Leo Rafael Reif | |
---|---|
17th President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
In office July 2, 2012 –December 31, 2022 | |
Preceded by | Susan Hockfield |
Succeeded by | Sally Kornbluth |
Personal details | |
Born | Leo Rafael Reif Groisman August 21,1950 Maracaibo,Venezuela |
Nationality | Venezuelan-American |
Spouse | Christine Chomiuk |
Children | Jessica and Blake |
Education | Universidad de Carabobo (BS) Stanford University (PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Electrical engineering |
Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Thesis | Doping process in silicon epitaxy:Transfer function and physicochemical model (1979) |
Doctoral advisor | James D. Meindl |
Leo Rafael Reif (born August 21,1950) is a Venezuelan American electrical engineer and academic administrator. He previously served as the 17th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2012 to 2022,provost of the institute from 2005 to 2012,and dean of the institute's EECS department from 2004 to 2005. [1] [2] [3]
Reif sits on the boards of the World Economic Forum,the Carnegie Endowment,the Council on Foreign Relations,and the Broad Institute. [4] [5] [6] [7]
Leo Rafael Reif was born in Maracaibo,Venezuela,to Eastern European Jewish parents who immigrated to Venezuela in the late 1930s through Ecuador and Colombia. His father was a photographer,and the family spoke Yiddish and Spanish at home. [8]
Reif received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Carabobo in Valencia,Venezuela in 1973. He then served for a year as an assistant professor at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas. He went to the United States for graduate school,earning his doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1979. [9] He then spent a year as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford.
Reif joined the MIT faculty in January 1980 as an assistant professor of electrical engineering. He was promoted to associate professor in 1983,earned tenure in 1985,and became a full professor in 1988. In 2004,he was named the Fariborz Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technology. His research centered on three-dimensional integrated circuit technologies and on environmentally benign microelectronics fabrication. Reif was director of MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories,then associate department head for Electrical Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS),MIT's largest academic department,and then served as EECS department head in 2004–2005. An early champion of MIT's engagement in micro- and nanotechnologies,Dr. Reif is the inventor or co-inventor on 13 patents,has edited or co-edited five books,and has supervised 38 doctoral theses.
As MIT’s provost,he spearheaded an effort to promote online learning for both on-campus students and learners around the world. The effort paved the way for edX,a massive open online course provider that MIT and Harvard University co-founded in 2012. [10] As of 2020,24 million unique users have taken a class on edX. [11]
In 2012,Reif was elected president of MIT succeeding Susan Hockfield the first woman in charge. . [12]
Reif was named co-chair of the administration's Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Steering Committee "2.0," part of a continuing effort to maintain U.S. leadership in the emerging technologies that will create high-quality manufacturing jobs and enhance America's global competitiveness,on September 26,2013. [13] [14]
To promote innovation in “tough-tech” [15] science and engineering fields,in 2015 he presented an idea for an “innovation orchard,”which would provide the space,mentorship,and bridge-funding for entrepreneurs to turn new science into workable products. [16] The idea became the basis for The Engine,an accelerator aimed at fostering scientific and engineering breakthroughs. [17]
In speeches as early as 2017,Reif began describing what he saw as a need for education that pairs expertise in computing and another field to solve increasingly complex,interdisciplinary problems. In a 2019 Financial Times op-ed,he coined the term “AI bilingual,”writing,“To prepare society for the demands of the future,institutions must equip tomorrow’s leaders to be ‘AI bilingual.’Students in every field will need to be fluent in AI strategies to advance their own work. And technologists will need equal fluency in the cultural values and ethical principles that should ground and govern the use of these tools.” [18]
In 2018,in response to the ubiquity of computing and the rise of artificial intelligence across disciplines,Reif announced the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. [19] The College aims to prepare students to harness the power of AI while weighing its ethical and social implications. [20]
In 2019,in the wake of Jeffrey Epstein's indictment on child sex trafficking and subsequent suicide,it came to light that Epstein had contributed over $800,000 to MIT,much of it beginning in 2013 and well after he was convicted of child sex trafficking the first time. In August 2019,Reif ordered an investigation into Epstein's connections with the university. [21] [22] [23]
