Paula Hammond Cunningham

At-a-Glance

Awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Biden on January 2, 2025.
Institute Professor and Dean of Engineering at MIT as of January 2026.
Founding member of the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology.
Research focuses on nanomedicine, functional materials, and drug and gene delivery for cancer.
Elected to the National Academy of Science (2019), National Academy of Engineering (2017), and National Academy of Medicine (2016).
Served as Department Head of Chemical Engineering from 2015 to 2023.

Biography

Paula T. Hammond is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also a chemical engineering faculty member. As of January 2026, she serves as the Dean of Engineering at MIT. She is a founding member of the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology and a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.