Austin C. Baker has received the 2025 MIT SDM Student Award for Leadership, Innovation, and Systems Thinking. This annual program award recognizes a second-year student for outstanding leadership in and outside the classroom. Austin’s wide-ranging involvement and support of multiple initiatives earned him the support of his classmates and secured his place as the 2025 winner of the award.
Entering the program in August of 2024, Austin has demonstrated his commitment to both the SDM and broader MIT communities—both inside and beyond the classroom. He provided support to the new student orientation in 2025 ranging from planning and execution to introducing a system dynamics workshop. He’s also shared his time with prospective students as a volunteer at admissions events and a conversation partner.
Austin’s involvement has stretched outside of the core SDM curriculum. He has been active in the research community at MIT with a focus on areas affiliated with SDM teaching. He served as a research assistant in support of the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center under Dr. Eric Rebentisch, a research scientist and part of the core class teaching team. Austin is also a research assistant for Dr. Bryan Moser, SDM’s academic director: he’s authored a paper on the core curriculum, developed a new tool for student team assignment, and explored model-based experiences and use cases for complex multi-stakeholder workshops.
Beyond academics, Austin has remained connected to his professional background in aerospace and the commercialization of space technology. As a co-president of MIT Sloan’s Space Industry Club, he is actively involved in the planning and execution of the 2026 New Space Age Conference, and is the team lead for MIT’s 2025-2026 NASA Human Lander Challenge. Since the summer of 2024 he has also supported MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Division 9 for Space Systems and Technology as a military fellow.
“Austin has been willing to help and support with everything,” says Joan Rubin, SDM executive director. “He has a quiet leadership and leads by example.”
The other finalists included Molly Harwood, lead TA for the SDM core class, and Azusa Ito, recognized for her work on the Innovation Discovery Japan trip in January of 2025. All three finalists were nominated by both their fellow students and the SDM staff for their support of the broader community and their willingness to take on hard work to improve the experience and learning of those around them.
Established in 2010, the Student Award for Leadership, Innovation, and Systems Thinking recognizes a student who has completed their first year in the program and demonstrates the highest level of strategic and sustainable contributions to fellow SDM students; superior skills in leadership, innovation, and systems thinking; and an outstanding ability to work effectively and collaboratively with SDM staff, faculty, students, alums, and industry, as well as in the greater MIT community. The winner is decided by the System Design and Management program staff, though students are encouraged to nominate their peers.
