Office of the MIT President

Presidents of the Institute

Name	Entered into office	Inauguration	Left office
Sally Kornbluth About President Kornbluth	January 1, 2023
L. Rafael Reif Webpage	July 2, 2012	September 21, 2012	December 31, 2022
Susan Hockfield Webpage	December 6, 2004	May 6, 2005	July 2, 2012
Charles Marstiller Vest Biography	October 15, 1990	May 10, 1991	December 6, 2004
Paul Edward Gray Biography	July 1, 1980	September 26, 1980	October 15, 1990
Jerome Bert Wiesner Biography	July 1, 1971	October 7, 1971	June 30, 1980
Howard Wesley Johnson Biography	July 1, 1966	October 7, 1966	June 30, 1971
Julius Adams Stratton Biography	January 1, 1959 (see note 12)	June 15, 1959	June 30, 1966
James Rhyne Killian Biography	October 15, 1948 (see note 11)	April 2, 1949	January 1, 1959
Karl Taylor Compton Biography	July 1, 1930	June 6, 1930	October 15, 1948 (see note 10)
Samuel Wesley Stratton Biography	January 1, 1923	June 11, 1923	June 30, 1930
Elihu Thomson, Acting	November 10, 1921 (see note 9)	—	January 1, 1923
Ernest Fox Nichols Biography	July 1, 1921	June 8, 1921	January 4, 1922 (see note 8)
Elihu Thomson, Acting Biography	March 10, 1920 (see note 7)	—	July 1, 1921
Richard Cockburn Maclaurin Biography	June 1, 1909	June 7, 1909	January 15, 1920 (see note 6)
Arthur Amos Noyes, Acting Biography	July 1, 1907	—	June 1, 1909
Henry Smith Pritchett Biography	October 1, 1900	October 24, 1900	July 1, 1907
James Mason Crafts Biography	October 20, 1897 (see note 5)	none	June 30, 1900
Francis Amasa Walker Biography	November 10, 1881	none	January 5, 1897 (see note 4)
William Barton Rogers	December 10, 1879 (see note 3)	none	November 10, 1881
John Daniel Runkle Biography	October 3, 1870 (see note 2)	none	June 12, 1878
William Barton Rogers Biography	April 8, 1862 (see note 1)	none	May 17, 1870

The Office of the President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was established at an organizational meeting in 1862 following the incorporation of MIT on April 10, 1861 (Massachusetts Acts of 1861, Chapter 183), as a three-part body consisting of a “society of arts, a museum of arts [industrial arts], and a school of industrial science.” The president is the chief executive officer of MIT and serves as an ex officio member of the MIT Corporation and of the following Corporation committees: the Executive Committee, of which he is chairman, the Development Committee, and the Membership Committee.

Notes

(1) On April 8, 1862, Rogers was elected the first president of MIT. He and the other officers elected in April retained their offices until the first annual meeting, May 6, 1862, when they were again formally elected pursuant to the bylaws. He was named principal of the School of Industrial Science when it finally opened in 1865, a title shortly changed to president. Rogers was granted leave of absence in December 1868 because of illness, and the Government (later called the Corporation) accepted his resignation in May 1870.

(2) Professor John Runkle was named president pro tempore on December 3, 1868, because of the failing health of W. B. Rogers. He was elected president October 3, 1870, serving until his resignation in 1878.

(3) On Runkle’s resignation in 1878, Rogers was named president pro tem June 12, 1878, and he was again elected president in December 1879.

(4) President Walker died in office January 5, 1897.

(5) Following the death of Walker, Professor Crafts was elected chairman of the faculty January 19, 1897, by the Corporation Executive Committee. He was further appointed to oversee the School of Industrial Science by the Corporation Executive Committee on January 19, 1897, and later appointed president, effective October 20, 1897. He resigned effective “at the end of the school year,” 1900.

(6) President Maclaurin died in office January 15, 1920.

(7) On January 20, 1920, the Executive Committee of the Corporation appointed Professors William H. Walker, Henry P. Talbot, and Edward F. Miller as an Administrative Committee to perform the duties with respect to the internal affairs and management of the Institute normally the responsibility of the president. Walker soon resigned and was replaced on March 1 by Professor Edwin B. Wilson. In March Elihu Thomson, a member of the Corporation since 1898, was appointed acting president without day-to-day responsibilities. The Administrative Committee would continue until January 1, 1923, with Professor Charles Ladd Norton replacing Wilson on May 18, 1922. (See Note 8)

(8) President Nichols was scheduled to take office on July 1, 1921. His inauguration, however, took place on June 8 of that year, two days before the Institute’s graduation exercises on June 10. Just after his inauguration he became seriously ill, was unable to take up his duties and submitted his resignation in November. It was accepted by the Executive Committee on November 10, 1921 and became effective when confirmed by the Corporation at its next meeting on January 4, 1922. The Administrative Committee had continued to function during this period and would continue to do so until January 1, 1923.

(9) On November 10 Elihu Thomson was reappointed acting president to serve, under the same arrangements as his prior appointment, until a president was elected and in place.

(10) In the fall of 1948 President Compton was called to Washington to serve as chairman of the Research and Development Board, an agency established to oversee military scientific research efforts in the postwar period, and he resigned as president of the Institute. On October 4, 1948, he was elected chairman of the Corporation, effective October 15, at which time his resignation as president would also become effective.

(11) In September 1948 the Corporation had designated James R. Killian to succeed Compton as president, the date to be specified later. Early in October they voted to make the transfer effective October 15, 1948, with Compton becoming chairman of the Corporation. In November 1957 Mr. Killian was granted a leave of absence to serve in Washington as Special Assistant to the President [Eisenhower] for Science and Technology.

(12) Julius A. Stratton was appointed acting president November 1, 1957. He was elected to the presidency on December 1, 1958, to take office on January 1, 1959, when Mr. Killian would become chairman of the corporation. Dr. Stratton retired in 1966 at the then mandatory retirement age of 65.

Prepared by the Institute Archives, MIT Libraries 1997; updated August 2004, May 2005