Grace Calvert Young
Grace is an MIT graduate in Mechanical & Ocean Engineering developing technologies to help better understand, explore and manage the ocean. After earning her PhD at University of Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, she joined X - Google's Moonshot Factory as Research Engineer. She has developed software for CERN and MIT and helped design, build, and test submersible and aerial robots for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Robots she helped develop have deployed in the Arctic, Antarctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans, monitoring marine protected areas, surveying endangered species, and creating 3D maps of ice shelves to better measure climate change. In 2014 she lived underwater for 15 days as an engineer and scientist on Fabien Cousteau's Mission 31, the youngest female Aquarius aquanaut at the time. An avid sailor and diver, Grace is a four-year varsity letterman on MIT's sailing team and she sailed across the Atlantic for charity in 2016. Her academic awards include MIT’s Bruce Wallace Prize as MIT’s top undergraduate in ocean engineering, the MIT Keil Award for excellence in ocean engineering research, and the Marine Technology Society's ROV Scholarship, among others. A former ballerina, she's also active in the arts community. She was an MIT Burchard Arts Scholar, the arts editor for The Tech, and recipient of the Wiesner MIT Institute Award for combining art and technology. She created an art exhibition of ultra slow-motion underwater photography that was later featured on the "Best of Oceans at MIT 2015." Grace serves as a trustee of The Oceans Project and chief scientist for the deep-sea submarine Pisces VI. She was named a 2017 National Geographic Emerging Explorer.
Grace is an MIT graduate in Mechanical & Ocean Engineering developing technologies to help better understand, explore and manage the ocean. After earning her PhD at University of Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, she joined X - Google's Moonshot Factory as Research Engineer. She has developed software for CERN and MIT and helped design, build, and test submersible and aerial robots for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Robots she helped develop have deployed in the Arctic, Antarctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans, monitoring marine protected areas, surveying endangered species, and creating 3D maps of ice shelves to better measure climate change. In 2014 she lived underwater for 15 days as an engineer and scientist on Fabien Cousteau's Mission 31, the youngest female Aquarius aquanaut at the time. An avid sailor and diver, Grace is a four-year varsity letterman on MIT's sailing team and she sailed across the Atlantic for charity in 2016. Her academic awards include MIT’s Bruce Wallace Prize as MIT’s top undergraduate in ocean engineering, the MIT Keil Award for excellence in ocean engineering research, and the Marine Technology Society's ROV Scholarship, among others. A former ballerina, she's also active in the arts community. She was an MIT Burchard Arts Scholar, the arts editor for The Tech, and recipient of the Wiesner MIT Institute Award for combining art and technology. She created an art exhibition of ultra slow-motion underwater photography that was later featured on the "Best of Oceans at MIT 2015." Grace serves as a trustee of The Oceans Project and chief scientist for the deep-sea submarine Pisces VI. She was named a 2017 National Geographic Emerging Explorer.
Photo credit: MIT/Allegra Boverman
Innovators of Tomorrow/ BBC
Grace C. Young, Explorer of the Year/ Somerville College Magazine Global Issue, University of Oxford
Fourteen world-changers named 2017 National Geographic Emerging Explorers/ National Geographic
National Geographic Emerging Explorer Grace C. Young: An Aquanaut Charting the Sea’s Unknowns/National Geographic Society
Somerville student offered opportunity to work with NASA/ Somerville, University of Oxford
Why this Kansan bought a deep-sea submarine/ Kansas City Star
How to Save our Sick, Neglected Oceans: A CERN for the Oceans/ TIME Op-Ed
Cousteau Leads Aquanauts in Undersea Expedition/ National Geographic
Grace Undersea/ MIT Technology Review
Grace Young Interview | Job Living Under the Ocean/ Teen Vogue
Slow-Motion Science and the Art of Capturing Marine Life/ Oceans at MIT
New MIT Exhibit Features High-Speed Underwater Photography/ Dive Info
Top 10 College Women/ Glamour
A young researcher talks about Fabien Cousteau’s underwater living experiment/ Earth Island Journal
Urge to protect oceans propels youngest aquanaut on Cousteau’s Mission 31/ Miami Herald
Grace Undersea: A Senior Forgoes Commencement to Spend 15 Days at the Bottom of the Ocean/ MIT Technology Review
Under the Sea/ MIT News
Under Pressure/ Wärtsilä Magazine
Marshall Scholars/ MIT News
Grace C. Young - Wiesner MIT Institute Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts at MIT/ Arts at MIT
Missiles & Misconceptions: Why We Know More about the Dark Side of the Moon than the Depths of the Ocean/ DSpace MIT
Grace C. Young, Explorer of the Year/ Somerville College Magazine Global Issue, University of Oxford
Fourteen world-changers named 2017 National Geographic Emerging Explorers/ National Geographic
National Geographic Emerging Explorer Grace C. Young: An Aquanaut Charting the Sea’s Unknowns/National Geographic Society
Somerville student offered opportunity to work with NASA/ Somerville, University of Oxford
Why this Kansan bought a deep-sea submarine/ Kansas City Star
How to Save our Sick, Neglected Oceans: A CERN for the Oceans/ TIME Op-Ed
Cousteau Leads Aquanauts in Undersea Expedition/ National Geographic
Grace Undersea/ MIT Technology Review
Grace Young Interview | Job Living Under the Ocean/ Teen Vogue
Slow-Motion Science and the Art of Capturing Marine Life/ Oceans at MIT
New MIT Exhibit Features High-Speed Underwater Photography/ Dive Info
Top 10 College Women/ Glamour
A young researcher talks about Fabien Cousteau’s underwater living experiment/ Earth Island Journal
Urge to protect oceans propels youngest aquanaut on Cousteau’s Mission 31/ Miami Herald
Grace Undersea: A Senior Forgoes Commencement to Spend 15 Days at the Bottom of the Ocean/ MIT Technology Review
Under the Sea/ MIT News
Under Pressure/ Wärtsilä Magazine
Marshall Scholars/ MIT News
Grace C. Young - Wiesner MIT Institute Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts at MIT/ Arts at MIT
Missiles & Misconceptions: Why We Know More about the Dark Side of the Moon than the Depths of the Ocean/ DSpace MIT