Sanyal, Schuh, Verghese, and Winston
Named 2011 MacVicar Faculty Fellows

Four professors have been named 2011 MacVicar Faculty Fellows as MIT celebrates the program’s twentieth year recognizing outstanding undergraduate teaching. Bishwapriya (Bish) Sanyal  (Department of Urban Studies and Planning), Christopher Schuh (Department of Materials Science and Engineering), George Verghese, and Patrick Winston (both in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) join an elite group of just 38 current MacVicar Fellows.

The MacVicar Faculty Fellows Program was named to honor the life and contributions of the late Margaret L.A. MacVicar '64, Sc.D. '67, Professor of Physical Science and Dean for Undergraduate Education at the time of her death in 1991. Professor MacVicar was a noted educator and scientist who founded MIT's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). She was nationally recognized for her leadership in shaping policies both for undergraduate education and for science education in public schools.
Selection of the Fellows is made by the Provost with guidance from an advisory committee chaired by Daniel Hastings, Dean for Undergraduate Education, and composed of undergraduate students and faculty. The committee also heavily considers student comments that express the positive and often profound impact these professors have made on their lives.

Bish Sanyal 

is Ford International Professor of Urban Development and Planning. He joined the faculty at MIT in 1984, after working for the World Bank, and served as the Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning from 1994 to 2002 and Chair of the faculty from 2007 to 2009. He is currently the Director of the SPURS/Hubert Humphrey program at MIT for mid career professionals. Despite such administrative responsibilities, Bish continues to teach popular courses on urban development planning and is involved in three research projects on planning theory, urban housing issues, and good performance in public sector in India. He is also the co- principle investigator for a Rockefeller Foundation funded project for curriculum development for a new private university soon to be started in Bangalore, India. 

In addition to teaching DUSP’s popular “Big Plans” class and D-Lab’s development class, Bish has been instrumental in the creation of MIT’s International House for Global Leadership (iHouse), an imaginative blending of undergraduate education, communal living, and public service goals.

Chris Schuh

is the Danae and Vasilios Salapatas Associate Professor of Metallurgy. In July 2011, he will become a full Professor. After receiving his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, Chris joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2002. His research uses experiments, analytical theory, and computer simulations to explore the processing-structure-property relationships in structural metals. He is particularly interested in the role of structural disorder and its effect on mechanical properties.

Since coming to MIT, Chris has taught five key subjects, all in the UG or G core areas of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE). He has consistently received strong positive feedback from the students in these courses where they describe his lecture style as fun, engaging, energetic, and informative.

George Verghese,

Professor of Electrical Engineering, has been part of the MIT faculty since 1979. George's research in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) is currently focused on modeling and estimation in biomedicine, particularly for improved monitoring of patients in clinical settings.

George has had a broad educational impact in EECS through his role on the Curriculum Innovation Committee and as Education Officer for many years. He has taught a range of courses and in recent years he's been involved in the evolution of the "header" course in communication, control, and signal processing. He has been especially helpful in finding ways to explain complex and challenging material in a clear manner.

Patrick Winston

is Ford Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science. He has been with CSAIL, formerly the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, since 1967. He joined the faculty in 1970, and was the Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory from 1972 to 1997. Patrick is particularly involved in the study of how vision, language, and motor faculties account for intelligence. He also works on applications of Artificial Intelligence that are enabled by learning, precedent-based reasoning, and common-sense problem solving.

Patrick’s lectures frequently deal with both the important ideas that came out of a piece of work and the discussion of how those ideas arose. This comes from his approach to teaching students to think: it isn’t enough to explain the great ideas to students, they also need to understand the process – the thought patterns – that lead to those ideas. It is what makes Winston’s lectures far more than the advertised subject matter. He understands the power of conveying ideas clearly and tries to pass on his skill set.

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