) from the University of Southern California. His current research lies at the intersection of materials science, mechanics, and nano-to-macro fabrication with the objective of designing and testing novel materials—with features spanning from nanometers to centimeters—that yield unprecedented mechanical and acoustic properties. Dr. Portela’s recent accomplishments have provided routes for fabrication of these so-called ‘nano-architected materials’ in scalable processes as well as testing nanomaterials in real-world conditions such as supersonic impact. Present application areas in Dr. Portela’s group involve the creation of novel lightweight armor materials, ultrasonic devices for medical purposes, and new generations of highly resilient structural materials. Dr. Portela is a recipient of the 2022 NSF CAREER Award, the 2019 Gold Paper Award from the Society of Engineering Science (SES), and his work has been featured in The National Nanotechnology Initiative Supplement to the President’s 2020 Budget (National Science and Technology Council).
Professor of Chemical Engineering MIT Department of Chemical Engineering
Professor Michael S. Strano is currently the Charles and Hilda Roddey Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received is B.S from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware both in Chemical Engineering. He was a post doctoral research fellow at Rice University in the departments of Chemistry and Physics under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley. From 2003 to 2007, Michael was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before moving to MIT. His research focuses on biomolecule/nanoparticle interactions and the surface chemistry of low dimensional systems, nano-electronics, nanoparticle separations, and applications of vibrational spectroscopy to nanotechnology. Michael is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including a 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a 2006 Beckman Young Investigator Award, the 2006 Coblentz Award for Molecular Spectroscopy, the Unilever Award from the American Chemical Society in 2007 for excellence in colloidal science, and the 2008 Young Investigator Award from the Materials Research Society, the 2008 Allen P. Colburn Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and recently selected as a member of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10.
Principal Research Scientist Materials Systems Laboratory MIT Engineering Systems Division
Dr. Kirchain received a Ph.D. from MIT. His research focuses on the environmental and economic implications of materials selection.
The choice of material potentially has sweeping implications on the realization of a product. Materials affect not only properties, but also dictate available production processes, and therefore the physical constraints within which a designer must work. Similarly, the synergism of design, materials, and process affect the environmental impacts associated with a product's manufacture, its use, and its ultimate disposal. As such, understanding the implications of a material selection decision requires understanding throughout the design and production systems.
To address this, Dr. Kirchain's research deals with two broad topic areas: (1) the development of methods to model the cost of manufacture, using limited design information and (2) the sustainability of current and emerging materials systems. To these ends, Dr. Kirchain has focused on automotive manufacturing systems, including working on projects for all three major automobile manufacturers. These projects include extensive study of the functioning of the system for reclaiming materials from end-of-life vehicles. The specific focus of this work has been to understand the economic implications of changing vehicle composition and emerging policy strictures on the successful operation of this system.
Dr. Kirchain's teaching responsibilities include ESD.123 - Industrial Ecology and ESD.80 - Seminar in Technology Policy Research.
Miles Barr, PhD is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Ubiquitous Energy. Barr previously served as the company’s first CEO, securing several rounds of funding and growth through initial pilot production. For his innovations in the solar industry over the past decade, Barr has been named an MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35, Forbes 30 under 30 in Energy, and winner of the prestigious Lemelson-MIT award. Barr holds a PhD from MIT in Chemical Engineering and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University.
Eli Paster is Chief Executive Officer of PolyJoule. At PolyJoule, Dr. Paster oversees research efforts, reconciles R&D schedules with commercialization targets, and provides foundational information for business and manufacturing strategy. He holds an S.M. and PhD from MIT, in the fields of electrochemistry, high-throughput instrumentation, and entrepreneurship. He speaks four languages, is the author several US and international patents, and has published monographs in chemistry, engineering, biology, literature, and advocacy.
