Joel Jean

Joel is above all an advocate for climate change action, likes running marathons, and buys new books faster than he can read them. Before co-founding Swift, Joel served as Executive Director of the Tata-MIT GridEdge Solar research program, which focuses on the scale-up of new solar photovoltaic technologies for India and other developing countries. As a researcher and NSF Fellow at MIT, he developed ultra-lightweight and flexible solar cells that were recognized by the 2017 Katerva Award. He was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 Fellow in Energy and one of Business Insider's Rising Stars of Clean Energy. He co-authored the MIT Future of Solar Energy Study and has worked extensively on emerging PV materials and devices, techno-economic analysis, and energy and climate policy. Joel holds a Ph.D. and SM in electrical engineering from MIT and a BS with distinction from Stanford University.