MIT students contribute to success of historic fusion experiment
For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition in a laboratory, a grand challenge of the 21st century. The High-Energy-Density Physics (HEDP) group at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center has focused on an approach called inertial confinement fusion (ICF), which uses lasers to […]
Forging political alliances through supply chains
The bustling coastal city of Wenzhou made its mark early on Hao Zhang. “It is considered the birthplace of Chinese capitalism, and living there, with many relatives involved in startups, I was exposed to all kinds of business,” says Zhang, a rising fifth-year graduate student in political science. He also gained a close-up view of […]
Featured video: Thank you, MIT employees!
Every fall, some 7,000 students arrive on campus, joining around 5,000 already here. In preparation, staff and faculty have made ready 6,210 dorm rooms, 30 residence halls, 13,828 offices, 5,488 labs, and 119 academic buildings. In honor of Labor Day, in this video we say, ‘Thank you, MIT employees!’ Produced by Christine Daniloff. Video by […]
Letter regarding proposed free expression statement from MIT
The following letter was sent to the MIT community today by President L. Rafael Reif and includes a letter sent to MIT faculty today by Provost Cynthia Barnhart, Chancellor Melissa Nobles, and Chair of the Faculty Lily L. Tsai. To the members of the MIT community, Last fall, I asked the provost, chancellor and chair of the faculty […]
MIT releases strategic action plan for belonging, achievement, and composition
MIT has released a new strategic action plan for belonging, achievement, and composition, intended to help the Institute forge a stronger sense of community and pursue excellence by tapping into talent globally. The plan provides an Institute-wide framework for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion across MIT, while allowing individual departments, labs, and offices to define […]
Chloé Gentgen named one of Aviation Week Network’s “20 Twenties”
Aviation Week Network named Chloé Gentgen SM’22, a PhD candidate in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), as one of this year’s 20 Twenties Award recipients. The program has selected 20 promising recipients each year since 2013, based on stellar academic performance, extensive community involvement, and substantial research contributions, to recognize the next […]
3 Questions: Thea Keith-Lucas on ministering to the MIT community
MIT Chaplain to the Institute Thea Keith-Lucas feels very much at home working on a college campus. Keith-Lucas grew up in Sewanee, Tennessee, on the campus of the University of the South, where her father taught. Keith-Lucas served as MIT’s Episcopal chaplain from 2013 to 2020, and was recently promoted to chaplain to the Institute […]
Leadership opportunity: Serve on the Exec Board of Graduate Womxn at MIT (gwaMIT)!
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 […]
Deepto Chakrabarty named head of the Department of Physics
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
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 […]
Working out my body… and my mind
You’ve probably seen countless exercise videos promising to help you drop 10 pounds in a month and copious articles telling you why you should start a new fitness regimen, but I’m not here to convince you to start one. I’m here to share how having a fitness routine has helped me learn and grow as […]
Building better batteries, faster
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
“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
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
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 […]
Be water, MIT friend
I just finished my third year of graduate school in the Mathematics Department. I work in Fourier analysis, a part of math that studies qualitative and quantitative questions about the overlapping patterns of waves. Before I was thinking about Fourier analysis, when I was a new graduate student, I was considering the question of what […]
On the front lines of space innovation
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
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
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 […]
Passion projects prepare to launch
At the start of the sixth annual MITdesignX “Pitch Day,” Svafa Grönfeldt, the program’s faculty director, made a point of noting that many of the teams about to showcase their ventures had changed direction multiple times on their projects. “Some of you have pivoted more times than we can count,” Grönfeldt said in her welcoming […]
Noelle Wakefield, friend to the MIT community
Dr. Noelle Wakefield, Assistant Dean for Diversity Initiatives and Director of the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP), was honored with the 2022 Laya Wiesner Community Award. “Noelle believes no detail is too small when it comes to creating an inclusive community experience,” her recommenders shared. From revamping an entire program curriculum, to developing recruitment strategy, […]
