Koretsky named McDonnell Family Bridge Professor

The McDonnell Family Bridge Professorship was established in 2017 to support a senior faculty member of academic distinction in a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) discipline and in discipline-based education research. The position awards the holder primary appointments in both the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences, allowing them to serve as a bridge between the two schools.

Professor Milo Koretsky has been appointed the inaugural McDonnell Family Bridge Professor in the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences. Arriving at Tufts in April 2021 as a bridge professor, Koretsky will hold appointments in both the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Department of Education.

Koretsky joins Tufts from nearly 30 years teaching in the Department of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University (OSU). He led the Engineering Education Research Group, where he conducted research on innovative curricular design. He is a Fellow of the Center for Lifelong STEM Education Research at OSU and a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He received his PhD from UC Berkeley and his BS and MS degrees from UC San Diego, all in chemical engineering.

Koretsky studies and develops technological innovations that promote knowledge integration and higher order cognition. He has a particular interest in helping faculty effectively use research-based instructional practices to enable more equitable learning, and in understanding what prevents students from connecting the knowledge learned in class to the demands of professional practice.

The McDonnell Family Endowed Bridge Professorship and the Institute for Research on Learning and Instruction (IRLI) — one of the first research centers dedicated to understanding how students learn at the university level — were established at Tufts through the generosity of the James S. McDonnell Family Foundation and members of the McDonnell family. Koretsky will be working with IRLI across departments to further the fundamental study of education and to help support the critical knowledge being generated by IRLI and transformations happening in education at Tufts.