MIT names Tomás Palacios to lead its soldier nanotechnology institute

MIT has named electrical engineering professor Tomás Palacios director of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, putting a specialist in advanced electronic materials and nanotechnology at the helm of a center built to move fundamental research toward defense hardware. Palacios assumed the role on February 4, 2026, and will continue to lead MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories.

Palacios takes over an Army-backed materials center

The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, founded in 2002, is a U.S. Army-sponsored University Affiliated Research Center focused on materials, devices and systems for protection, survivability, sensing and performance. The appointment gives the institute a leader with experience spanning wide-bandgap semiconductors, nanoelectronics and energy systems, all areas that matter for compact, ruggedized devices and advanced photonic hardware.

MIT said Palacios will oversee the institute’s research portfolio, facilities and strategic partnerships. The role places him at the junction of academic materials science, government sponsorship and industry-facing translation, where progress often depends on integrating a material’s properties with manufacturing and device design.

Why MIT is putting a semiconductor specialist in charge

Palacios is known at MIT for research that runs from fundamental device physics to system-level integration. That background is a close fit for an institute whose work depends on pairing new materials with usable electronics, sensors and protective technologies rather than publishing stand-alone discoveries.

He also has experience leading collaborative programs beyond MIT, including work tied to the semiconductor research ecosystem and multiple company cofoundings. Those connections matter for a center that has long relied on partnerships with industry, the U.S. Army and MIT Lincoln Laboratory to move promising concepts toward deployable systems.

A leadership change with commercialization implications

Palacios succeeds John Joannopoulos, who directed the institute from 2006 until his death in August 2025. MIT said Raúl Radovitzky served as interim director during the search, helping maintain continuity across the institute’s research programs and partnerships.

The timing of the transition matters because the institute’s mandate is not only to advance materials science, but to turn that work into capabilities that can survive real operating conditions. In practice, that means materials for sensing, electronics and protection that can be manufactured, integrated and tested at the speed defense customers expect.

In MIT’s account of the appointment, Palacios said the institute’s mission is to push nanotechnology toward meaningful impact “at the speed of relevance.” That framing is consistent with the institute’s long-running model: build the material, prove the device and then see whether it can survive the transition from laboratory to fielded system.