Why the 2022 elections might determine the future of democracy in the US
Voters need to pay attention to races up and down the ballot — especially to more obscure county-level contests — to protect democracy, panelists said during an Oct. 12 discussion titled “Why the 2022 Elections May Determine the Future of Democracy in the U.S.” While national and congressional races get the most attention, voters may […]
Liang Fu and Patrick Lee receive Larkin Awards in Theoretical Physics
MIT condensed matter theory professors of physics Liang Fu and Patrick A. Lee received the inaugural Larkin Awards in Theoretical Physics, awarded by the William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute at the University of Minnesota. Fu received the 2022 Anatoly Larkin Award for a junior researcher for his work on 3D topological insulators and odd-parity topological […]
Geophysicist Leigh Royden looks at Earth from the top down
The German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has counted some of the greatest scientists in history among its ranks. Founded in 1652, and named in honor of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, the scientific organization has included among its members Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Alexander von Humboldt, and Charles Darwin, to name a few. But […]
Community members greet MIT’s 18th president
On a warm, sunny afternoon last Thursday, MIT’s community gathered under a tent on Hockfield Court to meet the Institute’s next president, Sally Kornbluth. Amid a festive, celebratory atmosphere that included live music and fall treats, Kornbluth soaked in MIT’s culture; chatted with faculty, students, and staff; heard from members of MIT leadership; and took […]
Biological Engineering Admissions Webinar
Join faculty and graduate students to learn about Biological Engineering at MIT and learn about our PhD application process. Please register to receive the Zoom Link.
Pesticide innovation takes top prize at Collegiate Inventors Competition
On Oct. 12, MIT mechanical engineering alumnus Vishnu Jayaprakash SM ’19, PhD ’22 was named the first-place winner in the graduate category of the Collegiate Inventors Competition. The annual competition, which is organized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, celebrates college and university student inventors. Jayaprakash won for his pesticide innovation AgZen-Cloak, which he […]
Frank Sidney Jones, professor emeritus of urban affairs, dies at 93
Frank Sidney Jones, professor emeritus in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), passed away on Aug. 28 at the age of 93. In 1971, Jones was named Ford Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning, becoming the first African American to be tenured at MIT. He also taught courses in civil engineering. From his […]
3 Questions: How AI image generators could help robots
AI image generators, which create fantastical sights at the intersection of dreams and reality, bubble up on every corner of the web. Their entertainment value is demonstrated by an ever-expanding treasure trove of whimsical and random images serving as indirect portals to the brains of human designers. A simple text prompt yields a nearly instantaneous […]
Seven with MIT ties receive awards from the American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) recently honored a number of individuals with ties to MIT with prizes and awards for their contributions to physics. They include: Institute Professor Arup Chakraborty; associate professors Ronald Fernando Garcia Ruiz and Lina Necib; Yuan Cao SM ’16 PhD ’20; Alina Kononov ’14; Elliott H. Lieb ’53; Haocun Yu PhD ’20; and several […]
Artsy at thirty
When I turned 30 on August 6th, I had a feeling that this is my decade. I don’t know why, but I was quite excited, unlike many who might feel daunted by this age milestone. I, however, had a feeling that this is THE decade; the one in which I will discover myself and figure […]
Math enthusiasts take aim at STEM glass ceiling
A good math problem is like a walled, secret garden, according to Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) head and MIT Professor Asu Ozdaglar, who was addressing an audience of middle and high school female-identifying mathematics contestants at the 14th annual Math Prize for Girls (MP4G) event. “Many people walking around the outside […]
Doubling down on sustainability innovation in Kendall Square
From its new headquarters in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, The Engine is investing in a number of “tough tech” startups seeking to transform the world’s energy systems. A few blocks away, the startup Inari is using gene editing to improve seeds’ resilience to climate change. On the MIT campus nearby, researchers are working on groundbreaking innovations […]
Celebrating the life of undergraduate Mohamed Magdi Taha
Mohamed Magdi Taha, an undergraduate student in Course 6-9 (Computation and Cognition) passed away in August. A native of California and Khartoum, Sudan, the rising junior and New Vassar resident was passionate about social justice issues, had deep love for his home country and family, and had a penchant for writing and studying poetry. Writing […]
Toward compassion and equity
Ice hockey may not be the first hobby that jumps to mind when it comes to economists, but MIT professor of economics David Autor has proudly captained his department’s intramural hockey team for several years. Autor readily admits that the team he leads is downright terrible (and that he brings down the average!), but that’s […]
Finding community in high-energy-density physics
Skylar Dannhoff knew one thing: She did not want to be working alone. As an undergraduate at Case Western Reserve University, she had committed to a senior project that often felt like solitary lab work, a feeling heightened by the pandemic. Though it was an enriching experience, she was determined to find a graduate school […]
On campus, a warm welcome for MIT’s next president, Sally Kornbluth
Incoming MIT President Sally Kornbluth greeted members of the Institute community at a campus event on Thursday afternoon, outlining her vision and values, and thanking everyone for the reception she has enjoyed. “The warmth and welcome I’ve received from all of you at MIT has been incredible,” said Kornbluth, speaking to a large audience in […]
Sally Kornbluth is named as MIT’s 18th president
Sally A. Kornbluth, a cell biologist whose eight-year tenure as Duke University’s provost has earned her a reputation as a brilliant administrator, a creative problem-solver, and a leading advocate of academic excellence, has been selected as MIT’s 18th president. Kornbluth, 61, was elected to the post this morning by a vote of the MIT Corporation. […]
Reprogrammable materials selectively self-assemble
While automated manufacturing is ubiquitous today, it was once a nascent field birthed by inventors such as Oliver Evans, who is credited with creating the first fully automated industrial process, in flour mill he built and gradually automated in the late 1700s. The processes for creating automated structures or machines are still very top-down, requiring […]
“Drawing Together” is awarded Norman B. Leventhal City Prize
“Drawing Together,” a social and ecological resilience project in New York City, has been awarded the 2022 Norman B. Leventhal City Prize. The project is a collaboration between MIT faculty, researchers, and students, and Green City Force (GCF), a nonprofit organization in New York City that trains young people for careers with a sustainability focus […]
Remarks by President-Elect Sally Kornbluth to the MIT community
The following remarks were given by President-Elect Sally Kornbluth to a gathering of community members in room 10-250 on Thursday, Oct. 20. Thank you, Madam Chair, for the warm introduction. And thank you also for the careful and thorough way that you led the search process, and for the outstanding questions you and your colleagues posed. […]
Do it now. Seek help now.
