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Dr. Charles M. Vest
Charles M. Vest is President Emeritus of the National Academy of Engineering and President Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University in 1963, and M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1964 and 1967,respectively. At the University of Michigan he became a full professor in 1977, an associate dean and then dean of engineering in 1981, and became provost and vice president for academic affairs in 1989. For fourteen years, starting in 1990, he was president of MIT. Dr. Vest served on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology from 1994-2008,and chaired the President’s Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station and the Secretary of Energy’s Task force on the Future of Science at DOE. He was a member of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Dr. Vest was vice chair of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness for eight years and was a director of DuPont for 14 years and of IBM for 13 years. He authored a book on holographic interferometry and two books on higher education. He holds fourteen honorary doctoral degrees and received the 2006 National Medal of Technology.