Energizing@MIT: MITEI’s Annual Research Conference will be held on September 22 and 23, 2026. This year’s theme is “Transitioning energy at a pivotal moment.” Topics include robotics for energy and materials, AI and energy infrastructure, fission, quantum computing and sensing, and social acceptance of energy advances. We will also hear from MITEI Seed Innovation Fund project teams and present posters from Energy Scholars, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program students, and Future Energy Systems Center project teams. MITEI’s Annual Research Conference frames the key technology, policy, and economic drivers that are shaping today’s energy system and its future.
AGENDA
| Tuesday, September 22 | |
| 8:00-9:00 am | Breakfast and registration |
| 9:00-9:15 am |
Welcome and opening remarks
William H. Green, Director, MIT Energy Initiative; Hoyt C. Hottel Professor of Chemical Engineering |
| 9:15-10:00 am |
Keynote address Eric Toone, Chief Technical Officer, Breakthrough Energy |
| 10:00-11:15 am |
AI and energy infrastructure Faez Ahmed, Associate Professor, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering Moderated by Deepyjoti Deka, Research Scientist, MIT Energy Initiative |
| 11:15-11:30 am | Break |
| 11:30 am-12:45 pm |
Carbon utilization Highlighting advances and challenges in carbon utilization, which remains the most vexing part of CCUS Ariel Furst, Associate Professor, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering |
| 12:45-2:00 pm | Lunch with MIT Energy Scholars poster presentations |
| 2:00-3:15 pm | MITEI Seed Innovation Fund project updates Reporting on outcomes of low TRL energy transition projects selected for sponsorship by MITEI’s Seed Innovation Fund Martin Bazant, E. G. Roos (1944) Professor of Chemical Engineering and Mathematics, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering Moderated by: Martha Broad, Executive Director, MIT Energy Initiative |
| 3:15-3:45 pm | Break |
| 3:45-5:00 pm |
Robotics for energy and materials Presenting cutting-edge MIT swarm robotics (aerial and marine) for energy applications and laboratory robotics for energy materials Jonathan How, Ford Professor of Engineering, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| 5:00-5:05 pm |
Closing remarks
Carolyn Ruppel, Deputy Director for Science and Technology, MIT Energy Initiative |
| 5:00-7:00 pm | Reception with MIT Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program poster presentations |
| Wednesday, September 23 | |
| 8:00-9:00 am | Breakfast and registration |
| 9:00-10:15 am |
The revival of fission Discussing the renewed focus on fission (and the restart of legacy fission plants) as one clean energy solution John Parsons, Deputy Director for Research, MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research |
| 10:15-10:30 am | Break |
| 10:30-11:45 am |
Social acceptance of energy advances Considering issues related to community acceptance of development associated with data centers Caitlin Mueller, Associate Professor, MIT Department of Architecture |
| 11:45 am-1:00 pm |
Lunch featuring Future Energy Systems Center project posters |
| 1:00-1:45 pm |
Keynote address
Danna Freedman, Director, Quantum@MIT |
| 1:45-3:00 pm |
Quantum computing and sensing Emphasizing innovative applications of quantum sensing in energy-related sectors Lukasz Zielinski, Scientific Advisor, Decarbonization Technologies, SLB |
| 3:00-3:15 pm | Break |
| 3:15-4:30 pm |
Panel session featuring startup companies Introducing startup companies linked to MITEI, MITEI partners, or MITEI member companies and serving the broad energy sector Andrea Bernardi, Venture Builder, Eni Moderated by: Morgan Andreae, Executive Director, Future Energy Systems Center, MIT Energy Initiative |
| 4:30-4:45 pm |
Summary and reflection Carolyn Ruppel, Deputy Director for Science and Technology, MIT Energy Initiative |
| 4:45-6:30 pm |
Reception celebrating MITEI’s 20th Anniversary |
About the speakers
Faez Ahmed
Professor, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering
Morgan Andreae
Executive Director, Future Energy Systems Center, MIT Energy Initiative
Morgan Andreae is the executive director of MITEI’s Future Energy Systems Center. Prior to joining MITEI, Andreae was the executive director of technology and innovation at Cummins where he led teams in the development of new battery, fuel cell, electrolyzer, and electric traction technologies. Over the course of his career Andreae has held a variety of roles in technology development, strategy, and product development, with a consistent focus on bringing more sustainable technology to market. Andreae holds over 25 patents on diesel, hybrid-electric, and electric powertrain technology. He has a PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT, a Masters and Bachelors in engineering from Dartmouth College, and a Bachelors in history from Haverford College.
