Introducing the Future Climate Leaders Joining the MCSC Climate and Sustainability Scholars Program

The MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) is excited to welcome its new cohort of students into its Climate and Sustainability Scholars Program. Twenty-one undergraduate students, passionate about climate and sustainability, are joining our MCSC community to explore and strengthen their interests and skills, while implementing research projects directly supported by faculty and principal investigators across MIT. The students, from across all schools at MIT, are eager to gain exposure to new angles of climate and sustainability, share ideas with their peers, and continue having a positive impact. Learn more about the 2023-2024 MCSC Climate & Sustainability Scholars below.

TOPIC: Illuminating Private Equity Funding of the Fossil Fuel Industry

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Gita Rao

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

I am most excited to join a wonderful cohort of people who are all passionate about tackling climate and sustainability issues! Working on anything, especially tough challenges, is always more rewarding (and successful) when we have supportive teams behind us.

-Aaliya

TOPIC: Upstream Solutions for Circular and Sustainable Textiles

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Svetlana Boriskina

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

I’m most excited about contributing to projects that will make a difference.

– Ana

TOPIC: Catalyzing Sustainable Food and Climate Systems Transitions in the Lake Victoria Basin

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Greg Sixt

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

There might just be too much to include in one concise paragraph! As someone very interested in interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving, I am very excited about the Scholars Program’s singular ability to connect students from very different backgrounds and interests in the space to utilize very similar frameworks. The other Scholars are incredibly talented, and I am in awe of their perspective and topics they bring up in all our conversations. I am also excited to learn more about the technical skills that make research so exciting—as well as the communication dexterity that makes sharing these discoveries possible. This program provides the perfect arena to connect the information learned in my major (MIT’s newest!) to my research and career, and I can’t wait to see where it will take me.

– Ananda

TOPIC: Understanding the Sociopolitical and Technological Impacts of Biodiversity Data Sharing

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Sara Beery

How has your double major in Urban Science & Planning with Computer Science and Music influenced the perspective you bring to research?

My views on climate and sustainability research are deeply rooted in the lens of intersectional environmental justice. My background in issue advocacy and studies in public policy have honed my sensitivity to the systemic disparities often present within sustainability concerns. I am driven to explore solutions that not only address the environmental issues at hand but also consider (and work to dismantle) any underlying injustices perpetuating them. No matter the specific area of climate innovation, I try to assess how every aspect––from air quality to access to green spaces––might directly affect people’s well-being.

Ultimately, my perspective is one of interconnectedness. I see the environment as intricately woven into the fabric of society, where every policy, decision, or action has far-reaching consequences. I strive to contribute to research that not only envisions a sustainable future but a just one, actively amplifying voices often overlooked in such conversations and making way for a world where all individuals, regardless of their backgrounds, can thrive in harmony with the environment.

– Ari

TOPIC: Development and Testing of an Anode-free Solid-state Sodium Battery

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Yet-Ming Chiang

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

I had done the Terrascope classes in my freshman year (12.000 and SP.360) and just being in an environment with other people focused on climate and sustainability was great for many reasons, it refuels your drive and hope for a greener future and I’m looking forward to this next year with the MCSC cohort!

– Daniel

TOPIC: Identification of Microbiome Organisms in Aquaculture Farming Conditions

PRINICIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Otto Cordero

How do you anticipate the Scholars Program will help you achieve your career goals?

The Climate Scholars Program will help me build my understanding of sustainability as an interdisciplinary problem. I hope to pursue a PhD in Molecular Biology and a career in environmental research, and hearing from my peers’ projects is inspiring as a researcher. I hope to gain a deeper perspective to approaching sustainability questions by learning from the different viewpoints, work, ideas of my classmates.

-Erin

TOPIC: Scrap Metal Consolidation: A Practical Solution to Greener Steels

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: C. Cem Tasan and Onur Guvenc

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

I’m looking forward to immersing myself in an impact-driven project and getting to know the vibrant community that composes the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium!

– Gillian

TOPIC: Decarbonizing Ulaanbaatar: Examining the Potential Use of Oxidation-Reduction Reactions for Household Heating in the Ger District

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Michael Short and Manduhai Buyandelger

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

I am most excited about the opportunity to develop research-related skills and learn about ways to apply them to climate and sustainability issues.

– Iselle

TOPIC: Automated Counting of Migrating Salmon for Conservation and Fisheries Management in the Pacific Northwest

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Sara Beery

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

I’m excited to make a direct impact on the world in the MCSC Scholars Program! In the past, my research has focused on plasma physics, with the long-term goal of helping to engineer commercial fusion energy. While this work is valuable, its results will only be seen far in the future, so I am eager to apply the mathematical and computational skills I’ve gained to an immediate, concrete problem – especially one with real bearing on sustainability and the health of our world right now.

– Kai

TOPIC: Machine Learning to Simulate Peat Accumulation and Soil Carbon Storage Capacity

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Cesar Terrer and Evan Coleman

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

I’m excited to do meaningful work for the planet with the skills in computer science I’ve learned at MIT.

