Faculty

Hamsa Balakrishnan appointed associate dean of engineering
Hamsa Balakrishnan, the William E. Leonhard (1940) Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) at MIT, has been appointed associate dean of the MIT School of Engineering effective…
Empowering the next generation of scientists in Africa
No one is born a world-class scientist. Instead, their skills are built over many years of education, networking, mentorship, and work in laboratories or in the field. That’s the fundamental…
A bright and airy hub for climate at MIT
Seen from a distance, MIT’s Cecil and Ida Green Building (Building 54) — designed by renowned architect and MIT alumnus I.M. Pei ’40 — is one of the most iconic…
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences welcomes nine new faculty
Dean Agustín Rayo and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences recently welcomed nine new professors to the MIT community. They arrive with diverse backgrounds and vast knowledge in…
From large labs to small teams, mentorship thrives
Each year, new MIT graduate students are tasked with the momentous decision of choosing a research group that will serve as their home for the next several years. Among many…
Across the pond to scale new heights
Nathanael Jenkins had always wanted to study aerospace engineering, he just hadn’t quite found the right place for it. He had explored options close to his home in Hampshire, U.K.,…
When learning at MIT means studying thousands of miles away
This summer, a group of MIT students traveled to Sicily’s southeastern coast to learn about threats to local communities related to sea level rise. They visited ancient archeological sites that…
Balancing economic development with natural resources protection
It’s one of the paradoxes of economic development: Many countries currently offer large subsidies to their industrial fishing fleets, even though the harms of overfishing are well-known. Governments might be…
Mission directors announced for the Climate Project at MIT
The Climate Project at MIT has appointed leaders for each of its six focal areas, or Climate Missions, President Sally Kornbluth announced in a letter to the MIT community today.…
Three MIT professors named 2024 Vannevar Bush Fellows
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has announced three MIT professors among the members of the 2024 class of the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (VBFF). The fellowship is the DoD’s…
MIT affiliates named 2024 HHMI Investigators
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) today announced its 2024 investigators, four of whom hail from the School of Science at MIT: Steven Flavell, Mary Gehring, Mehrad Jazayeri, and Gene-Wei Li.  Four…
“The dance between autonomy and affinity creates morality”
MIT philosophy doctoral student Abe Mathew believes individual rights play an important role in protecting the autonomy we value. But he also thinks we risk serious dysfunction if we ignore…
Math program promotes global community for at-risk Ukrainian high schoolers
When Sophia Breslavets first heard about Yulia’s Dream, the MIT Department of Mathematics’ Program for Research in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science (PRIMES) for Ukrainian students, Russia had just invaded her country, and she…
Collaborative effort supports an MIT resilient to the impacts of extreme heat
Warmer weather can be a welcome change for many across the MIT community. But as climate impacts intensify, warm days are often becoming hot days with increased severity and frequency.…
Machine learning and the microscope
With recent advances in imaging, genomics and other technologies, the life sciences are awash in data. If a biologist is studying cells taken from the brain tissue of Alzheimer’s patients,…
Community members receive 2024 MIT Excellence Awards, Collier Medal, and Staff Award for Distinction in Service
On Wednesday, June 5, 13 individuals and four teams were awarded MIT Excellence Awards — the highest awards for staff at the Institute. Colleagues holding signs, waving pompoms, and cheering…
Investigating the past to see technology’s future
The MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) recently organized and hosted a two-day symposium, The History of Technology: Past, Present, and Future. The symposium was held June 7-8…
Studying astrophysically relevant plasma physics
Thomas Varnish loves his hobbies — knitting, baking, pottery — it’s a long list. His latest interest is analog film photography. A picture with his mother and another with his…
Signal processing: How did we get to where we’re going?
On May 24, Ford Professor of Engineering Al Oppenheim addressed a standing-room-only audience at MIT to give the talk of a lifetime. Entitled “Signal Processing: How Did We Get to…
Summer 2024 recommended reading from MIT
MIT faculty and staff authors have published a plethora of books, chapters, and other literary contributions in the past year. The following titles represent some of their works published in…
Pioneering the future of materials extraction
The next time you cook pasta, imagine that you are cooking spaghetti, rigatoni, and seven other varieties all together, and they need to be separated onto 10 different plates before…
The rules of the game
At the core of Raymond Wang’s work lies a seemingly simple question: Can’t we just get along? Wang, a fifth-year political science graduate student, is a native of Hong Kong…
“Rollerama” roller rink opens in Kendall Square
The former U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Volpe Center site — now named “Kendall Common” in anticipation of its transformation into a vibrant mixed-use development — is now activated and open to…
From group stretches to “Hitting Roman,” MIT Motorsports traditions live on
While siblings Kevin Chan ’17 and rising senior Monica Chan may be seven years apart in age, as Monica Chan puts it, “we’re eight grades apart, so, like, eight life-years…
Two MIT films nominated for New England Emmy Awards
Two films produced by MIT were honored with Emmy nominations by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Boston/New England Chapter. Both “We Are the Forest” and “No Drop to…
“UnrulyArt” creates joy and engagement, regardless of ability
An unmistakable takeaway from sessions of “UnrulyArt” is that all those “-n’ts” — can’t, needn’t, shouldn’t, won’t — which can lead people to exclude children with disabilities or cognitive, social,…
Designing for outer space
A new MIT course this spring asked students to design what humans might need to comfortably work in and inhabit space. The time for these creations is now. While the…
Toward socially and environmentally responsible real estate
The MIT student of popular imagination is a Tony Stark or a Riri Williams working in a lab and building the technology of the future. Not necessarily someone studying real…
Arvind, longtime MIT professor and prolific computer scientist, dies at 77
Arvind Mithal, the Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at MIT, head of the faculty of computer science in the Department of Electrical Engineering…
MIT-Takeda Program wraps up with 16 publications, a patent, and nearly two dozen projects completed
When the Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and the MIT School of Engineering launched their collaboration focused on artificial intelligence in health care and drug development in February 2020, society was on…
David Autor named the inaugural Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor in Economics
The Department of Economics has announced David Autor as the inaugural holder of the Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professorship in Economics, effective July 1.  The endowed chair is made…
MIT graduate engineering and business programs ranked highly by U.S. News for 2024-25
U.S. News and Word Report has again placed MIT’s graduate program in engineering at the top of its annual rankings, released today. The Institute has held the No. 1 spot since…
Featured video: Researchers discuss queer visibility in academia
“My identity as a scientist and my identity as a gay man are not contradictory, but complimentary,” says Jack Forman, PhD candidate in media arts and sciences and co-lead of…
Nancy Kanwisher, Robert Langer, and Sara Seager named Kavli Prize Laureates
MIT faculty members Nancy Kanwisher, Robert Langer, and Sara Seager are among eight researchers worldwide to receive this year’s Kavli Prizes. A partnership among the Norwegian Academy of Science and…
MIT Faculty Founder Initiative announces three winners of entrepreneurship awards
Patients with intractable cancers, chronic pain sufferers, and people who depend on battery-powered medical implants may all benefit from the ideas presented at the 2023-24 MIT-Royalty Pharma Prize Competition’s recent…
How a quantum scientist, a nurse, and an economist are joining the fight against global poverty
A trip to Ghana changed Sofia Martinez Galvez’s life. In 2021, she volunteered at a nonprofit that provides technology and digital literacy training to people in the West African country.…