Director, MIT.nano, Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Professor of Emerging Technology, MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)
Vladimir Bulović is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, holding the Fariborz Maseeh Chair in Emerging Technology. He directs the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory, co-leads the MIT-Eni Solar Frontiers Center, leads the Tata GridEdge program, and is the Founding Director of MIT.nano, MIT's new 200,000 sqft nano-fabrication, nano-characterization, and prototyping facility. He is an author of over 250 research articles (cited over 50,000 times and recognized as the top 1% of the most highly cited in the Web of Science). He is an inventor of over 100 U.S. patents in areas of light emitting diodes, lasers, photovoltaics, photodetectors, chemical sensors, programmable memories, and micro-electro machines, majority of which have been licensed and utilized by both start-up and multinational companies. The three start-up companies Bulović co-founded jointly employ over 350 people, and include Ubiquitous Energy, Inc., developing nanostructured solar technologies, Kateeva, Inc., focused on development of printed electronics, and QD Vision, Inc. (acquired in 2016) that produced quantum dot optoelectronic components. Products of these companies have been used by millions. Bulović was the first Associate Dean for Innovation of the School of Engineering and the Inaugural co-Director of MIT’s Innovation Initiative, which he co-led from 2013 to 2018. For his passion for teaching Bulović has been recognized with the MacVicar Fellowship, MIT’s highest teaching honor. He completed his Electrical Engineering B.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees at Princeton University.
Travis Wanat is a Senior Project Manager for the Department of Facilities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With over 23years of experience in the construction industry,Travis oversees and manages the programming, design, and construction of capital projects. These days his time is dedicated to shepherding the construction of the Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, will be an interdisciplinary hub for work in computer science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), data science, and related fields that contribute to the design and use of computing.
Dr. Julie Newman joined MIT as the Institute’s first Director of Sustainability in the summer of 2013. She has worked in the field of sustainable development and campus sustainability for twenty years. Her research has focused on the intersection between decision-making processes and organizational behavior in institutionalizing sustainability into higher education.
In 2004, Julie was recruited to be the founding Director of the Office of Sustainability for Yale University. At Yale, Julie held a lecturer appointment with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where she taught an undergraduate course entitled – Sustainability: From theory to practice in institutions. Julie came to Yale from the University of New Hampshire, Office of Sustainability Programs (OSP) where she assisted with the development of the program since its inception in 1997. Prior to her work with the OSP she worked for University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (ULSF). In 2004 Julie co-founded the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium, to advance education and action for sustainable development on university campuses in the northeast and maritime region.
Julie lectures and consults for universities both nationally and internationally, participates on a variety of boards and advisory committees and has contributed to a series of edited books and peer reviewed journals. Julie holds a BS in Natural Resource Policy and Management from the University of Michigan; an MS in Environmental Policy and Biology from Tufts University; and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies from the University of New Hampshire.
PJ Johnson is a Construction Executive for Turner Construction Company in its Boston Business Unit. PJ has spent the majority of his 27 years in the industry on highly technical, laboratory-type projects, including three nanotechnology centers. Currently, PJ is overseeing two projects in the Boston Seaport District, the Commonwealth Pier Revitalization Project and the L4 Parcel tower for WS Development. PJ fills the rest of his days at work being involved in the Business Unit’s Scheduling Department, Virtual Design & Construction Group, Sustainability Group, and Turner’s equipment and architectural products resourcing group, SourceBlue.
Samir’s career bridges the perceived boundaries between architecture, art, engineering, research, and media. His body of work as an architect taps into, and is shaped by, his multidisciplinary approach to design. He is passionate in his belief that crafting spaces that engage all our senses result in richer, more impactful and poetic environments. He is an advocate for creating sustainable, captivating environments.
Samir’s designs are fueled through the exploration of the arts and sciences at the intersection of traditional disciplines. Understanding the need to create environments that foster interaction and collaboration, Samir elevates the role of social gathering space, large or small, to become key moments in the flow and life of the building.
Samir’s design sensibility is influenced by his broader involvement in the arts and film industry. His artwork and architectural installations have been exhibited globally, and a film for which he served as the Art Director received the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
Steve Weikal is a lecturer, researcher, and Industry Chair of the Real Estate Technology Initiative at the MIT Center for Real Estate, focused on innovative new technology and business models that are reinventing the traditional ways of developing, transacting and managing real estate. He is also a General Partner at the MET Frontier Fund, an early-stage investor in startups that have an MIT connection and focus on solutions for the built environment.
Steve is a member of the Global Insights Panel for MIT Technology Review, a member of the CREtech Climate Leadership Board, and sits on the advisory boards of six real estate and technology companies. He was the Founder of MIT Real Disruption, a successful series of conferences discussing the impact of emerging technology on the real estate industry that is now part of the global CREtech media platform. Steve speaks extensively about real estate technology for corporate clients around the world and at conferences for AFIRE, AsRES, BOMA, CCIM, CoreNet, CREW, ICSC, IREM, NAIOP, PERE, SIOR, and ULI. He has been quoted by numerous media outlets, including BuzzFeed, TechInsider, Medium, USA Today, CP Executive, Harvard Real Estate Review, the Boston Globe, GlobeSt. the Real Reporter, Travel Weekly, IPE Real Assets Europe and Anuario Inmobiliario LatinoAmerica.
