People

Javit Drake, PhD, joined the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering faculty in 2024 following 22 years in industry, including battery research at Duracell and R&D at its parent company, Procter & Gamble, where he was a Principal Scientist. During 14 of those years, he also served as a Lecturer at MIT. He is a co-inventor on 15 U.S. patents and has contributed to products used by millions of consumers.

Drake earned his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was co-advised by John Newman and Clay Radke. His thesis examined modeling-based improvements to a gas-liquid electrochemical flow reactor. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, with a minor in music, from MIT. This combined industrial and academic experience shapes research that connects fundamental chemical engineering with product design and implementation.