In both the United States and across much of the globe, 2025 has been a challenging year for the clean energy transition. While 2024 was the first year that the world’s average temperatures breached 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, clean energy technologies and policies have faced mounting political, economic, and social pressures around the world.

At this moment of uncertainty, it is important to underscore that the mission and goals of the Andlinger Center remain consistent to those that shaped the Center’s creation — and indeed, they have only intensified. At the Andlinger Center, we are steadfast in our commitment to developing transformative solutions to secure a sustainable energy and environmental future for the planet. And that mission has become increasingly urgent as the devastating impacts of climate change have made themselves manifest in more frequent and severe extreme weather, rising sea levels, and climate-induced displacement.

Now more than ever, it is imperative that the Andlinger Center is focused and clear about its efforts to ensure that our work has the greatest societal impact. In early 2025, our faculty and I came together to finalize a five-year strategic plan for the Andlinger Center that will allow us to align our efforts around initiatives on which our researchers are well-positioned to lead. The strategic plan will lend clarity to our efforts as we navigate an unpredictable funding landscape.

The plan outlines six priority research areas for the center, which we classify as “Research Initiatives.” These initiatives include greening the grid; industrial decarbonization; buildings and transportation; carbon capture, utilization, and storage; the water-energy-resource nexus; and climate resilience engineering. By identifying new opportunities for collaboration, we expect these initiatives will develop into full-fledged research platforms, poised to tackle the greatest energy and environmental challenges facing the planet. In the pages that follow, you will read about the cutting-edge work of our faculty, researchers, students, and corporate partners to drive meaningful progress across each of these focus areas.

In both the United States and across much of the globe, 2025 has been a challenging year for the clean energy transition. While 2024 was the first year that the world’s average temperatures breached 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, clean energy technologies and policies have faced mounting political, economic, and social pressures around the world.

At this moment of uncertainty, it is important to underscore that the mission and goals of the Andlinger Center remain consistent to those that shaped the Center’s creation — and indeed, they have only intensified. At the Andlinger Center, we are steadfast in our commitment to developing transformative solutions to secure a sustainable energy and environmental future for the planet. And that mission has become increasingly urgent as the devastating impacts of climate change have made themselves manifest in more frequent and severe extreme weather, rising sea levels, and climate-induced displacement.