CIS welcomes new faculty directors to lead global programs

The Center is thrilled to welcome five new faculty directors to lead our growing ecosystem of global programs. These programs serve as hubs to help power international scholarship and student engagement at MIT. Our recently added faculty directors bring a wide range of regional and scholarly expertise to CIS from across the Institute. 

Benoit Forget, KEPCO Professor of Nuclear Engineering, was named the faculty director of the MIT-France Program. He is head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and is an expert in reactor physics, engineering, and radiation transport. 

In-Song Kim, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, was named faculty director of the MIT-Korea Program. His research focuses on the political economy of lobbying and campaign donation, estimation of political preferences, and causal inference with panel data.

Richard Nielsen, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, was named faculty director of the MIT-MENA Program.  His expertise is in Middle East politics, international relations, religion, gender, and political violence. 

Franz-Josef Ulm, Class of 1958 Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was named the faculty co-director  (joining our current faculty director Daniel Jackson) of the Center’s MISTI-MEET (Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow) Program. His research interests include the mechanics and structures of materials with a focus on sustainability.

Gediminas Urbonas, associate professor of the Art, Culture, and Technology Program, was named the faculty co-director (joining our current faculty co-directors Areg Danagoulian and Elizabeth Wood) of the MIT-Eurasia Program. An artist, researcher, and educator, Urbonas explores the conflicts and contradictions posed by economic, social, and political conditions in contexts undergoing transformation.