MIT CS3 Director Noelle Selin named as TEPCO Professor

MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy (CS3) Director Noelle Selin has been named as TEPCO Professor in the MIT Institute for Data, Systems and Society (IDSS) and Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). 

Established at MIT in 1992 as part of a $5 million gift from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), now Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Incorporated, the professorship supports a succession of distinguished faculty engaged in research on global environmental issues. Appointments are five-year renewable terms and carry an annual scholar allowance.

Selin’s research uses modeling and analysis to inform sustainability decision-making, focusing on air pollution, climate change and hazardous substances such as mercury. Her work also addresses interactions between science and policy in international environmental negotiations. She co-leads MIT's Bringing Computation to the Climate Challenge (BC3) project, and served as Interim Director of IDSS (2023-2024), and as director of MIT’s Technology and Policy Program from 2018-2023. She received her PhD and MA (Earth and Planetary Sciences) and BA (Environmental Science and Public Policy) from Harvard University, a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award (2011), a Hans Fischer Senior Fellowship at the Technical University of Munich Institute for Advanced Study (2018-2021) and a Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2024). She is also an elected American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow (2024).

MIT EAPS Professor Ronald Prinn was the first holder of the TEPCO Professorship, appointed in 1993; Selin succeeds in that line as of July 1. The professorship is also concurrently held by TEPCO Professor of Economics Benjamin Olken, who was appointed on July 1, 2025. Prior to Professor Olken’s appointment, it had only been held by its inaugural appointee. This is distinct from a separate TEPCO Professorship in Nuclear Engineering that was established under a different agreement in 1999.