Laurent Pilon
Laurent Pilon is the inaugural Director of the Tufts Epsilon Materials Institute and the Epsilon Energy Materials Innovation Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. As director, he leads interdisciplinary research across the institute, fosters collaboration throughout the university, and strengthens partnerships with government, industry, and the broader materials research community.
Faculty, staff, and other stakeholders interested in exploring opportunities for interdisciplinary research or industry engagement are encouraged to email temi@tufts.edu.
About Pilon
Pilon's research expertise is in interfacial and transport phenomena, radiative heat transfer, and materials science, advancing technologies that improve sustainable energy conversion, storage, and efficiency.
Prior to joining Tufts University, Pilon served as a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He also served as Associate Director for Technology and Program Director at the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), where he led programs focused on building materials, superconductors, advanced manufacturing, and circularity within the battery supply chain. At ARPA-E, he created the IGNIITE Award program, which empowers early-career innovators to pursue disruptive and unconventional ideas across the nation’s most critical energy technology priorities.
His work has resulted in 220 archival journal publications, six book chapters, and seven patents. In addition, he has advised 32 Ph.D. students, 22 M.S. students, and five postdoctoral scholars and received numerous honors, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Heat Transfer Memorial Award.
He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied physics from the Grenoble Institute of Technology in France, and earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University. His doctoral alma mater has since recognized him with the Viskanta Fellowship and Purdue University’s Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Award.