Cynthia Barnhart

Cynthia Barnhart (born 1959) is an American civil engineer and academic. She is the Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[1] the first woman to hold that position,[2] succeeding W. Eric Grimson in 2014. Barnhart's work focuses on transportation and operations research, specifically specializing in developing models, optimization methods and decision support systems for large-scale transportation problems. She also is a professor in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and is an associate dean of the School of Engineering, serving a brief tenure as interim dean of engineering from 2010 to 2011.[3]

Cynthia Barnhart
6th Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Assumed office
2014
PresidentL. Rafael Reif
Preceded byW. Eric Grimson
Personal details
BornBarre, Vermont
NationalityUS
Spouse(s)Mark Baribeau
EducationUniversity of Vermont (B.S.)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsCivil engineering of transportation systems
Institutions
ThesisA network-based primal-dual solution methodology for the multi-commodity network flow problem (1988)

Early life and education

Barnhart was born in Barre, Vermont. She received her B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Vermont in 1981,[4] going on to earn her M. S in transportation in 1985, and civil engineering Ph.D in 1988 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3][5][6] She spent two years working at Bechtel, a firm in Washington, D.C., as a planning engineer for the city's subway system.

Academic career

After graduation, Barnhart worked as an assistant professor at the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology before returning to MIT as an assistant professor in 1992, eventually becoming a full professor in 2002.[3] At MIT she has served as co-director of the Center for Transportation and Logistics, co-director of the Operations Research Center, and director of Transportation@MIT.

She is the Ford Foundation Professor of Engineering at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a join appointment at the Engineering Systems Division.

Barnhart was president of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences for the 2008 term.[7] She was appointed as the 6th[8] Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014, succeeding W. Eric Grimson, a professor of Computer Science and Engineering.

Senior House Controversy

In May 2017, the decision was taken to close the dorm Senior House. Barnhart was seen as the face of this decision, and students conducted sit ins outside her office for several days.[9]

Awards

References
  1. "MIT - Faculty - Cynthia Barnhart". Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, MIT. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  2. "#UofTGrad16: Engineering leader Cynthia Barnhart". University of Toronto News. June 8, 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  3. Bradt, Steve (February 3, 2014). "Martin Schmidt named provost; Cynthia Barnhart named chancellor". MIT News. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  4. Vermont, University of. "Board of Trustees : University of Vermont". www.uvm.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-02.
  5. "Cynthia Barnhart '81". Vermont Quarterly. University of Vermont. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  6. Barnhart, Cynthia (1988). A network-based primal-dual solution methodology for the multi-commodity network flow problem (Ph.D.). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. OCLC 19948957 – via ProQuest.
  7. "Cynthia Barnhart". Miser-Harris Presidential Portrait Gallery. Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
  8. "MIT History | Office of the MIT Chancellor". libraries.mit.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  9. "Wired Article | A Weird MIT Dorm Dies, and a Crisis Blooms at Colleges". wired.com. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  10. Fellows: Alphabetical List, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, retrieved 2019-10-09
  11. INFORMS. "Cynthia Barnhart". INFORMS. Retrieved 2018-11-02.
  12. INFORMS. "Franz Edelman Laureates: Class of 2003". INFORMS. Retrieved 2018-11-02.
Academic offices
Preceded by
Eric Grimson		 Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2014 – present		 Incumbent
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