David L. Darmofal SM ’91, PhD ’93 will function MIT’s subsequent vice chancellor for undergraduate and graduate training, efficient Feb. 17. Chancellor Melissa Nobles introduced Darmofal’s appointment right this moment in a letter to the MIT group.
Darmofal succeeds Ian A. Waitz, who stepped down in Could to turn out to be MIT’s vice chairman for analysis, and Daniel E. Hastings, who has been serving in an interim capability.
A inventive innovator in research-based educating and studying, Darmofal is the Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Since 2017, he and his spouse Claudia have served as heads of home at The Warehouse, an MIT graduate residence.
“Dave is aware of the ins and outs of training and pupil life at MIT in a method that few do,” Nobles says. “He’s a head of home, an alum, and the guardian of a graduate. Dave will convey a long time of first-hand expertise to the position.”
“An MIT training is extremely particular, combining passionate college students, employees, and college striving to make use of information and discovery to drive optimistic change for the world,” says Darmofal. “I’m grateful for this chance to play an element in supporting MIT’s tutorial mission.”
Darmofal’s management expertise contains service from 2008 to 2011 as affiliate and interim division head within the Division of Aeronautics and Astronautics, overseeing undergraduate and graduate packages. He was the AeroAstro director of digital training from 2020 to 2022, together with main the division’s response to distant studying throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. He presently serves as director of the MIT Aerospace Computational Science and Engineering Laboratory and is a member of the Middle for Computational Science and Engineering (CCSE) within the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman School of Computing.
As an MIT college member and administrator, Darmofal has been concerned in designing extra versatile diploma packages, creating open digital-learning alternatives, creating first-year advising seminars, and enhancing skilled and private improvement alternatives for college students. He additionally contributed his experience in engineering pedagogy to the event of the Schwarzman School of Computing’s Frequent Floor efforts, to deal with the necessity for computing training throughout many disciplines.
“MIT college students, employees, and college share a standard bond as drawback solvers. Speak to any of us about an MIT training, and you’re going to get an earful on not solely what we have to do higher, but in addition how we will really do it. The Workplace of the Vice Chancellor may also help convey our group of drawback solvers collectively to allow enhancements in our lecturers,” says Darmofal.
Overseeing the educational arm of the Chancellor’s Workplace, the vice chancellor’s portfolio is in depth. Darmofal will lead professionals throughout greater than a dozen items, masking areas reminiscent of recruitment and admissions, monetary assist, pupil techniques, advising, skilled and profession improvement, pedagogy, experiential studying, and assist for MIT’s greater than 100 graduate packages. He may even work collaboratively with lots of MIT’s pupil organizations and teams, together with with the leaders of the Undergraduate Affiliation and the Graduate Scholar Council, and administer the connection with the graduate pupil union.
“Dave shall be a important a part of my workplace’s efforts to strengthen and broaden important connections throughout all areas of pupil life and studying,” Nobles says. She credit the search advisory group, co-chaired by professors Laurie Boyer and Will Tisdale, in setting the proper tenor for such an necessary position and main a radical, inclusive course of.
Darmofal’s analysis is concentrated on computational strategies for partial differential equations, particularly fluid dynamics. He earned his SM and PhD levels in aeronautics and astronautics in 1991 and 1993, respectively, from MIT, and his BS in aerospace engineering in 1989 from the College of Michigan. Previous to becoming a member of MIT in 1998, he was an assistant professor within the Division of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M College from 1995 to 1998. Presently, he’s the chair of AeroAstro’s Undergraduate Committee and the graduate officer for the CCSE PhD program.
“I wish to echo one thing that Dan Hastings stated just lately,” Darmofal says. “Now we have so much to be pleased with relating to an MIT training. It’s extra accessible than it has ever been. It’s modern, with unmatched studying alternatives right here and all over the world. It’s dwelling to tutorial analysis labs that entice probably the most proficient students, creators, experimenters, and engineers. And finally, it prepares graduates who do good.”
