News

On a mission to alleviate chronic pain

February 20, 2022

About 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, which interferes with their daily life, social interactions, and ability to work. MIT Professor Fan Wang wants to develop new ways to help relieve that pain, by studying and potentially modifying the brain’s own pain control mechanisms. Her recent work has identified an “off switch” for pain, […]

MIT community members elected to the National Academy of Engineering for 2022

February 17, 2022

MIT engineers John Cohn and Franz-Josef Ulm and are among 111 new members and 22 international members elected to the National Academy of Engineering for 2022. Nineteen MIT alumni were also elected as new members. John Cohn ’81, an IBM Fellow in the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, was honored for improving design productivity of high-performance […]

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to speak at MIT’s 2022 Commencement

February 17, 2022

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala MCP ’78, PhD ’81, director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and former finance minister of Nigeria, will deliver the address at the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony on Friday, May 27. An expert in global finance, economics, and international development, Okonjo-Iweala is the first woman and first African to lead the WTO. Known as […]

MIT Solve announces 2022 global challenges and the Indigenous Communities Fellowship

February 16, 2022

MIT Solve, an MIT initiative aimed at driving innovation to solve world challenges, has announced the launch of its 2022 Global Challenges and the Indigenous Communities Fellowship.  Solve seeks tech-based solutions from social entrepreneurs around the world that address specific challenges. The program invites anyone, anywhere to submit a solution to this year’s challenges by […]

Eddie Glaude Jr.: “We must run toward our fears”

February 15, 2022

At this year’s annual MIT celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr, keynote speaker Eddie S. Glaude Jr., the James S. Donnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University, invoked King’s memory in an impassioned appeal for confronting the realities of the United States’ history and the country’s racist beliefs and actions, […]

First-ever Climate Grand Challenges recognizes 27 finalists

February 14, 2022

All-carbon buildings, climate-resilient crops, and new tools to improve the prediction of extreme weather events are just a few of the 27 bold, interdisciplinary research projects selected as finalists from a field of almost 100 proposals in the first MIT Climate Grand Challenges competition. Each of the finalist teams received $100,000 to develop a comprehensive […]

Student-led MIT course provides an inside look at K-pop

February 11, 2022

Jeana Choi and Lisa Yoo had already bonded over their appreciation for Korean music when they decided to organize a K-pop course at MIT during the Institute’s Independent Activities Period (IAP) this January. Both graduating fifth-year master’s students in electrical engineering and computer science, Choi and Yoo became friends in class 21M.294 (Popular Musics of […]

L. Rafael Reif to step down as MIT president

February 10, 2022

L. Rafael Reif announced today that he plans to step down as president of MIT at the end of 2022, after more than 10 years in the role. Reif has guided the Institute through a decade of dynamic growth, greatly enhancing its global stature and magnetism. Under his watch, MIT evolved into one of the […]

Cynthia Barnhart named MIT provost

February 10, 2022

Cynthia Barnhart SM ’86, PhD ’88, a longtime faculty member and MIT’s former chancellor, will be the Institute’s next provost, President L. Rafael Reif announced today. Barnhart, a Ford Foundation Professor of Engineering and professor of operations research at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has served the Institute in a variety of roles since […]

Invisible machine-readable labels that identify and track objects

February 9, 2022

If you download music online, you can get accompanying information embedded into the digital file that might tell you the name of the song, its genre, the featured artists on a given track, the composer, and the producer. Similarly, if you download a digital photo, you can obtain information that may include the time, date, […]