My First Ironman: Where the Road to a World Record Begins
I stood on the beach wall staring out into the ocean as the sun rose, forming the most beautiful purples and pinks. I thought to myself: “Today, I find out if the work I put in over the last seven months was enough.” “Today, I find out if the chase towards a world record begins […]
A better DNA material for genetic medicine
To our immune system, a potentially lifesaving gene therapy can look a lot like a dangerous infection. That’s because most genetic medicine uses viruses or double-stranded DNA to deliver genetic information to target cells. DNA in its traditional double helix form can lead to toxic immune stimulation and be difficult to package into cellular delivery […]
Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94 to deliver MIT’s 2026 Commencement address
Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, a leading executive in the semiconductor industry and head of the company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), will deliver the address at the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony on Thursday, May 28. As chair and CEO of AMD, Su has transformed the company, which is now a global leader in high-performance […]
Need support while OGE is closed for the winter break?
The Institute is closed from December 25-January 2, but there are still resources available if you need help! Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the people below. Searching for social connection or things to do? Take a look at this article for free or affordable ideas, tailored for you as a graduate student. […]
Winter break activities & connections
Note: If you need support while the Institute is closed, please don’t hesitate to use these resources. Free or discounted tickets to museums and arts events Take some time to feed your soul! If you plan ahead a little, MITAC (MIT Activities Committee) and Arts Access offer discounted tickets to concerts, museums, theater performances, ski […]
A day in the life of MIT PhD student Alex Busch
“As a student of both sociology and economics, MIT Sloan was the ideal place for me to combine both disciplines,” says Alex Busch, a PhD student. “MIT Sloan is unique in the freedom it offers its PhD students to become the researchers they aspire to be: I take classes in management, economics, and sociology, all […]
Jennifer Lewis ScD ’91: “Can we make tissues that are made from you, for you?”
“Can we make tissues that are made from you, for you?” asked Jennifer Lewis ScD ’91 at the 2025 Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lecture, organized by MIT.nano, on Nov. 3. “The grand challenge goal is to create these tissues for therapeutic use and, ultimately, at the whole organ scale.” Lewis, the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically […]
MIT’s Science Policy Initiative holds 15th annual Executive Visit Days
“To really understand science policy, you have to step outside the lab and see it in action,” says Jack Fletcher, an MIT PhD student in nuclear science and engineering and chair of the 15th annual Executive Visit Days (ExVD). Inspired by this mindset, ExVD — jointly organized by the MIT Science Policy Initiative (SPI) and the MIT Washington […]
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya visits MIT
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya visited MIT on Friday, engaging in a wide-ranging discussion about policy issues and research aims at an event also featuring Rep. Jake Auchincloss MBA ’16 of Massachusetts. The forum consisted of a dialogue between Auchincloss and Bhattacharya, followed by a question-and-answer session with an audience that included […]
Paula Hammond named dean of the School of Engineering
Paula Hammond ’84, PhD ’93, an Institute Professor and MIT’s executive vice provost, has been named dean of MIT’s School of Engineering, effective Jan. 16. She will succeed Anantha Chandrakasan, the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who was appointed MIT’s provost in July. Hammond, who was head of the Department of Chemical […]
MADMEC winners develop spray-on coating to protect power lines from ice
A spray-on coating to keep power lines standing through an ice storm may not be the obvious fix for winter outages — but it’s exactly the kind of innovation that happens when MIT students tackle a sustainability challenge. “The big threat to the power line network is winter icing that causes huge amounts of downed […]
MIT researchers “speak objects into existence” using AI and robotics
Generative AI and robotics are moving us ever closer to the day when we can ask for an object and have it created within a few minutes. In fact, MIT researchers have developed a speech-to-reality system, an AI-driven workflow that allows them to provide input to a robotic arm and “speak objects into existence,” creating […]
Cultivating confidence and craft across disciplines
Both Rohit Karnik and Nathan Wilmers personify the type of mentorship that any student would be fortunate to receive — one rooted in intellectual rigor and grounded in humility, empathy, and personal support. They show that transformative academic guidance is not only about solving research problems, but about lifting up the people working on them. […]
Rosy DiCostanzo
Monday: RemoteTuesday: 7-338Wednesday: RemoteThursday: 4-240Friday: Remote I can provide guidance and advise on topics related to the Graduate Student Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) including the RA/TA/IG appointment process, supervisor/supervisee questions and/or concerns, and benefits and subsidies guaranteed by the contract. A fun fact about me: I’m a fiber-arts enthusiast and love to craft.
Exploring how AI will shape the future of work
“MIT hasn’t just prepared me for the future of work — it’s pushed me to study it. As AI systems become more capable, more of our online activity will be carried out by artificial agents. That raises big questions: How should we design these systems to understand our preferences? What happens when AI begins making […]
The Best Professors Teach Humility
I used to despise economics. ECO101, the introductory economics course I took at the University of Toronto, had convinced me that the field only offered dangerous half-truths. “Minimum wage laws increase unemployment,” I was taught. “Rent control laws are economically harmful; fairness can and should instead be achieved through other means.” I had started the […]
The unsung role of logistics in the US military
The U.S. military is mighty, formidable, and singular in influence, stationed in at least 128 overseas bases across 51 countries. Concealed beneath the United States’ biggest investment is a surprise: The military was responsible for the birth of an industry. Today, that industry is essential for its operations. “If you think about it, logistics started […]
The End of the Semester Study Break!