Martin Bazant
E.G. Roos (1944) Professor of Chemical Engineering and Mathematics, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering
Andrea Bernardi
Martha Broand
Executive Director, MIT Energy Initiative
Martha Broad is MITEI’s executive director. As part of the leadership team, she works to link science, innovation and policy to transform the world’s energy systems. She has a track record of successfully partnering with business, government and nonprofit stakeholders to support the clean energy transition. At MITEI, she works closely with member companies who collaborate with MIT researchers on a spectrum of topics, including the Future Energy Systems Center.
In addition, she spearheads MITEI’s collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy to design, manage, and host the annual Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Women in Clean Energy Symposium and serves as a C3E Ambassador.
Previously, as part of the senior management team of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), Broad led programs and studies that focused on the commercialization of clean energy technologies. By collaborating with universities and public and private partners, she helped facilitate the state’s successful installation of hundreds of megawatts of wind and solar systems.
Sylvia T. Ceyer
J.C. Sheehan Professor of Chemistry, MIT Department of Chemistry
Sylvia T. Ceyer is the J. C. Sheehan Professor of Chemistry at MIT and a former head of the Department of Chemistry. She previously held the first W. M. Keck Foundation Professorship in Energy. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society. Her numerous honors include the Gibbs Medal of the American Chemical Society (ACS), ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award, MacVicar Faculty Fellow, School of Science Teaching Prize, Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Undergraduate Advising Excellence Award, Edgerton Prize, Smith Award for Meaningful Contributions to Undergraduate Students, and the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.
She has served on the NAS council, as chair of its Physical and Mathematical Sciences Class and its Chemistry Section and as chair of the Ford Foundation Fellowships Panel, on the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee for the Department of Energy, and as associate editor of Physical Review Letters.
A physical chemist, Ceyer studies the atomic-level interaction of molecules with surfaces of materials critical to heterogeneous catalysis, plasma fusion, quantum materials and semiconductor devices, knowledge critical to the development of less expensive and cleaner energy sources. For example, the discovery of a transiently excited hydrogen atom emerging from beneath a metal surface changed the picture for the mechanism for catalytic hydrogenation. Her fundamental research also paved the way for development of a novel, low temperature catalyst for oxidation reactions and of a low temperature synthesis for graphene.
Deepjyoti Deka
Research Scientist, MIT Energy Initiative
Deepjyoti Deka is a research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative. His research interests lie at the intersection of AI and optimization for secure estimation and operation in renewable-rich power grids. Currently, his focus also includes analyzing and mitigating issues related to connecting large loads such as datacenters to the grid. At the MIT Energy Initiative, Deka serves as the program manager for the Data Center Power Forum, an initiative supported by energy, infrastructure, and AI companies that aims to coalesce research in this domain.
From 2018-2024, Deka was a staff scientist in the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory and served as a PI/co-PI for the Department of Energy and internal projects on physics-informed machine learning in energy systems. He received his MS and PhD degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas, Austin, TX, in 2011 and 2015, respectively. He completed his undergraduate degree in electronics and communication engineering from IIT Guwahati, India with an institute silver medal as the best outgoing student of the department in 2009. Deka is a senior member of IEEE and has served as an editor on IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid.
Danna Freedman
Director, Quantum@MIT
Danna Freedman is the F. G. Keyes Professor of Chemistry at MIT and the inaugural director of Quantum@MIT. Her laboratory’s research focuses on applying inorganic chemistry to address challenges in physics. Key areas of research in her lab include a molecular approach to quantum information science, and pressure as a vector for chemical transformation. Freedman began her career at Northwestern University as an assistant professor. She moved to MIT in 2021 as the F. G. Keyes Professor of Chemistry. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, and her PhD from University of California, Berkeley where she studied magnetic anisotropy in molecules. As a postdoc at MIT, she engendered spin frustration in kagom√© lattices to create quantum spin liquids. Freedman’s laboratory’s research has been recognized by a number of awards including the MacArthur Fellowship, the ACS award in Pure Chemistry, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and an NSF CAREER award.
