A transformative era ends at the Center for International Studies

Richard J. Samuels steps down as director; Evan Lieberman is named his successor. In the early 1980s, Richard Samuels PhD '80 was an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, specializing in Japanese politics and public policy. With the rapid emergence of Japan as a global economic powerhouse, Samuels, now the director of the Center for International Studies (CIS) and Ford International Professor of Political Science, had realized that "only by working and learning abroad, will MIT scientists and engineers fully appreciate that not all the world's science and engineering starts and ends in 02139," he recalls. This insight sparked the MIT-Japan Program in 1982, an entirely new approach to international undergraduate education that emphasized Japanese language study and hands-on application of expertise in companies and university laboratories in other countries. Samuels's novel concept of "applied international studies" lit a fire. With his support, additional programs were created for China and India, paving the way for MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI), which at last count provided opportunities for nearly 1,000 students a year to research and collaborate in 20 nations. MISTI exemplifies Samuels's larger enterprise at CIS to make international scholarship and experience not just relevant, but essential, across the Institute and beyond.