MIT alum Jennifer Mnookin PhD ’99 named president of Columbia University

Columbia University has announced Jennifer Mnookin PhD ’99, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as its next president, effective July 1, 2026.

Mnookin received her PhD in the History and Social Study of Science and Technology, now known as HASTS, an interdisciplinary doctoral program sponsored by three MIT academic units: History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society.

“I am honored and thrilled to join Columbia University at this important moment,” says Mnookin. “I look forward to working closely with faculty, students, and staff, and with both our local and global community of alumni and friends, to advance the University’s critically important mission and to ensure that its teaching and research continue to contribute meaningfully to society.”

Mnookin, 58, is a legal scholar who has a long history of holding leading roles in academia. She served as the Dean of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law from 2015 to 2022, when she became the 30^th chancellor of Wisconsin’s flagship state university in June 2022. Her academic work focuses on evidence, proof, and decision-making in the legal system.

In a message to the Columbia University community, David Greenwald and Jeh Johnson, co-chairs of the university’s board of trustees, described Mnookin as having “an exceptional academic and leadership pedigree and a reputation for building trust through listening and engagement.”

“She is known as a thoughtful consensus builder who strives for excellence in every pursuit, bringing both vision and energy to the work of institutional leadership. She will be a remarkable leader of our great university,” they added.

Mnookin received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1988, a law degree from Yale Law School in 1995, and her doctorate in the History and Social Study of Science and Technology from MIT in 1999.

Mnookin’s dissertation at MIT, “Images of Truth: Evidence, Expertise and Technologies of Knowledge in the American Courtroom,” focused on the late nineteenth-century American courtroom, investigating the growing use of both scientific and visual evidence within legal trials from 1850 to 1910.

Mnookin is a nationally recognized scholar on the intersection of law and science, specifically the interconnections between evidence, science and technology, and the evolution of legal and cultural ideas about proof and persuasion. Her research has been cited extensively by the National Academy of Sciences and by the Supreme Court in Williams vs. Illinois (2012). In 2024, she co-chaired an expert report on facial recognition technologies for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

“Columbia has made a fabulous choice in its new president”, lauds Professor Emeritus Michael Fischer, who served as Dr. Mnookin’s advisor. “She has the legal, history of science and technology, and personal skills that will make her a first-rate leader at Columbia.”