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Research at MIT
The 2001 founding of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE) was a milestone in MIT's efforts to coordinate wide-ranging Institute research on environment and sustainability issues. The successful merger of the Center for Environmental Initiatives (CEI) and the Energy Laboratory marked the completion of a 10-year effort to integrate MIT's strengths in science, technology, and the social sciences in this area of increasing international concern. In its first year, LFEE brought together over 50 faculty members, 100 students, and staff in 14 departments, forming multidisciplinary teams to address the complex, long-term issues of sustainability. As a neutral broker, LFEE fosters constructive relationships among industry, government, academia, and the public around environmental and energy issues that affect both developed and developing nations. Defining contemporary and future environmental problems, shaping the multidisciplinary research to resolve them, and conveying the very best methods and results to students of all ages and policy makers at all levels, LFEE is building on the achievements of its predecessor programs. LFEE enables MIT to offer international leadership on integrating advanced science and technology into international energy and environmental choices that will shape the future.
Building synergy across the Institute, LFEE has attracted significant support, established new linkages among projects and their proponents at MIT and internationally, and expanded educational initiatives emphasizing the importance of building development policy on cutting-edge science and technology. Among many highlights: Following LFEE workshops, Shell Oil Company has signed an agreement with MIT to support substantial international collaborative research on "Smart Wells/Smart Fields," advanced gas technologies, and other energy concerns. Major research emphases have addressed the challenges of global growth in demand for transportation, advanced important work on carbon sequestration, and given a common institutional base to researchers in several MIT departments studying energy and environmental conditions in China and other parts of the developing world.
International Perspectives
In the 2001 merger, LFEE inherited the international influence built over the past decade by CEI. The Lab coordinates MIT's participation in the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS) which currently sponsors 60 research projects in three broad areas: water, energy, and mobility. In 2002, the annual meeting of this group was held in a developing country, Costa Rica, for the first time, signaling the Alliance's commitment to issues and opinions from the South. The meeting attracted over 400 scholars and representatives from industry, government, and NGOs around the world. In 2001-2002, AGS launched a new book series on sustainable development; its first two volumes focused on problems of the world's growing megacities. MIT will host the annual technical meeting of the AGS in November 2002.
The MIT/AGS Consortium on Environmental Challenges addresses issues of environmental quality and sustainability at the regional level. Consortium research highlights the role of scientific and technological knowledge in environmental decision making. The Mexico City Integrated Assessment Project is an important example of this work: Supported by the Mexican government as well as through the MIT/AGS consortium, researchers work with public officials and stakeholders to improve air quality in the city, the region, and the world.
A particular regional emphasis at LFEE this year has been on systems for the generation and use of energy in China: Among its extensive international research, the Building Technology Program is implementing a demonstration project and related educational workshops on cleaner building technologies in China. In collaboration with Tsinghua University, the Center for Advanced Nuclear Engineering Systems (CANES) continues to help China's growing nuclear energy sector develop safety standards, techniques, and features in operating plants. CANES supports an extensive research program on technical and scientific aspects of nuclear energy worldwide. The Analysis Group for Regional Electricity Alternatives (AGREA) (see below) is also conducting research relevant to China as well as to Europe, the U.S., and Mexico.
Research: Energy Sources, Energy Choices
The realities of many environmental crises – local, regional, and global – are tightly linked to energy choices. Combining the international partnerships formed by CEI, the research strengths of the Energy Lab, and MIT's commitment to global development, LFEE is forging new levels of understanding on which future policy can be built. Research affiliated and coordinated through LFEE includes the economic, social, technological, and scientific ramifications of energy production and use. For example:
Education: Building Understanding and Awareness
In 2002, LFEE also launched the Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (P-STEP), which is focused on improving the quality of environmental regulation and policy by bridging the gap between engineering and the social and management sciences. P-STEP will offer Masters and Doctoral programs jointly supervised by engineering and social science faculty members. LFEE-affiliated faculty also taught the graduate elective on Sustainable Energy (22.811J/10.391J/ESD66/11/371J/1.818J/3.564J) for the fifth year in spring 2002.
With the establishment of LFEE, existing environmental education initiatives at MIT, particularly the Program for Environmental Education and Research (PEER), found a new organizational home. The LFEE Education Program is designed to enhance environmental literacy and strengthen awareness of the complexity of environmental and sustainability challenges, particularly among future science and technology leaders. Program managers have identified three broad constituencies – the MIT community, local and regional communities, and national and international communities – and conduct a range of activities to meet specific goals for each group.
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