Mining valuable insights from diamonds
If Changhao Li were to trace the origins of his love of nature, he would point to the time when he was 9, observing the night sky from his childhood home in the small town of Jinan, China. “At that moment I felt that nature is so beautiful, I just wanted to go outside the […]
Linguistics luminaries Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle honored
Nearly 60 years ago, Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle established the MIT Department of Linguistics. This spring, the department dedicated a wing of its Stata Center home to these founding fathers. “Together, they defined and transformed the entire field of linguistics,” says Danny Fox, the Anshen-Chomsky Professor of Language and Thought and department head. “Naming […]
“The world needs your smarts, your skills,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala tells MIT’s Class of 2022
On a clear warm day, the MIT graduating class of 2022 gathered in Killian Court for the first in-person commencement exercises in three years, after two years of online ceremonies due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala MCP ’78, PhD ’81, director-general of the World Trade Organization, delivered the Commencement address, stressing the global need […]
Chancellor Melissa Nobles’ Commencement remarks
Below is the text of Chancellor Melissa Nobles’ Commencement remarks, as prepared for delivery today. Thank you, President Reif. And good afternoon everyone! It is wonderful to have the chance to say few words of admiration, gratitude, and, above all, congratulations to our Class of 2022 graduates, and to the family, loved ones, and friends […]
About MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an academic community devoted to undergraduate education, graduate education, and research. We have fostered graduate study and research and have awarded advanced degrees since 1872. MIT has been a consistent national leader in the number of master’s and doctoral degrees awarded, and ranks highly in the sciences and engineering. In […]
President L. Rafael Reif’s charge to the Class of 2022
Below is the text of President L. Rafael Reif’s Commencement remarks, as prepared for delivery today. To the graduates of 2022: Congratulations! My job today is to deliver a “charge” to you… and I will get to that in a minute. But first, I want to recognize the people who helped you charge this far! To everyone […]
Grad Blog Workshop: Apply by Jan. 4
Have something to say or share? Then blog about it! The MIT Graduate Admissions Blog will conduct an IAP workshop on blog writing for interested current MIT grad students. In brief, If you are a current MIT graduate student and would like to participate, you can apply here by 11:59pm on Wednesday, January 4. You must be […]
A helping hand for robotic manipulator design
MIT researchers have created an interactive design pipeline that streamlines and simplifies the process of crafting a customized robotic hand with tactile sensors. Typically, a robotics expert may spend months manually designing a custom manipulator, largely through trial-and-error. Each iteration could require new parts that must be designed and tested from scratch. By contrast, this […]
The breaking point
I got off the escalator and stepped onto the platform. Three minutes until the train, eighteen minutes until I get to MIT, twenty minutes until my meeting. My breath was a bit fast: I’d been walking briskly. Suddenly, my chest tightened, and no more air could get in. My first reaction wasn’t fear – it […]
Jeff Grossman
Although some of his research focuses on nanomaterials, MIT Professor Jeff Grossman makes sure that his graduate students receive a macroscopic amount of thoughtful mentorship. Grossman is a professor of materials science and engineering at MIT, the Morton and Clare Goulder and Family Professor in Environmental Systems, and a MacVicar Fellow, as well as the […]
Bringing hope and transformation to the Democratic Republic of Congo
MIT graduate student Milain Fayulu is on a mission. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Fayulu is telling, and selling, the story of his nation in the hope of aiding its people and transforming its economy. For decades, the DRC has been hobbled by corruption and bloody civil conflicts. “I grew up with […]
President Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson of Iceland visits MIT
Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, the president of Iceland, visited MIT on Friday, engaging in talks with several campus leaders and professors, and touring the Media Lab. Jóhannesson visited the Institute along with a substantial delegation of officials and scholars from Iceland. They met with MIT scholars, who delivered a variety of presentations on research, design, and […]
An experimental study of the Holy Cannoli
Introduction The Cannoli is a form of dessert, which, in its most basic form, includes a pastry shell wrapped around a sweet ricotta filling. Historians have long debated the origin of the cannoli. Some say the cannoli originated during the carnival seasons in Palermo, a city on the island of Sicily, Italy. Others say it […]
MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium announces recipients of inaugural MCSC Seed Awards
The MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) has awarded 20 projects a total of $5 million over two years in its first-ever 2022 MCSC Seed Awards program. The winning projects are led by principal investigators across all five of MIT’s schools. The goal of the MCSC Seed Awards is to engage MIT researchers and link the […]
Living Climate Futures initiative showcases holistic approach to the climate crisis
The sun shone bright and warm on the Dertouzos Amphitheater at the Stata Center this past Earth Day as a panel of Indigenous leaders from across the country talked about their experiences with climate activism and shared their natural world philosophies — a worldview that sees humanity as one with the rest of the Earth. […]
Getting back to reading for pleasure
Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t read Harry Potter, Catch-22, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Count of Monte Cristo – there are a few references here that you may want to skip. If I were a troubled friend seeking advice, I might ask you to be the Jeeves to my Wooster, or if grad school […]
Solve at MIT 2022: Demystifying world issues one connection at a time
Solve at MIT 2022, the flagship event of MIT Solve, recently convened over 300 social impact leaders including 62 Solver teams as well as thousands of virtual supporters.
