Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems
Ford Professor of Engineering

Dr. Crawley received an Sc.D. in Aerospace Structures from MIT in 1981. His early research interests centered on structural dynamics, aeroelasticity, and the development of actively controlled and intelligent structures. Recently, Dr. Crawley’s research has focused on the domain of the architecture and design of complex systems.

Dr. Crawley’s work spans a range from the development of underlying theory, typified by a recent paper on the Algebra of Systems, to the development of methods and tools, such as Object Process Networks. It extends as far as a consulting role on the design of actual systems. Currently he is engaged on both NASA and oil exploration system designs.

From 2003 to 2006 he served as the Executive Director of the Cambridge – MIT Institute, a joint venture, funded by the British government and industry, with a mission to understand and generalize how universities act as engines of innovation and economic growth. For the previous seven years, he served as the Department Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, leading the strategic realignment of the department.

Dr. Crawley was the founding co-director of the System Design and Management Program, which leads to a degree jointly offered by the School of Engineering and Sloan School of Management at MIT. He is the founding co-director of an international collaboration on the reform of engineering education, and the lead author of the book, Rethinking Engineering Education, the CDIO Approach.

Dr. Crawley is a Fellow of the AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society (UK), and is a member of three national academies of engineering: the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science, the (UK) Royal Academy of Engineering, and the US National Academy of Engineering. He is the author of numerous journal publications in the AIAA Journal, the ASME Journal, the Journal of Composite Materials, and Acta Astronautica.

In his outreach and public service, Dr. Crawley was chairman of the NASA Technology and Commercialization Advisory Committee, and was a member of the NASA Advisory Committee. He holds the NASA Public Service Medal. In 1993 was a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Space Station Redesign. He is conversant in Russian, and has spent time as a visitor at the Moscow Aviation Institute, the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University and Cambridge University. He was a finalist in the NASA Astronaut selection in 1980, is an active pilot, and was the 1990, 1995 and 2005 Northeast Regional Soaring champion. In 2004 he received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award of the Boy Scouts of America.

Updated June 2007

News and announcements:

ESD Prof. Ed Crawley and Prof. Joel Schindall to Direct Gordon Leadership Program (November 9, 2007)

Profs. Ed Crawley and Joel Schindall help establish new program for engineering leaders (July 27, 2007)

Complex Systems publishes “Using Shape Grammar to Derive Cellular Automata Rule Patterns" (.pdf) co-authored by ESD Ph.D. student Tom Speller, Dr. Dan Whitney, Prof. Ed Crawley (July 11, 2007)

Rhodes, Frey Honored at INCOSE Symposium ESD plays major role in event (July 22, 2005)