Joel Moses is an Institute Professor as well as Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Professor of Engineering Systems. He has been provost, dean of engineering, head of the EECS Department, and associate head of the department in the past 25 years.

His group developed the MACSYMA system for formula manipulation, the model for the systems in existence today. In his doctoral dissertation he developed the concept of Knowledge Based Systems. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the ACM, Fellow of the IEEE and the Amer Assoc for the Advanc of Science.His recent interests are in the relationship of complexity and flexibility in large scale systems, as well as the modelling of intelligent behavior in the mind.