Mental illness is not unfamiliar to many MIT graduate students. People as smart as typical MIT students, when placed under that much pressure, are bound to have it. Look beyond three feet in front of you, and you’ll find evidence of it: that friend you haven’t seen in two weeks, long lines at MIT Mental […]
Ad hoc committee releases report on remote teaching best practices for on-campus education
The Ad Hoc Committee on Leveraging Best Practices from Remote Teaching for On-Campus Education has released a report that captures how instructors are weaving lessons learned from remote teaching into in-person classes. Despite the challenges imposed by teaching and learning remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, the report says, “there were seeds planted then that, we […]
Five with MIT ties elected to the National Academy of Medicine for 2022
On October 17, the National Academy of Medicine announced the election of 100 new members to join their esteemed ranks. MIT faculty members Laura L. Kiessling ’83 and Mark Bear were among the new members, along with MIT alumni Krishna Shenoy SM ’92, PhD ’95 and David Tuveson ’87. Martin Burke, a former student in […]
Unlocking the mysteries of how neurons learn
When he matriculated in 2019 as a graduate student, Raúl Mojica Soto-Albors was no stranger to MIT. He’d spent time here on multiple occasions as an undergraduate at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, including eight months in 2018 as a displaced student after Hurricane Maria in 2017. Those experiences — including participating in […]
Developing community around design
When the creation of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) — a major interdisciplinary center housed in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) — was announced last spring, it promised to build on the Institute’s legendary leadership in design-focused education and provide a hub for cross-disciplinary design work across MIT. The 14 […]
Bringing it all back home
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf PhD ’81 made a robust call for reviving American manufacturing while speaking at MIT on Thursday, contending that if U.S. states pursue broad, long-term measures to improve the business climate, quality of life, and social safety net, they will also spur more manufacturing investment. “It’s a challenge to reinvent ourselves as […]
NASPA panel on Supporting Pregnant & Parenting Graduate & Professional Students
Adj Marshall, the Graduate Families Administrator in the Office of Graduate Education, recently moderated and participated in a panel on Supporting Pregnant & Parenting Graduate Students organized by NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. The October presentation and discussion covered contemporary dynamics and best practices for student services professionals supporting the success of graduate […]
Give me a break!
“Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you admission to the Graduate Program of the Department of Biology at MIT,” was probably one of the most awesome starts to an email ever. Yet I felt a tinge of sourness as I relished in the excitement of being accepted to MIT, given that it was April 2020 and […]
Professor Tom Eagar, renowned metallurgist and admired storyteller, dies at 72
Thomas W. Eagar, professor of materials engineering and engineering systems, post-tenure, in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) and an internationally recognized expert in welding, died Oct. 9 at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts. He was 72. An outspoken scholar and admired teacher, Eagar had a reputation for saying, as he put it, […]
Philanthropist provides $10 million gift to Graduate Engineering Leadership Program
Daniel J. Riccio, an advisory board member for the School of Engineering’s Undergraduate Engineering Leadership Program, has made a gift of $10 million to expand MIT’s Graduate Engineering Leadership Program, which will be renamed in recognition of the support. The gift will allow the program to grow and sustain its operations for years to come […]
Studying floods to better predict their dangers
“My job is basically flooding Cambridge,” says Katerina “Katya” Boukin, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at MIT and the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub’s resident expert on flood simulations. You can often find her fine-tuning high-resolution flood risk models for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, or talking about hurricanes with fellow researcher Ipek […]
MADMEC winner identifies sustainable greenhouse-cooling materials
The winners of this year’s MADMEC competition identified a class of materials that could offer a more efficient way to keep greenhouses cool. After Covid-19 put the materials science competition on pause for two years, on Tuesday SmartClime, a team made up of three MIT graduate students, took home the first place, $10,000 prize. The […]
Making quantum computers more accurate
In Building 13 on MIT’s campus, there sits a half-a-million-dollar piece of equipment that looks like a long stretched-out chandelier, with a series of gold discs connected by thin silver pipes. The equipment, known as a dilution refrigerator, is a key player in PhD student Alex Greene’s research, as it houses all their experiments. “My […]
Introduction to Investments Part 3
Emily Freund will return for Part 3 of this series to discuss choosing investment vehicles and offer tips for fund selection. This workshop will build on topics covered by Part 1 and 2. RSVP through this form.
Introduction to Investments Part 2
Part 2 of this series will be slightly more advanced and will build on the knowledge offered in Part 1. Emily Freund will discuss asset allocation, asset location, and understanding the market and economic business cycle. A Zoom link will be sent to all those that RSVP before the event, as well as the recording […]
Introduction to Investing Part 1
with Emily Freund, Fidelity Investments Part 1 will discuss getting your finances to the point where you can begin thinking about investing as a vehicle for your money. Topics covered will include taking on debt vs. savings, the basics of asset classes (i.e., stocks, bonds, real estate, cash, digital assets, etc.), financial independence, and different types […]
