Energy & Climate Research for a Better Environmental Future

Santa Clara Valley IEEE Power & Energy and Industry Applications Societies

 Please join us on October 30, 2025, for a virtual fireside chat:

“Energy & Climate Research for a Better Environmental Future”

With Dr. Evelyn Wang, Vice President of Energy and Climate at MIT, Former Director of ARPA-E

Sponsored by MIT Club of Northern California

cohosted by IEEE SCV PES/IAS,  LMAG SCV

Date: 30 October 2025

Time: 5:30 to 7:00 PM PST

Cost:  No cost for first 10 IEEE members who register using promotion code MITEESN

RSVP:  Reserve Now

Note:  Enter the code MITEESN in the “promotion code” at the billing/payment page for non MITCNC members and be sure to click “apply” before completing registration.  MITCNC will send the virtual link closer to the talk.

Chapter Page: https://r6.ieee.org/scv-pesias/?post_type=tribe_events&p=2323/

Reservation URL:  https://www.mitcnc.org/events/134583

Virtual Fireside Chat for MIT Alumni Community & Friends of MIT

Here is your special opportunity to hear directly from MIT’s inaugural Vice President for Energy and Climate, Dr. Evelyn Wang ’00. Drawing on her experience at MIT and as director of ARPA-E, Dr. Wang will offer her perspective on promising clean energy technologies, as well as what it takes to successfully bring those technologies to market.

In her new role, which she assumed on April 1, Dr. Wang oversees the Climate Project, an Institute-wide effort that represents an ambitious new model of accelerated, university-led innovation for energy and climate solutions. She will describe her initial vision and plans for the Climate Project, and the critical role that MIT can play in accelerating climate solutions.

Dr. Wang will also talk about her own research, which has ranged from identifying new materials and optimizations based on heat and mass transport processes to developing new methods for desalinating water and producing carbon-free energy. And she will talk about her own journey at MIT, where she has deep roots – her parents met when they were both graduate students at the Institute.

Register now to attend this unique event, featuring Ray Rothrock SM’78 as moderator, as he leads the discussion with Evelyn.

Speaker: Evelyn Wang ’00 is MIT’s Vice President for Energy and Climate.

Appointed by President Sally Kornbluth in January 2025, Dr. Wang assumed the role after serving the nation as the Senate-confirmed director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) from 2023-2025, where she led the Agency’s development, launch, and execution of high-risk, high-reward energy research and development programs.

The Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT, Dr. Wang earned her undergraduate degree at MIT in mechanical engineering, then returned to her home state of California to attend Stanford University for her SM and PhD. Following a postdoctoral stint at Bell Labs, she joined the MIT faculty, where she built a record of advanced innovations. An internationally recognized leader in phase change heat transfer, Dr. Wang’s developed technologies for thermal management, energy conversion and storage, and water harvesting and purification. Her work on solar cells that convert heat into focused beams of light was named as one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 breakthrough technologies of 2017. Her work on the development of a device that can extract fresh water from the air in arid environments was selected by Scientific American and the World Economic Forum as one of 2017’s 10 promising emerging technologies.

The technologies she and her colleagues developed draw on fundamental micro- and nanoscale heat and mass transfer research with innovative materials and device design. Foreign Policy Magazine recognized her water extraction work by naming Dr. Wang as its 2017 Global ReThinker, and in 2018, the work won the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water, which honors water-related scientific innovation. Dr. Wang’s lab has developed a range of other innovations, including an aerogel that dramatically improves window insulation, which in 2019 was spun out into a start-up.

As director of the Device Research Lab, Dr. Wang held several professorships, ultimately being named Ford Professor of Engineering. In 2018, she became department head of MIT Mechanical Engineering, a role she held until she left the Institute to lead ARPA-E.

Dr. Wang is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.

Moderator: Ray Rothrock SM’78 is an American venture capitalist and philanthropist focused on securing energy solutions for the 21st century.  Based in the Silicon Valley, his venture activities are focused on seed energy and climate related projects.

Rothrock had a 25-year career at venture capital firm Venrock (1988-2013) resulting in 8 IPOs.  At Venrock, he established and led the energy investment team resulting in eleven energy investments.  In addition to being an energy investor expert, Ray is frequently sought out about energy finance and related regulatory matters.  Since 2013 he has served on numerous public and private boards including energy companies, as well as NGOs such as The Breakthrough Institute, NTI, and Carnegie Science.  He is a member of the MIT Corporation and its Executive Committee.  During this he also advocated in Washington and other public forums on clean energy, especially nuclear energy, including published Op Eds and the like.

Rothrock was twice selected for the Forbes Midas List and served as the Chair of the National Venture Capital Association.

He received his BA in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M in 1977 and his MS in Nuclear Engineering from MIT in 1978.  Ten years later, he earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School.