Martin A. Schmidt

Biography

Martin Schmidt was appointed Provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in February 2014.

Professor Schmidt received his BSc from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1981 and his MSc and PhD from MIT in 1983 and 1988, respectively. A member of the MIT faculty since 1988, he was appointed as the Ray and Maria Stata Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2016. From 1999 to 2006 he served as the director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and has an honorary doctorate from Danmarks Tekniske Universitet. He was elected as a fellow of the IEEE in 2004 for contributions to the design and fabrication of microelectromechanical systems. He has received the Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Eta Kappa Nu Teaching Award at MIT.

His teaching and research is in the areas of micro and nanofabrication of sensors, actuators and electronic devices; microelectromechanical systems; design of micromechanical sensors and actuators; and micro/nanofabrication technology. He is the co-author of more than 80 journal publications and 120 peer-reviewed conference proceedings. In addition to his academic pursuits, he is active in consulting with industry on the commercialisation of technology. His research group has transferred a number of new technologies to industry, and he has co-founded or co-invented the core technology of six start-up companies. He is an inventor on more than 30 issued US patents.