Finally, Reif led a five-year project to develop a new paradigm in online learning. These efforts came to fruition with last December’s launch of MITx: a pioneering online-education initiative designed to bring new tools to students at MIT and to offer MIT content online to learners around the world, for free, through an interactive, open-source learning platform. MITx’s initial offering — an online course called “Circuits and Electronics” — has enrolled more than 120,000 students from around the world. Reif’s vision of exploring how online learning tools can improve residential education, as well as his interest in broadly accessible, high-caliber online courses, was further advanced earlier this month with the creation of edX, a $60 million online-education partnership with Harvard University. Reif led MIT’s entrance into that significant partnership.
“During my presidency,” Hockfield said, “our provost, Professor Rafael Reif, has been a true and trusted partner. I and the global MIT community have benefited immensely not only from his brilliant leadership of major initiatives, such as our international engagements and the MITx and edX launches, but also from the vital role he has played in stewarding the Institute’s finances and capital planning during a time of global financial uncertainty. His leadership in establishing the Institute-wide Budget Planning Task Force, which so brilliantly tapped the creativity and dedication of the MIT community, brought forth the very best of MIT. The Institute today finds itself both sure- and swift-footed, thanks in great part to Rafael’s strategic intelligence and dedication. I am enormously pleased by his election, knowing he will serve the Institute as president with devotion, insight and compassion.”
A citizen of the world
Leo Rafael Reif (pronounced “rife”) is the youngest of four sons of Eastern European emigrés who fled Europe in the late 1930s, living first in Ecuador and then Colombia before settling in Venezuela. The family was poor, supported by his father’s work as a photographer, and spoke Spanish and Yiddish at home.
Reif was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and moved to Caracas with his family at age 9. A member of the first generation in his family to attend college, he earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Venezuela’s Universidad de Carabobo in 1973. After working for one year as an assistant professor at Universidad Simón Bolívar, he left for graduate school in the United States. Despite speaking little English upon his arrival at Stanford University in 1974, he earned an MS in electrical engineering the following year and completed his PhD in electrical engineering in 1979.
Reif joined MIT in January 1980 as an assistant professor of electrical engineering. He was promoted to associate professor in 1983, earned tenure in 1985, and became a full professor in 1988.
“I am deeply honored to be elected president of the Institute I love so dearly," Reif said. "MIT’s impact on my life — how I think, how I make sense of the world, and how I align my personal aspirations with the call to service — has been profound. The Institute has never failed to challenge, invigorate and inspire me: I have found that one of its most stimulating characteristics is that it always feels new. As I begin to comprehend the humbling responsibility with which the Institute has entrusted me, the ‘I’ becomes a ‘we’: The true strength of MIT leadership has always come from the power of the MIT community, whose collective wisdom, talent, creativity and drive have made history for 150 years. I am thrilled to think of the work we will do together for — quoting from our mission statement — ‘the betterment of humankind.’”
A longtime leader at MIT
The president-elect has held leadership posts for much of his time on the MIT faculty. From 1990 to 1999, Reif was director of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories, an interdepartmental laboratory supporting research and education in microscale and nanoscale systems. He then served as associate head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science — MIT’s largest academic department — from 1999 to 2004, and chaired the department before becoming provost in August 2005.
An early champion of MIT’s engagement in micro- and nanotechnologies, Reif was instrumental in launching a research center on novel semiconductor devices at MIT, as well as multi-university research centers on advanced and environmentally benign semiconductor manufacturing. He also played a key role in creating the national effort now known as the Focus Center Research Program and in launching its Interconnect Focus Center.
Samuel M. Allen, the POSCO Professor of Physical Metallurgy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Chair of the MIT Faculty, said, “Professor Reif is widely admired for his integrity, knowledge of MIT and vision for the future. His leadership during the 2008 financial squeeze, and his vision for the evolution of residential education in the digital age, are tangible signs of his ability to mobilize the community in major endeavors. From my vantage point as Chair of the Faculty, I know that Rafael seeks faculty input in making important decisions, and he is open to embracing new ideas. I’m excited to have the opportunity to work closely with him in the coming year.”
A leader in microelectronics
Reif is internationally recognized as a leading microelectronics researcher who has helped address the technical challenges that have arisen as electronics have grown ever-smaller in recent decades. He did pioneering work in and was an early proponent of three-dimensional integrated circuits, in which layers fabricated through different processes are stacked to form complex monolithic systems. Such an approach allows the integration of a variety of electronic functionalities into a smaller chip area.
Reif’s group has also worked to identify and develop environmentally benign alternatives to chemicals used to etch patterns on microchips; some gases used heavily by the semiconductor industry were believed to contribute to global warming. His team has worked to assess the etching efficacy of a variety of alternative compounds, measuring the effluents of these processes to determine their potential environmental, safety and health impacts.
A prolific scholar
Reif holds 15 patents, has edited or co-edited five books, has supervised 38 doctoral theses, and is a co-author of more than 350 papers published in refereed journals and conference proceedings.
In 1993 Reif was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) “for pioneering work in the low-temperature epitaxial growth of semiconductor thin films.” From the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), he received the 2000 Aristotle Award for “his commitment to the educational experience of SRC students and the profound and continuing impact he has had on their professional careers.” He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the Electrochemical Society and the IEEE. For his work in developing MITx, he received the 2012 Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award.
Reif and his wife, Christine, are residents of Newton, Mass. They have a daughter, Jessica Reif Caplan, a son-in-law, Benjamin Caplan, and a son, Blake Harrington.