Faculty Officers

Per Rules and Regulations of the Faculty, there are three elected officers of the MIT Faculty: Chair, Associate Chair, and Secretary. The Faculty Officers are assisted in their work by the Faculty Governance Administrator.  History of MIT Chairs of the Faculty, 1909-2021

	CHAIR OF THE FACULTY Lily L. Tsai is Ford Professor of Political Science and the founder and Faculty Director of the MIT Governance Lab (MIT GOV/LAB), a group of political scientists working collaboratively with practitioners on research and innovation in citizen engagement and government accountability. Tsai’s research focuses on issues of accountability, governance, and political participation in developing country contexts, with particular emphasis on Asia and East Africa. Her book Accountability Without Democracy: Solidary Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China was published in Cambridge University's Studies on Comparative Politics series and received the 2007-08 Dogan Award from the Society of Comparative Research for the best book published in the field of comparative research.
	ASSOCIATE CHAIR OF THE FACULTY Christopher A. Schuh is the Danae and Vasilis Salapatas Professor of Metallurgy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and a MacVicar Fellow. He served as Department Head from 2011 to 2019. Schuh’s research is focused on structural metallurgy and seeks to control disorder in metallic microstructures for the purpose of optimizing mechanical properties. Schuh has published over 250 papers and dozens of patents, as well as co-founding a number of metallurgical companies. His first MIT spinout company, Xtalic Corporation, commercialized a process from his MIT laboratory to produce nanocrystalline coatings that have been deployed in applications ranging from machine components to automotive parts and electronics, and are in wide and growing usage around the globe.
	SECRETARY OF THE FACULTY Martha L. Gray, J. W. Kieckhefer Professor of Health Sciences & Technology and Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, has built programs to drive biomedical technology innovation, as well as conducting research to better understand and prevent osteoarthritis. For over 13 years, she directed the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, an academic unit with research and training programs for careers in medicine, business, and research. Gray currently directs MIT linQ, which operates several multi-institutional ventures focus on accelerating and deepening early-career researchers’ potential for impact. Through these efforts, she and her team have established a principled methodology for needs identification and opportunity development, and an organizational model that fosters a vibrant multi-stakeholder community necessary for sustained local and global impact.
	FACULTY GOVERNANCE ADMINISTRATOR Dr. Tami Kaplan has served as Faculty Governance Administrator since September 2015. She first joined MIT in 2003, holding positions first in the Office of Development Research and Systems, and then in the Office of Foundation Relations. She began her career as Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Director of ESL Programs at the University of Iowa.