Rafael Reif named new EECS Department Head

July 8, 2004

Dear Colleagues,

In accordance with the recommendation of the Search Committee that I had convened, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Rafael Reif as the new Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, effective September 1, 2004.

Rafael received the degree of Ingeniero Electrico in 1973 from the Universidad de Carabobo, Valencia, Venezuela, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1975 and 1979, respectively. In his teaching and research, he has focused on microelectronics, with a recent emphasis on future microelectronics interconnect technologies, and on environmentally benign microelectronics fabrication.

Rafael is an internationally noted researcher and educator. He is a Fellow of IEEE and has received the Semiconductor Research Corporation's 2000 Aristotle Award, which acknowledges outstanding teaching and student mentorship in its broadest sense.

As you all well know, Rafael has served for the past five years as the Associate Department Head. In that capacity, he has shared broad administrative responsibility for all departmental matters with the Department Head, John Guttag, and the other Associate Department Heads, first Tomas Lozano-Perez and later Barbara Liskov.

I am grateful to the search committee (Professors Anantha Chandrakasan, Judy Hoyt, Erich Ippen, Patrick Jaillet, Frans Kaashoek, Leslie Kaelbling, Tomas Lozano-Perez (Committee Chair), Nancy Lynch, Martin Rinard, John Tsitsiklis, and George Verghese) for its thoughtful deliberations and valuable advice concerning the department head appointment.

I am sure that you all join me on this occasion in not only welcoming Rafael to this position but also in thanking John Guttag for his extraordinary leadership for over ten years as Associate Head and as Department Head. Heading an enterprise as large and as complex as EECS is indeed a challenge, and many great things have happened in the Department during John's tenure in headquarters. John has been especially effective in faculty hiring and mentoring, with the Department having hired 42 faculty (10 women) and promoting almost 60 faculty during his six years as Department Head. He has also been effective in fundraising and especially influential in fundraising, programming, and development of the Stata Center. There is much to be proud of in the Department's accomplishments during John's, Rafael's, Tomas's, and Barbara's tenure as departmental leaders. John steps down as head of the very best Electrical Engineering and/or Computer Science Department in the world.

...Tom Magnanti