W. Eric L. Grimson is Chancellor for Academic Advancement at MIT, Interim Vice President for Open Learning, Professor of Computer Science, and the Bernard M. Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering. As Chancellor for Academic Advancement, he represents the Institute to alumni/alumnae, parents and others, and is a central advisor to the MIT president on issues related to MIT fundraising campaigns. As Vice President for Open Learning, he oversees MIT’s activities in digital education. A faculty member since 1984, he previously served as Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and as Chancellor for MIT.

In addition to research in computer vision and medical image analysis, Professor Grimson teaches introductory Computer Programming courses, including an online MITx course. In all, he has taught some 20,000 MIT undergraduates and served as the thesis supervisor to almost 50 MIT PhDs. A Fellow of AAAI, ACM, and IEEE, he earned a BSc in mathematics and physics from the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada and a PhD in mathematics from MIT, and holds a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from Dalhousie University and a Doctor of Science (honoris causa) from University of Saskatchewan and from University of Regina.