Abstract

Killing 1.5 million people annually in developing countries, indoor air pollutants prematurely steal too many lives, particularly from women and children. Fortunately, these deaths can be prevented with better cooking stoves. However they are often not field-tested on a large scale. Economist Esther Duflo of MIT's Jameel Poverty Action Lab is leading a project that will provide this crucial field-testing for a sustainable and easily scalable "smokeless cooking stove" in hopes of enabling policy makers to replicate a successful stove program that is currently saving lives in India - thanks to the help of MIT PhD candidate Stephen Ray, a mechanical engineer. Before Ray joined the project, 40% of the stoves being evaluated through this extensive field-study were breaking, invalidating the crucial large-scale evaluation. Using his strong background in thermal fluids and mechanical design, he spent a summer independently diagnosing, repairing, and redesigning the "smokeless cooking stoves" in India. Ray also retrained local workers to build his new design long after the summer ended. Through his work, Duflo's innovative economic study that enables policy makers to safeguard the health of millions will continue - stove now working, improving indoor air quality and saving lives. Not only this, but his work also weaves together the four problem areas of the NAE Grand Challenge by providing a successful sustainable technology that improves the health of women and children in the developing world, reducing their vulnerability and returning their joy of living.

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Email sdray@mit.edu