Master of Science (S.M.), Civil Engineering, MIT, , M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Washington State University, B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Washington State University
Bio and Interests
Anne Slinn is Executive Director for Research of the MIT Center for Global Change Science, and the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. An engineer by training, she has over twenty years of experience organizing MIT's interdisciplinary, multi-institutional and international research collaborations that address challenges intersecting issues of the global environment, climate, energy, economics and policy. She oversees a diverse portfolio of around $10M in sponsored research on fundamental Earth system science and integrated assessment of global change. Her emphasis is on science synthesis, the coordination of research direction with resource development, and administration of federal and industrial support.
Her early academic focus was on fluid dynamics and heat transfer: her MIT master's 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 her master’s thesis combined molecular theory with experimental laser design to measure the radiative absorption properties of hydrocarbon gases that are common in the atmosphere.
When she joined the CGCS in 1990 she also served as executive officer for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme's atmospheric chemistry activity (IGAC), and in 1991 she helped launch the MIT Joint Program.
During Academic Year 2014-2015 she served on the MIT Climate Change Conversation Committee, which was established to seek broad input from the Institute 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.