India-born Anantha Chandrakasan Appointed as Dean of MIT’s Engineering School

Anantha Chandrakasan, an India-born academician, was appointed as the Dean of the School of Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The position was offered to him in June 2017 and he started the term as the Dean on July 1, 2017.

Chandrakasan succeeded Ian Waitz for this position after the latter was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of MIT. The Chennai-born academician has served as the Head of the Department of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT.

During his service at MIT, he led a number of initiatives and provided opportunities for students, postdocs as well as faculty members who wanted to engage in research and participate in entrepreneurial projects.

Chandrakasan’s Education and Career:

• Chandrakasan moved to the US when he was in High School.
• He made his career in the electrical engineering and computer science field.
• He pursued his bachelor’s, master’s as well as doctoral degrees from University of California, Berkeley.
• After completing his education, he joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology as faculty.
• He was appointed as the director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) in 2016 and was later made the Head of EECS in 2011.

Awards and Achievements of Chandrakasan

• He was awarded the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) University Researcher Award in 2009.
• IEEE Donald O Pederson Award 2013 in the Solid-State Circuits domain.
• In 2016, he was also awarded an honorary doctorate from KU Leuven and the UC Berkeley EE Distinguished Alumni Award.
• IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) recognised him as the author of the maximum number of publications in their 60-year history.

Talking about his career, Chandrakasan said that he was motivated by his mother to join academics. He added that ever since he enrolled for the graduate programme he wanted to become a professor.

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He further said that he is excited about this new administrative job as he will be able to create more opportunities for students and improve the postdoc experience. He is also looking forward to connecting with the students directly in order to understand their aspirations.