List of Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty
This list of Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty includes current, emeritus, former, and deceased professors, lecturers, and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Faculty members who have become Institute Professors, Nobel Laureates, MacArthur Fellows, National Medal of Science recipients, or have earned other significant awards and made significant contributions are listed below.
Institute Professors
A few distinguished members of the faculty have held the title of Institute Professor in recognition of their extraordinary records of achievement and dedication to the MIT community.Nobel Laureates
Deceased faculty
- Samuel Goudsmit, Dutch-American physicist
Other prominent faculty and researchers
| Name | Department | Description | Notes |
| Hal Abelson | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | ||
| Leo Beranek | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | co-founder of the pioneering telecommunications and Internet company Bolt, Beranek and Newman | |
| Adam J. Berinsky | Political Science | professor and author | |
| Richard P. Binzel | Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science | inventor of the Torino Scale | |
| Rodney Brooks | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | behavioral roboticist | |
| Richard Bolt | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | ||
| George Boolos | Mathematician | philosopher and mathematical logician | |
| Amar G. Bose | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | audio entrepreneur, founder of Bose Corporation | |
| Thomas Ringgold Camp | Sanitary Engineering | Department head of Sanitary Engineering; founder of Camp, Dresser & McKee | |
| Iain Cheeseman | Biology | Assistant Professor of Biology | |
| Noam Chomsky | Linguistics | Institute Professor and professor emeritus; notable linguist, philosopher and political activist | |
| John Ernest Cook | Institute Organist | composer and organist | |
| David D. Clark | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | ||
| Catherine D’Ignazio | Urban Studies and Planning | director of the Data + Feminism lab | |
| Brison D. Gooch | History | specialist in history of France, Belgium, Napoleon III, Revolutions of 1848, and the Crimean War | |
| J.P. Den Hartog | Mechanical Engineering | winner of a Timoshenko Medal | |
| John J. Donovan | Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Management | Professor of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Management; founder of Cambridge Technology Partners | |
| John W. Dower | History | historian of Japan, winner of a Pulitzer Prize | |
| James L. Elliot | Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences | planetary occultations | |
| Kerry Emanuel | Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences | hurricanes | |
| Jay W. Forrester | Management | system dynamics, creator of Whirlwind I computer | |
| Ivan Getting | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | co-inventor with Bradford Parkinson of the Global Positioning System | |
| Eric Grimson | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | computer vision and its applications in medical image analysis, Chancellor of MIT | |
| Alan Grodzinsky | Electrical, Mechanical, and Biological Engineering | cartilage biomechanics, electromechanics, and tissue engineering applied to osteoarthritis research | |
| Jonathan Gruber | Economics | consultant to Health and Human Services Department; helped develop the Affordable Care Act to reform health insurance | |
| Alan Guth | Physics | proposed the idea of cosmic inflation | |
| Steven R. Hall | Aeronautics and Astronautics | professor; former chair of MIT Faculty | |
| Paula T. Hammond | Chemical Engineering | nanotechnology | |
| John R. Hauser | Management | ||
| Daniel Harlow | Physics | winner of the New Horizons in Physics Prize in 2019 | |
| Eric von Hippel | Economics | behavioral theorist | |
| Thomas H. Jordan | Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences | former department head of EAPS; director of the Southern California Earthquake Center | |
| Leslie Kolodziejski | Electrical engineer | Inventor and academic; Graduate Officer of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT | |
| Yael Tauman Kalai | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | cryptographer | |
| Thomas Levenson | Writing and Humanistic Studies | science writer and filmmaker | - |
| Walter Lewin | Physics | star of popular Walter Lewin Lectures on Physics | |
| J. C. R. Licklider | leader of the IPTO | ||
| Alan Lightman | Physics | writer, physicist | |
| Andrew B. Lippman | Media Lab | Media Lab pioneer | |
| Edward Lorenz | Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences | developed the butterfly effect theory | |
| John Maeda | Media Lab | artist, graphic designer, computer scientist | |
| Thomas H. D. Mahoney | History and Political Science | Massachusetts Secretary of Elder Affairs 1979–1983 | |
| John McCarthy | Computer science | "Founding father" of artificial intelligence; inventor of Lisp language | |
| Allan McCollum | Visual Arts Program | artist, writer, creator of The Shapes Project | |
| William J. Mitchell | Media Laboratory | architect, writer, media guru | |
| Marvin Minsky | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Media Laboratory | artificial intelligence | |
| Ernest Moniz | MIT Energy Initiative group | energy policy advisor, national security policy | |
| Frederic Richard Morgenthaler | MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics | Electromagnetics researcher and educator | |
| Philip M. Morse | Physics | operations research, physics, acoustics | |
| Arthur Mutambara | robotics and mechatronics; politician | ||
| Nicholas Negroponte | Media Lab | OLPC project leader | |
| Donna Nelson | Biology with Nancy Hopkins, 2003 | Nelson Diversity Surveys; President of the American Chemical Society | |
| Donna Nelson | Chemical Engineering with Michael Strano, 2010 | functionalization and characterization of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes; President of the American Chemical Society | |
| Seymour Papert | Media Lab | education and computers | |
| Cecil Peabody | mechanical engineering and writer | ||
| Alex (Sandy) Pentland | Media Laboratory | human-computer interaction and social networks | |
| Ruth Perry | Literature | co-founder and founding director of the Program in Women's Studies at MIT | - |
| Theodore Postol | Science, Technology, and Society | nuclear weapons expert; prominent critic of current ballistic missile defense systems | |
| Nelson Repenning | Management | system dynamics | |
| Alex K. Shalek | Chemistry, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science | single-cell genomics key opinion leader | |
| Susan Solomon | Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences | climate scientist, discovered the ozone hole | |
| Ellen Swallow Richards | Chemistry | first woman in America accepted to any school of science and technology; first female instructor at MIT; first American woman to earn a degree in chemistry; foremost female industrial and environmental chemist in the United States in the 1800s | |
| Gian-Carlo Rota | Mathematics | mathematician and philosopher | |
| Ron Rivest | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | cryptographer; co-inventor of RSA; inventor of RC5, MD5 and several other cryptographic algorithms; Turing Award winner; Institute Professor | |
| Douglas T. Ross | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | CAD pioneer | |
| Frederick P. Salvucci | Civil and Environmental Engineering | civil engineer, former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation, and principal planner of the Big Dig | |
| Edgar Schein | Brain and Cognitive Sciences | organizational psychologist | |
| George P. Shultz | Management | United States Secretary of State, Treasury, and Labor; former professor at both the MIT Department of Economics and the MIT Sloan School of Management; earned Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1949 | |
| Peter Senge | Management | learning organizations | |
| David Simchi-Levi | Systems Engineering | supply chain management | |
| Peter Shor | Mathematics | mathematician, inventor of Shor's algorithm | |
| Robert Stalnaker | philosopher, linguist | ||
| John Sterman | system dynamics | ||
| Dirk Jan Struik | Mathematics | mathematician and historian of mathematics | |
| Gerald Sussman | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | co-inventor of Scheme; research in artificial intelligence, computer languages, and orbital mechanics | |
| Sherry Turkle | Science, Technology, and Society | clinical psychologist and sociologist | |
| Kay Tye | Brain and Cognitive Sciences | neuroscientist | |
| Brian Wardle | Aeronautics and Astronautics | Boeing Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics | |
| Christopher Weaver | Comparative Media Studies and Microphotonics Center | founder of Bethesda Softworks, visiting scientist and lecturer in engineering | |
| Evan Ziporyn | Music and Theater Arts | composer, clarinetist, Bang on a Can All-Stars |