Dr. Mary Tolikas joined the Wyss Center as Chief Executive Officer in June 2019. She was previously instrumental in the launching and growth of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University where she spent almost ten years in the leadership team as Operations Director.

During her tenure at Harvard University, she also served as Executive Director for Special Projects at the Office of the Provost and was co-instructor in the Masters in Design Engineering Program, offered by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Prior to joining Harvard University, Dr. Mary Tolikas served as Director of Business Development at Ansoft Corporation. Earlier in her career, she held various executive and engineering roles in a number of start-up companies in markets ranging from automotive to medical.

Dr. Mary Tolikas has served in numerous committees and boards but her most rewarding community involvement is mentoring women in science and engineering, as well as entrepreneurs.

She holds a B.Eng. degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA degree from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.