MIT Rolls Out Five Multi-Year Projects to Tackle Climate Challenges

April 14, 2022 by Dan McCue
MIT Rolls Out Five Multi-Year Projects to Tackle Climate Challenges
The winners of MIT's first-ever Climate Grand Challenges will become multi-year flagship research projects, helping define a new research agenda focused on addressing complex unsolved climate problems. (Photo: Bearwalk Cinema)

BOSTON — After a rigorous two-year competition, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has selected five multi-year projects to be part of its first-ever Climate Grand Challenges competition.

“The Climate Grand Challenges flagship projects set a new standard for inclusive climate solutions that can be adapted and implemented across the globe,” said  MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles in a written statement. 

“This competition propels the entire MIT research community — faculty, students, postdocs and staff — to act with urgency around a worsening climate crisis, and I look forward to seeing the difference these projects can make,” she said.

MIT President L. Rafael Reif picked up the “whole-of-MIT” theme in pointing out the goal of projects, individually and in sum, is to develop “game-changing advances to confront the escalating climate crisis, in time to make a difference.” 

“We are inspired by the creativity and boldness of the flagship ideas and by their potential to make a significant contribution to the global climate response,” Reif said. “But given the planet-wide scale of the challenge, success depends on partnership. We are eager to work with visionary leaders in every sector to accelerate this impact-oriented research, implement serious solutions at scale, and inspire others to join us in confronting this urgent challenge for humankind.”

The Climate Grand Challenges competition is a key initiative of “Fast Forward: MIT’s Climate Action Plan for the Decade,” which the institute published in May 2021. 

“Fast Forward” outlined MIT’s comprehensive plan for helping the world address the climate crisis. 

The plan is contingent on five broad areas of action: sparking innovation, educating future generations, informing and leveraging government action, reducing MIT’s own climate impact, and uniting and coordinating all of MIT’s climate efforts.

The initial call for ideas in 2020 yielded nearly 100 letters of interest from almost 400 faculty members and senior researchers, representing 90% of MIT departments. 

After an extensive evaluation, 27 finalist teams received a total of $2.7 million to develop comprehensive research and innovation plans.

The five selected projects are described below. 

Climate Computation

As described by MIT, this project leverages advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data sciences to improve the accuracy of climate models and make them more useful to a variety of stakeholders — from communities to industry. The team is developing a digital twin of the Earth that harnesses more data than ever before to reduce and quantify uncertainties in climate projections.

The research leads are: Raffaele Ferrari, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Oceanography in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and director of the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate; and Noelle Eckley Selin, director of the Technology and Policy Program and professor with a joint appointment in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.

Electrification and Decarbonization of Industry

This project seeks to reinvent and electrify the processes and materials behind hard-to-decarbonize industries like steel, cement, ammonia and ethylene production. A new innovation hub will perform targeted fundamental research and engineering with urgency, pushing the technological envelope on electricity-driven chemical transformations.

The research leads are: Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Bilge Yıldız, the Breene M. Kerr Professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Preparing for New Weather and Climate Extremes

This project will address key gaps in knowledge about intensifying extreme events such as floods, hurricanes and heat waves, and will quantify their long-term risk in a changing climate, MIT said in a press release. The team is developing a scalable climate change adaptation toolkit to help vulnerable communities and low-carbon energy providers prepare for these extreme weather events.

The research leads are: Kerry Emanuel, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and co-director of the MIT Lorenz Center; Miho Mazereeuw, associate professor of architecture and urbanism in the Department of Architecture and director of the Urban Risk Lab; and Paul O’Gorman, professor in the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.

Climate Resilience Early Warning System

The CREWSNET project seeks to reinvent climate change adaptation with a novel forecasting system that empowers underserved communities to interpret local climate risk, proactively plan for their futures by incorporating resilience strategies, and minimize losses. 

CREWSNET will initially be demonstrated in southwestern Bangladesh, serving as a model for similarly threatened regions around the world.

The research leads are: John Aldridge, assistant leader of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and Elfatih Eltahir, the H.M. King Bhumibol Professor of Hydrology and Climate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Revolutionizing Agriculture with Low-Emissions Crops

This project works to revolutionize the agricultural sector with climate-resilient crops and fertilizers that have the ability to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food production.

The research lead is: Christopher Voigt, the Daniel I.C. Wang Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering.

“As one of the world’s leading institutions of research and innovation, it is incumbent upon MIT to draw on our depth of knowledge, ingenuity and ambition to tackle the hard climate problems now confronting the world,” said Richard Lester, MIT associate provost for international activities.

“Together with collaborators across industry, finance, community and government, the Climate Grand Challenges teams are looking to develop and implement high-impact, path-breaking climate solutions rapidly and at a grand scale,” he said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue

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