Cynthia Barnhart


Cynthia Barnhart is an American civil engineer and academic. She is the Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first woman to hold that position, succeeding W. Eric Grimson in 2014. Barnhart's work focuses on transportation and operations research, specifically specializing in developing models, optimization methods and decision support systems for large-scale transportation problems. She also is a professor in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and is an associate dean of the School of Engineering, serving a brief tenure as interim dean of engineering from 2010 to 2011.

Early life and education

Barnhart was born in Barre, Vermont. She received her B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Vermont in 1981, going on to earn her M. S in transportation in 1985, and civil engineering Ph.D in 1988 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She spent two years working at Bechtel, a firm in Washington, D.C., as a planning engineer for the city's subway system.

Academic career

After graduation, Barnhart worked as an assistant professor at the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology before returning to MIT as an assistant professor in 1992, eventually becoming a full professor in 2002. At MIT she has served as co-director of the Center for Transportation and Logistics, co-director of the Operations Research Center, and director of Transportation@MIT.
She is the Ford Foundation Professor of Engineering at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a join appointment at the Engineering Systems Division.
Barnhart was president of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences for the 2008 term. She was appointed as the 6th Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014, succeeding W. Eric Grimson, a professor of Computer Science and Engineering.

Senior House Controversy

In May 2017, the decision was taken to close the dorm Senior House. Barnhart was seen as the face of this decision, and students conducted sit ins outside her office for several days.

Awards