John D. Sterman

The En-ROADS climate solutions simulator team has won the 2025 System Dynamics Applications Award from the System Dynamics Society. This award recognizes the best “real world” application of System Dynamics within the past decade, “based primarily on demonstrated measurable benefit to an organization through the use of System Dynamics.”

The team contributing to developing En-ROADS includes: John Sterman (Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management and professor of System Dynamics; co-faculty director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative; senior advisor of Climate Interactive), Andrew Jones (executive director and co-founder of Climate Interactive; research affiliate), Bethany Patten (executive director of MIT Climate Policy Center; senior lecturer), Jason Jay (director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative; senior lecturer), Krystal Noiseux (senior associate director of MIT Climate Pathways Project), Michael Sonnenfeldt (Climate Pathways Project leadership team; founder and chairman of MUUS & Company), Travis Franck (Tufts Climate Policy Lab; Climate Interactive climate ambassador; research affiliate); Jack Homer (Homer Consulting; Climate Interactive technical and modeling partner; research affiliate), and Florian Kapmeier (ESB Business School; Climate Interactive climate ambassador and technical and modeling partner; research affiliate).

En-ROADS is an interactive online simulation tool co-developed by Climate Interactive and MIT Sloan and used in the Climate Pathways Project (CPP), a collaboration of the MIT Climate Policy Center, MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and Climate Interactive, to test and visualize global impacts of policies and advance the adoption of evidence-based climate policy through public- and private-sector leaders—almost 20,000 of whom have used the climate solutions simulator to date. 

“[En-ROADS] goes beyond, far beyond, exceptional climate science, and rigorous climate modeling … It exemplifies the use of system dynamics to make a difference … It finds numerous ways to make the modeling and insight accessible and understandable. It is a truly unique specimen of system dynamics for the masses” (Brad Morrison, award selection committee chair).

Contributing team members currently or formerly with Climate Interactive include: Bindu Bhandari (United Nations), Chris Campbell, Janet Chikofsky, Ava De Leon, Kaveh Dianati, Sibel Eker (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis—IIASA), Khaled Gaafar, Clara Iglesias, Ellie Johnston, Charles (Skuk) Jones, Joshua Loughman (Arizona State Univ.), Katherine Markova, Stephanie McCauley (Multisolving Institute); Caroline Reed, Philip Rice, Danielle San Filippo, Elizabeth Sawin (Multisolving Institute); Lori Siegel, Sam Wellington, and Yasmeen Zahar. Additional team members include Lucia Cheney (UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative), Adem Delibas (Ventana Systems), Tom Fiddaman (Ventana Systems), Todd Fincannon (Energy Innovation), Elizabeth Keating (MIT PhD ’99), Ken Rath (Rath Educational Evaluation and Research), Juliette Rooney-Varga (UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative), and Chris Soderquist (Pontifex Consulting).

The award was presented at the 2025 International System Dynamics Conference in Boston. More information can be found in this article.

The 2025 Financial Times Responsible Business Awards has recognized the following MIT Sloan-affiliated faculty and staff:  Florian Berg (principal research scientist; lecturer; Aggregate Confusion project co-founder), Julian Koelbel (research affiliate; Aggregate Confusion project co-founder), Roberto Rigobon (Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management and professor of Applied Economics; faculty director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative), Jason Jay (director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative; senior lecturer), John Sterman (Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management and professor of System Dynamics; co-faculty director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative), Andrew Jones (executive director and co-founder of Climate Interactive; research affiliate), Bethany Patten (executive director of MIT Climate Policy Center; senior lecturer), Krystal Noiseux (senior associate director of MIT Climate Pathways Project), and Michael Sonnenfeldt (Climate Pathways Project Leadership team; founder and chairman of MUUS & Company). These awards recognize faculty, researchers, and students for positive societal and environmental impact achieved at business schools in three categories: academic projects which impact policy or practice, teaching based on innovative research, and student start-up or non-profit projects.

MIT Sloan’s Aggregate Confusion Project (led by Berg, Jay, Koelbel, and Rigobon) was a winner in the “Academic research with impact” category. The Aggregate Confusion Project is addressing problematic inconsistency in ESG (environmental, social, and governance) ratings by advocating for more transparency and better methodologies to improve the quality of ESG measurement in the financial sector. Their research has had significant impact on policymakers, rating agencies, investors, and regulators, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the same category for impactful academic research, the MIT Climate Policy Center’s Climate Pathways Project a “Highly Commended” designation (recognizing Sterman, Jones, Patten, Sonnenfeldt, Jay, and Noiseux). The CPP leverages interactive simulations C-ROADS (Climate Rapid Overview and Decision Support) and En-ROADS, co-developed by Climate Interactive and MIT Sloan, to test and visualize global impacts of policies and advance the adoption of evidence-based climate policy through public- and private-sector leaders.

