Carl Kaysen headshot

Carl Kaysen

Past Director

Carl Kaysen served as the Institute for Advanced Study’s fourth Director from 1966 to 1976, overseeing a decade of growth and change. A political economist with a distinguished career in public service, he was hired by the Institute to help broaden its academic scope to include topics relevant to contemporary society. One of the ways Kaysen fulfilled this mandate was to create the School of Social Science, which began as the Program for Social Change in 1968 and was formalized in 1973 as the Institute’s fourth School. Kaysen also enhanced the Institute’s endowment by $8 million, strengthening its financial standing and independence.

Dates at IAS

Director

Degrees

Harvard University
Ph.D.
1954
Harvard University
M.A.
1947
University of Pennsylvania
A.B.
1940

Honors

1967
Member, American Philosophical Society
1959
Fellow, Ford Foundation, Greece
1955
Guggenheim Fellow
1955
Fulbright Scholar, London School of Economics
1954
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Appointments

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1977
Professor Emeritus 1990–, David W. Skinner Professor of Political Economy 1977–90, Director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society 1981–87
Harvard University
1950–1966
Associate Dean, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy 1964–66, Professor of Economics 1957–66, Associate Professor of Economics 1955–57, Assistant Professor of Economics 1950–55, Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows 1947–50
National Security Council
1961–1963
Deputy Special Assistant to President Kennedy for National Security Affairs