Prof. Richard K Lester

Professor Lester’s research focuses on innovation, productivity, and industrial strategy, and under his leadership the MIT Industrial Performance Center conducted multiple major studies of local, regional and national innovation and industry performance.

Lester is also well known for his teaching and research on energy and climate policy and nuclear technology innovation, management, and control. He has been a longtime advocate of advanced nuclear reactor and fuel cycle technologies to improve the safety and economic performance of nuclear power, and his studies in the field of nuclear waste management helped provide the foundation for new institutional and technological strategies to deal with this long-standing problem.

Lester’s most recent book, Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System, written with David Hart, outlined a strategy for mobilizing America’s innovation resources in support of a decades-long transition to an affordable and reliable low-carbon global energy system. Lester is also the author or co-author of seven other books, including The Productive Edge: A New Strategy for Economic Growth; Innovation —The Missing Dimension (with Michael Piore); Making Technology Work: Applications in Energy and the Environment (with John Deutch); Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge (with Michael Dertouzos and Robert Solow), and Radioactive Waste: Management and Regulation (with Mason Willrich).

Lester obtained his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Imperial College and earned his PhD in nuclear engineering from MIT. He has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1979. He served as chair of the National Academies’ Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy, and more recently served as founding chair of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s Global Nuclear Forum. He has been an advisor to governments, corporations, foundations, and nonprofit groups.