Steve holds a Master’s of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) and Master’s in City Planning (MCP) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a law degree from Suffolk University Law School.
Catarina has been working with the Cambridge/Boston startup ecosystem for over 10 years and joined Corporate Relations with a solid network in the innovation and entrepreneurial community. Prior to MIT, she was part of the team that designed and launched the startup accelerator IUL MIT Portugal, which was later rebranded as Building Global Innovators. She was based in Lisbon and worked in direct relation with the Cambridge team. She held positions including Operations Coordinator, Program Manager, and Business Developer. The accelerator soon achieved steady growth in large part due to the partnerships that Catarina led with regional and global startup ecosystems. After that, she worked at NECEC, leading a program that connects cleantech startups and industry. In this role, she developed and built a pipeline of startups and forged strong relationships with both domestic and European companies. She has also held positions in Portugal and France, including at Saboaria e Perfumaria Confiança and L’Oréal as Technical Director and Pharmacist. Catarina earned her bachelor's in chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences in Portugal. She went on to earn her Master of Engineering for Health and Medicines in France.
Scott Tudman is Sweetwater Energy Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Tudman is responsible for the overseeing all science and engineering related to all of Sweetwater’s development and projects. Prior to Sweetwater, Mr. Tudman was the Director of Project Management at Environmental Credit Corp. where he led corporate-wide project management and engineering activities for greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy initiatives. He also previously cofounded and operated the world’s first person to person lending platform focused on the supply of renewable/clean energy products to those in need in the developing world as the Chief Executive Officer at Energy In Common. Mr. Tudman also served as Project Engineer for Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. where he consulted on biological/chemical process design, pollution reduction, renewable energy, and energy efficiency projects. Mr. Tudman has his Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics and Mathematics from State University of New York at Geneseo, and his Masters of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Clarkson University.
Ross is the CTO of Transaera, a startup developing a new class of ultra-efficient air conditioning systems. Transaera is on a mission to cut the cost of ownership of air conditioners by more than half using a combination of novel materials and systems. Ross is the principal inventor of Transaera’s enabling technology which uses materials with nano-scale pores to remove moisture from the air, dramatically reducing the energy consumption of air conditioning. Prior to joining Transaera, he worked as a design engineer for GE aviation. He earned an MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT with a thesis on high efficiency desiccant based dehumidification and cooling.
Hunter McDaniel is Founder and CEO of UbiQD, an eight-year-old advanced materials company powering sustainability through nanomaterials innovation. Hunter earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, before joining Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Chemistry Division. Since he founded UbiQD, Inc. in 2014, the company has raised more than $8M and employs 25 full time. The company’s first product, UbiGro, is a quantum dot film that uses fluorescence to help plants get more from the sun in a greenhouse, and the glass version enables electricity generation. Hunter fundamentally believes that materials innovation has underpinned every major technology advancement since the dawn of mankind, and quantum dots are becoming another great example of that.
Richard E. Riman is a distinguished professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Professor Riman is a leading scholar in materials science/engineering and a globally recognized entrepreneur, recently elected to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in 2016. He was named the Inventor of the Year by the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. Academy fellows include 94 presidents and senior leaders of research universities, as well as 28 Nobel Laureates. He has authored more than 225 publications, 275 patent applications, and patents and delivered over 500 presentations. His work earned him the titles of academician in the World Academy of Ceramics and a fellow of the American Ceramic Society. He received research recognition awards early in his career. These include the National Institute of Health National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Alcoa, DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, and R&D 100. His academic research uses thermodynamics as a tool for engineering hydrothermal-solvothermal crystal growth methods for materials relevant to biomedical, electronic, and structural applications. His research focuses on areas where the material itself solves a problem of enormous importance to society and promotes sustainable manufacturing practices. For example, in the structural field, he created the first green cement adopted by the cement and concrete industry on a commercial production scale (2000 t/day) while reducing cement cost, reducing energy usage by 30%, and CO2 emissions by 70%. He continues to focus on greenhouse gas-reducing technology via a variety of novel materials-based initiatives. He has now turned his attention toward manufacturing carbon-negative advanced composite materials to replace carbon-positive materials such as wood, steel, ceramic, plastics, and fiber-reinforced resins. His research has created 4 startup companies, two of which are Solidia Technologies and RRTC.
