Japan Steel Industry Professor of Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering
Director, MIT Portugal Program
Founding Director, MIT ESD

Dr. Daniel Roos, Japan Steel Industry Professor of Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering, currently serves as Director of the MIT Portugal Program, which is a five-year, $40 million initiative focusing on engineering systems. The program involves over 40 MIT faculty from all five schools at MIT.

Dr. Roos was the Founding Director of MIT’s Engineering Systems Division (ESD) from 1998–2004 and serves as Chair of the Engineering Systems University Council, an organization of universities with Engineering Systems programs.

Previous MIT responsibilities for Dr. Roos include serving as Director of the MIT Center for Transportation Studies, and Director of the MIT Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development. Dr. Roos also served as Special Assistant to the MIT Chancellor and Provost, helping to form large-scale industrial and global partnerships. He had a leadership role in partnerships with Ford, Merrill Lynch, and Cambridge University in the U.K.

Dr. Roos was Founding Director of the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP) and currently serves as Chair of the IMVP Advisory Board. He is co-author of The Machine that Changed the World, which has been published in 11 languages and has sold over 600,000 copies. Dr. Roos received the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research and the Frank M. Masters Transportation Engineering Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers "for his 25 year professional career in directing a series of highly innovative research projects of great relevance in the advancement of urban transportation.”

Dr. Roos has performed extensive consulting assignments around the world for government and industry. He served for 11 years as consultant to the World Economic Forum helping to organize and run the annual Auto Governors Meeting at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos Switzerland. The Governors meeting is attended by 30 automotive CEOs.

Dr. Roos has chaired and served on numerous committees of the National Research Council including chairing the first National Academy study of intelligent transportation systems, as National Lecturer with the Association of Computing Machinery; and as an officer with the Transportation Research Board, Operations Research Society of America, American Society of Civil Engineers, ITS America, and Council of University Transportation Centers.

Updated June 2007

News and announcements:

Books Published by Daniel Roos

NPR's On Point features Prof. Daniel Roos on Economics of Fuel Economy (August 26, 2005)

Establishing Leadership in the Emerging Field of Engineering Systems (October 8, 2004)

Professor Daniel Roos Delivers 2004 Miller Lecture (June 9, 2004)

Building the Engineering Systems Division, an interview with Daniel Roos.