Engineer brings active interest in innovation to new role.
Source: [MIT News Office, Peter Dizikes | August 16, 2017]
Krystyn Van Vliet, an MIT professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering, with wide-ranging interests in research and innovation, has been named as the Institute’s new associate provost. She will assume this role on Sept. 1.
Van Vliet succeeds Karen Gleason, who has decided to step down in June 2018. MIT Provost Martin Schmidt announced both changes today in an email to the Institute community.
Gleason, the Alexander and I. Michael Kasser Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, has served as associate provost since 2014 and will continue teaching and conducting research in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
In his email, Schmidt thanked Gleason for her “excellent and creative leadership in all areas of her responsibility,” adding that she has been “a highly valued colleague and advisor, both to me personally and as a member of Academic Council.”
Van Vliet, the Michael (1949) and Sonja Koerner Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering, will take over the responsibilities of associate provost in two phases. Beginning in September, she will oversee space planning, allocation, and renovations for the 2017-18 academic year, a role that includes serving as co-chair of MIT’s Committee for the Review of Space Planning.
The associate provost also oversees MIT’s industrial engagement efforts, including MIT’s Industrial Liason Program and the Technology Licensing Office — something Gleason will continue to do until June 2018. At that point Van Vliet will add those duties to her portfolio.
“I am delighted to have the responsibilities of the Office of the Associate Provost be in excellent hands for the coming year,” Schmidt wrote in the email. “Please join me in thanking Karen for her continued service and congratulating Krystyn on her new role.”
For her part, Van Vliet said she was pleased to be serving the Institute in a new capacity.