Norhan is a Post Doctoral Fellow at MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative and Research Assistant in the Urban Metabolism group. She received her BSc. In Architecture from Cairo University, MSc in Building Technology from MIT in 2017 and Ph.D from the same program in 2021. Norhan‘s research is focused on the role of AI in addressing Climate change challenges in cities. In 2021, Norhan co-founded Lamarr.AI with Tarek Rakha and John E. Fernandez, which is spin off from a research collaboration between Georgia Tech and MIT and funded by the US. Department of Energy. Lamarr.AI fuses AI with building science to develop solutions for improving the performance of the built environment.
Kairos Shen is the Executive Director and Associate Professor of the Practice at MIT’s Center for Real Estate (CRE). He oversees the Master of Science in Real Estate Development program as well as the CRE’s industry relations and partnerships. In addition to his administrative role, Mr. Shen also teaches and is a proponent for the CRE’s interdisciplinary curriculum of “City Making” that draws on knowledge, research and practice across the fields of design, city planning, public policy, finance and real estate. The pedagogical objective of this curriculum is to prepare students for solving the most pressing and complex urban challenges such as social equity, housing affordability, climate resiliency, and the rebuilding of decaying infrastructure.
Prior to his academic appointment at MIT, Mr. Shen was the Director of Planning at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston’s Economic Development and Planning Agency for thirteen years. In his capacity as Boston’s Chief City Planner, he worked closely with the Mayor of Boston to envision, coordinate and administer the city’s planning and economic development policies and regulations. Mr. Shen was intimately involved in many of Boston’s most important planning and economic development initiatives for over two decades from 1993 to 2015. They include the development guidelines for the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the planning and implementation of the South Boston Waterfront Innovation District, the refurbishment of Fenway Park, and the revitalization of Nubian Square.
Throughout his professional and academic career, Mr. Shen has been a staunch advocate for design quality, diversity and livability in cities. Mr. Shen is a graduate of Swarthmore College and has a Master of Architecture from MIT.
Kripa K. Varanasi is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He received his B.Tech from IIT Madras, India and his SM (ME and EECS) and Ph.D from MIT. Prior to joining MIT as a faculty member, Prof. Varanasi was a lead researcher and project leader at the GE Global Research Center. At GE he received many awards for his work including Best Patent, Best Technology Project and Leadership Award. At MIT, the focus of his work is in understanding the physico-chemical phenomena at interfaces and developing novel materials, devices, and products that can dramatically enhance performance in energy, water, agriculture, transportation, medical, and consumer devices. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and translating technologies from lab to market. He has co-founded multiple companies including LiquiGlide, Infinite Cooling, AgZen, and Everon24. Time and Forbes Magazines have named LiquiGlide to their “Best Inventions of the Year”. His Infinite Cooling project has won first prize at DOE’s National Cleantech University Prize, MIT 100K, Harvard Business School Energy & Environment Start-up, and MassChallenge. Prof. Varanasi has received numerous awards for his work NSF Career Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award, SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Heat Transfer Award, Boston Business Journal’s 40 under 40. ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award for outstanding achievements in mechanical engineering, APS Milton van Dyke award, and MIT Graduate Student Council’s Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising.
Elise Strobach is CEO & Co-founder of AeroShield.
Svetlana Boriskina develops new materials and technologies to harvest and manipulate light and other forms of radiation. Her multi-disciplinary research blends nanophotonics, plasmonics, electronics, thermodynamics and mechanics. Svetlana makes smart fabrics that provide thermal comfort indoors and outdoors and stay clean no matter what, new meta-materials that exhibit color without any dyes or pigments and change it in response to external stimuli, and novel solar harvesting platforms that can provide clean energy and fresh water to off-electrical-grid and disaster-stricken communities. She is the author and co-author of more than 115 peer-reviewed papers, several award-winning courses, and multiple patens. Svetlana is a passionate advocate for science education and science public communication, which she supports via leadership in professional science organizations, conferences, and journal editorial boards, mentorship of student groups, and public outreach.
