The Corporation's Executive Committee approved 25 faculty members for promotion to tenure in May. Here are their profiles:
Charles F. Harvey
Environmental Engineering
Education: B.S. 1986 (Oberlin College); M.S. 1992 and Ph.D. 1996 (both from Stanford University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1998
Harvey is a hydrologist concerned with groundwater and the fate and transport of chemicals in the subsurface environment.
David Darmofal
Aeronautics and Astronautics
Education: B.S.E.1989 (University of Michigan); S.M. 1991 and Ph.D. 1993 (MIT)
Joined MIT faculty: 1995
Darmofal is a world leader in the computation of aerodynamic flows for design and in the robust aero-thermal design of jet engines. He is a national leader in aerospace design.
Andras Vasy
Mathematics
Education: B.S. 1993 and M.S. 1993 (both from Stanford University); Ph.D. 1997 (MIT)
Joined MIT faculty: 1999
Vasy is the leading microlocal analyst of his generation.
Max Tegmark
Physics
Education: S.B. 1989 (Stockholm School of Economics); S.B. 1990 (Royal Institute of Technology); Ph.D. 1994 (UC-Berkeley)
Joined MIT faculty: 2004
Tegmark's research focuses on issues related to constraining cosmological models. His main current research interest is cosmology theory and phenomenology.
Bernhardt L. Trout
Chemical Engineering
Education: S.B. and M.S.CEP 1990 (MIT); Ph.D. 1996 (UC-Berkeley)
Joined MIT faculty: 1998
A leader in molecular engineering, Trout does research into clean fuel sources, high-sulfur-fuel emission reduction and minimizing degradation of therapeutic proteins (drugs).
Eran Ben-Joseph
Urban Studies and Planning
Education: B.A. 1982 and Ph.D. 1995 (both from UC-Berkeley); M. Agr. 1986 (National University, Chiba, Japan)
Joined MIT faculty: 1998
A major voice in his field, Ben-Joseph suggests new approaches to shaping urban development in more responsible and effective ways.
Catherine L. Drennan
Chemistry
Education: A.B. 1985 (Vassar College); Ph.D. 1995 (University of Michigan)
Joined MIT faculty: 1996
Drennan uses macromolecular crystallography to investigate metalloproteins that achieve some of the more remarkable chemical transformations in living systems.
Scott R. Manalis
Biological Engineering
Education: B.S. 1994 (UC-Santa Barbara); M.S. 1996 and Ph.D. 1998 (both from Stanford University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1999
Manalis' laboratory develops more efficient methods for measuring specific proteins and DNA. Manalis has played a key role in the creation of a new bioinstrumentation laboratory subject for the biological engineering S.B. major.
Bevin P. Engelward
Biological Engineering
Education: B.A. 1988 (Yale University); Sc.D. 1996 (Harvard University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1997
Engelward's work is focused on environmental and inherited factors that influence human health. The Engelward laboratory created the first animal model that makes it possible to directly detect recombinant cells that arise in adult tissues.
Georgia Perakis
Sloan School of Management
Education: B.S. 1987 (University of Athens, Greece); M.S. 1988 and Ph.D. 1993 (Brown University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1998
A rising star in operations research, Perakis is known for her strong mathematical background and creativity in applying novel, sophisticated mathematical tools to optimization and equilibrium problems.
Andreas S. Schulz
Sloan School of Management
Education: Diploma, mathematics 1993 and Ph.D. 1996 (both from Technische Universität, Germany)
Joined MIT faculty: 1998
Schulz is a leader in the field of machine scheduling. His contributions include not only the solution of specific problems but also the development of methodologies that can be broadly applied.
Jesper B. Sorensen
Sloan School of Management
Education: A.B. 1989 (Harvard University); M.A. 1992 and Ph.D. 1996 (Stanford University)
Joined MIT faculty: 2000
Sorenson is a top scholar in organizational sociology. His research lies at the intersection of organizations (macro-organizational issues) and labor markets (issues of social class and mobility).
Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivan
Sloan School of Management
Education: B.A. 1992 (Columbia University); M.S. 1994 and Ph.D. 1997 (both from University of Chicago)
Joined MIT faculty: 2001
Zuckerman is a leader in the emerging field of economic sociology. His work is known for both theoretical sophistication and methodological rigor.
