Vice Chancellor Ian Waitz announced as next Vice President of Research
In an email to the MIT community on April 24, President Sally Kornbluth announced that Ian Waitz, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, will begin his tenure as MIT’s Vice President of Research (VPR) after Professor Maria Zuber steps down effective May 1.
Waitz’s role as VPR includes “fostering an outstanding research environment, enhancing research support services, and enabling major multidisciplinary research initiatives.” He is also responsible for overseeing labs including the Lincoln Laboratory.
Waitz earned his PhD from the California Institute of Technology and spent the majority of his career at MIT leading Course 16 and eventually the School of Engineering. He also played a key role in launching programs such as Beaverworks and Sandbox and has gained extensive insight about the scope of research at MIT because of his position as a member of the Academic Council. Waitz also held a crucial position in negotiating the bargaining agreement for the Institute’s graduate students, helping balance “being responsive to [MIT’s] graduate students’ needs and advancing [MIT’s] research and educational enterprise.”
In 2017, Waitz became Institute Vice Chancellor, a new role created to supervise both undergraduate and graduate education. Under this position, Waitz “spearheaded important financial assistance, student support and professional development opportunities for graduate students and an extensive evaluation of the first-year undergrad experience.”
With Waitz becoming the next VPR, Chancellor Melissa Nobles is currently searching for a new vice chancellor, with Professor Dan Hastings serving as the interim Vice Chancellor.
More information about Waitz and the VPR position can be found here.