News

Leadership opportunity: Serve on the Exec Board of Graduate Womxn at MIT (gwaMIT)!

August 29, 2022

When: Applications reviewed on rolling basis. Apply before Sep. 6th!Contact: emilyyu@mit.eduApply online Want to get involved with gwaMIT, build your network, and collaborate with an incredible community of womxn graduate students?Apply to be part of the 2022-2023 gwaMIT Executive Board!You can apply online. Official role responsibilities and descriptions linked in the form.Join us to make an impact […]

Deepto Chakrabarty named head of the Department of Physics

August 29, 2022

Professor Deepto Chakrabarty, principal investigator at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, has been named head of the Department of Physics, effective Aug. 29. Chakrabarty succeeds Peter Fisher, the Thomas A. Frank (1977) Professor of Physics, who has led the department since Nov. 13, 2013. “Professor Chakrabarty will continue to provide strong […]

Tipping the balance between global rivals

August 29, 2022

John David Minnich was under the spell of political philosophy until he took a trip across a bridge in China. The doctoral student in political science vividly recalls this life-changing 2009 journey, undertaken as part of a summer research fellowship program.  “Driving in from the airport, I was overwhelmed by my first glimpse of the […]

Building better batteries, faster

August 24, 2022

To help combat climate change, many car manufacturers are racing to add more electric vehicles in their lineups. But to convince prospective buyers, manufacturers need to improve how far these cars can go on a single charge. One of their main challenges? Figuring out how to make extremely powerful but lightweight batteries. Typically, however, it […]

Bridging careers in aerospace manufacturing and fusion energy, with a focus on intentional inclusion

August 23, 2022

“A big theme of my life has been focusing on intentional inclusion and how I can create environments where people can really bring their whole authentic selves to work,” says Joy Dunn ’08. As the head of operations at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout working to achieve commercial fusion energy, Dunn looks for solutions […]

Bringing lessons from cybersecurity to the fight against disinformation

August 21, 2022

Mary Ellen Zurko remembers the feeling of disappointment. Not long after earning her bachelor’s degree from MIT, she was working her first job of evaluating secure computer systems for the U.S. government. The goal was to determine whether systems were compliant with the “Orange Book,” the government’s authoritative manual on cybersecurity at the time. Were […]

MeepCon comes to MIT

August 17, 2022

Meep is not just the sound made by the Road Runner and Beaker the Muppet. Meep is a software package that MIT physicists originally developed in the early 2000s as a custom code written in C++ to facilitate the academic research of photonic crystals. It was released as open source in 2006. After nearly two […]

On the front lines of space innovation

August 17, 2022

George Lordos is not your typical graduate student. A degree in economics from Oxford University, an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a 20-year professional career were not the end of his learning journey. His longtime passion for space, particularly the prospect of making a sustainable society on Mars a reality, drew […]

Amy Keating named head of the Department of Biology

August 15, 2022

Amy E. Keating, the Jay A. Stein Professor of Biology and a professor of biological engineering, has been named head of the Department of Biology, effective today. She succeeds Alan Grossman, the Praecis Professor of Biology at MIT, who led the department since 2014. “Professor Keating is a leading researcher in her field, employing computational […]

Reif, Zuber attend signing of CHIPS and Science bill

August 12, 2022

            President L. Rafael Reif and Vice President for Research Maria Zuber were among those on hand Tuesday when President Biden signed the “CHIPS and Science” bill into law in an upbeat ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. The act provides $52 billion in federal funding to advance the U.S. semiconductor industry […]