About

The Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment is a unit of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The mission of the lab is to advance our understanding of the environmental impacts of aviation, and to develop approaches to mitigate those impacts.

The leadership of the lab consists of faculty members and research scientists, supported by administrative professionals. The research team consists of the faculty members and research scientists, research assistants enrolled for the SM or PhD degree at MIT, post-doctoral research associates, research specialists, and occasional visiting scholars. Much of the research also involves collaboration with other labs/departments at MIT, and colleagues in other universities, government agencies, and industry.

The Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment was started in 1992 by Dean Ian A. Waitz as the Aero-Environmental Research Laboratory. The lab became host to the PARTNER Center of Excellence HQ in 2003 and was given its current name in 2012.

The current Laboratory Director is Prof. Steven Barrett and Associate Director is Dr. Robert Malina. The laboratory PIs/faculty are Prof. Hamsa Balakrishnan, Prof. R. John Hansman, Dean Ian A. Waitz and Prof. Karen Wilcox.