In a September 12,2019 letter to the MIT community on the institute's website,Reif admitted he signed a 2012 thank you letter to Epstein for a gift to professor Seth Lloyd. In the open letter to the community,Reif said,"I apparently signed this letter on August 16,2012,about six weeks into my presidency. Although I do not recall it,it does bear my signature." [24] On September 18,he explained,"Many students have asked how I could have signed that acknowledgment letter without asking questions and how I could fail to remember it. The answer is simple:I did not recognize the name,and I sign many standard thank-you letters every week. That includes several hundred letters every year thanking individuals for contributions to the Institute." [25]
In 2020,Reif announced that MIT will donate $850,000 to four nonprofits that support survivors of sexual abuse. [26]
In January 2021,Reif defended Gang Chen in an open letter following Chen's arrest by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on wire fraud and tax violation charges. [27]
In February 2022,Reif announced his intention to step down as MIT president at the end of 2022,and return to the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science following a yearlong sabbatical. [28]
Reif is a fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers,an elected member of the American Academy of Arts &Sciences, [29] and a member of Tau Beta Pi and the Electrochemical Society. The Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) awarded him the 2000 Aristotle Award for "his commitment to the educational experience of SRC students and the profound and continuing impact he has had on their professional careers." For his work in developing MITx,MIT's initiative in developing free online college courses available to learners anywhere with an Internet connection,which was launched in December 2011,he received the 2012 Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award. In 2015,the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation honored him with the Frank E. Taplin,Jr. Public Intellectual Award, [30] he was recognized as one of the Top 20 Most Influential,Outstanding,Creative and Talented Hispanic professionals working in the US Technology Industry by @CNET @CNET-ES @CBS Interactive. [31] and elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In November 2017,Reif was elected a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. [32]
From 2007 to January 2019,Reif served on the Board of Directors of Schlumberger, [33] where he was on the Nominating and Governance Committee and the Science and Technology Committee [34] and currently owns approximately $1,000,000 in stock. [35] He was also a member of the Board of Conservation International,a nonprofit focused on sustainability and the environment. [36]
Reif served on the Board of Directors of Alcoa from 2015-2016 [37] and its public spin-off Arconic from 2016–2017. [33]
Reif was elected to the Board of Directors of TSMC in 2021 and serves as an independent director. [38]
The Reif administration at MIT played an important role in the prosecution of Aaron Swartz,the founder of RSS and co-founder of Reddit,who was renowned for his anti-copyright (and "knowledge for all") activism on MIT campus. [39] [40]
Reif and his wife,Christine (Chomiuk), [41] live in Newton,Massachusetts. They have a daughter,Jessica,and a son,Blake. Jessica is Dr. Reif's daughter from his first marriage.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science.
Harold Abelson is an American mathematician and computer scientist. He is a professor of computer science and engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a founding director of both Creative Commons and the Free Software Foundation, creator of the MIT App Inventor platform, and co-author of the widely-used textbook Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, sometimes also referred to as "the wizard book."
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from technology, media, science, art, and design. As of 2014, Media lab's research groups include neurobiology, biologically inspired fabrication, socially engaging robots, emotive computing, bionics, and hyperinstruments.
Joichi "Joi" Ito is a Japanese entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the President of Chiba Institute of Technology. He is a former director of the MIT Media Lab, former professor of the practice of media arts and sciences at MIT, and a former visiting professor of practice at Harvard Law School. Ito has received recognition for his role as an entrepreneur focused on Internet and technology companies and has founded, among other companies, PSINet Japan, Digital Garage, and Infoseek Japan. Ito is general partner of Neoteny Labs, and former board member of Creative Commons, The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The New York Times Company, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Mozilla Foundation, The Open Source Initiative, and Sony Corporation. Ito wrote a monthly column in the Ideas section of Wired.
