Dimitris Bertsimas, PhD '88, has been named vice provost for open learning at MIT, effective September 1. In this role, Bertsimas, who is the Boeing Leaders for Global Operations Professor of Management at MIT, will work with partners across the Institute to transform teaching and learning on and off the MIT campus.
Provost Cynthia Barnhart announced Bertsimas' appointment in an email to the MIT community today.
“As vice provost for open learning, Dimitris will work with MIT faculty and staff to shape the next chapter of open learning,” Barnhart wrote. “Dimitris will serve on my leadership team as well as the Academic Council, and will work closely with the school’s deans, faculty, and staff to advance research in the science of learning with the goal of innovating, studying, and scaling digital technologies on campus and for the benefit of the world.”
She added: “I am delighted that Dimitris has agreed to serve the Institute in this role.”
Bertsimas comes to MIT Open Learning from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he is associate dean of the master’s program in business analytics and professor of operations research. Bertsimas has been a faculty member at the Institute since 1988, after completing his PhD in operations research and applied mathematics from MIT. He works in the areas of optimization and machine learning and their applications, including in healthcare and medicine. Bertsimas developed and launched the MBA program at MIT and has served as its inaugural faculty director since 2013. The program has been ranked number one in analytics in the world every year since its inception. Passionate about teaching, research, and entrepreneurship, Bertsimas is no stranger to MIT Open Learning. He developed technology-the-analytics-edge” target=”_blank”>15.071 (The Analytics Edge), available at MITx, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of students since its launch in 2013.
In his new role, Bertsimas will oversee MIT Open Learning's product offerings, including OpenCourseWare, MITx courses, MicroMasters programs, xPRO courses, MIT Horizon, Jameel World Education Lab, MIT pK-12, and others, as well as Open Learning infrastructure, finances, and operations.
“I am excited by the opportunity to lead Open Learning and advance its mission,” says Bertsimas. “I have a particular interest in introducing students of all ages and from all backgrounds (science, engineering, management, architecture/planning, law, medicine, social sciences, humanities and arts) to the art of ai and its potential to revolutionize fields.”
Bertsimas is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and has received several research and teaching awards, including the INFORMS John von Neumann Theory Prize. He sees MIT’s open learning as central to the institute’s mission.
“OpenCourseWare is arguably MIT’s crowning achievement in open learning,” says Bertsimas, co-author of seven graduate books and co-founder of ten analytics companies. “MIT has pioneered the education of millions of people around the world by providing access to its classes. I aspire to see open learning match and possibly surpass the impact of OpenCourseWare in the new era of ai.”
Bertsimas succeeds Eric Grimson, PhD '80, who served as interim vice president for open learning for the past two years. Grimson, the Bernard M. Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering and professor of computer science and engineering, will continue to serve the Institute as provost for academic advancement.
Grimson's connection to open learning dates back to 2012, when he co-taught two of the first courses available on MITxwhich remain among the most popular online courses in the world: technology-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-using-python” target=”_blank”>6.00.1x (Introduction to computer science and programming in Python) and technology-introduction-to-computational-thinking-and-data-science” target=”_blank”>6.00.2x (Introduction to computational thinking and data science).
In July 2022, Grimson was named interim vice president for open learning. During his time leading MIT Open Learning, Grimson expanded outreach to the Institute's school boards and faculty, providing comprehensive information on opportunities for faculty members to use open learning resources. He drove research into the impact of artificial intelligence on education, including experiments to create ai-based tutors for introductory online courses. Grimson oversaw the expansion of MITx Onlinea platform that serves as an alternative to edX for the delivery of MITxMIT digital courses, as well as the development of a soon-to-be-launched portal that will unify access to all of MIT’s online educational content for students around the world.
“When former MIT President Rafael Reif launched Open Learning, his stated goals were to educate millions of students around the world, to change the way we teach on campus, and to learn about learning and use that knowledge to guide our innovations in teaching,” says Grimson. “I share that vision and have loved being a part of Open Learning, which strives to revolutionize teaching and learning, both on campus and off. Seeing the incredible impact MIT has globally by providing easy access to high-quality educational experiences is one of the great pleasures of being a part of MIT.”
Bertsimas’ appointment follows an internal search that began in January. The search advisory group was chaired by Duane Boning, the Clarence J. LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. As part of its work, the advisory group sought input from current and former Open Learning leaders, members of Open Learning faculty advisory committees, MIT deans, Open Learning staff, and leaders of online learning initiatives at other universities.
“With his exceptional track record and deep commitment to MIT, Dimitris is a leader who will accomplish great things on behalf of open learning and MIT as a whole, at a time when learning technologies are rapidly evolving and providing tremendous opportunities for educational impact,” said Boning.