Martin Arnold Schmidt (born January 1960) is the 19th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Before this position, Schmidt was provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2014 to 2022.

Education

Schmidt received his B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1981 and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1988. His Ph.D. advisor was Stephen D. Senturia, and his thesis was called "Microsensors for the measurement of shear forces in turbulent boundary layers."

Career

In 1988, Schmidt joined the faculty of the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. From 1999 to 2006, he was the director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT. In 2016, he was named the Ray and Maria Stata Professor at MIT. Schmidt became an associate provost at MIT in 2008 and served as provost from 2014 to 2018.

He received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1991. In 2004, he was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his work in designing and building microelectromechanical systems.

His teaching and research focus on micro- and nanofabrication technologies used in sensors, actuators, and MEMS. Schmidt helped start or developed the key technology for seven startup companies.