Melissa Nobles

Melissa Nobles
Nobles in 2024
7th Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Assumed office
August 18, 2021
Preceded byCynthia Barnhart
9th Dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
In office
2015–2021
Preceded byDeborah Kay Fitzgerald
Succeeded byAgustín Rayo
Personal details
Born (1963-05-13) May 13, 1963
EducationBrown University (BA)
Yale University (MA, PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsPolitical science
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisResponding with good sense: the politics of race and censuses in contemporary Brazil (1995)
Doctoral advisorJames C. Scott

Melissa Nobles (born May 13, 1963) is an American political scientist. Since August 2021, she has served as Massachusetts Institute of Technology's 7th Chancellor, the university's top administrator for student life. At MIT, she is also the Class of 1922 Professor of Political Science.

Nobles served as the 9th dean of MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences from 2015 to 2021. Her scholarship focuses on the comparative study of racial politics, categorization, violence, and reconciliation.