Ariel L. Furst
Associate Professor, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering
Ariel L. Furst is an associate professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. Her lab combines biological, chemical, and materials engineering to solve challenges in human health and environmental sustainability. She completed her PhD in the lab of Professor Jacqueline K. Barton at the California Institute of Technology developing new cancer diagnostic strategies based on DNA charge transport. She was an A.O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Professor Matthew Francis at UC, Berkeley developing sensors to monitor environmental pollutants. She is the recipient of the NIH New Innovator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and the Sloan Fellowship. She is the cofounder of three startups and is passionate about entrepreneurship, in addition to STEM outreach and increasing participation of underrepresented groups in engineering.
Michele Guarnieri
Co-Founder and CEO, hiBot
William H. Green
Director, MIT Energy Initiative; Hoyt. C Hottel Professor, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering
William H. Green, the Hoyt C. Hottel Professor at MIT, is a world leader in chemical kinetics, reaction engineering, prediction of chemical reactions and properties, and in development of related software. He has led many combined experimental/modeling research projects related to fuels, combustion, pyrolysis, and oxidative stability, and he invented an instrument to directly measure rate coefficients for multi-channel reactions. He developed computer methods to predict the behavior of complicated reacting mixtures, many of which are included in the open source Reaction Mechanism Generator software package, a type of AI expert system for reactive chemistry. The associated popular website rmg.mit.edu includes estimators for many chemical properties and several databases. Green co-invented several algorithms and numerical methods helpful for handling complicated chemical kinetics. His group has also developed machine-learning methods and software (ASKCOS and Chemprop) for accurately predicting the products of organic reactions and for predicting many chemical and reaction properties. Chemprop, whose recent versions were developed primarily by Green’s research group, is currently the most popular open-source chemistry software on GitHub. It is heavily used by the pharmaceutical industry, to predict the properties of proposed new drug molecules. Green also invents and analyzes technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in the transportation/fuel sector. Two of his greenhouse-gas reduction inventions are now being commercialized, one by Thiozen, a company he co-founded. Recently he has been developing and analyzing technology options for decarbonizing the freight sector, with a special interest in long-haul trucking.
Green earned his BA from Swarthmore College, and his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley under the supervision of C. Bradley Moore. After postdocs at Cambridge University with Nicholas Handy and at the University of Pennsylvania with Marsha Lester, he worked for Exxon Research & Engineering for six years before joining the Chemical Engineering faculty at MIT in 1997. Green has co-authored more than 350 journal articles, which have been cited more than 23,000 times. He is a fellow of the AAAS and of the Combustion Institute, and has received the American Chemical Society’s Glenn Award in Energy & Fuel Chemistry and the AIChE’s Wilhelm Award in Reaction Engineering. He convened and organized the International Conference on Chemical Kinetics in 2011, and now serves as treasurer of that conference series. More than 20 of his former graduate or postdoctoral students are now tenured or tenure-track faculty. He previously served as the editor of the International Journal of Chemical Kinetics, as the faculty chair of MIT’s Mobility of the Future project, and as the executive officer of the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering. He was appointed director of the MIT Energy Initiative in Spring 2024.
Paula T. Hammond
Dean of Engineering, MIT School of Engineering; Institute Professor
Steve Hellman
Founder, Alliance
Alliance brings together global leaders in industry, technology, and services to capture the generational opportunities of artificial intelligence and other transformative technologies. Steve Hellman founded Alliance after building Energy Impact Partners into the leading private equity firm for the new energy economy. He also founded Mobility Impact Partners, Eos Energy Storage (NASDAQ: EOSE); Convergent Energy & Power, an energy storage asset developer; Enernet Global, a developer of microgrid solutions; as well as a global energy trading company, a tanker fleet, a SaaS platform managing energy transactions, and a commercial real estate business. In 2006-7 he acted as an advisor to the U.S. State Department working with Heads of State and Senior Ministers throughout Eurasia to resolve energy conflicts and to develop a strategy for oil and gas infrastructure. He speaks Russian and Chinese, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds an MA (Industrial Engineering) and a BS (Political Science, Slavic Languages) from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa, 1987).
