Elsa A. Olivetti

Professor Olivetti analyzes and improves the environmental sustainability of materials throughout the life cycle and across the supply chain, by linking physical and chemical processes to systems impact. She researches materials design and synthesis using natural language processing, builds models of material supply and technology demand, and assesses the potential for recovering value from industrial waste through experimental approaches.

Her work focuses on reducing the significant burden of materials production and consumption through increased use of recycled and waste materials; informing the early stage design of new materials for effective scale up; and understanding the implications of policy, new technology development, and manufacturing processes on materials supply chains. She has a particular passion for studying complex systems problems through a lens of materials science.

Olivetti received her PhD in materials science and engineering from MIT in 2007, worked as a research scientist in the Materials Systems Lab from 2009 to 2013, and began on the faculty in 2014. She was named a 2021 Bose Teaching Award, a 2021 MacVicar Faculty Fellow, received her NSF Career award in 2018, a TMS Early Career Faculty Fellowship in 2019, the Earll M. Murman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising in 2017, and the Paul Gray Award for Public Service in 2020.