Emily Carter and Shirley Malcom join The Kavli Foundation Board of Directors

The Kavli Foundation today announced the election of two new board members: Emily Carter, senior strategic advisor on sustainability science at the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment at Princeton University, and Shirley Malcom, senior advisor to the CEO and director of the SEA Change initiative at AAAS.

“We are delighted to welcome two additional outstanding individuals to our board of directors,” said Chairman of The Kavli Foundation Board, Rockell N. Hankin. “Drs. Emily Carter and Shirley Malcom will add their important experience and ideas to our philanthropy as we create our future building on the important achievements of our first 20 years.”

“The foundation will greatly benefit from the leadership experience and insights from Drs. Carter and Malcom, because of their deep experience in scientific research and in improving accessibility of education,” remarked Cynthia M. Friend, president of The Kavli Foundation.

Carter recently returned to Princeton University from UCLA, where she served as executive vice chancellor and provost and distinguished professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering until the end of 2021. At Princeton, in addition to her reappointment as Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment, she is also once again a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and applied and computational mathematics. After spending the first half of her career on the physical sciences faculty at UCLA, she joined the Princeton Engineering faculty for the second half. She also served as founding director of Princeton’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and then as Princeton’s Dean of Engineering and Applied Science before being recruited back to become UCLA’s second ranking officer. In her new leadership role at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, she aims to diversify the lab’s portfolio into sustainability science, with an emphasis on carbon mitigation broadly defined. Over her career, Carter built a large, multidisciplinary research group continuously supported by various arms of the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation. Her current research, supported by the DOE and the DOD, involves developing and applying quantum mechanical simulation techniques to enable discovery and design of materials for sustainable fuel and chemical production, and carbon dioxide utilization and sequestration. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and the European Academy of Sciences.

“The Kavli Foundation’s mission aligns beautifully with my own mission – to harness science for the betterment of humanity. I am delighted to be able to contribute my expertise and perspective to continue to expand the foundation’s impact in the years ahead,” shared Emily Carter.

As senior advisor to the CEO and director of the SEA Change initiative at AAAS, Shirley Malcom works to improve the quality of and increase access to education and careers in STEM fields and to enhance public science literacy. Internationally, she is a leader in efforts to improve access of girls and women to education and careers in science and engineering and to increase use of science and technology to empower women and address problems they face in their daily lives, serving as co-chair of the Gender Advisory Board of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development, as well as Gender InSITE, a global campaign to deploy science and technology to help improve the lives and status of girls and women. Malcom is a trustee of Caltech, a regent of Morgan State University, and a member of the SUNY Research Council. She is a former member of the National Science Board, the policymaking body of the National Science Foundation, and served on President Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. Her inspiring work has led to numerous honors including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of the Sigma Xi Gold Key Award and the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the highest award given by the Academy.

“I am honored to join the board of The Kavli Foundation. I am excited to help advance the foundation’s goals, supporting the advancement of science and broadening the base of talent to contribute to scientific progress at the highest levels,” stated Shirley Malcom.