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Elsa Olivetti

Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, MIT

Biography

Professor Olivetti’s research focuses on improving the environmental and economic sustainability of materials in the context of rapid-expanding global demand. Her research addresses two major problems where solutions could yield significant environmental benefits:

  1. Improving the sustainability of materials through increased use of recycled and renewable materials, recycling-friendly material design, and intelligent waste disposition
  2. Understanding the implications of substitution, dematerialization and waste mining on materials markets.  Her research spans three levels of materials production: operational-level, industrial network-level and market-level strategies.