MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Vincent Chan Joins the Department

November 25, 1998

TO: EECS Faculty and Staff

FROM: Paul Penfield, Jr.

SUBJECT: Vincent Chan Joins the Department

DATE: November 25, 1998

I am pleased to report to you that Vincent W. S. Chan, head of the Communications and Information Technology Division of MIT Lincoln Laboratory, has joined the faculty of our department and also the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has also been appointed co-director of LIDS, along with Sanjoy Mitter.

Vincent received all his degrees from our department in the 1970s. After three years on the faculty at Cornell University, he joined Lincoln Laboratory in 1977. He is generally credited with bringing Lincoln Lab into a world leadership position in free-space optical communications.

His appointment is unusual in that it is "two-key." He really is half in our department and half in Aero. Unlike other joint faculty, he will not have either of the two departments designated as his "home" department. He was selected in a search conducted jointly by the two departments. This is a new arrangement, intended to foster cooperation between departments in particular areas. Aero has identified communications, especially space communications, as a major area of future interest, and Vincent is the first new faculty appointment for them in this area.

More two-key appointments may be made in the future, and some current faculty undertaking new responsibilities might change. Already, Al Grodzinsky, the new Director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering, has converted his appointment so it is two-key with the newly created Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Health.

During a transition period, Vincent will work part time for Lincoln Laboratory and part time for his two new departments on campus. He plans to be full time on campus starting July 1, 1999, but will retain a consulting connection with Lincoln. In July he will become Director of LIDS, and Sanjoy will return to teaching and research in our department. Several Aero faculty plan to join LIDS and thereby help build a larger communications research program under Vincent’s leadership.

Please join me in welcoming Vincent to our faculty.