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The power of knowledge
In his early career at MIT, Josh Kuffour’s academic interests spanned mathematics, engineering, and physics. He decided to major in chemical engineering, figuring it would draw on all three areas....
View ArticleA civil discourse on climate change
A new MIT initiative designed to encourage open dialogue on campus kicked off with a conversation focused on how to address challenges related to climate change.“Climate Change: Existential Threat or...
View ArticleA green hydrogen innovation for clean energy
Renewable energy today — mainly derived from the sun or wind — depends on batteries for storage. While costs have dropped in recent years, the pursuit of more efficient means of storing renewable power...
View ArticleAccelerated climate action needed to sharply reduce current risks to life and...
Hottest day on record. Hottest month on record. Extreme marine heatwaves. Record-low Antarctic sea-ice.While El Niño is a short-term factor in this year’s record-breaking heat, human-caused climate...
View ArticleMaking nuclear energy facilities easier to build and transport
For the United States to meet its net zero goals, nuclear energy needs to be on the smorgasbord of options. The problem: Its production still suffers from a lack of scale. To increase access rapidly,...
View ArticleMIT researchers outline a path for scaling clean hydrogen production
Hydrogen is an integral component for the manufacture of steel, fertilizer, and a number of chemicals. Producing hydrogen using renewable electricity offers a way to clean up these and many other...
View ArticleThe future of motorcycles could be hydrogen
MIT’s Electric Vehicle Team, which has a long record of building and racing innovative electric vehicles, including cars and motorcycles, in international professional-level competitions, is trying...
View ArticleStudy reveals a reaction at the heart of many renewable energy technologies
A key chemical reaction — in which the movement of protons between the surface of an electrode and an electrolyte drives an electric current — is a critical step in many energy technologies, including...
View ArticleSoaring high, in the Army and the lab
Starting off as a junior helicopter pilot, Lt. Col. Jill Rahon deployed to Afghanistan three times. During the last one, she was an air mission commander, the pilot who is designated to interface with...
View ArticleMeeting the clean energy needs of tomorrow
Yuri Sebregts, chief technology officer at Shell, succinctly laid out the energy dilemma facing the world over the rest of this century. On one hand, demand for energy is quickly growing as countries...
View ArticleFaculty, staff, students to evaluate ways to decarbonize MIT's campus
With a goal to decarbonize the MIT campus by 2050, the Institute must look at “new ideas, transformed into practical solutions, in record time,” as stated in “Fast Forward: MIT’s Climate Action Plan...
View ArticleMIT researchers map the energy transition’s effects on jobs
A new analysis by MIT researchers shows the places in the U.S. where jobs are most linked to fossil fuels. The research could help policymakers better identify and support areas affected over time by a...
View ArticleReflecting on COP28 — and humanity’s progress toward meeting global climate...
With 85,000 delegates, the 2023 United Nations climate change conference, known as COP28, was the largest U.N. climate conference in history. It was held at the end of the hottest year in recorded...
View ArticleLocal journalism is a critical “gate” to engage Americans on climate change
Last year, Pew Research Center data revealed that only 37 percent of Americans said addressing climate change should be a top priority for the president and Congress. Furthermore, climate change was...
View ArticleAnushree Chaudhuri: Involving local communities in renewable energy planning
Anushree Chaudhuri has a history of making bold decisions. In fifth grade, she biked across her home state of California with little prior experience. In her first year at MIT, she advocated for...
View ArticleWith just a little electricity, MIT researchers boost common catalytic reactions
A simple technique that uses small amounts of energy could boost the efficiency of some key chemical processing reactions, by up to a factor of 100,000, MIT researchers report. These reactions are at...
View ArticleStudy unlocks nanoscale secrets for designing next-generation solar cells
Perovskites, a broad class of compounds with a particular kind of crystal structure, have long been seen as a promising alternative or supplement to today’s silicon or cadmium telluride solar panels....
View ArticlePower when the sun doesn’t shine
In 2016, at the huge Houston energy conference CERAWeek, MIT materials scientist Yet-Ming Chiang found himself talking to a Tesla executive about a thorny problem: how to store the output of solar...
View ArticleTests show high-temperature superconducting magnets are ready for fusion
In the predawn hours of Sept. 5, 2021, engineers achieved a major milestone in the labs of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), when a new type of magnet, made from high-temperature...
View ArticleCutting carbon emissions on the US power grid
To help curb climate change, theUnited States is working to reduce carbon emissions from all sectors of the energy economy. Much of the current effort involves electrification — switching to electric...
View ArticleMaking the clean energy transition work for everyone
The clean energy transition is already underway, but how do we make sure it happens in a manner that is affordable, sustainable, and fair for everyone?That was the overarching question at this year’s...
View ArticleOptimizing nuclear fuels for next-generation reactors
In 2010, when Ericmoore Jossou was attending college in northern Nigeria, the lights would flicker in and out all day, sometimes lasting only for a couple of hours at a time. The frustrating experience...
View ArticleFuture nuclear power reactors could rely on molten salts — but what about...
Most discussions of how to avertclimate change focus on solar and wind generation as key to the transition to a future carbon-free power system. But Michael Short, the Class of ’42 Associate Professor...
View ArticleExtracting hydrogen from rocks
It’s commonly thought that the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen, exists mainly alongside other elements — with oxygen in water, for example, and with carbon in methane. But naturally...
View ArticleNew major crosses disciplines to address climate change
Lauren Aguilar knew she wanted to study energy systems at MIT, but before Course 1-12 (Climate System Science and Engineering) became a new undergraduate major, she didn't see an obvious path to study...
