Richard Lester named associate provost for international activities
Richard Lester, the Japan Steel Industry Professor and currently the head of MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE), has been named associate provost for international activities, effective July 1. Provost Martin Schmidt announced Lester’s appointment today in an email to the MIT faculty. “In his new role, Richard will advise the administration on all matters pertaining to the Institute’s major international activities,” Schmidt wrote. “He will have responsibility for the periodic review of our ongoing global efforts as well as for the assessment of proposed international initiatives.” A member of the faculty since 1979, Lester will be MIT’s first associate provost for international activities. Last November, President L. Rafael Reif announced that Claude Canizares would step down as vice president, effective June 30, and that oversight for international engagements, which had been part of his portfolio, would shift to a new position within the Office of the Provost. “By many measures MIT...