The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has had 18 presidents (16 inaugurated, 1 acting then inaugurated, 1 acting) in its 156-year history (as of 2017 [update] ).
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European polytechnic university model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. The Institute is a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant university, with a campus that extends more than a mile alongside the Charles River. Its influence in the physical sciences, engineering, and architecture, and more recently in biology, economics, linguistics, management, and social science and art, has made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
- William Barton Rogers (1862–1870, 1879–1881)
- John Daniel Runkle (1870–1878)
- Francis Amasa Walker (1881–1897)
- James Crafts (1897–1900)
- Henry Smith Pritchett (1900–1907)
- Arthur Amos Noyes (acting 1907–1909)
- Richard Cockburn Maclaurin (1909–1920)
- Elihu Thomson (acting 1920–1921, 1922–1923)
- Ernest Fox Nichols (1921–1922)
- Samuel Wesley Stratton (1923–1930)
- Karl Taylor Compton (1930–1948)
- James Rhyne Killian (1948–1959)
- Julius Adams Stratton (1959–1966)
- Howard Wesley Johnson (1966–1971)
- Jerome Wiesner (1971–1980)
- Paul Edward Gray (1980–1990)
- Charles Marstiller Vest (1990–2004)
- Susan Hockfield (2004–2012)
- L. Rafael Reif (2012–present)
William Barton Rogers was an American geologist, physicist, and educator at the University of Virginia from 1835 to 1853. In 1861, Rogers founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The university opened in 1865 after the American Civil War. Because of his affiliation with Virginia, Mount Rogers, the highest peak in the state, is named after him.
John Daniel Runkle was a U.S. educator and mathematician. He served as acting president of MIT from 1868–70 and president between 1870 and 1878.
Francis Amasa Walker was an American economist, statistician, journalist, educator, academic administrator, and military officer in the Union Army.