It's time: Af­ter 19 years, leg­endary Koch In­sti­tute di­rec­tor Tyler Jacks pass­es the torch to Matthew Van­der Hei­den

Tyler Jacks, the long-tenured di­rec­tor of MIT’s Koch In­sti­tute for In­te­gra­tive Can­cer Re­search, said months ago that he’d step away from the helm af­ter find­ing a suc­ces­sor. On Thurs­day, that day fi­nal­ly came.

Af­ter more than 19 years lead­ing the in­sti­tute, Jacks is hand­ing the reins to Matthew Van­der Hei­den, an MIT bi­ol­o­gy pro­fes­sor and can­cer cell me­tab­o­lism re­searcher. The long­time di­rec­tor isn’t go­ing far: MIT Pres­i­dent L. Rafael Reif said in Oc­to­ber that Jacks will re­turn “full time to the ex­cite­ment of the lab.”

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