Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems

Dr. de Neufville is an engineer and system designer. His research and teaching now focuses on inserting flexibility into the design of technological systems. Major industrial and government projects show that the use of “real options”, enabling managers to react to unanticipated events, significantly increases overall expected performance. This work implies a fundamental shift in the engineering design paradigm, from a focus on fixed specifications, to a concern with system performance under the broad range of situations that could occur.

Dr. de Neufville is particularly known for innovations in engineering education. He was the Founding Chairman of the MIT Technology and Policy Program, and author of 5 major texts on systems analysis in engineering. This work has been recognized by a Guggenheim Fellowship, the NATO Systems Science Prize; the Sizer Award for the Most Significant Contribution to MIT Education, the Martore and MIT Effective Teaching Awards, and the US Federal Aviation Award for Excellence in Teaching. The French Government made him a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques.

His has extensive international connections. He holds appointments from the Judge Management School at Cambridge, and at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley; University of Calgary; London Graduate School of Business; Oxford; Ecole Centrale and the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris). He spent a sabbatical in Japan as a US-Japan Leadership Fellow.

He is known worldwide for his applications in Airport Systems Planning, Design, and Management. He has been associated with major airport projects in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia – as well as others in Africa and Latin America.

He has a Ph.D. from MIT and a Dr. h.c. from the Delft University of Technology. In 1965 he served as a first White House Fellow for President Lyndon Johnson.

In the ESD, he has served as Chair of the Education Policy Committee.

Updated June 2007

News and announcements:

Books Published by Richard de Neufville

Professor Richard de Neufville to receive the Francis X. McKelvey Award (August 28, 2008)

Articles by Professors de Neufville and Sussman in summer issue of The Bridge, on Airport and Intelligent Transportation Systems (June 26, 2008)

Prof. Richard de Neufville in the Arizona Republic, on preference by low-cost airlines for budget terminals – Gateway Airport aims for efficiencies, low costs (June 25, 2008)

Prof. de Neufville on ComputerWeekly.com – 10 Years to Sort Out Denver's Baggage IT Problems (April 10, 2008)

Prof. de Neufville in Boston Globe's "Your Home" Supplement (April 7, 2008)

Richard de Neufville quoted in Society of Hispanic Engineers' magazine article (November 9, 2006)

INCOSE Best Paper Award (August 2, 2006)

Richard de Neufville Honored with 2004 Joseph A. Martore Excellence in Teaching Award (October 12, 2004)

Professors de Neufville, Widnall and ESD supporters named to Massport security advisory council (January 2003)

de Neufville and Odoni Publish New Textbook on Airport Systems (January 2003)

Honors and Awards: Professors Richard de Neufville and Dave Marks (September 2002)