Sanjaya Lall Visiting Professorship 2026
Professor Sendhil Mullainathan
Distinguished Sanjaya Lall Visiting Professor
Peter de Florez Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sendhil Mullainathan is the Peter de Florez Professor at MIT, splitting his time between the Economics and the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments. His current research is at the intersection of algorithms and people, with a central focus on launching The Bike Shop @ MIT. A new research centre which works towards more human-centred AI through scalable bicycles for the mind, and innovative new gears for machine learning algorithms.
He enjoys writing, having co-authored Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much as well as having written regularly for the New York Times.
He is active in the application of research insights. He helped co-found a non-profit to apply behavioral science (ideas42); co-founded a center to promote the use of randomized control trials in development (the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab), and co-founded Dandelion Health, a company that provides the healthcare data needed to build breakthrough medical AI. He also serves on the board of the MacArthur Foundation and, has worked in government in various roles.
Sendhil has recently returned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – where he began his academic career- as a Professor of Economics and Peter de Flores Professor of EECS. Prior to returning to MIT Sendhil was the Roman Family University Professor of Computation and Behavioral Science at Chicago Booth, before which he was the Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.
He is a recipient of the MacArthur “genius” Award, is a winner of the Infosys Prize, has been designated a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, labelled a “Top 100 Thinker” by Foreign Policy Magazine, and named to the “Smart List: 50 people who will change the world” by Wired Magazine (UK).