Free Lunch! Join your fellow graduate students for lunch and relaxation in the Den (3-108). Drop by to pick up free lunch or stay and chat! Relax and put together a mini-brick set! Date: Wednesday, December 10th Time: 12-2:30 pm Location: 3-108, The Den Sponsored by the Office of Graduate Education Grad Thriving & Grad […]
Celebrating the advancement of technology leadership through policy analysis and guidance
In 1965, after completing his PhD in civil engineering at MIT, Professor Richard de Neufville joined the first class of White House Fellows, one of the nation’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service, through which he spent an intensive year working full-time at the highest levels of government. Soon after, de Neufville joined […]
MIT scientists debut a generative AI model that could create molecules addressing hard-to-treat diseases
More than 300 people across academia and industry spilled into an auditorium to attend a BoltzGen seminar on Thursday, Oct. 30, hosted by the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (MIT Jameel Clinic). Headlining the event was MIT PhD student and BoltzGen’s first author Hannes Stärk, who had announced BoltzGen just a few days […]
Mind, hand, and harvest
On a sunny, warm Sunday MIT students, staff, and faculty spread out across the fields of Hannan Healthy Foods in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Some of these volunteers pluck tomatoes from their vines in a patch a few hundred feet from the cars whizzing by on Route 117. Others squat in the shade cast by the greenhouse to […]
Fellowships Overview – December 2025
Interested in OGE’s 26 different competitive fellowships? Join us to find out more about the nomination process and requirements. Also reviewing Regeneron prize.
How a building creates and defines a region
As an undergraduate majoring in architecture, Dong Nyung Lee ’21 wasn’t sure how to respond when friends asked him what the study of architecture was about. “I was always confused about how to describe it myself,” he says with a laugh. “I would tell them that it wasn’t just about a building, or a city, […]
New AI agent learns to use CAD to create 3D objects from sketches
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is the go-to method for designing most of today’s physical products. Engineers use CAD to turn 2D sketches into 3D models that they can then test and refine before sending a final version to a production line. But the software is notoriously complicated to learn, with thousands of commands to choose from. […]
A new take on carbon capture
If there was one thing Cameron Halliday SM ’19, MBA ’22, PhD ’22 was exceptional at during the early days of his PhD at MIT, it was producing the same graph over and over again. Unfortunately for Halliday, the graph measured various materials’ ability to absorb CO2 at high temperatures over time — and it […]
MIT Energy Initiative conference spotlights research priorities amidst a changing energy landscape
“We’re here to talk about really substantive changes, and we want you to be a participant in that,” said Desirée Plata, the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Climate and Energy in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, at Energizing@MIT: the MIT Energy Initiative’s (MITEI) Annual Research Conference that was held on Sept. 9-10. […]
Returning farming to city centers
A new class is giving MIT students the opportunity to examine the historical and practical considerations of urban farming while developing a real-world understanding of its value by working alongside a local farm’s community. Course 4.182 (Resilient Urbanism: Green Commons in the City) is taught in two sections by instructors in the Program in Science, Technology, […]
Phil Sharp-Alnylam Fund for Emerging Scientists to support MIT biology graduate students and faculty
It’s no question that graduate school in fundamental research was never for the faint of heart, but academia’s nationwide funding disruptions threaten not just research happening now, but the critical pipeline for the next generation of scientists. “What’s keeping me up at night is the uncertainty,” says MIT Institute Professor and Nobel laureate Phillip A. […]
Green bananas can’t throw 3.091 Fun Run off course
The night before the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE)’s 3.091 Fun Run, organizer Bianca Sinausky opened a case of bananas she’d ordered and was met with a surprise: the fruit was bright green. “I looked around for paper bags, but I only found a few,” says Sinausky, graduate academic administrator for the department, […]
From nanoscale to global scale: Advancing MIT’s special initiatives in manufacturing, health, and climate
“MIT.nano is essential to making progress in high-priority areas where I believe that MIT has a responsibility to lead,” opened MIT president Sally Kornbluth at the 2025 Nano Summit. “If we harness our collective efforts, we can make a serious positive impact.” It was these collective efforts that drove discussions at the daylong event hosted […]
Transforming complex research into compelling stories
For students, postdocs, and early-career researchers, communicating complex ideas in a clear and compelling manner has become an essential skill. Whether applying for academic positions, pitching research to funders, or collaborating across disciplines, the ability to present work clearly and effectively can be as critical as the work itself. Recognizing this need, The MIT Office […]
Productivity After Chaos
This summer, I spent much of my free time digging through my high school diaries. I was a boring diary writer—instead of long entries detailing friendship drama or failed crushes, most of my diary entries were to-do lists and resolutions. “Write paper,” “get up at 5:30 AM,” “5 miles of running per week,” and so […]
Fellowships Overview – November 2025
Why are fellowships great? What is the application process? What are the types of resources available?
Free & low cost student resources
The following resources may help you save money. Each one notes whether the discounts are available to the MIT community broadly, to MIT students, or to students in general. We welcome comments or additional resources at oge-comms@mit.edu. Transportation Airport shuttles. $15 fee; available by reservation around Thanksgiving, Winter, and Spring breaks. Amtrak. Students 17-24 receive […]
Giving buildings an “MRI” to make them more energy-efficient and resilient
Older buildings let thousands of dollars-worth of energy go to waste each year through leaky roofs, old windows, and insufficient insulation. But even as building owners face mounting pressure to comply with stricter energy codes, making smart decisions about how to invest in efficiency is a major challenge. Lamarr.AI, born in part from MIT research, […]
Charting the future of AI, from safer answers to faster thinking
Adoption of new tools and technologies occurs when users largely perceive them as reliable, accessible, and an improvement over the available methods and workflows for the cost. Five PhD students from the inaugural class of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab Summer Program are utilizing state-of-the-art resources, alleviating AI pain points, and creating new features and […]
