Since the end of the last academic year, promotions of 20 members of the faculty from associate professor with tenure to full professor have been reported to the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation. All are effective July 1, 2000, unless otherwise noted.
Twenty-seven assistant professors were also promoted to associate professor without tenure (see accompanying article).
Those promoted to full professor are:
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING
Tod Machover in the Program in Media Arts and Sciences. Mr. Machover received bachelor's and master's degrees in 1975 and 1977 in music from the Juilliard School, as well as diplomas from Columbia University, MIT and the UNESCO Workshop in Music. He was director of musical research at the Institut de Recherche et Coorindation Acoustique/Music in Paris (1978-85) before coming to MIT as an assistant professor of music and media in 1985, receiving promotion to associate professor in 1988 and tenure in 1992. At MIT, he has been head of the Opera of the Future/Hyperinstruments Group and co-director of the Things That Think and Toys of Tomorrow consortia at the Media Laboratory. Mr. Machover's research focuses on the interface between music, performance and computation. He helped design the hypercello in 1991; since then, he has adapted his hyperinstruments for use by nonmusicians, culminating in Brain Opera, which invites the public to participate in each performance, live or via the Internet.
Dr. Bish Sanyal of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Professor Sanyal received the BArch from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1972, the MS in urban planning from the University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1976 and the PhD in urban and regional planning from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1984. He joined MIT in 1983 as assistant professor; he was promoted in 1988 to associate professor and to associate professor with tenure in 1991. Professor Sanyal has written extensively in the area of low-income housing and the urban informal economy, the planning profession and planning education. He has also advised governments and major international agencies, including the World Bank, international labor organizations, the United Nations Development Program and the US Agency for International Development.
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
Dr. Gerbrand Ceder in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Dr. Ceder joined MIT as an assistant professor after completing the PhD at the University of California at Berkeley in 1991 (he also earned the degree of engineer from Katholieke Universiteit in Belgium in 1988). He was promoted to associate professor without tenure in 1995 and received tenure in 1998. He held the Alcoa professorship from 1992-96 and is now the Union Mini�re Associate Professor of Materials Science. Professor Ceder's research combines microscopic theories from solid-state physics with statistical mechanics to gain a fundamental understanding of the rules that govern phase stability. Applications include the design of compounds for rechargeable batteries, the characterization of solid oxygen electrolytes and the study of microwave dielectrics.
Dr. Mark Drela of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Professor Drela earned the SB in 1982, the SM in 1983 and the PhD in 1985 from MIT, all in aeronautics and astronautics. He was appointed assistant professor in 1986, associate professor in 1993 and awarded tenure in 1994. He has held the Soderberg and the T. Wilson professorships. An aerodynamics engineer, Professor Drela develops computational flow simulation algorithms and methods for the design of aircraft and other aerodynamic devices. Using Professor Drela's design methods, which combine fast simulations of fluid flows and structural mechanics with interactive interfaces, an engineer can perfom rapid redesign and reevaluation. Professor Drela is also an aircraft designer who created Daedalus, a human-powered aircraft, and the Decavitator human-powered hydrofoil. Both are on display at the Museum of Science.
Dr. Dara Entekhabi of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. Professor Entekhabi works in the fields of hydrometerology and hydroclimatology. His research deals with feedback mechanisms and predictability in coupled land-atmosphere systems and the use of data assimilation techniques for estimating land surface hydrologic conditions based on satellite measurements. He earned the BA in 1983, and MAs in 1984 and 1987 in geography from Clark University, and the PhD in civil and environmental engineering from MIT in 1990. Professor Entekhabi was an assistant professor at the University of Arizona from 1990-91. He returned to MIT as an assistant professor in 1991, was promoted to associate professor in 1995, and awarded tenure in 1997.
Dr. Eugene A. Fitzgerald in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Dr. Fitzgerald, associate professor of electronic materials, received the SB from MIT in 1985, and the MS and PhD from Cornell University in 1987 and 1989, respectively. After six years at Bell Laboratories, he joined MIT as an associate professor without tenure in 1994 and received tenure in 1998. Professor Fitzgerald's research attacks limitations of electronic materials by focusing on the formation and control of dislocation defects and their effect on the properties and performance of semiconductor heterostructures. His group aims to understand and eliminate crystalline defects in semiconductor systems where layers in electronic materials and devices have different lattice parameters. Such material combinations have potential in printing, storage, display, communications and interconnect applications.
Dr. Karen Gleason in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Dr. Gleason received the SB and SM in chemical engineering from MIT in 1982, and the PhD in chemical engineering in 1987 from the University of California at Berkeley. She was appointed assistant professor at MIT in 1987, promoted to associate professor in 1993 and awarded tenure in 1995. Professor Gleason works in the areas of applied physical chemistry and the chemical reaction engineering of thin films. Her research group has developed and patented chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes for microelectronics, biopassivation and lubricity applications that allow systematic control over the composition of organic thin films. Her group also specializes in solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance characterization of thin films and polymers.