Caspar Hare, Georgia Perakis named associate deans of Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing
Caspar Hare and Georgia Perakis have been appointed the new associate deans of the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), a cross-cutting initiative in the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. Their new roles will take effect on Sept. 1. “Infusing social and ethical aspects of computing in academic research and education is […]
Leveraging computational tools to enhance product design
As an undergraduate at MIT, Jana Saadi had to find a way to fulfill her humanities class requirements. Little did she know that her decision would heavily shape her academic career. On a whim, Saadi had joined a friend in a class offered through MIT D-Lab, a project-based program aimed at helping poor communities around […]
J-PAL expands evidence-to-policy government partnerships to fight poverty worldwide
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT has announced a significant expansion of its efforts to forge evidence-to-policy partnerships with innovative-minded governments seeking to use rigorous research to inform their social policies and programs. These partnerships will support governments in laying the groundwork to take evidence-informed policies and programs to scale, aiming […]
MIT’s efforts to get out the vote make an impact
Students in STEM fields are historically less likely to vote than those in other areas of study. Two nonpartisan MIT groups are working to change that, and early returns suggest they’re having an impact. This spring, the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) — an initiative of the Institute for Democracy and Higher […]
3 Questions: What to expect from Covid-19 this fall
As MIT prepares for the fall — its fifth full semester since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic — the Institute is continuing to evolve from its initial stance of strong institutional responsibility for managing Covid to an approach rooted in individual responsibility. Throughout the pandemic, MIT has taken an “always be prepared to pivot” […]
3 Questions: John Durant on the new MIT Museum at Kendall Square
To the outside world, much of what goes on at MIT can seem mysterious. But the MIT Museum, whose new location is in the heart of Kendall Square, wants to change that. With a specially designed space by architects Höweler + Yoon, new exhibitions, and new public programs, this fall marks a reset for the […]
Emma Gibson: Optimizing health care logistics in Africa
Growing up in South Africa at the turn of the century, Emma Gibson saw the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its devastating impact on her home country, where many people lacked life-saving health care. At the time, Gibson was too young to understand what a sexually transmitted infection was, but she knew that HIV […]
The hub of the local robotics industry
The MIT spinout Ori attracted a lot of attention when it unveiled its shapeshifting furniture prototypes in 2014. But after the founders left MIT, they faced a number of daunting challenges. Where would they find the space to build and demo their apartment-scale products? How would they get access to the machines and equipment necessary […]
devin michelle bunten
devin michelle bunten is an Assistant Professor of Urban Economics and Housing within the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. She formerly acted as the department’s Edward H. and Joyce Linde Career Development Chair. Her research focuses on urban economic theory, including housing and social stratification as well as queer and trans housing […]
Community abounds as Sidney-Pacific Residence Hall celebrates 20 years
The largest graduate residence on MIT’s campus, Sidney-Pacific (Building NW86), also known as Sid-Pac, thrives on the community its residents have built over the past 20 years. Opened in 2002, the residence hall celebrated its 20th anniversary this year with a reunion featuring cookouts, games, and alumni events. Located in the northwest corner of campus, […]
A new twist on old-school animation
It’s another case of a class project that turned into a bit more than the typical assignment. The story began last fall in the MIT course 6.810 (Engineering Interactive Technologies) taught by Stefanie Mueller, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The students, who were mostly undergraduates, were asked to […]
MIT can work for couples
Do you believe that keeping up with a romantic relationship and completing a graduate degree abroad at a top university are incompatible? This is the story about how I was able to start a new stage of my career and initiate a new stage in my relationship at MIT. Hopefully, you will find this post […]
Fusion’s newest ambassador
When high school senior Tuba Balta emailed MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) Director Dennis Whyte in February, she was not certain she would get a response. As part of her final semester at BASIS Charter School, in Washington, she had been searching unsuccessfully for someone to sponsor an internship in fusion energy, a topic that […]
