Daniela Rus is Director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), the first woman to lead the institution's largest research lab, and the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. A pioneer in robotics and AI, her work spans self-reconfiguring robots, soft robotics, and liquid neural networks, the foundation for Liquid AI, which she co-founded. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 2025 IEEE Edison Medal recipient. She earned her PhD from Cornell University.