More than 3,000 alumni/ae are expected to return to campus for class reunions, Tech Week activities, a Technology Day program that spans two days and MIT's 133rd Commencement ceremony.
The annual Tech Night at Pops that includes a post-concert reception in Symphony Hall takes place on Thursday, June 3.Tours of Boston Harbor, the Big Dig, the Museum of Fine Arts' conservation laboratories and the Haystack Observatory are scheduled for Friday, June 4 (most of these events have already sold out).
Outdoor activities during the weekend include golf and tennis clinics, the Tech Challenge Games, an alumni/ae sail and the third annual Reunion Row. The Henley Team of 1955 will be participating in the row, along with teams from the classes of 1939 to 1994.
The Great Court Gala, first held in 1916, will be reinstituted for returning classes and graduating seniors after a 73-year absence. There will be entertainment at three sites from 9pm-midnight on Saturday, June 5. Bob Bachelder and the Totem Pole Swing Orchestra will hold center stage in Killian Court, with tables grouped by class. Desserts, coffees and cordials will be served. The Bush Room will host a piano bar, and disco music will be featured in Lobby 13.
The Classes of 1929, 1934, 1939, 1944, 1949, 1954, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989 and 1994 will hold reunions.
The theme of the two-day Technology Day program is "The Human Body: Emerging Medical Science and Technology."
On Friday, June 4 from 3-5pm in Rm 10-250, alumni/ae involved in medicine, biotechnical research and health care will participate in a panel discussion of "Biomedical Entrepreneurship." The moderator will be Dr. Jerome H. Grossman (SB 1961), chair and CEO of Health Quality Inc. Panelists are Noubar Afeyan (PhD 1987), senior vice president and CBO of Perkin-Elmer Corp.; Dr. Mark Braunstein (SB 1969), chair and CEO of Patient Care Technologies; Jerome Goldstein (SB 1960, SM, SM, MET), president and CEO of Advanced Magnetics Inc.; and Seth Taylor (SM 1997), president and CEO of MolecularWare, the recent winner of the Sloan $50K Robert P. Goldberg '65 Gold Prize.
Three MIT professors and a Yale professor who will soon join the MIT faculty will discuss their areas of expertise from 9am-noon on Saturday, June 5 in Kresge Auditorium. The professors and their topics are:
Dr. Robert S. Langer Jr. (ScD 1974), the Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering: "Biomaterials and How They Will Change Our Lives;" Professor David C. Page of biology and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: "The Human Genome Project, Sex and Infertility;" Dr. Martha Constantine-Paton, who joins the Department of Biology in July: "What Is Developmental Plasticity and What Does It Do for Us?" and Dr. Robert A. Weinberg (SB 1964, PhD), a founding member of the Whitehead Institute and the David K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research: "How Cancer Begins."
President Charles M. Vest will moderate a question-and-answer session following the talks.
Panel discussions from 3-5pm in the Student Center and Kresge Little Theater will follow the annual Technology Day luncheon. The topics are "Aging, Alzheimer's and Arthritis;" "Trends for Health Care in the 21st Century;" and "Genetic Testing and Privacy: Ethical Dilemmas." Among the participants will be Dr. Mitchell Spellman, life member emeritus of the MIT Corporation; Professor Suzanne Corkin of brain and cognitive sciences; Professor Leonard Guarente of biology; Professor Page and Phillip R. Reilly, director of the Shriver Institute for Mental Retardation.
A version of this article appeared in the May 19, 1999 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 43, Number 31).
