CAMBRIDGE, MA — Anantha P. Chandrakasan, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at MIT and Dean of the MIT School of Engineering, will serve as the Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker at the 22nd Annual Woman of the Year Awards Gala on Saturday, March 8, 2025, at the Burlington Marriott Hotel in Burlington, MA.
“We are thrilled to welcome one of the foremost leaders in innovation, technology, and education as our keynote speaker and chief guest,” said Upendra Mishra, producer of the Woman of the Year Awards Gala and publisher of INDIA New England News and its sister publications Boston Real Estate Times, Life Sciences Times, and IndUS Business Journal. “We look forward to hearing his inspiring address.”
Prof. Chandrakasan, who also holds the Vannevar Bush Professorship in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, is a recognized leader in both academia and industry. As dean, he chairs several high-impact initiatives, including the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, the MIT AI Hardware Program, and co-chairs the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, the MIT-Accenture Convergence Initiative, and the Tata-MIT Alliance. As MIT’s Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, he oversees initiatives like the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative (MIT HEALS) and the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium (MGAIC), and co-chairs the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC). He also leads strategy and operations for MIT’s Climate Project in an interim capacity.
“Prof. Chandrakasan is a remarkable role model. His achievements are extraordinary, yet it’s his kindness, generosity, and commitment to helping others that truly set him apart in today’s world,” said Dr. Manju Sheth, director of the Woman of the Year Awards and host of the celebrity interview series Chai With Manju. “We are honored to have him as our Chief Guest for this special Woman of the Year Gala, particularly on International Women’s Day.”
This renowned event, hosted by INDIA New England News and produced by the Mishra Group, is expected to draw around 400 distinguished business and community leaders, philanthropists, healthcare professionals, and academicians.
To buy a ticket, click here.
Prof. Chandrakasan earned his bachelor’s (1989), master’s (1990), and doctoral (1994) degrees in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the MIT faculty in 1994 and was the director of the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories from 2006 to 2011. From July 2011 through June 2017, he served as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, a position that concluded with his appointment as dean in July 2017.
As dean of engineering since 2017, Prof. Chandrakasan has implemented various interdisciplinary programs, creating new models for how academia and industry can work together to accelerate the pace of research. This has resulted in the launch of a number of new initiatives and programs. Chandrakasan has also played a role in establishing initiatives beyond the School of Engineering. He was instrumental in founding the Schwarzman College of Computing in 2018, marking the most significant structural change to MIT in 70 years.
As MIT’s inaugural Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, he collaborates with key stakeholders across MIT, as well as external partners, to launch initiatives and new collaborations in support of the Institute’s strategic priorities – including MITHIC, MIT HEALS, and MGAIC. He has oversight of these initiatives in his role as Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer.
Prof. Chandrakasan also leads the MIT Energy-Efficient Circuits and Systems Group, whose research projects have addressed security hardware, energy harvesting, and wireless charging for the internet of things; energy-efficient circuits and systems for multimedia processing; and platforms for ultra-low-power biomedical electronics.
He is a co-author of Low Power Digital CMOS Design (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995), Digital Integrated Circuits (Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2003, 2nd edition), and Sub-threshold Design for Ultra-Low Power Systems (Springer 2006). He was also recognized as the author with the highest number of publications in the 60- year history of the IEEE ISSCC.
Prof. Chandrakasan is the recipient of the 2019 Solid-State Circuit Society’s Distinguished Service Award, the 2013 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits, the 2009 Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) University Researcher Award, an honorary doctorate from KU Leuven in 2016 and the National Technical University of Athens in 2024, and the 2017 UC Berkeley EE Distinguished Alumni Award. He is also the recipient of the 2022 IEEE Mildred Dresselhaus Medal.
A fellow of the IEEE, in 2015 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, in 2019 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in 2020 he was elected as fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Prof. Chandrakasan currently serves on the board of Natcast and the SMART Governing Board and previously served on the boards of Analog Devices Inc., The Engine, and the Perkins School for the Blind.
