Martin A. Schmidt received his BS degree from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1981 and his SM and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983 and 1988 respectively. Since 1988 he has been a faculty member in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at MIT. From 1999 to 2006 he served as the Director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) at MIT. MTL is an interdepartmental laboratory that provides shared research infrastructure for all of the campuses activities in micro and nanotechnology, and supports the research of approximately 500 students and staff. In July of 2008 he assumed his current position as Associate Provost at MIT. In his role as Associate Provost, he manages the Institute’s space and the renovation/renewal budgets. He also co-led the Institute’s Task Force on Budget in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Currently, he is the faculty lead for the Advance Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a recently announced White House initiative.
His teaching and research is in the areas of micro and nanofabrication of sensors, actuators, and electronic devices, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), design of micromechanical sensors and actuators, and micro/nanofabrication technology. He is the co-author of more than 80 archival journal publications and 120 peer-reviewed conference proceedings. His is also an inventor on more than 30 issued US Patents. More than 25 students have completed their Ph.D. degrees under his supervision.
He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and an Honorary Doctorate from the Technical University of Denmark. He was elected as a Fellow of the IEEE in 2004 for contributions to design and fabrication of microelectromechanical systems. He has received the Ruth and Joel Spira Teaching Award and the Eta Kappa Nu Teaching Award at MIT. In addition to his academic pursuits, he is active in consulting with industry in the commercialization of technology. He is a co-founder of five companies which are commercializing MEMS-enabled products.
“Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings,” in Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 4, Orley Ashenfelter and David Card, eds., Amsterdam: Elsevier, forthcoming, (with Daron Acemoglu).
"Do Temporary Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes for Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence from 'Work First,'" American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Vol. 2 (July), 2010.
