On December 12th 2013, engineering legend Chuck Vest died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 72. Perhaps best remembered as MIT president from 1990-2004, Chuck also served as president of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) from 2007 until 2013 and chaired a committee to redesign the ISS.
Vest’s tenure as MIT president was the 3rd longest in the long history of the school. During this time, MIT’s endowment almost quadrupled in size, and the school saw a revitalization towards education, research, and diversity.
Ever the optimist, Vest wrote in 2004 that “the knowledge we (MIT) generate, the things we come to understand, and the devices we build can improve health, economies, security and the quality of life. MIT must continue to be optimistic in its vision of why we are here and what we can do.”
Current MIT president L. Rafael Reif notes that “Personally and professionally, Chuck Vest set an exceptional standard of intellectual clarity, moral courage, and generosity of spirit … there was no better example of his vision and values than the creation of MIT OpenCourseWare — the simple, elegant, unprecedented idea that MIT should make all of its course materials available online to anyone in the world, free. Thanks to Chuck’s leadership, OCW has become a source of outstanding content for 150 million global learners, the model for the global OpenCourseWare movement, and the foundation and inspiration for everything we are striving to achieve with edX and MITx.”
Vest championed education in Washington in over 100 visits to the nation’s capital. “In 1990, many in Washington had come to feel that the nation’s universities had not acted as wise stewards of their federal funding. He made frequent trips to Washington as an ambassador not only for MIT, but indeed, for academia as a whole — and he did so supremely well” said Paul Gray, Vest’s MIT presidential predecessor.
This notoriety saw Vest serve the Office of the President of the United States in many functions. This included the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, chairing the Task Force on the Future of Science Program, the Department of Energy, and chairing the Committee on the Redesign of the International Space Station. The ISS committee that saw the survival of the program during a critical time.
Former US President Clinton says that “Chuck Vest was both a product and a champion of this nation’s powerful scientific and engineering community … He served with distinction as an ambassador and spokesman for science in Washington, advocating tirelessly for the essential role of research in our economic growth and national security."
In 2006 President Bush awarded Best the National Medal of Technology "for his visionary leadership in advancing America's technological workforce and capacity for innovation through revitalizing the national partnership among academia, government, and industry."
Vest was also a champion of diversity in STEM education. In 1998 he instituted corrective actions to issues cited by senior female faculty. In a report on gender equality Vest wrote “I have always believed that contemporary gender discrimination within universities is part reality and part perception… but I now understand that reality is by far the greater part of the balance.”
Under Vest’s leadership, MIT saw its first African-American chancellor, first two School of Engineering department heads of minority; the first of five female VP’s, and the first female School of Science department head. This expansion didn’t stop with the faculty, the student body saw similar strides with the females in undergrad growing from 34% to 42%, and 20% to 29% in grad studies.
In 1992 Vest also took the Justice Department to trial to fight antitrust violations with respect to the sharing of information for applicants with financial need. This created the “MIT STANDARDS of CONDUCT” allowing colleges to pass on certain data to assist those with need of financial assistance. Legislation later adopted a common methodology to measure financial need.
Vest wrote about stepping down as MIT president that, “serving as president of a major research university is not a sandbox ambition for any child — I remain frankly astonished at the road that led me here… But looking back at that road — the bends and dips, the forks and unintended shortcuts — I’m struck by how little one can predict at the journey’s outset and by how much of life comes down to how one handles the points where the roads cross. I am also overwhelmed with the sense of how much I owe to the insight, imagination, inspiration and judgment of the many, many gifted people I have been lucky enough to work with at MIT.”
ENGINEERING.com salutes Chuck Vest, his family, and the various organizations, and people he worked with. On a more personal note, we found him to be brilliant yet humble, and possessed of a unique ability to be direct while remaining charming. The world of engineering has lost a true champion.
Source: MIT News