Architect and educator Nicholas de Monchaux has been selected to lead the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) School of Architecture and Planning. 

de Monchaux is known globally as a scholar of the intersections between technology, data, and design and has authored several books on related subjects, including Local Code: 3,659 Proposals about Data, Design, and the Nature of Cities fro Princeton Architectural Press and Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo from MIT Press. de Monchaux holds a BA with distinction in Architecture from Yale University as well as an M.Arch degree from Princeton University. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.

de Monchaux comes to MIT from the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 2006. There, de Monchaux worked as a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and as the Craigslist Distinguished Professor of New Media. While at Berkeley, he also was the director of the Berkeley Center for New Media.

Outside of academia, de Monchaux runs the firm modem with Kathryn Moll, which according to the MIT website, "emphasizes social and ecological concerns" through "cultural and community-focused work."

According to a school announcement made via the MIT website, de Monchaux will take the reigns of the department in July 2020; Professor Andrew Scott will continue to serve as interim department head for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester.