Cynthia Barnhart
American
Mark Baribeau
Civil engineering of transportation systems
Early life and education[edit]
Barnhart was born in Barre, Vermont. She received a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of Vermont in 1981.[2] From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she received a Master of Science in transportation in 1985 and a Doctor of Philosophy in civil engineering in 1988.[1][3][4]
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[edit]
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.[1] 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.[5] She was appointed as the 6th[6] Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014, succeeding W. Eric Grimson, a professor of Computer Science and Engineering.
On May 3, 2021, it was announced that Barnhart will step down from her role as Chancellor on July 1, 2021, at which time she will return to research and teaching activities as a faculty member.[7]
On February 10, 2022, MIT announced that Barnhart will become MIT's next Provost, effective March 7.[8]