|
The Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic
Systems (LEES) to be merged into the Research Laboratory
of Electronics (RLE)
For Immediate Release
THURSDAY, 16 April 2009
Contact: William Smith, Assistant
Director for Finance and Sponsor Relations
Phone: +1.617.253.5621
Email: whs@mit.edu
CAMBRIDGE, MA. 04.16.2009
The Laboratory
for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) will be merged into the Research Laboratory
of Electronics (RLE) effective July 1, 2009 as part
of a growing emphasis on energy-related research in
RLE.
Researchers affiliated with LEES are pioneers in understanding,
on one hand, the theoretical basis of advanced electrical
energy applications, and on the other, the component,
circuit, and system technologies required to make such
applications practical realities. They join
other faculty in RLE who are pursuing world-leading
energy-related initiatives in solar power, molecular
electronics, organic and optoelectronic systems, and
biologically inspired systems and devices.
"This merger will further strengthen our ability
to conduct frontier research that focuses on meeting
the world's energy needs," said Claude R. Canizares,
Vice President for Research and Associate Provost. "Under
the umbrella of the MIT Energy Initiative, researchers
across all five schools are devising novel technologies
and bringing fresh approaches to tackle this major
societal problem. I am confident that the merger
of LEES into RLE will provide an even stronger framework
for RLE's efforts in this area."
Jeffrey H.
Shapiro, the Julius A. Stratton Professor
of Electrical Engineering and Director of RLE said, "LEES
researchers provide expertise in efficient electric
energy production, distribution, utilization, and storage,
as well as in electromechanics from the nanoscopic
to the macroscopic levels. Thus, their addition
to RLE forms a natural fit to the major energy initiatives
that our faculty are already leading. Together,
these efforts will support MIT's commitment to have
a profound impact on the global energy future."
Joel E. Schindall, Bernard M. Gordon Professor of
the Practice and Acting Director of LEES, will
become an Associate Director of RLE. Schindall
said, "LEES has had a remarkable history of accomplishment
on a broad range of work to understand energy and to
develop applications of that understanding. The
LEES faculty, students and staff look forward to beginning
a new chapter of building on this success by becoming
part of RLE and pursuing new opportunities for synergy
on many interesting topics."
RLE, founded in 1946, was the first of the Institute's
great modern interdepartmental academic research centers. Today,
RLE is one of MIT's largest such organizations, and
among the most diverse MIT laboratories in its scope
of intellectual interests. Research in RLE
encompasses an extensive range of natural and man-made
phenomena, and its investigations are both basic and
applied. The current research of RLE's investigators
is organized around six primary themes: circuits, systems,
signals and communications; atomic physics; quantum
computation and communication; photonic materials,
devices and systems; nanoscale science and engineering;
and multiscale bioengineering and biophysics.
A seventh RLE theme—electromagnetics, power
and energy—will be created to comprise the work
of the new affiliated former LEES faculty as well as
RLE investigators already conducting energy-related
research.
"This is not the first time RLE has provided
leadership in the energy area," said Professor
Shapiro. "MIT's work in plasma fusion
science had its origins in RLE, with RLE programs and
researchers helping to form the core of what would
become MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center today. It
is my hope to repeat this success in being once again
a locus of innovation in approaching the important
theoretical and engineering problems related to the
world's energy needs."
|
