‘He may be in danger’: Authorities searching for missing MIT professor in New York

Authorities are searching for a missing MIT professor who was last seen in Rochester, New York, where he also teaches. 

Police said Tuesday that Heikki Rantakari, 44, was last seen in Rochester on Friday. They urged anyone with information about his whereabouts to call 911. 

“We believe that he may be in danger,” police said.

Rantakari is a visiting professor of applied economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also an associate professor at the University of Rochester Simon Business School. 

The Rochester school is among those urging the public to call 911 if Rantakari is seen.

According to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Rantakari lives in the Boston area but regularly commutes to Rochester. Police and the professor’s family told the newspaper that Rantakari arrived at his rental in Rochester on Friday evening but did not show up for a class he was scheduled to teach on Saturday, an incident that they said is extremely out of character for the professor.

“He’s incredibly reliable,” Florian Ederer, a classmate of Rantakari’s and an economist at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, told the Democrat & Chronicle. “He’s someone who never turns up late; he’s extremely conscientious. His disappearance is therefore particularly worrying.”