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
• Peter Fisher, associate vice president for research and head of the Office of Research Computing and Data (ORCD)
• Bill Green, director, MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI)
• Rohit Karnik, director, Abdul Latif Jameel Prof of Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS)
• Gordon Kohse, managing director, for Operations Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (NRL)
• Tomas Palacios, director, Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) and Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
• Kelly Metcalf Pate, director, Division of Comparative Medicine (DCM)
• Cem Tasan, director, Materials Research Laboratory (MRL)
• Matthew Vander Heiden, director, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (KI)
• Ian Waitz, vice president, Research
• Anne White, associate vice president, Research Administration
• Stephen Wukitch, interim director, Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC)

Other Laboratories, Centers, Institutes, and Initiatives

• Robert Desimone, director, McGovern Institute
• Danna Freedman, director, MIT Quantum Initiative
• Myriam Heiman, director, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
• Sertac Karaman, director, Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS)
• Tod Machover, director, Director Media Lab
• Ben Olken, faculty director, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
• Daniela Rus, director, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
• Robert Simcoe, director, Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
• Jesse Thaler, director, Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS)
• Jessika Trancik, director, Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC)
• Boleslaw Wyslouch, director, Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS)

VPR Invited Staff

• Ken Goldsmith, senior director for finance, Office of the Vice President for Research
• Kenneth Lloyd, senior director, Human Resources
• Caroline Perry, director of communications, Office of Vice President for Research
• Karen Shirer, chief of staff, Office of Vice President for Research

Staff to the Committee

• Karen Shirer, chief of staff, Office of Vice President for Research

Meetings