Erika Wagner
Ecomaterials Innovation Lab
Erika Wagner is the founding executive director of the X PRIZE Lab @ MIT, an interdisciplinary teaching and research effort examining the power of large prize competitions to foster innovation. She has been at the core of the Lab’s initiatives, overseeing the first offering of the X PRIZE Grand Challenges course, supporting networking efforts for the X PRIZE Foundation across the university and throughout the greater Boston area, and spearheading strategic planning efforts for the Lab. Wagner has more than seven years of project management experience within MIT, having served as Science Director and Executive Director of the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program, a multi-university spacecraft development initiative to investigate the physiological effects of reduced gravity. Her interdisciplinary academic background includes a bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, a master’s in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and a Ph.D. in Bioastronautics from the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.