» Final Take
(GUEST OPINION)
Cambridge Brain Trust
MIT’s Energy Club
By Jason Roeder
You c a n find just a bout a n y thing on the
infinite corridor. The arrow straight quarter mile
stretch of doorways, labs and student posters is the
spine of MIT’s original 16-building complex. It is now the
central axis around which the accelerating MIT Energy
Initiative (MITEI) spins. Loosely bookended by the Center
for Real Estate on the west and the Sloan School of
Management on the east, with every conceivable
engineering and science discipline in between, the MITEI
is exporting powerful ideas, technology and – perhaps
most importantly – highly driven and educated graduates
in an effort to re-invent the global energy industry.
In 2006, newly appointed MIT President Susan
Hockfield launched the MITEI. In her introductory listening
tour of campus, a singular topic came up in her conversations over and over again: energy. Perhaps even more
so than among faculty and staff, student interest in the
multifaceted challenges of energy reliability, security, and
climate integrity grabbed the new president’s attention and
gave her the confidence to focus the mens et manus of
MIT on energy. [The Latin phrase, “Mens et manus,” means
“mind and hand” and is MIT’s motto.]
Indeed, well before Hockfield’s arrival in 2004, then
doctoral candidate in materials science David Danielson had
begun organizing students in an effort that would become
known as the MIT Energy Club. Danielson said, “From day
one, the goal was to build a strong energy community and
connect the sometimes disparate technology, policy, and
business elements of MIT.” There is a lot of connecting going
on. Membership in the club has doubled every six months to a
current 650 members and programming has grown to include
Jason Roeder, left, and fellow MIT Energy
Club members plan for careers in energy.
Photo courtesy the MIT Energy Club.
88 E n e rgyB i z January/February 2008
a weekly discussion and lecture series, monthly off-campus
power plant tours, industry infosessions, a mentorship
program and the Global Energy Leaders lecture series.
In the 2006–2007 school year the club put on 68 events.
In a recent week, students grilled former Exxon CEO Lee
Raymond and Sir Nicholas Stern of the UK’s Stern Review on
the economic impacts of climate change in small, off-therecord sessions.
Just beyond the eastern terminus of the infinite corridor
sits the unofficial headquarters for club members, faculty
and a few venture capitalists — the Muddy Charles Pub. A
photovoltaic panel casually rests on the mantle in one corner,
an understated signal that if you’ve come to plan research
topics, conceive business ideas, prepare for MIT’s $100K
Entrepreneurship competition or debate on the merits of
caps versus taxes, you’ve come to the right spot. The rotating
selection of beers keeps the mood bright and the visions large.
It was in the glow of the fireplace at the Muddy that
the club’s fall and spring marquee events were created
– Energy Night at the MIT Museum and the MIT Energy
Conference, respectively. This past October, Energy Night
gathered 1,200 people from across MIT to peruse over
50 posters from MIT labs and absorb an evening of jazz,
food and technology. GM brought its new plug-in hybrid,
the Chevy Volt – a popular photo op for attendees. The
momentum coming out of Energy Night gets people fired
up for the club’s largest event of the year, the MIT Energy
Conference. The student-organized event hosts a regional
Energy Technology Showcase on Friday and a 550-person
day-long conference on Saturday. The April 11-12, 2008
event will focus on “Energy Technologies that Scale”
and opens with John Doerr, a partner with
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, followed by a
morning of panels that include carbon capture
and storage, energy efficiency and transmission infrastructure challenges. James Rogers,
chairman and CEO of Duke Energy, will offer
his outlook on the future of utilities, followed by
a series of panels that will explore the potential
for renewable technologies and innovations in
transportation.
All the sparks in the air have attracted many
new members to the MIT energy community.
Bob Metcalfe, a club supporter and partner at
Polaris Ventures, a sponsor of the 2008 MIT
Energy Conference and co-inventor of a little
piece of technology called Ethernet, remarked
at the 2007 Energy Technology Showcase that
the atmosphere felt a lot like Silicon Valley in the
early ‘80s – the frenzied beginnings of something very big. Many of us at MIT hope he’s right.
We’re betting our careers on it.
Jason Roeder is an MBA student at the MIT Sloan
School of Management.
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