MIT Energy Initiative Welcomes William Green: A Leader in Accelerating Energy Transition

The MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) has appointed William H. Green, a distinguished chemical kinetics expert, as its new director, promising to accelerate global sustainable energy efforts with his multifaceted expertise.

A Leader with Deep Expertise in Energy Science

William H. Green brings extensive knowledge in chemical reaction rates and has made significant contributions to reaction kinetics, quantum chemistry, numerical methods, and fuel chemistry. His background includes techno-economic assessments of fuel and vehicle technologies as well as biofuel production options, making him ideally suited to lead MITEI.

Maria Zuber, former MIT Vice President for Research, highlighted Green’s active involvement and comprehensive understanding of energy science and technology, which will be invaluable to MIT’s ambitious Climate Project.

Vision for Accelerating Sustainable Energy Transition

As the Hoyt C. Hottel Professor of Chemical Engineering and former department head, Green sees MITEI as a critical platform uniting engineering, science, industry, and policy to speed up the global shift to sustainable energy.

He emphasizes the urgency of faster consensus on climate solutions, noting the slow progress since the 1992 Rio Summit and the Paris Agreement nearly 25 years later. Despite time passing, disagreements remain on effective sector strategies.

“Many believe we are collectively moving too slowly to tackle climate issues. It is crucial to enhance the research community’s effectiveness in delivering solutions while simultaneously expediting consensus on viable solutions.”

Green stresses that solutions must be economically viable to attract investment and encourage necessary regulatory changes.

Bridging Science, Industry, and Policy

With experience spanning academia, industry, and policy, Green uniquely understands perspectives from scientists and engineers to corporations and startups. He also empathizes with families concerned about climate change’s impact on future generations.

His goal is to expand MITEI’s reach globally across diverse countries, industries, and economic sectors to address decarbonization and the essential energy transition.

A Distinguished Career Dedicated to Energy Innovation

Green holds a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and a BA in chemistry from Swarthmore College. Since joining MIT in 1997, he has earned prestigious awards including AIChE’s R.H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering and was an inaugural Fellow of the Combustion Institute.

He succeeds Robert Stoner, interim director since July 2023 after Robert C. Armstrong’s retirement following a decade of leadership at MITEI.