Research Council

Purpose

The purpose of the Council is to bring together the research laboratory and center community to work on issues of research policy, opportunities for new initiatives and the evolution and needs for a prosperous and productive research environment at MIT. The meetings will be used to address issues of common interest to the research community and to communicate, through the work of the council, to the Offices of the VP for Research and the Provost.

We are proud of the diverse environment created by our laboratories and centers. Sometimes the structure is portrayed as a matrix, with the departments being the columns and the lab and center being the rows. Through the Research Council, we strive to enhance the communication between the rows of the matrix to enable laboratories having compatible areas of expertise to ease the seamless interaction across laboratory and center boundaries. We also aim to better articulate our unified values within MIT and the outside world.

Leadership

The Vice President for Research will chair the Council.

Membership

The council will be comprised of the leaders of the major laboratories and centers on campus.

VPR Laboratories, Centers, Institutes, and Initiatives

• Marc Baldo, Director Research Laboratory for Electronics (RLE)
• Vladimir Bulovic, Director MIT.Nano
• Jacopo Buongiorno, Director Science and Technology Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (NRL)
• Melissa Choi, Director Lincoln Laboratory (LL)
• Elazer Edelman, Director Center for Clinical and Translations Research (CCTR)
• Philip Erickson, Director Haystack Observatory
• John Fernández, Director MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI)
• Peter Fisher, Associate Vice President for Research and Head of Office of Research Computing and Data (ORCD)
• Mick Follows, Director MIT – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program (MIT-WHOI)
• Bill Green, Director MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI)
• John Joannopoulos, Director Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN)
• Lionel Kimerling, Interim Director Materials Research Laboratory (MRL)
• Gordon Kohse, Managing Director for Operations Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (NRL)
• James LeBeau, Co-Director for Characterization MIT.nano
• John Lienhard, Director Abdul Latif Jameel Prof of Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS)
• Nuno Gomes Loureiro, Director Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC)
• Tomas Palacios, Director Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL)
• Kelly Metcalf Pate, Director Division of Comparative Medicine (DCM)
• Raul Radovitzky, Associate Director Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
• Matthew Vander Heiden, Director Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (KI)
• Ian Waitz, Vice President for Research
• Daniel Weitzner, Founding Director Internet Policy Research Initiative (IPRI)
• Anne White, Associate Vice President for Research Administration

Other Laboratories, Centers, Institutes, and Initiatives

• Abhijit Banerjee, Director Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
• Fotini Christia, Director Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS)
• Robert Desimone, Director McGovern Institute
• Esther Duflo, Director Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
• Sertac Karaman, Director Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS)
• Dava Newman, Director Media Lab
• Alex Shalek, Director Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES)
• Robert Simcoe, Director Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
• Daniela Rus, Director Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
• Boleslaw Wyslouch, Director Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS)

VPR Invited Staff

• Karen Shirer, Chief of Staff Office of Vice President for Research
• Mary Markel Murphy, Senior Director for Administration Office of Vice President for Research
• Ken Goldsmith, Senior Director for Finance Office of Vice President for Research

Staff to the Committee

• Karen Shirer, Chief of Staff Office of Vice President for Research

Meetings