In a letter to the MIT neighborhood at the moment, President Sally Kornbluth introduced the appointment of Ian A. Waitz to the place of vice chairman for analysis. Within the position, Waitz will report back to the president and oversee MIT’s huge analysis enterprise. The appointment is efficient Could 1.
Waitz, who can be the Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, brings deep data of MIT to the place. Over greater than 30 years, he has served in a variety of roles throughout the Institute, the place he has made his mark via power, optimism, persistence, and a dedication to MIT’s mission of utilizing training and innovation to create a greater world.
“Ian brings a uncommon vary and depth of understanding of MIT’s analysis and academic enterprise, our each day operations, our institutional challenges and alternatives, our historical past and our values — and an unmatched document of fixing arduous issues and getting large, high-stakes issues performed properly,” Kornbluth wrote.
“MIT’s analysis enterprise is a vital a part of our mission, not only for the impression that innovation and discovery have on the world, but additionally for the way in which it permits us to teach individuals by giving them issues that nobody else has ever solved earlier than,” Waitz says. “That builds a kind of mental capability and resilience to work on actually arduous issues, and the nation and the world want us to work on arduous issues.”
Waitz will step down from his present position as vice chancellor overseeing undergraduate and graduate training, the place he was instrumental in advancing the priorities of the Chancellor’s Workplace, at present led by Melissa Nobles.
In that position, which he has held since 2017, Waitz labored with college students, college, and employees from throughout the Institute to revamp the first-year undergraduate educational expertise, helped steer the Institute via the Covid-19 pandemic, and led efforts to reply to graduate pupil unionization. Waitz additionally led a strategic restructuring to combine the previous workplaces of the Dean for Undergraduate Schooling and the Dean for Graduate Schooling, creating the Workplace of the Vice Chancellor and resulting in a extra aligned and environment friendly group. And, he spearheaded tasks to develop skilled growth alternatives for graduate college students, created the MIT Undergraduate Advising Heart, labored to considerably develop undergraduate monetary help, and broadly expanded assist for graduate college students.
“I feel my expertise provides me a singular perspective on analysis and training at MIT,” Waitz says. “Schooling is clearly a tremendous a part of MIT, and dealing with college students bridges training and the analysis. That’s one of many issues that’s particular a few analysis college. I’m excited for this new position and to proceed to work to additional strengthen MIT’s distinctive analysis enterprise.”
Waitz shall be filling a job beforehand held by Maria Zuber, the E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics, who now serves as MIT’s presidential advisor for science and expertise coverage. Waitz says he’s desperate to dive in and work to determine methods to assist MIT’s prolific analysis engine run extra easily. The transfer is simply the newest instance of Waitz leaning into new alternatives in service to MIT.
Previous to assuming his present position as vice chancellor, Waitz served because the dean of the College of Engineering between 2011 and 2017, supporting the college’s means to draw and assist distinctive college students and college. He oversaw the launch of applications together with the Institute for Knowledge, Methods, and Society (IDSS), the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), the Sandbox Innovation Fund, and the MIT Beaver Works program with Lincoln Laboratory. He additionally strengthened co-curricular and enrichment applications for undergraduate and graduate college students, and labored with division heads to supply extra versatile levels.
Previous to that, Waitz served as the pinnacle of MIT’s Division of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the place he has been a school member since 1991. His analysis focuses on growing technological, operational, and coverage choices to mitigate the environmental impacts of aviation. He’s a member of the Nationwide Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and has labored carefully with trade and authorities all through his profession.
“One lesson I’ve realized is that the best energy of MIT is our college students, college, and employees,” Waitz says. “We determine people who find themselves actual mental entrepreneurs. These are the individuals that basically thrive right here, and what you need to do is create a low-friction, high-resource surroundings for them. Superb issues bubble up from that.”
