Provost Cynthia Barnhart to step down
Dear members of the MIT community,
I write to let you know that Cynthia Barnhart SM ’86, PhD 88, the Abraham J. Siegel Professor of Management Science and Professor of Operations Research, has decided to step down as MIT’s provost. To help us navigate the transition to a new provost, she will stay on in the role until June 30, when she will begin a sabbatical.
Rising to provost
Cindy came to MIT four decades ago to pursue graduate work in transportation systems and operations research. In 1992, she joined the faculty, rising to serve as associate dean of the School of Engineering, including a year as acting dean, and later serving more than seven years as chancellor, a period that included the intense challenges of the pandemic.
In February 2022, when my predecessor, then–MIT President Rafael Reif, announced that he planned to step down, he asked Cindy to return from sabbatical and rejoin the senior leadership team to provide a bridge to the next administration.
Because of her dedication to MIT and a commitment to our shared vision, when I arrived in January 2023, she agreed to stay and serve the community for the first two years of my term. Cindy has been a wonderful partner in thinking and doing, and I will be forever grateful for having been able to tap her knowledge of the Institute’s people, culture, practices and institutional systems.
This MIT News story offers more about Cindy’s accomplishments and her long career at MIT.
Her accomplishments in the role
As MIT’s chief academic and budgetary officer, the provost has responsibility for an incredible array of MIT functions, from academic priorities and financial planning to research support, international engagements and open learning. It’s a demanding job even in calm waters, and turbulence over the past few years made those demands more intense.
Working closely with me and Dean of Engineering and Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer Anantha Chandrakasan, Cindy helped shape and launch major academic initiatives – the Climate Project at MIT, the MIT Human Insight Collaborative, the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative and the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium. She helped pave the way for the consortium by joining with me in issuing a call to our research community for proposed impact papers that “articulate effective road maps, policy recommendations, and calls for action across the broad domain of generative AI.” The first round drew so many outstanding proposals that we funded a second one.
Education has been a driving interest for Cindy throughout her time in leadership. During her upcoming sabbatical, she will advance work she started as provost to expand MIT’s reach, impact and leadership in making our mind-and-hand approach to education accessible to a much broader set of learners.
Beyond her countless campus duties, Cindy also represented the Institute on important external committees and boards, including the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Board, the Schwarzman College of Computing External Advisory Council, Axim Collaborative, Landmark Bio and MIT Technology Review.
Throughout, she has focused on safeguarding MIT’s excellence; accordingly, working with the deans and other academic leaders, she found a range of ways to bolster support for MIT’s extraordinary faculty, postdocs and students, and orchestrated important new hires. Tapping the wisdom of faculty-led search advisory groups, she filled half a dozen key academic leadership roles.
Cindy also made important improvements to our systems. She put in place standard terms for deans and vice provosts; worked with Vice Provost for Faculty Paula Hammond to enhance MIT’s approach to professional development and career advancement for faculty and, in concert with the Office of the Executive Vice President and Treasurer and others, initiated an ongoing review of the Institute’s budgeting process.
The challenges of being provost are a perfect match for Cindy’s problem-solving instincts, her training as a systems thinker and her skill in balancing the needs and interests of countless individuals and groups. I’m particularly grateful for the time and care she devoted to fostering shared governance with our faculty officers – a model for MIT going forward.
I hope you will join me in thanking Cindy for her long record of selfless and distinguished service to MIT.
Identifying a new provost
The next provost will help guide the Institute through a period of intense pressure and potentially historic change. I will work with representative faculty from each school and the college to help me in selecting the next provost.
If you think you might be a good match for the role, I encourage you to submit your CV and a brief statement of interest to me at provost-nomination@mit.edu. I will of course treat any correspondence as confidential.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
President