MIT announces US Director and Cambridge moves discussion forward

The creation of the Cambridge-MIT Institute took a major step forward today, when MIT announced the appointment of John Vander Sande as the US director, acting as the transatlantic equivalent of Dr David Livesey who is heading up the operation from Cambridge. In Cambridge UK, the academic community is preparing to discuss the details of the Institute.

The new US director, John Vander Sande

Both men are scientists with strong research backgrounds, who have gone on to senior levels in University administration. Professor Vander Sande is a materials scientist who has specialised in alloys and superconducting oxides whilst Dr Livesey's background combines both electrical engineering and economic modelling.

David Livesey with Vice-Chancellor Sir Alec Broers, after his appointment was announced.

Prof Vander Sande spent seven years as the Associate Dean of Engineering and has chaired the MIT School of Engineering Education Committee. He has also been involved in cross-disciplinary work between the School of Humanities and the School and Science and Engineering to improve undergraduate education at MIT.

David Livesey's interdisciplinary experience as Secretary General also gives him a wide perspective to ensure the Cambridge-MIT Institute works across different academic fields and Faculties.

The CMI Directors explain their new roles:

Dr Livesey:
"I am pleased to know that John is now in place at MIT, and we are very much looking forward to collaborating closely on the start up process for the CMI. Later this term, we hope to be able to release further details of the agreement being discussed with the Office of Science and Technology, and this will really allow us to get on with key strategy."

Prof Vander Sande:
"Thank you David, I am delighted to be collaborating with Cambridge and helping to establish the CMI. At the moment, of course, we are still very much focused on the structure that the CMI should take, rather than where it will be housed, or how it will be managed. However, the strategic development is enormously exciting, and we are now at a stage when we must share the early vision with both participating universities."

Dr Livesey;
"Yes, it's very important for both Cambridge and MIT to stress that the final agreement must be ratified by each university before anything becomes concrete. The CMI represents a very important direction in University thinking, in terms of the need to form strategic alliances to advance learning, both in a virtual and a physical context. Whilst it has the strong support of the Government, it is fundamentally an academic initiative that must be driven by academic concerns."

Prof Vander Sande:
"That's right. It is very much our intention for an ever increasing number of Faculty and staff to be involved in the process of information gathering and decision making in each main area as the agreement document becomes more mature."

Dr Livesey:
"We are now of course being asked about the nature of the collaboration. The academic strengths and entrepreneurial strengths of Cambridge and MIT are the essence of the desire for the collaboration. We hope to learn from one another as leading exponents of international research and spin-off success technologies. We will learn more about and share experiences of distance learning and the development of teaching technologies, which among other things we hope to use to create new professional degree programmes and to enhance existing courses."

Prof Vander Sande:
"Yes, as you say, there is much to be gained on both sides with this collaboration, and it seems very natural for leading universities to be sharing strengths and interests as a future model. It won't just be our students who benefit, however. A core part of the scheme will also be to encourage researchers to work with their counterparts at MIT and support one another in new areas of research."

Dr Livesey:
"But before we work on any of these details, the next stage is to put this forward to the University. An important step will be a meeting for our staff and students here in Cambridge, where I will be outlining more details, and the launch of the website and on-line discussion groups. When we are satisfied internally, we can work towards a formal agreement with the Government and I hope to have an approved budget in place by June 2000."

The meeting for staff and students in Cambridge to hear more about the progress of the CMI is to be arranged. The new website will be launched on 14 February at http://www.cmi.cam.ac.uk/ and a newsgroup for discussion will then be available to the Cambridge academic community.

Further Information:
News Report on Cambridge-MIT Announcement of 8 November 1999
MIT Press Release from 8 November 1999
Cambridge Press Release from 8 November 1999
Cambridge Press Release from 23 November 1999
MIT Press Release from 2 February 2000