Climate Action Advisory Committee

President L. Rafael Reif has charged Vice President for Research Maria Zuber with leading the implementation of MIT’s Plan for Action on Climate Change. Vice President Zuber established the Climate Action Advisory Committee (CAAC) in 2016 to advise her on the implementation and ongoing assessment of the Plan for Action. Vice President Zuber chairs the CAAC, which typically meets three times each semester. The CAAC is an advisory body, not a rulemaking or governing body, and makes recommendations by consensus rather than by formal voting.

Members (2020-2021)

  • Maria Zuber, Chair
    Vice President for Research
    E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences 
     
  • Bruce Anderson
    Industry representative
     
  • Bob Armstrong
    Director, MIT Energy Initiative
    Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering
     
  • Jasmina Burek
    Postdoctoral Associate, MIT Materials Systems Laboratory
     
  • Deborah Campbell
    Senior Staff Member, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
     

  • Alejandro Diaz
    Student Sustainability Coalition
     

  • John Fernández
    Director, Environmental Solutions Initiative
    Professor, Department of Architecture
     
  • Gail Greenwald '75
    MIT Alumna
     
  • Drake Hernandez
    MIT Energy Club
     
  • Emily Hiestand
    Director of Communications, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
     
  • Joe Higgins
    Vice President for Campus Services and Stewardship
     
  • Chris Knittel
    Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy
    William Barton Rogers Professor of Energy Economics, Sloan School of Management
  • Charlene Kabcenell
    Member, MIT Corporation
     
  • Naomi Lutz
    Undergraduate Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering
     
  • Thomas Malone
    Founding Director, Center for Collective Intelligence
    Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management, Sloan School of Management
     
  • Amy Moran-Thomas
    Alfred Henry and Jean Morrison Hayes Career Development Associate Professor of Anthropology
     
  • Julie Newman
    Director, Office of Sustainability
     
  • Arnav Patel
    MIT Divest Representative
     
  • Ron Prinn
    Director, Center for Global Change Science
    Co-Director, Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
    TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences 
     
  • Vrindaa Somjit
    Graduate Student, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
     
  • John Sterman
    Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management, Sloan School of Management
    Faculty Director, Sloan Sustainability Initiative
     
  • Diana Chapman Walsh
    MIT Corporation, Emerita
     
  • Jim Gomes, Committee Staff
    Senior Advisor, Office of the Vice President for Research

Inquiries

If you are interested in more information about the Climate Action Advisory Committee, please contact Jim Gomes at jrgomes@mit.edu.

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