Desirée Plata’s research seeks to maximize technology’s benefit to society while minimizing environmental impacts in industrially important practices through the use of geochemical tools and chemical mechanistic insights. Plata earned her doctoral degree in Chemical Oceanography and Environmental Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Joint Program in Oceanography (2009) and her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Union College in Schenectady, NY (2003). Plata is an NSF CAREER Awardee (2016), an Odebrecht-Braskem Sustainable Innovation Awardee (2015), a two-time National Academy of Engineers Frontiers of Engineering Fellow (2012, 2020), a two-time National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow (2011, 2013), a Caltech Resnick Sustainability Fellow (2017), and winner of MIT’s Junior Bose Teaching Award (2019),Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award (2021), and Perkins Graduate Advising Award (2021). Having previously served as John J. Lee Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University and Associate Director for Research at the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale, Plata is now Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, co-director of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, and Faculty Lead of Belonging, Achievement, and Composition in the MIT School of Engineering. Plata directs MIT’s Methane Network, serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Spark Climate, and served on the National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine’s Atmospheric Methane Removal study (recused).Plata is co-founder of Nth Cycle(nthcycle.com), co-founder and President of Sustainable Chemical Resource Advisors LLC, and co-founder and President of Moxair Inc.
Associate Director, MIT.nano Director, Immersion Lab Co-Director, Advanced Manufacturing and Design Program Technology Director, MIT Center for Clinical and Translational Research
Dr. Anthony is an expert in designing instruments and techniques to monitor, measure, and control complex physical systems. His work integrates mechanical, electrical, and optical engineering with computer science and optimization to deliver innovative solutions across various manufacturing industries.
The core of Dr. Anthony’s research lies in computational instrumentation—the development of tools and methods to monitor and control intricate systems in fields like manufacturing and medical diagnostics. His work includes creating advanced measurement and instrumentation solutions for both manufacturing systems and medical imaging technologies.
Beyond academia, Dr. Anthony brings extensive experience in technology innovation, product realization, and business entrepreneurship, particularly at the convergence of information technology and advanced manufacturing. He has over 25 years of experience driving market-driven technology solutions from concept to commercialization. His achievements include winning an Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for broadcast technical innovation.
In the classroom, Dr. Anthony focuses on teaching the modeling of large-scale systems for decision-making across various domains. He is also deeply involved in developing optimization algorithms and software for analyzing and designing these systems. His dual experience in academia and industry positions him as a leader in translating cutting-edge research into practical, impactful technologies.
Jerry McAfee Professor of Engineering MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Markus J. Buehler, Jerry McAfee Professor of Engineering at MIT, is a leading researcher in materials science and the mechanics of natural and biological protein materials. Markus' expertise spans large-scale atomistic modeling, the interaction of chemistry and mechanics, and the development of multiscale simulation tools. He recently co-developed a method that uses artificial intelligence to generate new protein designs with specific strengths, mimicking natural materials like silk. This approach, which uses computer simulations for testing, allows the creation of proteins with desired mechanical properties, such as strength and flexibility, beyond what is naturally available. Markus earned a Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research at the University of Stuttgart and held post-doctoral appointments at both Caltech and MIT.
Dr. Ricardo Alvarez is an academic and researcher whose work focuses on exploring the boundaries of digital technologies used for urban design purposes. He has performed research and teaching work as part of the City Design and Development Group and as a member of the Senseable City Lab, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the past nine years.
Dr. Alvarez has participated in urban innovation research projects that use Mixed Media, IoT, and A.I. in cities as diverse as Dallas, Laval, Cambridge, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Shenzhen, Paris, Medellin, Curitiba, and others. While his work covers a wide range of topics, from autonomous vehicles to urban innovation districts, and smart infrastructure systems, his passion lies in exploring processes that foster social imagination for spatial design, in particular on the collaborative use of VR and AR platforms for new urban systems and public spaces design. He considers himself a life-long gamer and is a strong proponent of cross-pollination between disciplines that create interactive spaces both in the physical and virtual realms, such as architecture, urban planning, video games, and synthetic simulations development.
He is also an international speaker, having lectured in several countries in America, Europe, Asia, and Australia on topics related to innovation, cities, and technology. Before MIT, he worked in the Mexican Federal Government as a founding member of ProMexico (the country's Trade and Investment promotion Federal Agency), as well as in media, retail, financial industries.