Dr. Grace Young

An avid sailor, diver and National Geographic Explorer, Grace is passionate about developing technologies to help better understand, explore and manage the ocean. She earned her BSc in Mechanical & Ocean Engineering from MIT where she won the Wallace Prize as MIT’s top undergraduate in Ocean Engineering, the Keil Award for excellence in Ocean Engineering research, and the Wiesner Institute Award for advancing art and technology. After completing her PhD at the University of Oxford as a Marshal Scholar, she joined X, Alphabet's Moonshot Factory to develop technologies for ocean restoration and sustainability. Grace is the chief scientist for the Pisces VI deep sea research submarine.

In 2019 she filmed the National Geographic documentary “The Secret of the Ocean”, where she explores connections between 300 million year old coral fossils and modern day reefs. She has developed innovative technologies for MIT, CERN, and NASA. She also helped design, build, and test submersible and aerial robots for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that monitor marine protected areas, survey endangered species, and create 3D maps of marine habitats to better measure climate change. A former ballerina, she's active in the arts community and created an art exhibition of ultra slow-motion underwater photography that was selected as “Best of Oceans at MIT 2015.” In 2014 she lived underwater for 15 days as an engineer and scientist on Fabien Cousteau's Mission 31, the youngest female Aquarius aquanaut at the time. Grace was a four-year varsity letterman on MIT's sailing team and sailed across the Atlantic for a charity that supports youths in foster care.