Krste Asanovic
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Education: B.A.1987 (University of Cambridge); Ph.D. 1998 (UC-Berkeley)
Joined MIT faculty: 1998
Asanovic occupies an unusual research niche, combining strengths as a circuit designer with strengths as a computer architect. His breakthrough innovations in memory management and in parallel processor design are highly influential within the field.
Isaac L. Chuang
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Education: S.B. 1990, S.B. 1991 and S.M. 1991 (all MIT); Ph.D. 1997 (Stanford University)
Joined MIT faculty: 2001
Chuang is a leader in the young field of quantum computation and quantum information and has already made landmark progress toward his research goal, building a practical quantum computer.
Martin F. Polz
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Education: Mag. Rer. Nat. 1991 (University of Vienna); A.M. 1995 and Ph.D. 1997 (both from Harvard University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1998
The focus of Polz's work has been developing a clear picture of the diversity of microbes in nature, an understanding of the evolutionary origins of that diversity and an understanding of what is influencing the rate(s) of microbial processes.
David Autor
Economics
Education: B.A.1989 (Tufts University); M.A.1994 and Ph.D. 1999 (both from Harvard University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1999
Autor is a labor economist who is studying fundamental issues concerning training, information flows and labor market structure. He is one of the leading young scholars in labor economics and has built an international reputation for his analysis of current labor market developments.
Muriel Medard
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Education: S.B. 1989, S.B. 1991, S.M. 1991, Ph.D. 1995 (all from MIT)
Joined MIT faculty: 1995 (Lincoln Lab)
Medard has made significant contributions in two areas: wireless communications and optical networks. She is credited with laying the foundation for a third field, network coding.
Antoinette Schoar
Sloan School of Management
Education: Diploma, economics 1995 (University of Cologne, Germany); Ph.D. 2000 (University of Chicago)
Joined MIT faculty: 2000
Schoar's work focuses on the relationships between the internal structure and policies of the firm and financial outcomes.
Emma J. Teng
Foreign Languages and Literatures
Education: A.B. 1989, A.M. 1992, Ph.D. 1997 (all from Harvard University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1995
An innovative scholar who has demonstrated leadership nationally in premodern Chinese studies and Asian-American studies, Teng has helped shape the Asian and Asian-American studies curriculum at MIT. Her work combines textual analysis, solid historical scholarship and theoretical inquiries.
Jianshu Cao
Chemistry
Education: B.Sc. 1986 (Zhejiang University); M. Arts 1988, M. Phil. 1989, Ph.D. 1993 (all from Columbia University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1998
Cao's research group develops molecular models for understanding the structure and dynamics of condensed phase molecular systems, to establish relationships between these models and experimental observables and to explore new ways to measure and manipulate molecular dynamics.
Andrei Tokmakoff
Chemistry
Education: B.Sc. (California State University); M. Sc. and Ph.D. (both from Stanford University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1999
Tokmakoff's research focuses on molecular dynamics in the condensed phase. He works on experimental methods to study transient molecular structure and its time-evolution in amorphous molecular condensed phases and biological systems.
Michael B. Yaffe
Biology
Education: B.S. 1981 (Cornell University); Ph.D. 1987 and M.D. 1989 (both from Case Western Reserve)
Joined MIT faculty: 2000
Yaffe is an international leader in the field of signal transduction. His research is aimed at deciphering the structural code that governs the transient interactions between proteins in intracellular signaling pathways. Using a combination of diverse methods in biochemistry, cell biology, proteomics and bioinformatics, Yaffe's research shows at the molecular level how intracellular signals can be transmitted through networks of interactions.
Chappell Lawson
Political Science
Education: A.B. 1989 (Princeton University); M.S. 1996 and Ph.D. 1999 (both from Stanford University)
Joined MIT faculty: 1998
Lawson's primary research field is Latin America and the emergence of new democracies. He is interested in understanding how the public discourse that links citizens and candidates for office evolves as former authoritarian regimes embrace the trappings of mass democracy.
Victor Chernozhukov
Economics
Education: B.S. 1995 (Nizhni Novgorod State Agricultural Academy); M.S. 1997 (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Ph.D. 2000 (Stanford University)
Joined MIT faculty: 2000
Chernozhukov is an econometric theorist who has emerged as the leading econometrician in his age group. He combines an outstanding command of mathematical statistical methods with a broad interest in important econometric problems.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 19, 2005 (download PDF).