Jonathan P. How
Ford Professor of Engineering, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Jonathan P. How is the Ford Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received a BASc (Aerospace) from the University of Toronto in 1987, and his SM and PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 1990 and 1993, respectively, and then studied for 1.5 years at MIT as a postdoctoral associate. Prior to joining MIT in 2000, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University.
How was the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Control Systems Magazine (‘15-‘19), an associate editor for the AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems (‘12-‘21), and IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (‘18-‘21). He was the program vice-chair (tutorials) for the 2021 Conference on Decision and Control and is the program chair for the American Control Conference in 2025. He was a member of the IEEE CSS Board of Governors (‘20-’22), is a member of the IEEE CSS Executive Committee as the president-elect for 2026 and VP Finance (‘23-‘25), is on the IEEE CSS Long Range Planning Committee (2022 – ), is a member of the IEEE CSS Technical Committee on Aerospace Control and the Technical Committee on Intelligent Control, was a member of the IEEE Fellows Selection committee for CSS (‘21-‘22), and since 2021, he serves as the AIAA Director on the American Automatic Control Council. He was a member of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) from 2014 to 2017.
His research focuses on robust planning and learning under uncertainty with an emphasis on multiagent systems, and he was the planning and control lead for the MIT DARPA Urban Challenge team. His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including receiving the IEEE Transactions on Robotics King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Paper Award for 2022 and 2024, being inducted into the University of Toronto Engineering Hall of Distinction (2022), receiving the 2020 IEEE CSS Distinguished Member Award, the 2020 AIAA Intelligent Systems Award, the 2015 AeroLion Technologies Outstanding Paper Award for Unmanned Systems, the 2015 IEEE CSS Video Clip Contest, the 2011 IFAC Automatica award for best applications paper, and the 2002 Institute of Navigation Burka Award. He also received the Air Force Commander’s Public Service Award in 2017. He is a fellow of IEEE (2018) and AIAA (2016) and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2021.
Ruaridh Macdonald
Research Scientist, MIT Energy Initiative
Ruaridh Macdonald is the energy systems research lead at the MIT Energy Initiative. His research explores how best to decarbonize the electricity grid and other sectors, and which technologies and policies will reduce the cost of the energy transition while ensuring grid resilience and security. He is developing novel approaches to modelling infrastructure planning which allow for larger multi-sector energy systems to be optimized over long time periods. This allows for technologies to be modelled with greater fidelity and considering interannual variation in energy supply and demand. Macdonald is a co-lead developer of the GenX, DOLPHYN, and Macro infrastructure planning models. He completed his PhD in nuclear science and engineering at MIT.
Jennifer Morris
Principal Research Scientist, MIT Center for Sustainability, Science, and Strategy and MIT Energy Initiative
Jennifer Morris is a principal research scientist at the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy and the MIT Energy Initiative. Her research focuses on energy-economic modeling and linkages between human and natural systems to explore multi-sector feedbacks and implications of different development, decarbonization and investment pathways. She also focuses on uncertainty, risk analysis, and decision-making in energy and environmental systems. This work involves quantifying key uncertainties (e.g. population growth, technology costs, resource availability, etc.), and applying different methodological approaches to models to formally represent such uncertainties and explore how they impact near-term decisions. Morris is a key contributor to the development of the MIT Integrated Global System Modeling (IGSM) framework, focusing on the human system component, the Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model. With this modeling framework, she develops integrated economic and climate scenarios, generates large ensembles, analyzes policy impacts, explores technology and mitigation pathways, and examines multi-sector dynamics. Morris holds a PhD in engineering systems and a MS in technology and policy from MIT.