Dr. Steven Ray Hall of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Dr. Hall received the SB (1980), SM (1982) and ScD (1985) from MIT, all in aeronautics and astronautics. He joined the MIT faculty in 1985 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1991 and awarded tenure in 1994. He was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan from 1992-93. Dr. Hall is currently the Raymond L. Bisplinghoff Faculty Fellow in Aeronautics and Astronautics, a fellowship he has used to study active learning techniques and introduce those techniques into the department curriculum. His research is in aerospace systems control theory and practice, mainly the control of flexible structures such as space structures, and helicopter rotor dynamics. He has made a pioneering contribution to the control of helicopter rotors through the development of new piezoelectric actuators. These actuators, mounted inside each helicopter blade, drive a small flap that changes the lift on each blade up to 100 times each second to counter vibration. This has led to the first successful demonstration of vibration control using blade-mounted actuation, on a model rotor at MIT.
Dr. Dorothy Hosler in the Department of Materials Science and En-gineering's Archaeology and Archaeological Science Program. Dr. Hosler is internationally recognized for work combining anthropology, archaeology, and materials science and engineering on ancient Meso-american metallurgical and rubber-producing technologies. Dr. Hosler, author of two books, was instrumental in establishing at MIT the BS degree in archaeology and materials and the PhD in archaeological materials, the only such degrees in the United States. She held predoctoral (1984-86) and postdoctoral fellowships (1986-89) at MIT's Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology and became an assistant professor in 1989. She was promoted to associate professor in 1993 and has been associate professor of archaeology and ancient technology with tenure since 1997. She holds the BA from the University of California at Los Angeles, two MA degrees (1977 and 1980) and the PhD from UC-Santa Barbara (1986).
Dr. John H. Lienhard V in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Professor Lienhard, a leader in the field of heat transfer, joined MIT as an assistant professor upon completion of his PhD at the University of California at San Diego in 1988. His earlier degrees, the BS in 1982 and MS in 1984, were from UCLA. He was named the G.N. Hatsopoulos Assistant Professor that year, was promoted to associate professor without tenure in 1991 and received tenure in 1994. Professor Lienhard's research has included the study of high-heat flux problems, liquid jet impingement and buoyancy-controlled flows, as well as problems of temperature control in electronic devices and thermal processes associated with glass fiber manufacturing. In addition to earlier awards from ASME and SAE, he won an R&D 100 Award in 1996 and has received several MIT awards for teaching and service. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Dr. Andrew J. Whittle of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Professor Whittle earned the BSc in engineering in 1981 from the Imperial College of Science and Technology at London University and the ScD in civil engineering from MIT in 1987. He was a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute in 1987-88 and in 1988 was appointed assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1993 and awarded tenure in 1995. Professor Whittle is a geotechnical engineer who works on the development and application of constitutive models to characterize the diverse and often surprising mechanical properties of soils. His research identifies the modeling of soil behavior as a key element in making reliable predictions of performance in practical geotechnical applications ranging from the capacity of piles and caissons used to anchor large offshore platforms, to ground movements caused by deep excavation and tunneling projects.
Dr. Jacquelyn C. Yanch of the Department of Nuclear Engineering. As one of the world's leading advocates for the use of accelerator-based particle sources for biomedical applications, Professor Yanch gained an international reputation for the invention of boron neutron capture synovectomy (BNCS), which is under development as a means of treating rheumatoid arthritis. About 10 percent of patients are unresponsive to drug therapy, and removal or ablation of the synovial membrane is necessary. Synovectomy can be accomplished surgically or by the intra-articular injection of beta-emitting particles. BNCS is an alternative approach in which a stable 10B-labeled compound is injected directly into the joint and the joint is irradiated with an epithermal neutron beam. Professor Yanch also created and developed the Laboratory for Accelerator Beam Applications. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from McMaster University and the PhD in physics from the University of London in 1988 and joined MIT as a postdoctoral associate in 1988.
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Dr. Daron Acemoglu in the Department of Economics. Dr. Acemoglu holds the BA from the University of York (1989), and the MS (1990) and PhD (1992) from the London School of Economics (LSE). He joined the MIT faculty as an assistant professor in 1993 after two years as a lecturer at LSE and was named the Pentti J.K. Kouri Associate Professor in 1997. He was awarded tenure in 1999. His research examines broad economic issues including the role of education and training in growth, the determinants and nature of technological progress, the macroeconomic implications of social insurance and the determinants of political institutions.
Dr. Stephen Ansolabehere of the Department of Political Science. Professor Ansolabehere, an expert in American politics, received the BS degree in Economics and the BA degree in Political Science from the University of Minnesota in 1984 and the PhD in political science from Harvard University in 1989. He joined MIT as an assistant professor in 1989 and was promoted to associate professor in 1995. Professor Ansolabehere is co-author (with Shanto Iyengar of Stanford University) of Going Negative, a widely acclaimed book about the depressive effect of negative advertising on voter turnout. Professor Ansolabehere's research explores the system of campaign finance in the US. He has chaired the political science department's personnel committee and has been leading a department initiative for a new Center for Political Economy.
