Philip S. Khoury, Ph.D. — elected a ULRI Trustee in 2018 — is Vice Provost and Ford International Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is responsible for overseeing MIT’s non-curricular arts programs and initiatives, including the MIT Museum and the List Visual Arts Center. He is also involved in MIT’s strategic planning for international education and research and its efforts to promote the public understanding of science and technology.

Previously, Dr. Khoury served as MIT’s Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences between 1991 and 2006, and was appointed Kenan Sahin Dean in 2002 and Associate Provost in 2006.

Dr. Khoury is a historian of the Middle East and a commentator on contemporary Middle Eastern affairs. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Since 1985, he has chaired the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar at MIT, which is a public forum for the examination of contemporary Middle Eastern affairs.

Dr. Khoury is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut, and Overseer of Koç University in Istanbul. He has served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Trinity College and Chairman of the Board of the World Peace Foundation. He has also been a Trustee of the National Humanities Center, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Toynbee Prize Foundation. He was a member of the Academic Research Council in Singapore and a Director of the Harvard Cooperative Society.

Additionally, Dr. Khoury has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright-Hays Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Aspen Institute, and Thomas J. Watson Foundation. He has been a visiting associate of St. Antony‘s College in the University of Oxford and a faculty associate of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

He is the recipient of the American University of Beirut Distinguished Alumni Award, the Trinity College Alumni Medal for Excellence, the Sidwell Friends School Distinguished Alumni Award, and the Legacy Award of the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is an honorary member of the MIT Alumni Association and holds honorary degrees from Earth University and Trinity College.

Dr. Khoury was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and educated at the Sidwell Friends School, the American University of Beirut, Trinity College, and Harvard University.