Young Alumni Award: Thermal Engineer Eric Teitelbaum ’08 

Dr. Eric Teitelbaum received the Young Alumni Award on Alumni Weekend. He is the Senior Engineer at AIL Research, Inc. in Hopewell, NJ, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, and an adjunct assistant professor at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. Eric is also the owner of Teitelbaum Carpentry. He became well-known for his appearances on Animal Planet’s Treehouse Masters series as a fabulous treehouse  and furniture builder before he started achieving prominence as an innovative engineer.

Eric completed a dual degree Ph.D. in 2020 from Princeton University in Architecture and Material Science, researching how materials enable energy-saving thermal comfort regimes beyond standard air-based methods. He has applied his thermal comfort framework to many projects, including a Department of Energy integrated dehumidification facade. He is named on eight patents on sensing and construction of radiant systems. During his graduate studies, Eric worked as a Project Manager at ETH Zurich, a Swiss public research university. There he managed the design and construction of a world first – a membrane-assisted radiant cooling system known as the “Cold Tube.” He conducted thermal comfort studies for the novel conditions deployed in the Cold Tube and produced several high-level papers furthering knowledge in thermal comfort and radiant cooling domains. He demonstrated the Cold Tube to great effect in tropical Singapore during tests in 2019 where a Cold Tube pavilion offered relief outdoors from heat and humidity. It used 50 percent less electricity than air-conditioning. He and his team are excited about possible applications as the planet warms.

Eric’s work on better human cooling solutions has appeared in popular journalism from The Washington Post to Scientific American, and is also reflected in numerous peer-reviewed publications. A recent example of an article he co-authored which achieved wide notice was, “A Fresh (Air) Look at Ventilation for COVID-19: Estimating the global energy savings potential of coupling natural ventilation with novel radiant cooling strategies,” which appeared in Applied Energy.

In his acceptance remarks, Eric expressed appreciation for the opportunity he had to pursue all of his passions and skills at MFS. “Something that makes my approach to research unique is the time I spend not just in the lab, but in the shop,” he said. “And that was absolutely an approach fostered at MFS, where I spent time in equal parts chemistry and physics labs with (former Science Dept. Chair) Barb Kreider and (former Physics Teacher) Mr. Clarke and woodshop with (former Woodworking Teacher) Mr. Richter…I left MFS with the understanding that the best way to learn something is to build it, a mindset I used to lead research covered by The Washington Post, Scientific American, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and other outlets. I  certainly attribute my hands-on approach to my MFS education and mentors who all played a huge role in molding my style.”

Prior to completing his Ph.D. at Princeton, Eric earned his M.S.E. from the Princeton School of Engineering and Applied Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering. As an undergrad at Princeton, Eric majored in Chemical and Biological Engineering. 

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