IS&T leadership update

Dear IS&T and IT Partners community,

I am writing to let you know that Mark Silis has shared with us his decision to step down as MIT's Vice President for Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) at the end of this calendar year, to return to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the San Francisco Bay area.

Mark joined MIT in 1995 as an undergraduate in EECS. He has been a member of IS&T for more than 20 years, returning to the Institute from startups and the dot-com era in 2003 as a senior systems programmer, then serving as manager of network and infrastructure services, director of operations and infrastructure services, and associate vice president before assuming the role of vice president in March of 2019. Mark’s deep love of MIT and his institutional and technical knowledge have been a great asset to our community.

Under Mark’s leadership, IS&T provides strategic support for MIT’s overall IT landscape and operational support to MIT’s academic, research, and administrative programs. Mark’s accomplishments are significant and include the evolution of MIT’s network and core IT services; the creation of MIT’s Regional Optical Network; development of the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC); strengthening the overall cybersecurity of our environment; enhancing the physical safety and security of our campus; significant upgrades to the MIT Atlas platform, including a mobile app, digital MIT ID, and chat-based IT support; and a new generation of in-person IT support services.

In addition, I would like to highlight two specific initiatives, stewarded by Mark in collaboration with others, that have served the MIT community in critical ways: leading IS&T’s efforts to support our community during the Covid pandemic; and the overall transition to the cloud for MIT’s IT systems and services.

Supporting MIT throughout the pandemic involved a collaborative team of staff members from IS&T, Emergency Management, MIT Health, OVC, and many of MIT’s central offices and DLCs. They worked around the clock to deliver integrated, seamless, and innovative solutions for Covid testing and daily health attestations and coupled those with access to campus buildings. They also partnered closely with Open Learning to transition MIT’s learning management system to Canvas and enhance our classroom infrastructure. These efforts were a foundation of our research ramp-up and phased reopening plans, enabling the mission of the Institute to continue safely and successfully throughout the pandemic.

The cloud transition of IT@MIT has been a comprehensive effort engaging IT colleagues across IS&T and MIT, smoothly and seamlessly migrating email, telephony, VPN, Wi-Fi, authentication, and data backups to the cloud. It has positioned our IT services portfolio to meet the evolving needs of our community, including an ambitious program to modernize our core administrative systems in the years ahead.

Please join me in wishing Mark well and thanking him for his long service to MIT.

Sincerely,

Glen Shor
Executive Vice President and Treasurer