Angeliki Diane Rigos

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Dr. Angeliki Diane Rigos is the Associate Director for Graduate Programs at MIT Energy Initiative and Program Manager for the DOE-funded Center for Enhanced Nanofluidic Transport at MIT.

Dr. Rigos began her career as a Principal Scientist at Physical Sciences Inc., where she worked on defense and energy contracts. She transitioned to an academic position as Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Merrimack College, where she taught courses in chemistry, women in science and sustainable energy at the undergraduate level and science and energy policy at the graduate level. Her areas of research have included corrosion studies of supercritical water oxidation reactors used to destroy military toxic waste, Brownian dynamics simulations of order-disorder transitions in sheared colloidal suspensions, and modeling of diffusion-controlled reactions and conformational interconversion in protein crystals. For twelve years, she also worked as an energy consultant at Levitan & Associates, Inc. with a focus on power price forecasting, LNG, fuel cells, and renewable technologies, including onshore/offshore wind and solar photovoltaics. In 2017, she gave up her tenured position to become the MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design Executive Director.

Dr. Rigos has volunteered in startup accelerators, as an industry mentor in Cleantech Open and an industry champion at MassChallenge. She is currently the President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) and has developed and launched a series of leadership workshops for AWIS members. In 2020, she co-founded the MIT LEAPS (Leadership and Professional Strategies and Skills) Program, where she teaches leadership to graduate students and postdocs in STEMM. In 2021, she founded the nonprofit Epistimi to expand women’s leadership training in STEMM globally.

Dr. Rigos received a B.A. in Chemistry from Cornell University, a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.B.A. from Northeastern University and is an alumna of HERS

What are three enduring values Pierce has taught you?

Service, friendship, excellence.

Describe Pierce in three words.

Place to develop.

Which is your fondest memory from your time at Pierce?

Art class.

What do you miss most from your days at Pierce?

My friends and our field trips.

If you could go back in time, is there anything that would you do differently?

Make more friends.

Where was your favorite spot on campus?

Dining hall.

Who was your favorite teacher and why?

Prof. Kremos. I had a great deal in common with him but I did not realize at the time how much. We both loved quantum mechanics and painting. He was also a very calm and observant individual.

After graduation, have you maintained a relationship with your school and classmates?

Yes.

Looking back, how did your time at Pierce help you become the person you are today?

My six years in an all-girls school helped me build my confidence in science and math. I do not think I would have become a scientist if I had attended a coeducational institution.

What advice would you give a new Pierce student?

Follow your dreams, not the dreams of your parents and teachers. This is easier said than done. Grow you awareness of your true self by quiet meditation, written meditations and observing what activities make you forget to look at your watch/phone.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Amazing people I meet in my work and in life, especially women who have overcome great hardships, inspire me to do more and to do better at everything I do.

What is your motto in life?

Help make the world a better place every day in whatever way I can.