The MIT Press announced today the inception of its new Faculty and Alumni Book Awards program, along with the inaugural winners. The new awards are made possible by an anonymous donor and are intended to honor the enduring importance of books and their authors within the MIT community.
“We are deeply grateful to have the opportunity to publish so many distinguished MIT faculty and alumni voices — books that enrich our collective understanding and inspire new perspectives,” says Amy Brand, director and publisher of the MIT Press. “In establishing the MIT Press Faculty and Alumni Book Awards program, we aim to acknowledge these scholars and the incredible contributions they make towards the progress of knowledge within the MIT community and beyond.”
Awards in the two author categories (faculty and alumni) will be selected each year from a shortlist of nominated MIT Press titles published in the three preceding years. The winning books, selected by a dedicated committee, will be those that most successfully provide a clear cultural, professional, and publishing contribution to the academic community or reading public; advance scholarship in their disciplines, pioneer a new field of inquiry, or effectively engage the public; and represent the prestige and quality for which the MIT Press is widely recognized.
The winner of the 2025 MIT Press Faculty Book Award is “The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines” (2023), by David Autor, the Ford Professor of Economics and Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow; David Mindell, professor of aerospace engineering and the Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing; and Elisabeth Reynolds, professor of the practice in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. In an era of rapid technological advancement and shifting labor markets, “The Work of the Future” stands as an essential, insightful, and profoundly timely contribution to one of the most pressing issues of our time.
The other finalist titles in this category were:
- “Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action,” by Catherine D’Ignazio;
- “Data Is Everybody's Business: The Fundamentals of Data Monetization,” by Barbara Wixom, Cynthia Beath, and Leslie Owens; and
- “The Equitably Resilient City: Solidarities and Struggles in the Face of Climate Crisis,” by Zachary Lamb and Lawrence Vale.
The winner of the 2025 MIT Press Alumni Book Award is “The Abundant University: Remaking Higher Education for a Digital World” (2023), by Michael D. Smith PhD ’99, who earned his MIT doctorate in management science and is now the J. Erik Jonsson Professor of Information Technology and Marketing at Carnegie Mellon University. “The Abundant University” is a wake-up call for elite institutions and a visionary roadmap for the future of higher education.
The other finalist titles in this category were:
- “Melancholy Wedgwood,” by Iris Moon PhD ’13;
- “Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us,” by Gary Marcus PhD ’93; and
- “Wonder: Childhood and the Lifelong Love of Science,” by Frank Keil ’73
MIT Provost Cynthia Barnhart will present the awards at a campus celebration on April 17.
Established in 1962, the MIT Press’ mission is to lead by pushing the boundaries of scholarly publishing in active partnership with the MIT community and aligned with MIT’s mission to advance knowledge in science, technology, the arts, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
