Ortiz is stepping down from her post as dean for graduate education to found a new residential research university.
Formally, Ortiz is taking a one-year leave from the Institute beginning after the end of the academic year, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart PhD ’88 said in an email yesterday.
Whether or not she actually returns to her materials science professorship in 2017, Ortiz said, will depend on the progress of the new university.
“The goal for the next year,” she said in an interview with The Tech, “is really to try to create a non-profit university with a new model for a research university.”