CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT Corporation Chairman Dana G. Mead has announced the formation of the two panels charged with leading the Institute's search for a successor to President Charles M. Vest, who announced on Dec. 5 that he would step down.
The two groups, the Corporation Committee on the Presidency and the Faculty Advisory Committee to the Corporation on the Presidential Search, scheduled their first joint meeting for Thursday, Jan. 8, thus officially launching the search for MIT's 16th president.
Mead appointed James A. Champy, chairman of consulting for Perot Systems Corp., to chair the Corporation Committee on the Presidency. The faculty officers have appointed Jerome I. Friedman, physicist and Institute Professor, to chair the faculty advisory committee. Professor Rafael Bras, chair of the MIT faculty, had asked the faculty for suggestions for membership. He received some 200 responses, which were used by the faculty officers in assembling the full membership of the committee.
Beginning with the Jan. 8 meeting, the combined search committees expect a number of months of sustained work in identifying the next president. Vest announced at the December meeting of MIT's governing body that he will remain president until a successor is appointed.
A web site has been established for the search at http://web.mit.edu/president/search. The site is dedicated to offering a voice to all members and friends of the MIT community in the search and to providing information about the selection process. Included in the site is information about the search process, as well as a feedback form that will allow ideas and suggestions to be conveyed to the committees.
The members of both the corporation and faculty advisory committees are listed below. The two committees will work together closely throughout the search process.
Corporation Committee on the Presidency
James A. Champy '63 (chair)--chairman of consulting, Perot Systems Corp., Boston
W. Gerald Austen, M.D. '51--the Edward D. Churchill Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
Gordon M. Binder--managing director, Coastview Capital, LLC, Los Angeles
Denis A. Bovin '69--vice chairman of investment banking at Bear, Stearns & Co., New York
Dedric A. Carter '98--principal, American Management Systems, Arlington, Va.
Arthur Gelb '61--president of Four Sigma Corporation, Woburn, Mass.
Edie N. Goldenberg '67--Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Paul E. Gray '54--professor of electrical engineering and president emeritus, MIT
Dana G. Mead (ex officio) '67--chairman of the Corporation, MIT
Paula J. Olsiewski (ex officio) '79--president of the MIT Alumni Association; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, New York
Frank Press--principal, The Washington Advisory Group, Washington, D.C.
Kenan E. Sahin '63--president and founder, TIAX, Boston
Susan E. Whitehead--vice chairman, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Mass.
Barrie R. Zesiger--managing director, Zesiger Capital Group, Rowayton, Conn.
Former chairs of the Corporation will serve as consultants to the committee. They are:
Alexander V. d'Arbeloff '49--honorary chairman and Professor of the Practice in the Sloan School and Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT
Howard W. Johnson--president emeritus, MIT
David S. Saxon '41--president emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles
The committee secretary and assistant to the chair will be Kirk D. Kolenbrander, the special assistant to the president and chancellor at MIT.
Faculty Advisory Committee to the Corporation on the Presidential Search
Jerome I. Friedman (chair)--Institute Professor and professor of physics
Rafael L. Bras '72 (ex-officio)--the Bacardi and Stockholm Water Foundations Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; chair of the faculty
Sylvia T. Ceyer--the J. C. Sheehan Professor of Chemistry
Peter Diamond '63--Institute Professor and professor of economics
Lorna J. Gibson--the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering
Stephen C. Graves--the Abraham J. Siegel Professor of Management Science and Engineering Systems
Paula T. Hammond '84--associate professor of chemical engineering
Kenneth Manning--the Thomas Meloy Professor of Rhetoric and the History of Science; secretary of the faculty
Wanda J. Orlikowski--the Eaton Peabody Professor of Communications Sciences
L. Rafael Reif--professor of electrical engineering
Paola M. Rizzoli--professor of physical oceanography in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; associate chair of the faculty
Bishwapriya Sanyal--the Ford International Professor of Urban Development and Planning
Isadore M. Singer--Institute Professor and professor of mathematics
Marcus A. Thompson--the Robert R. Taylor Professor of Music
Bruce Tidor--associate professor of bioengineering and computer science
Susumu Tonegawa--the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience
Sheila Widnall '60--Institute Professor and professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems
