Dean Hastings steps down
Dean Hastings steps down
Yesterday evening, Chancellor Eric Grimson PhD ’80 announced that Dean Daniel E. Hastings PhD ’80 would be stepping down as dean of undergraduate education effective July 1, 2013. According to Grimson’s email to the entire MIT community, Hastings will be returning to his faculty position in Aero/Astro (Course 16) and Engineering Systems Division (ESD) after taking a year off for a sabbatical. Since being appointed dean of undergraduate education in 2006, Hastings has focused on giving students more international opportunities and helped modernize several aspects of students’ education.
Since 2006, MISTI, MIT’s international internship program, has expanded from sending 300 to 400 students abroad. On his legacy, Hastings told MIT News that he is most proud of his work in expanding global education, and introducing online grading and course evaluations.
Hastings first joined MIT’s Aero/Astro Department in 1985 as an assistant professor, before becoming associate professor in 1988 and finally advancing to full professor in 1993. Since 2000, he has held various positions in ESD, including director of the technology and policy program, associate director, and director. He is currently the Cecil and Ida Green education professor of Engineering Systems.
According to Grimson, a search committee will be formed in the coming weeks to find the next dean.
—Anthony Yu