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Challenges and Opportunities Facing
MIT: A View from the Provost's Office
Provost, MIT
About L. Rafael Reif:
 Reif
is the Maseeh Professor of Emerging Technology and has been
MIT’s Provost since 2005.
He received the degree of Ingeniero Electrico
in 1973 from Universidad de Carabobo, Valencia, Venezuela,
and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering
from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, in 1975 and 1979,
respectively. From 1973 to 1974 he was an Assistant Professor
at Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela. In 1978
he became a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department
of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University. In 1980
Dr. Reif joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. He was the Director of MIT's Microsystems
Technology Laboratories for the period 1990-1999, the Associate
Department Head for Electrical Engineering in the Department
of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) for
the period 1999-2004, and the Department Head of EECS for
the period 2004-2005.
Dr. Reif held the Analog Devices Career Development
Professorship of MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science, and was awarded the IBM Faculty Fellowship
of MIT's Center for Materials Science and Engineering from
1980 to 1982. He received a United States Presidential Young
Investigator Award in 1984. Dr. Reif is a Fellow of The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
His election carried the citation "For
pioneering work in the low-temperature epitaxial growth
of semiconductor thin films". Dr. Reif is also
a recipient of the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s
(SRC) 2000 Aristotle Award “in
recognition for his commitment to the educational experience
of SRC students and the profound and continuing impact he
has had on their professional careers” http://www.src.org/member/about/aristotle2000.asp
and of a 2007 Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He is a member
of Tau Beta Pi, the Electrochemical Society, and the IEEE.
About the Series:
This lecture series is named for Charles L. Miller, who
joined the Civil Engineering faculty in 1955, and served
as head of the department from 1962-1969. Miller conceived
a problem-oriented computer language to support surveying
and highway design (COGO – Coordinate Geometry). He
generalized this new tool into ICES (Integrated Civil Engineering
Systems) with applications in structural engineering, highway
design, project management and many other fields. Remarkably,
this software concept, developed in the 1960s, is still
in active use around the world and has been a success as
a change agent for both the academic field of civil and
environmental engineering and its commercial applications.
Miller’s tenure as department head in
CEE is notable for the renewal of that department through
strategic faculty appointments, expanded research funding
and a host of new ideas. In addition to ICES, Miller founded
the Civil Engineering Systems Lab (CESL) which, in many
ways, was a precursor to the Engineering Systems Division.
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