Cynthia Barnhart SM ’86, PhD ’88, serves as MIT's provost. Barnhart is a longtime faculty member and MIT’s former chancellor,

Barnhart, a Ford Foundation Professor of Engineering and professor of operations research at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has served the Institute in a variety of roles since joining the faculty in 1992. She has been both associate and acting dean of the School of Engineering, and co-director of the Operations Research Center and the Center for Transportation and Logistics. As chancellor, from 2014 to 2021, she led a team that took numerous measures to enhance student well-being, support, and success.

Barnhart earned both her SM in transportation and her PhD from MIT. She is an INFORMS Fellow and elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.