Charles M. Vest

Education and career

Vest was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1941. He went to Morgantown High School.

Vest received a Bachelor of Science with a major in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University in 1963. He received a Master of Science in Engineering in 1964 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1967, both in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, where he later served as professor of mechanical engineering.

Vest served as dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan from 1986 to 1989 and provost of the university from 1989 to 1990. He then served as president of MIT from 1990 to 2004.

In 2004, a selection of Vest's speeches from his time as President of MIT was published under the title, Pursuing the Endless Frontier: Essays on MIT and the Role of Research Universities.

Harvard University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2005. The University of Cambridge awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Law in 2006. Tufts University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science in 2011; he delivered a commencement speech at Tufts University the same year.