News

A better DNA material for genetic medicine

December 12, 2025

To our immune system, a potentially lifesaving gene therapy can look a lot like a dangerous infection. That’s because most genetic medicine uses viruses or double-stranded DNA to deliver genetic information to target cells. DNA in its traditional double helix form can lead to toxic immune stimulation and be difficult to package into cellular delivery […]

Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94 to deliver MIT’s 2026 Commencement address

December 11, 2025

Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, a leading executive in the semiconductor industry and head of the company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), will deliver the address at the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony on Thursday, May 28. As chair and CEO of AMD, Su has transformed the company, which is now a global leader in high-performance […]

Need support while OGE is closed for the winter break?

December 11, 2025

The Institute is closed from December 25-January 2, but there are still resources available if you need help! Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the people below. Searching for social connection or things to do? Take a look at this article for free or affordable ideas, tailored for you as a graduate student. […]

Winter break activities & connections

December 11, 2025

Note: If you need support while the Institute is closed, please don’t hesitate to use these resources. Free or discounted tickets to museums and arts events Take some time to feed your soul! If you plan ahead a little, MITAC (MIT Activities Committee) and Arts Access offer discounted tickets to concerts, museums, theater performances, ski […]

A day in the life of MIT PhD student Alex Busch

December 10, 2025

“As a student of both sociology and economics, MIT Sloan was the ideal place for me to combine both disciplines,” says Alex Busch, a PhD student. “MIT Sloan is unique in the freedom it offers its PhD students to become the researchers they aspire to be: I take classes in management, economics, and sociology, all […]

MIT’s Science Policy Initiative holds 15th annual Executive Visit Days

December 9, 2025

“To really understand science policy, you have to step outside the lab and see it in action,” says Jack Fletcher, an MIT PhD student in nuclear science and engineering and chair of the 15th annual Executive Visit Days (ExVD). Inspired by this mindset, ExVD — jointly organized by the MIT Science Policy Initiative (SPI) and the MIT Washington […]

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya visits MIT

December 8, 2025

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya visited MIT on Friday, engaging in a wide-ranging discussion about policy issues and research aims at an event also featuring Rep. Jake Auchincloss MBA ’16 of Massachusetts. The forum consisted of a dialogue between Auchincloss and Bhattacharya, followed by a question-and-answer session with an audience that included […]

Paula Hammond named dean of the School of Engineering

December 5, 2025

Paula Hammond ’84, PhD ’93, an Institute Professor and MIT’s executive vice provost, has been named dean of MIT’s School of Engineering, effective Jan. 16. She will succeed Anantha Chandrakasan, the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who was appointed MIT’s provost in July. Hammond, who was head of the Department of Chemical […]

MADMEC winners develop spray-on coating to protect power lines from ice

December 5, 2025

A spray-on coating to keep power lines standing through an ice storm may not be the obvious fix for winter outages — but it’s exactly the kind of innovation that happens when MIT students tackle a sustainability challenge. “The big threat to the power line network is winter icing that causes huge amounts of downed […]

Cultivating confidence and craft across disciplines

December 5, 2025

Both Rohit Karnik and Nathan Wilmers personify the type of mentorship that any student would be fortunate to receive — one rooted in intellectual rigor and grounded in humility, empathy, and personal support. They show that transformative academic guidance is not only about solving research problems, but about lifting up the people working on them. […]