Leadership is a human quality that is greatly admired and much discussed in books and articles written about what kind of leader institutions — corporations, universities and governments — need to be successful. While there are many opinions about what it takes to be a great leader, it’s my view that only when we meet such a person can we truly understand what leadership is all about.
A few weeks ago, this nation — indeed, the world — lost a truly great leader in science, engineering, technology, higher education and public policy, Dr. Charles “Chuck” Vest, past president of MIT and the National Academy of Engineering. He died on Dec. 12, 2013, at the young age of 72, following a bout with pancreatic cancer. I was privileged to know Chuck Vest and to work with him over the past 20 years on various issues of federal science and technology policy.
Chuck served on the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (known as PCAST) for both terms of President Bill Clinton’s administration. Since I co-chaired this council during the time I was science advisor to President Clinton, I had the opportunity to get to know Chuck well. When President Clinton was considering launching a new initiative in nanotechnology, Chuck chaired the review committee that recommended this initiative to the president. Rice University professor Rick Smalley, who co-discovered buckminsterfullerene (“buckyball”) and shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Robert Curl and Harry Kroto, was a key member of the committee. Based on their report, Clinton approved the National Nanotechnology Initiative, which remains in place today with annual research funding of around $2 billion. In recent years, Chuck and I co-chaired the science and technology oversight group of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
When George W. Bush became president in 2001, he asked Chuck to continue his service on PCAST, which he did for both terms of Bush’s presidency. Because he was well-respected by both Republicans and Democrats, well-known by most members of Congress, and held in high esteem by heads of corporations and universities across the country and around the world, his advice to presidents, federal agencies, members of Congress, universities and corporations was constantly in demand. It is not a stretch to say that Chuck Vest was a legend.
His extraordinary accomplishments during his 14-year tenure as the 15th president of MIT are described in an article in MIT News, published online the day after his death. Quoting from the article:
During Vest’s presidency — the third-longest in the Institute’s 152-year history — MIT renewed its commitment to education and research through major innovations in both areas; developed strong ties with academic, government, and industry partners around the world; broadened the diversity of its people and programs; and transformed its campus with dramatic new buildings. MIT’s endowment nearly quadrupled during Vest’s tenure, growing from $1.4 billion to $5.1 billion.
During that time, he launched the OpenCourseWare movement — a “first” in the history of American higher education — which placed all of MIT’s teaching materials on the Internet for anyone to access without charge. He stressed quality in teaching through new programs, curricular changes, degrees and facilities; encouraged interdisciplinary research and enhanced partnerships with industry through new centers and institutes; addressed gender inequities with tough new policies; and strengthened the vital connection between MIT and federal agencies. On the global front, he established the MIT-Singapore alliance, with the goal of promoting global MIT-quality engineering education and research using modern distance-teaching technologies. And this is just a sampling. He was a champion of diversity and was willing to face denial and opposition to actions he felt were necessary to correct any inequities that were shown to exist based on the data.
The high regard in which he was held by everyone in the MIT community is perhaps best illustrated by a comment to the MIT News article written by “jdsher,” most likely a student or alumnus:
President Vest was an eminent engineer and scientist, a steadfast spokesperson for science as a national priority, a leader in equality and diversity on campus, a warm and engaging man, a listener who set an example in his own office that any MIT community member who wished to speak with him could schedule an appointment and do so. He made many tough decisions, throughout which he set the meritocracy of ideas and the mutual respect of every community member for every other as central premises of all he did. Through it all, as Emerson said, he laughed often and loved much. He set an example of success to which we may continue to aspire, even as we miss him.
Chuck Vest was indeed a great visionary and leader, but any time that was hinted at in his presence, he was always quick to point to the contributions of other men and women, to highlight their efforts, to say how fortunate he felt working with such outstanding individuals. He was a gentleman in all his dealings, but he had the necessary toughness to make hard decisions, even courageous ones.
It is likely that Chuck Vest’s character and personality reflected his upbringing, in his words, in a “warm family in a small town in West Virginia.” After earning his B.S. in mechanical engineering, he went on to the University of Michigan, where he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. He then joined the Michigan faculty, where he established his teaching and research career before moving into administration. He served as provost and vice president of academic affairs at Michigan prior to becoming president of MIT in 1990. His personal view of his career is reflected in remarks he made upon his retirement from the MIT presidency in 2004:
“Serving as president of a major research university is not a sandbox ambition for any child — I remain frankly astonished at the road that led me here,” Vest wrote upon stepping down as president in 2004. “But looking back at that road — the bends and dips, the forks and unintended shortcuts — I’m struck by how little one can predict at the journey’s outset and by how much of life comes down to how one handles the points where the roads cross. I am also overwhelmed with the sense of how much I owe to the insight, imagination, inspiration and judgment of the many, many gifted people I have been lucky enough to work with at MIT.”
Chuck Vest understood the importance of universities as institutions, but he never lost sight of the people who make institutions great.
The nation has lost a great leader, but we are all the beneficiaries of his many lasting contributions to science, engineering and technology.
Neal F. Lane, Ph.D., is the senior fellow in science and technology policy at the Baker Institute. He is also the Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University. Lane served as assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from August 1998 to January 2001, and he served as director of the National Science Foundation and member (ex officio) of the National Science Board from October 1993 to August 1998. Before his post with NSF, Lane was provost and professor of physics at Rice, a position he had held since 1986.