Mahesh Daas is an architect, educator, writer, and higher education leader working at the intersection of design, technology, and institutional change. He currently serves as President of the Boston Architectural College, Affiliate Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, and a recurring contributor to GBH’s The Culture Show, where he discusses design, technology, and contemporary culture.

A first-generation college graduate, Daas has spent more than three decades building a career across architecture, urban design, artificial intelligence, robotics, and academic leadership. His work has moved between scholarship, creative practice, and institution building, with a consistent focus on how design can expand human possibility and how education can widen access and opportunity.

Before coming to Boston, he served as Dean of the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Kansas, Chair of Architecture at Ball State University, and Associate Dean at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is an ACSA Distinguished Professor, a distinction awarded to fewer than 2.5% of architectural educators in North America, and he has twice served as president of ACADIA. He was also elected Chancellor of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) College of Distinguished Professors—an honorific organization akin to the National Academies of Engineering, Science, and Education–recognizing extraordinary contributions to academia and research in architecture.

Daas is the author or co-author of four books, including Leading with Aesthetics, Towards a Robotic Architecture, and I, Nobot. Across his writing, teaching, and leadership, he returns to a core set of questions: how institutions change, how people grow, and how design can help build a more thoughtful and equitable world. He also serves on the editorial board of Construction Robotics Journal.

In addition to his academic work, Dr. Daas has served on editorial boards for the International Journal of Architectural Computing and Construction Robotics, and has contributed to research panels for the National Science Foundation (NSF). He has held appointments on advisory bodies for research and higher education policy in Canada, India, and Ireland, reflecting his international reach and civic engagement.

Dr. Daas earned his doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded distinction for his dissertation. He also holds a
master’s degree in urban design from Kansas State University and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in India, where he graduated with the A.P. Riding Club Gold Medal for academic excellence

Beyond academia, he is an award-winning creative writer and poet whose interests span existentialism, and Latin American literature—expressing the same curiosity and cross-disciplinary insight that defines his leadership in higher education.