Anantha P. Chandrakasan, MIT’s Provost and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has been selected to the institute’s Committed to Caring (C2C) program recognizing outstanding mentorship of graduate students.
In a time of accelerating change — from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence to the evolving realities of global research and work — the C2C) program recognizes outstanding professors “nurturing resilience, curiosity, and compassion in a new generation of innovators, according to an MIT release.
The latest cohort of C2C honorees exemplify these values, demonstrating the lasting impact that faculty can have on students’ academic and personal journeys.
The C2C program is a student-driven initiative that has celebrated exceptional mentorship since 2014. In this cycle, 18 MIT professors have been selected as recipients of the C2C award for 2025-27, joining the ranks of nearly 100 previous honorees.
Since its launch, the C2C program has placed students at the heart of its nomination process. Graduate students across all departments are invited to share letters recognizing faculty whose mentorship has made a lasting impact on their academic and personal journeys.
A selection committee, consisting of both graduate students and staff, reviews nominations to identify those who have meaningfully strengthened the graduate community at MIT.
READ: Anantha Chandrakasan named MIT provost (June 23, 2025)
Indian American Chandrakasan served as Dean of MIT’s School of Engineering from July 2017 to June 2025 and as the Institute’s inaugural Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer from January 2024 to June 2025.
As Provost Chandrakasan is the Institute’s chief academic and budget officer. He also oversees the MIT Office of Innovation and Strategy (OIS)
Chandrakasan currently serves as head of MIT HEALS and MGAIC and co-chair of MITHIC. MIT OIS also includes the MIT-GE Vernova Energy and Climate Alliance for which he serves as co-chair.
He is also the Senior Executive Advisor to the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) and serves as co-chair of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab and the Tata-MIT Alliance, both of which he founded.
Chandrakasan earned his bachelor’s (1989), master’s (1990), and doctoral (1994) degrees in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.
He joined the MIT faculty in September 1994 and served as the director of the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories from July 2006 to June 2011. From July 2011 through June 2017, he served as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
During his eight years as dean, Chandrakasan implemented various interdisciplinary programs, creating new models for how academia and industry work together to accelerate the pace of research.
As MIT’s inaugural Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, he collaborated with key stakeholders across MIT, as well as external partners, to launch initiatives and new collaborations in support of the Institute’s strategic priorities. In 2025, he also served in an interim role overseeing the strategy and operations for MIT’s Climate Project.
Chandrakasan is the recipient of the 2019 Solid-State Circuit Society’s Distinguished Service Award, the 2013 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits, the 2009 Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) University Researcher Award, and the 2022 IEEE Mildred Dresselhaus Medal.
A fellow of the IEEE, in 2015 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, in 2019 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in 2020 he was elected as fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
Chandrakasan currently serves on the board of Natcast, a non-profit entity designed to operate the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) by the U.S. Department of Commerce.