View ArticleOffering clean energy around the clock
As remarkable as the rise of solar and wind farms has been over the last 20 years, achieving complete decarbonization is going to require a host of complementary technologies. That’s because renewables...
View ArticleNuno Loureiro named director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Nuno Loureiro, professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics, has been appointed the new director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, effective May 1.Loureiro is taking the helm...
View ArticleMIT conductive concrete consortium cements five-year research agreement with...
The MIT Electron-conductive Cement-based Materials Hub (EC^3 Hub), an outgrowth of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub), has been established by a five-year sponsored research agreement with the...
View ArticleHPI-MIT design research collaboration creates powerful teams
The recent ransomware attack on ChangeHealthcare, which severed the network connecting health care providers, pharmacies, and hospitals with health insurance companies, demonstrates just how disruptive...
View ArticleSeizing solar’s bright future
Consider the dizzying ascent of solar energy in the United States: In the past decade, solar capacity increased nearly 900 percent, with electricity production eight times greater in 2023 than in 2014....
View ArticleWilliam Green named director of MIT Energy Initiative
MIT professor William H. Green has been named director of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI).In appointing Green, then-MIT Vice President for Research Maria Zuber highlighted his expertise in chemical...
View ArticleElaine Liu: Charging ahead
MIT senior Elaine Siyu Liu doesn’t own an electric car, or any car. But she sees the impact of electric vehicles (EVs) and renewables on the grid as two pieces of an energy puzzle she wants to...
View ArticleH2 underground
In 1987 in a village in Mali, workers were digging a water well when they felt a rush of air. One of the workers was smoking a cigarette, and the air caught fire, burning a clear blue flame. The well...
View ArticleTurning up the heat on next-generation semiconductors
The scorching surface of Venus, where temperatures can climb to 480 degrees Celsius (hot enough to melt lead), is an inhospitable place for humans and machines alike. One reason scientists have not yet...
View ArticleGetting to systemic sustainability
Add up the commitments from the Paris Agreement, the Glasgow Climate Pact, and various commitments made by cities, countries, and businesses, and the world would be able to hold the global average...
View ArticleReducing carbon emissions from long-haul trucks
People around the world rely on trucks to deliver the goods they need, and so-called long-haul trucks play a critical role in those supply chains. In the United States, long-haul trucks moved 71...
View ArticleStudents research pathways for MIT to reach decarbonization goals
A number of emerging technologies hold promise for helping organizations move away from fossil fuels and achieve deep decarbonization. The challenge is deciding which technologies to adopt, and...
View ArticleNew computer vision method helps speed up screening of electronic materials
Boosting the performance of solar cells, transistors, LEDs, and batteries will require better electronic materials, made from novel compositions that have yet to be discovered.To speed up the search...
View ArticleStartup aims to transform the power grid with superconducting transmission lines
Last year in Woburn, Massachusetts, a power line was deployed across a 100-foot stretch of land. Passersby wouldn’t have found much interesting about the installation: The line was supported by...
View ArticleAI method radically speeds predictions of materials’ thermal properties
It is estimated that about 70 percent of the energy generated worldwide ends up as waste heat.If scientists could better predict how heat moves through semiconductors and insulators, they could design...
View ArticleGoing Dutch on climate
When MIT senior Rudiba Laiba saw that stores in the Netherlands eschewed plastic bags to save the planet, her first thought was, “that doesn’t happen in Bangladesh.”Laiba is one of eight MIT students...
View ArticleMore durable metals for fusion power reactors
For many decades, nuclear fusion power has been viewed as the ultimate energy source. A fusion power plant could generate carbon-free energy at a scale needed to address climate change. And it could be...
View ArticleMIT engineers’ new theory could improve the design and operation of wind farms
The blades of propellers and wind turbines are designed based on aerodynamics principles that were first described mathematically more than a century ago. But engineers have long realized that these...
View ArticleStudy of disordered rock salts leads to battery breakthrough
For the past decade, disordered rock salt has been studied as a potential breakthrough cathode material for use in lithium-ion batteries and a key to creating low-cost, high-energy storage for...
View ArticleAligning economic and regulatory frameworks for today’s nuclear reactor...
Liam Hines ’22 didn't move to Sarasota, Florida, until high school, but he’s a Floridian through and through. He jokes that he’s even got a floral shirt, what he calls a “Florida formal,” for every...
View Article3 Questions: Bridging anthropology and engineering for clean energy in Mongolia
In 2021, Michael Short, an associate professor of nuclear science and engineering, approached professor of anthropology Manduhai Buyandelger with an unusual pitch: collaborating on a project to...
View ArticleApplying risk and reliability analysis across industries
On Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth, killing all seven astronauts on board. The tragic incident compelled NASA to amp up their risk safety assessments and...
View ArticleSolar-powered desalination system requires no extra batteries
MIT engineers have built a new desalination system that runs with the rhythms of the sun.The solar-powered system removes salt from water at a pace that closely follows changes in solar energy. As...
View ArticleStudy: Fusion energy could play a major role in the global response to...
For many decades, fusion has been touted as the ultimate source of abundant, clean electricity. Now, as the world faces the need to reduce carbon emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change,...
View Article3 Questions: Can we secure a sustainable supply of nickel?
As the world strives to cut back on carbon emissions, demand for minerals and metals needed for clean energy technologies is growing rapidly, sometimes straining existing supply chains and harming...
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