Elsa Olivetti

Elsa Olivetti is Associate Dean, MIT School of Engineering; Jerry McAfee Professor in Engineering; Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; and co-director of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium. Her passion for addressing issues related to climate change frames the focus of her research, which centers on improving the environmental and economic sustainability of materials in the context of growing global demand. Her work focuses on reducing the significant burden of materials production and consumption through increased use of recycled and waste materials; informing the early stage design of new materials for effective scale up; and understanding the implications of policy, new technology development, and manufacturing processes on materials supply chains.

Olivetti received her PhD in materials science and engineering from MIT in 2007, worked as a research scientist in the Materials Systems Lab from 2009 to 2013, and began on the faculty in 2014. She was named a 2021 Bose Teaching Award, a 2021 MacVicar Faculty Fellow, received her NSF Career award in 2018, a TMS Early Career Faculty Fellowship in 2019, the Earll M. Murman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising in 2017, and the Paul Gray Award for Public Service in 2020.