MIT J-WAFS announces 2022 seed grant recipients
The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) at MIT has awarded eight MIT principal investigators with 2022 J-WAFS seed grants. The grants support innovative MIT research that has the potential to have significant impact on water- and food-related challenges. The only program at MIT that is dedicated to water- and food-related research, […]
Thirteen from MIT awarded 2022 Fulbright Fellowships
Thirteen MIT undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni have been awarded Fulbright fellowships to pursue projects overseas in the 2022-23 grant year. Another MIT affiliate was offered an award but has not yet decided whether to accept, and others were named alternates and may be promoted in the coming weeks. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of […]
3 Questions: Provost Cynthia Barnhart on MIT’s community of excellence
With the MIT values statement recently published and MIT’s Strategic Action Plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion nearly complete, Provost Cynthia Barnhart provides her thoughts on the importance of diversity within the context of MIT’s commitment to excellence. Q: Why is MIT pursuing a plan to address diversity, equity, and inclusion? A: Over decades, MIT […]
Living better with algorithms
Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) student Sarah Cen remembers the lecture that sent her down the track to an upstream question. At a talk on ethical artificial intelligence, the speaker brought up a variation on the famous trolley problem, which outlines a philosophical choice between two undesirable outcomes. The speaker’s scenario: Say a […]
MIT community stands together against hate
Members of the MIT community gathered on the steps of the Stratton Student Center on May 17 to support each other in the wake of yet another mass shooting targeting the Black community, this time in Buffalo, New York. As MIT President L. Rafael Reif wrote in his letter to the community about the violence, […]
MIT Sloan students learn about civil rights history with a tour of the Deep South
An independent study project this spring provided eight MIT students with a unique opportunity to learn about some of the most consequential events in U.S. civil rights history. The eight students — Courtney Jacobovits, Naman Galhotra, Clyde-Blaise Niba, Chavie Sharfman Sosa, Johana Muriel Grajales, Jordan Dominguez, Patrick Akujobi, and Vanessa Labrador — are all MBA […]
Eleanor Freund receives Jeanne Guillemin Prize
The daughter of an American diplomat, Eleanor Freund spent most of her childhood living abroad in such places as Madagascar, Ghana, South Africa, and Austria. These experiences, she explains, led to an early interest in politics and international relations. “Whether in South Africa, which was emerging from decades of racial discrimination and violence under apartheid, […]
Can artificial intelligence overcome the challenges of the health care system?
Even as rapid improvements in artificial intelligence have led to speculation over significant changes in the health care landscape, the adoption of AI in health care has been minimal. A 2020 survey by Brookings, for example, found that less than 1 percent of job postings in health care required AI-related skills. The Abdul Latif Jameel […]
Solar-powered desalination device wins MIT $100K competition
The winner of this year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition is commercializing a new water desalination technology. Nona Desalination says it has developed a device capable of producing enough drinking water for 10 people at half the cost and with 1/10th the power of other water desalination devices. The device is roughly the size and weight […]
About us
Together, we foster academic excellence and quality of life for MIT’s community of graduate students. The Office of Graduate Education (OGE) provides a number of services to current and prospective graduate students as well as departments, including student support and development; diversity- and community-building; advice on fellowships and financial wellbeing; oversight of policies and procedures; […]
Outside professional activities
MIT’s graduate students occasionally engage in temporary part-time work to provide technical or subject matter expertise to industry, academic institutions, government agencies, and/or the public service sector. An MIT IPIA must be signed prior to engaging in outside professional activities, if one has not already been completed upon enrollment at MIT. A student may engage […]
MIT Climate “Plug-In” highlights first year of progress on MIT’s climate plan
In a combined in-person and virtual event on Monday, members of the three working groups established last year under MIT’s “Fast Forward” climate action plan reported on the work they’ve been doing to meet the plan’s goals, including reaching zero direct carbon emissions by 2026. Introducing the session, Vice President for Research Maria Zuber said […]
Featured video: In service of the nation
MIT has offered military training since 1865. Today, the Institute hosts U.S. Air Force, Army, and Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) programs. In this video, Navy ROTC Midshipman Juliana Silldorff, a senior in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), and cadets Chloe Brown, a senior in the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, […]
Connecting MIT students with women leading in semiconductors
Kim Vo ’98, SM ’99, a corporate vice president at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), joined the semiconductor industry for three reasons. “First, it’s extremely cool technology; it’s cutting edge. The second is all the products we create: they touch everyone,” she recently said in a talk at MIT. “And the third reason is because just […]
MIT students and postdocs advocate for increased federal support of scientific research on Capitol Hill
Sixteen MIT students and postdocs recently traveled to Washington to advocate for federal funding of scientific research for the 2023 fiscal year. Congressional Visit Days (CVD) are an effort organized by the MIT Science Policy Initiative (SPI), a student group that works at the intersection of policy and research. On April 5-6, students met with […]
Applying to Graduate Fellowships
Time: 11:30 – 13:00 Eastern. Hosted by Scott Tirrell, Director of Graduate Fellowships. Why are fellowships great? What is the application process? What are the types of resources available? Tips on personal statements and research proposals. Just a great place to ask questions and prepare to apply for fellowships for the next school year!
Peter Shor receives 2022-2023 Killian Award
Renowned mathematician and quantum computing pioneer Peter W. Shor PhD ’85 has been named the recipient of MIT’s 2022-2023 James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, the highest honor the Institute faculty can bestow upon one of its members each academic year. The Killian Award citation credits Shor, who is the Morss Professor of Applied […]
Six from MIT Named 2022 Knight-Hennessy Scholars
MIT seniors Desmond Edwards, Michelle Lee, and Syamantak Payra; graduate students Jessica Karaguesian and Tomás Guarna; and Pranav Lalgudi ’21 have been honored by this year’s Knight-Hennessy Scholars program. They will head to Stanford University this fall to commence their doctoral programs. Knight-Hennessy Scholars receive full funding for up to three years of graduate studies in […]
California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education
The California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education, planned by a consortium of public and private colleges and universities from throughout California, have been designed particularly to meet the needs of advanced undergraduates and master’s candidates who belong to groups that are currently underrepresented in doctoral-level programs. The groups include low-income and first-generation college students […]
