Richard Schmalensee served as the John C Head III Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1998 through 2007. He was a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1989 through 1991 and served for 12 years as Director of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

Professor Schmalensee is the author or coauthor of 11 books and more than 120 published articles, and he is co-editor of volumes 1 and 2 of the Handbook of Industrial Organization. His research has centered on industrial organization economics and its application to managerial and public policy issues, with particular emphasis on antitrust, regulatory, energy, and environmental policies. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, and numerous private corporations.

Professor Schmalensee is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the 2012 Distinguished Fellow of the Industrial Organization Society. He has served as a member Executive Committee of the American Economic Association and as a Director of the International Securities Exchange and other corporations. He is currently a Director of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of Resources for the Future.