– Lucy

TOPIC: Addressing the Electrical Grid Scheduling Problem using a Task-based End-to-end Approach and Policy Optimization

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Priya Donti

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

The part of the Scholars Program that I’m most excited about is becoming part of a community of people that are eager to work on climate change and sustainability challenges. A community like this allows for productive discussions and sharing of ideas from our varying disciplines which will expand our ability to work on this critical issue. I’m looking forward to seeing the projects that my fellow scholars are working on and learning more about the different aspects of the climate crisis.

– Maria

TOPIC: Sustainable and Low-Cost E. coli Test for Drinking Water

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Benedetto Marelli and Susan Murcott

Based on your academic discipline, what unique perspective do you believe you bring to research about climate and sustainability?

I am really excited to bring together my interests in biology, engineering, and environmental justice in this program! While bioengineering is a rapidly growing field, there is not a lot of emphasis on applying these technical developments to sustainability challenges. I hope that my project can address a climate-related issue with a solution created with community participation and the unique benefits of biotechnology.

– Mitali

TOPIC: Divergence of ESG Ratings

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Roberto Rigobon

What skills are you hoping to grow through the Scholars Program?

I anticipate that the Scholars program will help me gain an interdisciplinary understanding of the current climate space, as well as what the future energy transition will entail. Through the collaborative nature of the program, I hope to gain exposure to the technical side of climate initiatives while also keeping the broader picture such as funding and scalability of projects in mind.

– Nora

TOPIC: Dynamics in a Model for Interacting Tipping Elements in the Climate System

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Daniel Rothman

Based on your academic discipline, what unique perspective do you believe you bring to research about climate and sustainability?

As someone who is interested in both theoretical and physical applied math, I’m interested in looking at climate from the perspective of dynamical systems theory. Due to the complex and multidisciplinary nature of climate as an area of scientific inquiry, relevant mathematical models integrate insights from a variety of scientific domains. In analyzing and interpreting these models, I aim to develop a deeper understanding of the behavior of the underlying physical systems.

– Paige

TOPIC: Classification of Carbon Dioxide Injection-Induced Earthquakes using Feature-based Representation of Time Series Data

PRINICIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Ruben Juanes

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

I am excited to see my fellow MCSC scholars and I can engage the guest speakers and our professors in stimulating discussions that arise from thought-provoking perspectives. There is tremendous potential for my understanding of these issues to be enhanced from considering the various perspectives in this amazing group, and for me to also help others learn from and be inspired by my perspective. These intriguing discussions may be the catalyst for some of us to become more determined to address sustainability in a more holistic and just manner, as we practice to consider multiple perspectives and to assess both the feasibility and the equitability of proposed solutions.

– Runako

TOPIC: Global Warming and the Siesta Effect

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Benjamin Olken

TOPIC: The Total Costs and Implications of Generative AI

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Negin Golrezaei

Based on your academic discipline, what unique perspective do you believe you bring to research about climate and sustainability?

As a computer science and math double major, my background corresponds with theoretical work in algorithms and machine learning. The intersection between the climate and these fields has vast, undiscovered potential—much of today’s AI research is currently disconnected from real-world problems, and there’s a lot of untapped insight and utility in those fields that is only now beginning to be explored. When people talk about sustainability, people tend to discuss disciplines like civil and environmental engineering to policy to economics—but I believe that the novel revelations that the AI and machine learning revolution brings can play just as vital of a role to achieving a greener future.

– Shreya

TOPIC: Regolith Aluminum Composites: One Small Step toward Sustainable Lunar Missions

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: C. Cem Tasan

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

As a senior starting to apply to graduate school, I am beginning to think about my future in academia. I am really excited for the Scholars program as it allows me to develop a project from concept to research to presentation over a whole year, which will give me valuable experience once I am starting my own PhD research! As an avid advocate for sustainability, the program’s focus also very much aligns with my desired field of study which will also give me knowledge and connections I can use during my future career.

– Sierra

TOPIC: Sustainable Computing for the MIT Research Computing Enterprise

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Peter Fisher, Jeremy Gregory, and James Cuff

What skills are you hoping to grow through the Scholars Program?

Through my UROP experiences, I discovered my passion for practical work that can positively impact people’s lives. The Scholars Program offers an opportunity to gain valuable research experience and skills that are highly regarded in academic and professional settings. Conducting research demands analytical and critical thinking skills, attention to detail, and effective communication skills, all of which can be utilized in other areas of work. The program’s experiential learning opportunities enable me to work with researchers and practitioners in the field, allowing me to keep abreast of the most recent developments in climate science and sustainability and make a contribution to efforts to address these challenges.

– Yichen

The MCSC Scholars Program is excited to welcome back students from its inaugural class as teaching assistants.

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

I participated in the Scholars Program last year for the inaugural cohort and learned a lot about my personal research process and about the sustainability and climate fields in general. This year, I am excited to be a TA for the class to support the new scholars and continue to grow myself. I am looking forward to seeing some of the changes which scholars suggested last year be implemented in order for the program to continue to grow!

– Melissa

What are you most excited about for the Scholars Program?

As a TA for the class, I’m really looking forward to learning from the class’s guest lecturers and other students. Everyone has their own experiences, expertise, and perspectives on climate and sustainability issues that I look forward to hearing about!

– Paul