Munther Dahleh, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and acting director of the Engineering Systems Division, has been appointed interim director of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), effective July 1. Dahleh is also director-designate of a new entity at MIT that will focus on complex and socio-technical systems, information and decision systems, and statistics.
“As we continue to move forward with plans for this new entity, preserving LIDS's sense of intellectual community and dedication to foundational research is foremost in my mind,” says School of Engineering Dean Ian A. Waitz. "As a former acting director and associate director of LIDS, Munzer is ideally positioned to provide the leadership bridge until a new director is appointed.”
Dahleh replaces Alan Willsky, the Edwin Sibley Webster Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who has served as director of LIDS since 2007. “Alan has done a marvelous job advancing LIDS to a position of exceptional strength within and outside of MIT,” Waitz notes. “One measure of this strength is the role that LIDS is playing in the formation of the new organization.”
Dahleh joined MIT as an assistant professor in 1987. He is a distinguished scholar whose research record reflects diverse contributions ranging from robust control theory to the analysis and design of dynamic systems over physical and information networks. His most recent work focuses on developing mathematical foundations for the analysis of fragility and cascaded failures, as well as information propagation in networked systems, with applications in energy, transportation, finance, and social networks.
