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Letter announcing new associate deans for innovation

MIT President L. Rafael Reif has named Vladimir Bulović and Fiona Murray to lead the MIT Innovation Initiative.
Caption:
MIT President L. Rafael Reif has named Vladimir Bulović and Fiona Murray to lead the MIT Innovation Initiative.

The following email was sent today to the MIT faculty by David Schmittlein, John C Head III Dean at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and Ian A. Waitz, dean of the School of Engineering and the Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Dear Colleagues,

It is with great pleasure that we write to announce the appointments of Fiona Murray as MIT Sloan's Associate Dean for Innovation and Vladimir Bulović as the MIT School of Engineering's Associate Dean for Innovation. Individually, their positions speak to both new responsibilities and enduring values and priorities for the School of Management and the School of Engineering. Collectively, these appointments symbolize a strong commitment to ensuring new avenues for collaboration, discovery, and advancement throughout MIT in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship. Each Associate Dean will serve as a leader in President Reif's newly announced Innovation Initiative, and as part of their joint activities they will examine MIT’s structures and organizations to ensure that the Institute is optimized to deliver the innovation that is central to MIT’s mission. 

MIT Sloan's Associate Dean for Innovation Fiona Murray

As Associate Dean, Fiona will be responsible for coordinating the extensive entrepreneurship and innovation-focused teaching across MIT Sloan’s degree and non-degree programs, and she will continue as the faculty director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. She will also foster visibility and coherence across a range of innovation-oriented research initiatives at the School and around the Institute. Fiona is particularly well placed to undertake this important cross-campus role as she also serves on the MIT Intellectual Property Committee, has been co-chair of the Taskforce on Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education, and has been engaged in a range of cross-campus initiatives, including holding a joint appointment with the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology. Over the past several years, Fiona also co-taught the popular cross-campus i-Teams class, which focuses on bringing technological innovations and scientific discoveries to the marketplace, engaging over 97 MIT labs in the course.

With training in chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD from Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Fiona is now an internationally recognized expert on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education, with a focus on the transformative effect that investments in scientific and technical innovations can have on job creation and regional prosperity. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and engages in its Innovation Productivity and the Economy program. Her recent work has examined the policies and structures that can enable different stakeholders to build vibrant innovation-driven entrepreneurial ecosystems. She has worked on entrepreneurship policy issues with a number of governments around the world, including hosting the British Prime Minister on his recent visit to MIT. Fiona’s work has been published in a wide range of journals, including: Science, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, American Journal of Sociology, Research Policy, Organization Science, and The Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

In addition to this new role, Fiona will continue to devote time to her research and teaching as a member of our Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy Group.

School of Engineering Associate Dean for Innovation Vladimir Bulović

As Associate Dean, Vladimir Bulović will oversee a broad portfolio of efforts within the School of Engineering that support innovation and entrepreneurship, and he will serve as the School’s faculty lead in the design and construction of MIT's new nano-fabrication and nano-characterization facility.

Vladimir holds the Fariborz Maseeh Chair in Emerging Technology and leads the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics laboratory, which he developed as a unique open nanotechnology facility. He also directs the Microsystems Technology Laboratories that support over 700 investigators and $80M of research programs from across the Institute, and he co-directs the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center, among MIT’s largest sponsored programs. His research interests include studies of physical properties of organic and inorganic nanostructured films and structures and their applications in novel optoelectronic devices. His academic papers have been cited over 10,000 times, while his 60 U.S. patents and numerous patent disclosures have been licensed and utilized by both start-up and multinational companies. A practicing entrepreneur, Vladimir is a founder of QD Vision, Inc. of Lexington MA, which is manufacturing quantum dot optoelectronic components; Kateeva, Inc. of Menlo Park CA, which is focused on development of printed organic electronics; and Ubiquitous Energy, Inc., which is developing nanostructured solar technologies. These start-ups presently employ over 200 researchers in the U.S. and a similar number of employees abroad.

Vladimir received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, where his academic work and patents contributed to the launch of the Universal Display Corporation and the Global Photonics Energy Corporation. He is a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers, the National Science Foundation Career Award, the Ruth and Joel Spira Award, Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society Award, and the Bose Award for Distinguished Teaching. Recognized as an authority in the field of applied nanotechnology, Vladimir was named to the Technology Review TR100 List, and in 2012 he shared the SEMI Award for North America in recognition of his contribution to commercialization of quantum dot technology. In 2008 he was named the Class of 1960 Faculty Fellow, honoring his contribution to energy education, which led to the launch of the MIT Energy Studies minor, the first academic program that spans all five schools at MIT. In 2009 he was awarded the Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellowship, MIT's highest teaching honor, and in 2011 he was named the Faculty Research Innovation Fellow for excellence in research and international recognition. Most recently, Vladimir was named a Fellow of the World Technology Network and the Xerox Distinguished Lecturer in recognition for his continued contribution to innovation of practical applied nanotechnologies. 

Please join us in congratulating Fiona and Vladimir on their new positions.

Sincerely,

David Schmittlein
John C Head III Dean
MIT Sloan School of Management

Ian A. Waitz
Dean of Engineering
Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics

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