Anantha Chandrakasan

Anantha P. Chandrakasan is MIT’s provost and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He serves as chair of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium and the MIT AI Hardware Program, as well as co-chair of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, the MIT-Takeda Program, and the MIT and Accenture Convergence Initiative for Industry and Technology. As head of the MIT Office of Innovation and Strategy, he has oversight of the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative (MIT HEALS) and the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium (MGAIC), and co-chair of the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC) and MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance.

He earned his bachelor’s (1989), master’s (1990), and doctoral (1994) degrees in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the MIT faculty in 1994 and was the director of the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories from 2006 to 2011. He was appointed head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) in July 2011, a position that concluded with his appointment as dean of the School of Engineering in July 2017. He began a concurrent appointment as MIT’s inaugural chief innovation and strategy officer in 2024, before becoming provost in 2025.

As dean of engineering for eight years, Chandrakasan implemented various interdisciplinary programs, creating new models for how academia and industry can work together to accelerate the pace of research. This has resulted in the launch of a number of new initiatives and programs including the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, the MIT-Takeda Program, the MIT and Accenture Convergence Initiative, the MIT Mobility Initiative, the MIT Quest for Intelligence, the MIT AI Hardware Program, the MIT-Northpond Program, the MIT Faculty Founder Initiative, and the MIT-Novo Nordisk Artificial Intelligence Postdoctoral Fellows Program.

Chandrakasan also played a role in establishing initiatives beyond the School of Engineering. He was instrumental in founding the Schwarzman College of Computing in 2018, marking the most significant structural change to MIT in 70 years. As MIT’s inaugural Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, he collaborated with key stakeholders across MIT, as well as external partners, to launch initiatives and new collaborations in support of the Institute’s strategic priorities – including MITHIC, MIT HEALS, MGAIC, the MIT Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM), and the MIT-GE Vernova Alliance.

One of his top priorities as dean was to foster a sense of community within MIT’s largest school. He has launched several programs to give students and staff a more active role in shaping the initiatives and operations of the school, including the Staff Advice & Implementation Committee, the undergraduate Student Advisory Group, the Graduate Student Advisory Group, the Faculty Gender Equity Committee, and the MIT School of Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Engineering Excellence. Working closely with GradSage, Chandrakasan has also played a role in establishing the Daniel J. Riccio Graduate Engineering Leadership Program.