Sanjay E. Sarma currently serves as CEO, President, and Dean at the Asia School of Business. Additionally, he holds esteemed titles as the Fred Fort Flowers (1941) and Daniel Fort Flowers (1941) Professor of Mechanical Engineering, as well as vice president for Open Learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
James Donald Meindl was director of the Joseph M. Pettit Microelectronics Research Center and the Marcus Nanotechnology Research Center and Pettit Chair Professor of Microelectronics at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. He won the 2006 IEEE Medal of Honor "for pioneering contributions to microelectronics, including low power, biomedical, physical limits and on-chip interconnect networks.”
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST was established by Executive Order 13226 on September 30, 2001, by George W. Bush, was re-chartered by Barack Obama's April 21, 2010, Executive Order 13539, by Donald Trump's October 22, 2019, Executive Order 13895, and by Joe Biden's February 1, 2021, Executive Order 14007.
John Spencer MacDonald, was a Canadian engineer, businessman, and academic. He was co-founder of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), an aerospace, information systems, and technology company. MacDonald served as the chancellor at the University of Northern British Columbia from 2010 through 2016.
The MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department is an engineering department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is regarded as one of the most prestigious in the world, and offers degrees of Master of Science, Master of Engineering, Doctor of Philosophy, and Doctor of Science.
Fawwaz T. Ulaby is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and formerly the Founding Provost and Executive Vice President of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and R. Jamieson and Betty Williams Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan.
Constance J. Chang-Hasnain is chairperson and founder of Berxel Photonics Co. Ltd. and Whinnery Professor Emerita of the University of California, Berkeley. She was President of Optica in 2021.
Jitendra Malik is an Indian-American academic who is the Arthur J. Chick Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his research in computer vision.
William Eric Leifur Grimson is a Canadian-born computer scientist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he served as Chancellor from 2011 to 2014. An expert in computer vision, he headed MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from 2005 to 2011 and currently serves as its Chancellor for Academic Advancement.
Valerie Elaine Taylor is an American computer scientist who is the director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Her research includes topics such as performance analysis, power analysis, and resiliency. She is known for her work on "Prophesy," described as "a database used to collect and analyze data to predict the performance on different applications on parallel systems."
John N. Tsitsiklis is a Greek-American probabilist. He is the Clarence J. Lebel Professor of Electrical Engineering with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He serves as the director of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems and is affiliated with the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), the Statistics and Data Science Center and the MIT Operations Research Center.
Gang Chen is a Chinese-born American mechanical engineer and nanotechnologist. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he is currently the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering. He served as head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT from July 2013 to June 2018. He directs the Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center, an energy frontier research center formerly funded by the United States Department of Energy. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 and of the National Academy of Sciences in 2023.
Anantha P. Chandrakasan is the Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, the dean of the School of Engineering, and Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is chair of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium and MIT AI Hardware Program, and co-chair the MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab, the MIT–Takeda Program, and the MIT and Accenture Convergence Initiative for Industry and Technology.
The MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing is the computing college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Announced in 2018 to address the growing applications of computing technology, the college is an Institute-wide academic unit that works alongside MIT's five Schools of Architecture and Planning, Engineering, Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Science, and Management. The college emphasizes artificial intelligence research, interdisciplinary applications of computing, and social and ethical responsibilities of computing. It aims to be an interdisciplinary hub for work in artificial intelligence, computer science, data science, and related fields. Its creation was the first significant change to MIT's academic structure since the early 1950s.
Murray Eden, was an American physical chemist and academic. He was a professor in electrical engineering, a lecturer, a visiting professor and adjunct professor at institutions including at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Institutes of Health.
{{cite web}}
: |author=
has generic name (help){{cite web}}
: Check |url=
value (help)