Emily A. Carter

Emily A. Carter is the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment and a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment (ACEE), and Applied and Computational Mathematics at Princeton University. She also is the inaugural Senior Strategic Advisor for Sustainability Science at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where she is working to diversify the lab’s portfolio into electromanufacturing and solar geoengineering. After spending the first 16 years of her academic career as a faculty member in Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA, she joined Princeton in 2004 as a senior faculty member in MAE and the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics. She built a large research group continuously supported by various arms of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Energy (DOE), as well as the National Science Foundation. While welcoming postdocs from all over the world and undergraduates from multiple science and engineering departments to join her research team, she trained a diverse generation of Princeton graduate students who earned Ph.D.s from six different disciplines.  After an international search, she was selected to be the Founding Director of ACEE. From 2010 to 2016, she oversaw the construction of its award-winning building and state-of-the-art facilities, the development of its novel education and research programs, and the hiring of its original staff and first eight faculty members. After a national search, she served as Princeton’s Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). During her tenure leading SEAS (2016-2019), she spearheaded major research (in bioengineering, data science, robotics, smart and resilient cities), education (e.g., new first-year engineering exposure to increase student retention), outreach (e.g., revamped marketing and communications), and diversity (e.g., inaugural associate dean for diversity and inclusion) initiatives, as well as securing a commitment to grow SEAS by 50%.  Most recently, she served as UCLA’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (EVCP) and Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. During her two and one-third years tenure as EVCP (2019-2021), she co-led UCLA through myriad crises including the COVID-19 pandemic and brought transformative change via new initiatives that support graduate students, diversity across the career arc, professional development, institutional effectiveness, DataX research and education, education innovation, flexible work, and more. Upon her departure, UCLA appointed her Distinguished Professor Emerita of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Her current research, supported by the DOE and the DOD, develops and applies quantum mechanical simulation techniques to enable discovery and design of materials for sustainable energy and carbon dioxide utilization. The author of over 450 publications and patents, she has delivered over 575 invited and plenary lectures worldwide and has served on advisory boards spanning a wide range of disciplines. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and the European Academy of Sciences.