Ankur Jain and Pulin Li Appointed to Prestigious Chairs

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) provost Martin A. Schmidt has announced that two Whitehead Institute Members -- Ankur Jain and Pulin Li -- have been appointed to MIT career development professorships. 

Jain has been named to the Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Career Development Professorship. Li has been named the Eugene Bell Career Development Professor of Tissue Engineering. Both also continue to be assistant professors in the MIT department of Biology.

The Cabot and Bell chairs both recognize and support excellence in teaching and research by gifted faculty members who show exceptional promise in their professional careers. In addition to affirming Jain’s and Li’s status as emerging leaders in biomedical research, the appointment provides funding to advance their scientific initiatives -- better enabling them to pursue new research directions and capitalize on new opportunities.

“The Biology Department and MIT are delighted to provide this support to Pulin and Ankur,” says Alan D. Grossman, professor and head of the MIT department of Biology, “and we are thrilled that they are engaged and active members of our community.”  

“We are very proud to have accomplished, early-career researchers like Ankur and Pulin on our faculty,” says Whitehead Institute director Ruth Lehmann, “and pleased that MIT is recognizing their talents and promise for leadership with these prestigious professorships.”  

Both appointments are for a three-year term beginning July 1, 2020.