Professor Charles L. Cooney, a professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, has been named faculty director of MIT's new Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, effective March 1.
The Deshpande Center was established at the School of Engineering in January through a $20 million gift from Jaishree and Desh Deshpande. The center is dedicated to supporting research on novel technologies in collaboration with the high technology and venture capital communities in New England, and to supporting undergraduate education in engineering practice. Deshpande is co-founder and chair of Sycamore Networks Inc.
Since 1991, Cooney has been co-director of the Program on the Pharmaceutical Industry, which cuts across the schools of science, engineering and management. He was executive officer of the Department of Che-mical Engineering from 1996 to 2001, and currently is on sabbatical at the University of Cambridge. He received the B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966 and the S.M. (1967) and Ph.D. (1970) in biochemical engineering from MIT. He joined the MIT faculty as an assistant professor in 1970, was promoted to associate professor in 1975 and full professor in 1982.
"The establishment of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation is an exciting opportunity for MIT, as it will allow us to fund cutting-edge research at an early stage and accelerate emerging technology development towards real world impact," Cooney said. "We will publish a request for pre-proposals for funding through the Center in April and will be looking for exciting new ideas."
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 20, 2002.
