Martin Wainstein

Martin is an Innovator-in-Residence at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale, where he leads the development of the Yale Open Innovation Lab. He is also a research associate at the Yale department of Electrical Engineering, and a research affiliate at the Digital Currency Initiative of the MIT Media Lab. Martin did his PhD at the Australian-German Climate & Energy College in the University of Melbourne, Australia and holds an undergraduate degree from The University of Southern California where he focused on Geo and Astrobiology. Thinking holistically about big picture sustainability and translating this into innovative entrepreneurial action is by far what he enjoys the most!

After his undergraduate studies he returned to Argentina, his home country, to start a social enterprise that provides products and services for the low-carbon transition. As an entrepreneur, Martin has developed projects in renewable energies for the built environment, biofuel projects for large agriculture farms, forest conservation initiatives, marketing and corporate social responsibility campaigns for multinationals and established a network of sustainable architecture to engage in social innovation. Prior to starting his PhD in Melbourne, he co-founded a startup on wellness living in New Zealand. If he is not thinking about the planet, new social startups and the evolution of humankind, he’d rather be on a surfboard, snowboard, kitesurf or wakeboard. He likes to communicate his ideas through graphic design and visual art.