Maria Zuber

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Vice President for Research & E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics

Maria Zuber is the Vice President for Research and E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics at MIT, where she is responsible for research administration and policy. She oversees MIT Lincoln Laboratory and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research laboratories and centers. She also oversees MIT’s Climate Action Plan for the Decade and is responsible for intellectual property; research integrity and compliance; research relationships with the federal government; and postdoctoral scholars and research staff. Zuber has held leadership roles associated with a dozen scientific experiments or instrumentation on ten NASA missions, serving as Principal Investigator of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. She is the first woman to lead a science department at MIT and the first to lead a NASA planetary mission. Zuber holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an Sc.M. and Ph.D. from Brown. She is a member of the National Academy of Science, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2021, President-elect Biden named Zuber as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). In 2013, President Obama appointed Zuber to the National Science Board; she was reappointed by President Trump in 2018.

Sessions With Maria Zuber

Friday, 11 March

  • 10:00am - 10:25am (CST) / 11/mar/2022 04:00 pm - 11/mar/2022 04:25 pm

    Climate & Energy Leadership Dialogue
    Panel Geopolitics/Policy/Regulatory

    Maria Zuber is a pioneer in many ways as the first woman to lead a NASA spacecraft mission and the first woman to lead a science department at MIT. She is Vice President of Research and E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Dr. Zuber is the winner of numerous awards and honors. In 2021, Dr. Zuber engaged with MIT community and developed MIT’s second climate action plan titled “Fast Forward: MIT’s Climate Action Plan for the Decade.” In this conversation, we will discuss Dr. Zuber’s journey from the coal mines of Pennsylvania to the pinnacles of academia and a leader in the scientific community.

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