Edward Crawley is the Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT, and is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems. He is the founding co-director of the worldwide CDIO Initiative, an international collaboration on the reform of engineering education, and the lead author of the recent book, Rethinking Engineering Education, the CDIO Approach.

He received an SB (1976) and an SM (1978) in Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an ScD (1981) in Aerospace Structures from MIT. He currently serves as the Director of the Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program, an effort to strengthen significantly the quality of engineering education for competitiveness and innovation. From 2003 to 2006 he served as the Executive Director of the Cambridge — MIT Institute, a joint venture with Cambridge University, funded by the British government and industry, with a mission to understand and generalize how universities act as engines of innovation and economic growth. In this capacity he was in close consultation with the British Government on issues of science and innovation policy. For the previous seven years, he served as the Department Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, leading the strategic realignment of the department.