Although his journey has been uneven, Lester said there was a clear line: The emergence of science and technology, the potential for these developments to shake up society and address some of the most significant issues, and what the results might mean for America’s position in the world.
The new MIT Climate Grand Challenges competition is perhaps the best example of this theme in Lester’s portfolio. This initiative was spearheaded by Lester and Maria Zuber (MIT vice president for Research) and launched amid the pandemic in the Summer of 2020. It is meant to mobilize all MIT researchers around tackling the “really hard, challenging problems currently standing between us and a global response to the climate crisis.” “The main focus is on the problems that require frontier knowledge in natural and social sciences and cutting-edge technologies. This is the MIT community aiming for fences in areas where we have a competitive advantage.
He considers this a passion project and has engaged nearly all MIT departments in the process. Nearly 100 ideas were submitted by over 300 faculty. 27 teams were selected as finalists. They will receive funding to create comprehensive research and innovation plans. These areas include decarbonizing complex industrial sectors, risk forecasting, adaptation, climate equity, carbon removal, management and storage. A small portion of the group will be multiyear flagship projects in April. This will complement existing MIT units that are pursuing climate research. These complex problems are not easy for Lester to face. “This is a bottom-up effort with exciting suggestions, and where the Institute collectively committed — it is MIT at its finest.
Nuclear to the core
Lester is still deeply involved in nuclear engineering, and this initiative resonates with him. He says nuclear energy plays a central role and will continue to play a vital role in solving the climate crisis. He says that nuclear energy technologies, both fission- and fusion, must win in the market to decarbonize the economy. My Research over the years has focused on identifying what is needed to overcome these obstacles.
Lester has advocated for a U.S. nuclear innovations plan for most of his career. This commitment becomes more urgent as the contours and severity of the climate crisis become clearer. He advocates for rapid development and testing of nuclear technologies to complement the intermittent, renewable energy sources of sun or wind. Lester says that the U.S. must embrace nuclear innovation to win the race for a sustainable future, whether large-scale, molten salt-cooled reactors or small modular, light-water reactors.
Chancing into a discipline
The introduction of nuclear science by Lester was pure chance.
He was born in Leeds, an English industrial city. He grew up with a musical family. He played violin, piano and then viola. He says music was a major part of his life and considered it a career. After working in a chemical plant, he stumbled into a chemical engineering major at Imperial College. “There is a certain randomness in life. In my case, that was reflected in my major choice, which had a huge impact on my final career.”
In his second year, Lester talked about running an experiment in the university’s research reactor on radiation effects on materials. “I was hooked and started to think about studying nuclear engineering.” However, there were very few graduate programs at British universities then. It was then that fate again struck. Lester was enrolled in the single Humanities course at Imperial. His instructor had taught previously at MIT and suggested that Lester look into the nuclear program at MIT. Lester says, “I will always be thankful to him (and indirectly to MIT’s Humanities program) for opening my eyes about the existence of this institution which I’ve spent most of my adult life.”
He came to MIT with the idea of mitigating nuclear weapons’ harm. He recalls a time when nuclear weapons were “an existential threat to everyone’s lives.” His graduate studies in nuclear proliferation were his focus. He also came across a fascinating study by Jule Charney, an MIT meteorologist. “Professor Charney performed one of climate change’s most important scientific assessments from increasing CO 2 concentrations within the atmosphere. His quantitative estimates have not fundamentally changed over the past 40
