Pioneering gene drives and biosecurity frameworks that are reshaping how science engages with the future of evolution.
Congratulations to Media Arts and Sciences Associate Professor Kevin Esvelt, who has been granted tenure, effective July 1, 2026. Professor Esvelt leads the Sculpting Evolution research group at the MIT Media Lab, where he invents new ways to study and influence the evolution of ecosystems, addressing some of humanity's most difficult ecological and public health challenges with a commitment to openness and humility.
Professor Esvelt's research brings together two powerful currents: the ability to reshape living systems at the genetic level, and a deep commitment to community consent and transparency. His Sculpting Evolution group has developed tools and frameworks that put communities, not just scientists, in charge of decisions about technologies that affect their environments. Most visibly, his community-driven "Mice Against Ticks" project, featured in a landmark 60 Minutes segment in September 2025, is engineering Lyme-immune mice on Nantucket to stop the disease at its source, showing how science can directly serve the public good.
“We are absolutely thrilled that Kevin Esvelt has been granted tenure,” notes Professor Tod Machover, Faculty Director of the MIT Media Lab. “Kevin is a true original, a visionary guided by deep technical knowledge and heartfelt ethical responsibility. He develops biotechnologies to prevent disease and eradicate suffering, while identifying and mitigating against potential catastrophic misuse of biotech and AI, all with uniquely-designed community collaboration. His intellectual curiosity is voracious and wide-ranging, and his caring support of our students, staff and faculty is much valued. I am certain that Kevin will contribute profoundly and diversely to the Media Lab/MAS, to MIT, and to the world for many years to come.”
Professor Esvelt has also emerged as one of the nation's leading voices on biosecurity. His research exposing the dangers of AI systems capable of generating biological weapons information, highlighted by The New York Times in April 2026, has intensified calls for stronger regulatory safeguards. His Policy Forum piece in Science on mirror life has further advanced critical public conversations about the governance of emerging biotechnologies. His work on CRISPR gene drives, RoboPace, and the development of "daisy drives," community-controllable tools that limit the spread of genetic modifications in local ecosystems, has reshaped global conversations about the future of evolution. He has also established international collaborations in the emerging field of DNA cryptography.
"Kevin's scholarship spans ecological engineering, pandemic preparedness, biosecurity, and the governance of emerging biotechnologies, representing exactly the kind of transformative, interdisciplinary research the MAS program exists to cultivate," notes Joe Paradiso, Academic Head of the MAS Program. What distinguishes his work is not only its breadth but its intellectual courage. "He has consistently asked hard questions about how powerful biological tools should be developed, governed, and deployed, and that combination of scientific excellence and principled inquiry is what the MAS program aspires to foster."
Prior to joining the MIT Media Lab, Professor Esvelt completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Wyss Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he worked with George Church to advance CRISPR for genome engineering and regulation. He earned his PhD in biochemistry from Harvard University and his BS in biochemistry from Harvey Mudd College. His honors include the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award (2020), the Polymath Fellow Award (2022), the Distinguished Alumni Award from Harvey Mudd College (2024), and selection to MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2016.