Also “Highly Commended,” in the category for teaching based on innovative research, were Jay and Sterman for integrating the Sustainability Initiative’s transition risk assignment using the En-ROADS climate solutions simulator into the curriculum of both MBA and executive-education students, enabling them to assess climate change transition risks for businesses in real-world contexts.

The awards were announced (for research and teaching above) in January 2025.

John Sterman (Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management and Professor of System Dynamics) and Bobby Milstein (MIT Sloan Visiting Scientist; ReThink Health and Rippel Foundation), along with the rest of the team behind the nonprofit ReThink Health initiative, have won the 2023 System Dynamics Applications Award from the System Dynamics Society. This honor recognizes the best real-world application of System Dynamics, based primarily on demonstrated measurable benefit through the use of System Dynamics within the past decade.

ReThink Health, an initiative of the Rippel Foundation, works "with national and regional stewards to discover what it takes to design and execute transformative change and produce better health and well-being for all.” ReThink Health uses system dynamics models and interactive management flight simulators to enable community leaders at all scales and from every part of society to design high-leverage policies that can help all people thrive, beginning with those who are struggling and suffering. The broad application impact spanning health care, philanthropy, government, business, and academia has ranged from local (e.g., 18 initiatives launched involving over 2,500 individuals to enhance health and well-being across Atlanta) to national (e.g., 52 federal agencies collaborating on long-term plans for equitable recovery and resilience).

The winning team, many of whom have strong MIT Sloan connections (degrees listed are for MIT Sloan alumni who studied system dynamics), consists of Milstein, Sterman, Jack Homer (Homer Consulting; PhD ’83), Gary Hirsch (independent consultant; SB ’69 & SM ’71), Dr. Elliott Fisher (Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine), Rebecca Niles (Iceberg Partners, SB ’93 & MBA ’93), Kris Wile (Systems Thinking Collaborative, SM ’94), and Chris Soderquist (Pontifex Consulting).

The award was announced at the 2023 International System Dynamics Conference (annual conference of the System Dynamics Society) in late July in Chicago. A photo is online at the conference awards blog post, and the award presentation video contains more details in remarks and a slide presentation about the winning work and the many contributions and extensive real-world impact of ReThink Health.  A transcript is also available at the video page.

John Sterman has won the System Dynamics Society Outstanding Service Award. This award recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the society over an extended period of time, on a volunteer basis, in a way that benefits the development and advancement of system dynamics, helps the society achieve its goals, and sets a standard to inspire others.  Professor Peter Milling, chair of the award committee, noted that awardees are “individuals who besides having exhibited the highest standards of service excellence, dedication, and accomplishment … also have taken initiatives to move the society forward and created positive results for society members and the larger community of people interested in System Dynamics.” He highlighted Sterman’s service in leadership roles on the society’s policy council, as conference program chair, as editor of the System Dynamics Review, and as creator of numerous society initiatives.

John Sterman has been elected as a Fellow of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). AAAS Fellows are elected by their peers in recognition of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science. Sterman in particular was recognized for his “distinguished contributions to improving decision-making in complex systems, including corporate strategy and operations, energy policy, public health, environmental sustainability, and climate change.” The 2017 AAAS Fellows were formally announced recently in the AAAS News and Notes section of Science and will be honored at a ceremony in February 2018 at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas.

John Sterman has received the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) Conference People’s Choice Award for high-impact work at the 9th Annual ARCS Research conference held in June at the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. This award is based on a vote of conference attendees for the best paper at the conference. Sterman’s winning paper, co-authored with Juliette Rooney-Varga (UMass Lowell), Eduardo Fracassi (Instituto Tecnologico de Buenos Aires), Travis Franck (Climate Interactive), Florian Kapmeier (ESB Business School, Reutlingen University, Germany), Victoria Kurker (UMass Lowell), Ellie Johnston (Climate Interactive), Andrew Jones (Climate Interactive), and Kenneth Rath (SageFox Consulting Group), is entitled “Can role-play with interactive models enhance climate knowledge, affect and intent to act?”

John Sterman has won the 2016 Samuel E. Seegal Faculty Prize, in recognition of his having inspired students in pursuing and achieving excellence. The prize is awarded to a faculty member for “pursuing excellence” at either MIT Sloan or the MIT School of Engineering every other year.