7T6 Early Career Award: 2017 Recipient
Christopher Wilmer (EngSci 0T7)
Christopher Wilmer embodies simultaneous leadership in three significant areas: research, entrepreneurship and environmentalism. He is currently an assistant professor and principal investigator at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering. His lab explores the properties of hypothetical materials using computer simulations. As a leading researcher in his field, Wilmer has accumulated 3,390 academic publication citations and an “h-index” of 20. As a doctoral student at Northwestern University, he co-founded a materials company, NuMat Technologies, to bring his research to market. NuMat has won significant environmental prizes and private funding and is now a prospering company with over a dozen employees. In 2012, he was recognized by Forbes in its “30 Under 30 in Energy” list. In his spare time, Wilmer has initiated numerous programs dedicated to addressing global poverty and climate change. He also co-founded the interdisciplinary graduate student think-tank The Earth Team, which addresses global poverty and climate change, and develops innovative solutions to address humanitarian, environmental and social problems.