Julie Zimmerman Elected to the National Academy of Engineering

Julie Zimmerman, the Vice Provost for Planetary Solutions and jointly appointed professor at Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science and School of the Environment, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Cited for her “leadership in education and the development of green technologies that enhance the sustainability of engineered systems,” Zimmerman will be formally inducted during a ceremony at the NAE's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on October 5.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions awarded to an engineer.  Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering practice, research, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature" and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

"Julie's election to the National Academy of Engineering is a tribute to her extraordinary work advancing sustainable engineering and her unwavering commitment addressing our planet's most pressing challenges,” said Yale Engineering Dean Jeffrey Brock. “Her groundbreaking research has radically transformed how we approach the full lifecycle of technology development, and her leadership as Yale's Vice Provost for Planetary Solutions has positioned an engineering mindset to lead Yale’s mission to find next generation solutions for a planet in duress. Julie is shaping the lives of future of engineers through her influential mentorship; we are deeply fortunate to have such a visionary leader and educator on our faculty."

“Julie is a brilliant, highly innovative thinker and educator whose research has led to advances in integrated biorefinery and the design of renewable chemicals, among other breakthroughs,” said Indy Burke, the Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. Dean of the School of the Environment. “Her leadership — first at YSE, and now as the Vice Provost of Planetary Solutions — is enabling us to bring the levels of collaboration, creativity, and systems thinking needed to address the climate crisis and other urgent global challenges.”

Zimmerman is an internationally recognized engineer whose work is focused on advancing innovations in sustainable technologies. Her pioneering work established the fundamental framework for her field with her seminal publications on the “Twelve Principles of Green Engineering” in 2003. The framework, in conjunction with Green Chemistry, is guiding the innovation of products and processes in academia and industry including her own research group on topics that include breakthroughs for the integrated biorefinery, carbon dioxide valorization, designing safer chemicals and materials, novel materials for water treatment, and analyses of the water-energy nexus.

Zimmerman is the co-author of the textbook, Environmental Engineering: Fundamentals, Sustainability, Design, that is used in the engineering programs at leading universities domestically and abroad. She also serves as the Deputy Director of the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale, Editor in Chief for Environmental Science & Technology, is a Member of the Connecticut Academy of Sciences, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Prior to coming to Yale, Zimmerman was a program manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she established the national sustainable design competition, P3 (People, Prosperity, and Planet) Award, which has engaged thousands of students from hundreds of universities across the U.S. since its inception in 2004.  She earned her B.S. from the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan jointly from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the School of Environmental and Sustainability.