Barnhart, Cynthia

Cynthia Barnhart (born 1959) is an American civil engineer and academic who has served as provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2022 to 2025. She previously served as MIT's chancellor (top administrator for student life) from 2014 to 2021. Barnhart's academic work focuses on transportation and operations research, specifically specializing in developing models, optimization methods and decision support systems for large-scale transportation problems. She also is a professor in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and was an associate dean of the MIT School of Engineering, serving a brief tenure as interim dean of engineering from 2010 to 2011. Barnhart became a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 for professional leadership and contributions to optimization and transportation models, algorithms, and applications.