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Anne Slinn Executive Director of Research MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
slinn@mit.edu TEL: (+1) 617.253.4902 
MAILING ADDRESS: 77 Mass Ave, 54-1318 Cambridge MA 02139 |
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My work is focused on advancing research that improves understanding of sustainability challenges, and aims to provide actionable knowledge to help guide societal transitions toward a more sustainable future. As an engineer and scientist by training, the complexity of global change, involving interwoven and co-evolving natural and human systems, strikes me as the world's greatest challenge. Sustainability is the most pressing concern facing humanity, and strategies to effectively support well-being across generations will require coordinated global effort to achieve. For over thirty years I've helped facilitate MIT's interdisciplinary and multi-institutional research collaborations aimed at addressing global challenges. As Executive Director of Research of the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy, I manage a diverse portfolio of sponsored research addressing critical challenges such as climate, energy, water, health, food security, and socio-economic systems that affect the earth's critical life-support systems. My key contributions are to the integration of research priorities with resource development, the synthesis of scientific description, and oversight of support from corporate, foundation, and government sponsors. I'm an alumna of the MIT School of Engineering and have been on the Sponsored Research Staff in the School of Science since 1990. My early academic focus was on fluid dynamics and heat transfer, earning master's degrees in mechanical engineering (Washington State University) and civil engineering (MIT). My MIT thesis work involved satellite remote sensing of wind-induced stresses on the ocean surface to analyze the interaction of wind and large-scale ocean circulation. At WSU I combined molecular theory with experimental laser design to measure the radiative absorption properties of hydrocarbon gases that are common in the atmosphere. 
I helped launch the MIT Center for Global Change Science in 1990, as well as the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change in 1991, and served as Executive Director of Research of both organizations until they were incorporated and succeeded by the Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy in 2024. My initial role as administrative scientist at the CGCS included serving as executive officer for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme's atmospheric chemistry activity (IGAC).
In the early 2000s I aided the formation of MIT's Earth System Initiative, which transformed into the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative in 2014, and that manages the MIT Climate Portal. In 2014-2015 I served on the MIT Climate Change Conversation Committee that was established to seek broad input from the MIT community on how the U.S. and the world can most effectively address global climate change; the committee produced a report on MIT and the Climate Challenge. In 2019-2021 I contributed to an effort to reinvent climate change adaptation with the Climate Resilience Early Warning System (CREWSnet), which in 2022 became an inaugural Flagship Project of the MIT Climate Grand Challenges. Since 1991 I have served as a board member (Vice President from 2004 to 2017) of the Technology Broadcasting Corporation, the trustee of the student-run WMBR FM radio station located on the campus of MIT. I am also involved with the various research and academic activities organized by the MIT entities noted below. |
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Center for Global Change Science (CGCS) |
Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change |
Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Department (EAPS) |
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Professional Preparation:
Master of Science (SM)
Civil Engineering MIT
| MS, BS Mechanical Engineering Washington State University MIT Presidential Committee Appointment: Board member (Vice President, 2004-2019), Technology Broadcasting Corporation, trustee of MIT Radio WMBR 88.1 FM |
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ACCESSIBILITY
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