Caitlin Mueller
Professor, MIT Department of Architecture
John Parsons
Deputy Director for Research, MIT Center for Energy & Environmental Policy Research
John Parsons is the deputy director for research of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR). His research focuses on the valuation and financing of investments in energy markets, as well as the problems of risk in energy and environment markets. Recent publications have touched on interregional transmission investments, including the interaction with hydro assets and expanded penetration of renewables, the value of investments in life extensions of nuclear power plants, the economics of new microreactors, and the impact of decarbonization on generation assets in the U.S. midcontinent.
Parsons has served as an associate member of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee and has been a visiting scholar at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Parsons served as the executive director at both CEEPR and the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, and also as head of Sloan’s MBA Finance Track. Before returning to MIT, Parsons spent ten years as a business consultant at Charles River Associates. He holds a PhD in economics from Northwestern University and an AB from Princeton University.
Desirée Plata
School of Engineering Distinguished Professor, MIT Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Alfredo Rivela
Founder and CEO, Again
Carolyn Ruppel
Deputy Director for Science and Technology, MIT Energy Initiative
Carolyn Ruppel is MITEI’s deputy director of science and technology. Her role involves engagement across the research, education, and outreach portfolios of MITEI, the hub of energy research at MIT.
Ruppel spent nearly 19 years at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), where she was a senior rank research geophysicist and led the Gas Hydrates Project. Starting in 2022, she also served as acting senior science advisor to the USGS Chief Scientist. Prior to joining the USGS, Ruppel was a geophysics professor at Georgia Tech from 12 years and served nearly three years as a National Science Foundation program manager. Ruppel has led many research cruises, including in the Arctic Ocean, and served on numerous advisory and editorial panels. Her published research focuses on seafloor methane emissions, gas hydrate resources, subsea permafrost, and hydrate-climate change interactions.
Ruppel received all her degrees from MIT (PhD 1992; SB and SM 1986), participated in MITEI’s Future of Natural Gas study in 2011, and held a courtesy appointment at MIT’s Earth Resources Laboratory for several years. She is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and a recipient of the Department of Interior’s Distinguished Service Award.
Larry Susskind
Ford Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Eric Toone
Chief Technology Officer, Breakthrough Energy
Eric Toone serves as the chief technical officer of Breakthrough Energy. As the CTO, Toone oversees the organization’s technological roadmap and evaluation. As part of his work at Breakthrough Energy, Toone also serves as a managing partner of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the venture capital arm of Breakthrough Energy.
Previously, Toone was a chemistry professor at Duke University, where he authored nearly 300 publications. He also served as director of ARPA-E, where he advanced wide-bandgap semiconductors and grid innovations. An inventor on over 30 patents, Toone co-founded three pharmaceutical companies and led Duke’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative from 2012 to 2016. Originally trained as a bioorganic/physical organic chemist, he has dedicated his career to bridging science and impactful applications.
Victoria VanderMeersch
Senior Manager of Operations, Crane Clean Energy Center, Constellation
Tori VanderMeersch is the senior manager of operations at Crane Clean Energy Center, where she is helping lead one of the most significant nuclear energy projects in the United States: the restart of a previously retired nuclear generating unit.
A mechanical engineering graduate of Bucknell University, VanderMeersch began her commercial nuclear career at Three Mile Island Unit 1 in 2015. There, she advanced from engineer to an NRC-licensed senior reactor operator, gaining firsthand experience in plant operations and nuclear leadership. Following the station’s retirement in 2019, she joined Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, where she held leadership positions across Maintenance, Engineering, Operations, and Organizational Effectiveness, building a broad perspective on what drives safe and reliable nuclear performance.
In 2025, VanderMeersch returned to Crane Clean Energy Center to help write the next chapter in the station’s history. Today, she leads the development of a new generation of nuclear operators, combining operational excellence, strong nuclear safety culture, and workforce development to prepare the station for a successful restart.
Passionate about developing future leaders, VanderMeersch believes people are the foundation of safe, reliable nuclear operations and is committed to building high-performing teams that will sustain the industry for decades to come.
Kripa Varanasi
Associate Professor, Yu Yamashiro
Founder and CEO, JIJ