Anantha Chandrakasan turned the Institute’s new provost on July 1, succeeding Cynthia Barnhart, SM ’86, PhD ’88, who introduced her choice to step down in February.
Chandrakasan, who earned his BS, MS, and PhD in electrical engineering and laptop science from the College of California, Berkeley, joined MIT in 1994. Head of the Vitality-Environment friendly Circuits and Programs Group, he has been dean of the College of Engineering since 2017 and MIT’s inaugural chief innovation and technique officer, taking part in a key position in launching a number of new initiatives, since 2024. He headed the Division of Electrical Engineering and Laptop Science, MIT’s largest educational division, for six years.
As MIT’s senior educational and funds officer, Chandrakasan will concentrate on understanding institutional wants and strategic monetary planning, attracting and retaining prime expertise, and supporting cross-cutting analysis, training, and entrepreneurship programming. On all these fronts, he plans to hunt frequent enter from throughout the Institute. He additionally plans to determine a provost college advisory group, in addition to pupil/postdoc advisory teams and an exterior provost advisory council.
“There’s a super alternative for MIT to be on the heart of the improvements in areas the place america desires to guide,” Chandrakasan says. “It’s about AI. It’s about semiconductors. It’s about quantum, the biosafety and biomanufacturing house—however not solely that. We’d like college students who can do extra than simply code or design or construct. We actually want college students who perceive the human perspective and human insights.”