Dr. Charles Stewart of the Department of Political Science. Professor Stewart received the BA from Emory University in 1979 and the MA and PhD from Stanford University in 1982 and 1989 respectively. He joined MIT in 1985 as assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1989. He was a visiting associate professor at Stanford University in 1989-1990 and a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution in 1998. Professor Stewart is a leading Congressional scholar; he has done pioneering research on 19th-century congressional history. Professor Stewart has served as chair of the CUP and as housemaster of McCormick Hall. He won a MacVicar Fellowship due to his excellence as a teacher. Professor Stewart founded and continues to direct the MIT Washington Summer Internship Program.
Dr. Evan Ziporyn of the music and theater arts section in the Department of Humanities. Professor Ziporyn, a composer/clarinetist who also specializes in the traditional music of Bali, received the BA in music from Yale University in 1981 and the MA and PhD in music composition from the University of California at Berkeley, in 1986 and 1989. He joined MIT as assisant professor of music in 1990, was promoted to associate professor of music in 1995 and to associate professor with tenure in 1997. He has also worked at Yale University as a visiting professor in composition and as an associate professor in composition, and at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Ziporyn was a visiting lecturer in music at the University of Natal in 1984. Professor Ziporyn is the director of MIT's Gamelan Galak Tika orchestra and a performer and founding member of Bang On a Can All-Stars, based in New York City. He was awarded a Fullbright Fellowship in 1987-88 to pursue studies in ethnomusicology in Indonesia.
SCHOOL OF SCIENCE
Dr. Jacqueline Hewitt of the Department of Physics. Professor Hewitt's research focuses on applying the techniques of radio astronomy, interferometry, signal processing and image processing to basic research in astrophysics and cosmology. Active in the next large US radio antenna project, the Square Kilometer Array, Professor Hewitt works on applications of gravitational lensing and detecting transient astronomical radio sources. She received a bach-elor's degree in economics from Bryn Mawr in 1980 and the PhD in physics from MIT in 1986. She was a postdoctoral associate at MIT in 1986 and 1987 and returned as assistant professor after spending a year on the research staff at Princeton University. She was promoted to associate professor in 1994 and received tenure in 1996.
Dr. Tyler Jacks, associate head of the Department of Biology. Dr. Jacks, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute associate investigator, has made significant contributions in creating new mouse models for cancer research. He has established transgenic mouse lines that are used to characterize tumor development and to evaluate the efficacy of potential chemotherapeutic strategies. His laboratory also has been involved in elucidating the molecular and cellular effects of mutations that occur commonly in human cancer. A Daniel K. Ludwig Scholar, he is the son of Stanley M. Jacks, a Sloan School faculty member from 1959-80. Professor Jacks earned a bach-elor's degree from Harvard in 1983 and the PhD in biochemistry from the University of California at San Francisco in 1988. He did postdoctoral training with Professor Robert A. Weinberg, a founding member of the Whitehead Institute. He was named an assistant professor at MIT in 1992 and associate professor with tenure in 1997. Professor Jacks received the American Association of Cancer Research Rhoads Award in 1997 and the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Amgen Award in 1998. He chairs the Committee on Biohazards and serves on the scientific advisory board for the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Xiao-Gang Wen in the Department of Physics. A leading theorist in condensed-matter physics, his work has shaped the direction of much of the research on the theory of the fractional quantum Hall effects. His work on the conformal theory of chiral states in the fractional quantum Hall effect is considered a seminal achievement. Students have commented on Professor Wen's creative new approaches in teaching classic topics and his willingness to work with them individually on understanding the material. Professor Wen served as chairman for the Faculty Search Committee for the condensed-matter theory group and the Graduate General Exam Committee. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Science and Technology in China in 1982 and the master's and PhD degrees from Princeton University in 1983 and 1987. He joined MIT as an assistant professor in 1991, receiving promotion to associate professor with tenure in 1995.
Dr. Barton Zwiebach of the Department of Physics. A nationally recognized theoretical physicist and leader on string theory, Professor Zwiebach's earlier work culminated in his construction of a field theory of closed strings. As a "unified" theory, string theory attempts to explain all four forces observed in nature; it could successfully account for gravity and predict super-symmetric particles. Most recently, he has constructed string theory models of gauge theories with symmetries of exceptional type and has developed the use of string field theory to understand the role of tachyons in the decay of string theory branes. Professor Zwiebach earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Universidad Nacional de Ingerieria in Lima, Peru in 1977, and a master's degree (1978) and PhD (1983) from the California Institute of Technology. He was named an assistant professor at MIT in 1987 and was promoted to associate professor in 1992. He received the Graduate Student Council Teaching Award in 1989 and the Class of 1992 Career Development Professorship. Within the Center for Theoretical Physics, Professor Zwiebach is co-organizer of the Monday Research Seminar Series and organizer of the weekly String Theory Club.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 10, 2000.
