In the Media

W. Gerald Austen ’51 - a prolific researcher, and devoted chief of surgery - has died at the age of 92, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. Austen, who was a life member of the MIT Corporation, often noted that his bachelor’s degree from MIT came in handy during his career in medicine. “My field in engineering was fluid mechanics, and what could be better, it turned out,” he told The Globe. “Fluid mechanics is fluid flow through pipes, and cardiovascular surgery is also fluid flow through pipes and pumps.”

Graduate student Evan Soltas and Gopi Shah Goda, deputy director of Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, explore the impact that Covid-19 has had on the workforce, reports Sarah Todd for Quartz. “People ages 65 and up are more likely to leave the workforce after contracting Covid compared to younger people,” say Soltas and Goda.

A study by graduate student Evan Soltas and Gopi Shah Goda, deputy director of Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, underlines the pandemic’s impact on labor supply in the United States, reports Richard Luscombe for The Guardian. “Our estimates suggest Covid-19 illnesses have reduced the US labor force by approximately 500,000 people,” say Soltas and Goda.

Lawrence A. Tabak, who is currently performing the duties of the NIH Director, spotlights a new study by Prof. James Collins and his colleagues aimed at exploring the potential of AI to streamline the process of selecting new antibiotics. “In future studies, the Collins lab will continue to incorporate and train the computers on even more biochemical and biophysical data to help with the predictive process," Tabak writes. "That’s why this study should be interpreted as an interim progress report on an area of science that will only get better with time.”

Researchers from MIT’s Research Laboratory for Electronics have developed a portable desalinator that can turn seawater into safe drinking water, reports Ian Mount for Fortune. Research scientist Jongyoon Han and graduate student Bruce Crawford have created Nona Technologies to commercialize the product, writes Mount.

The MIT Educational Justice Initiative has developed a 12-week program called Brave Behind Bars that teaches inmates “basic coding languages such as JavaScript and HTML in hopes of opening the door for detainees to one day pursue high-paying jobs,” reports Washington Post reporter Emily Davies. “The level of 21st century technology skills they just learned, I can’t do those things,” said Amy Lopez, deputy director of college and career readiness for the D.C. Department of Corrections. “They are transferrable, employable skills.”

Prof. Jonathan Parker and other researchers have found that Covid-19 relief payments have served as a form of insurance for families, reports Howard Schneider for Reuters. Although, “’the small short-term spending response and its pattern suggest that the (economic-impact payments) went to many people who did not need the additional funds,’” writes Schneider.

Alumna Yue Chen has been named the chief climate risk office for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, reports Emily Flitter for The New York Times. “Dr. Chen will focus on developing a new system to assess climate-driven risks to banks, and figure out how to monitor and manage them,” says the agency.

A study by graduate student Evan Soltas and Gopi Shah Goda, deputy director of Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, explores the economic toll of Covid-19, including acute illness and long Covid, reports Erin Prater for Fortune. The paper “also looks at the impact of other Covid-related medical consequences like organ damage, mental health issues, new kidney and heart problems, and the worsening of preexisting illness, in addition to the phenomenon of Covid forcing older workers into early retirement,” explains Prater.

Institute Professor Robert Langer has been honored as one of the recipients of this year’s Balzan Prize for his “pioneering research and advances in mRNA vaccines and tissue engineering,” the Associated Press reports. Langer has paved the way “for breakthroughs in the controlled release of macromolecules with many medical applications,” the Balzan Foundation noted in its citation.

MIT was named to the number two spot in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of the best colleges and universities across the country, reports Shannon Larson for The Boston Globe. MIT also “led the pack of undergraduate engineering programs in which a doctorate is the highest degree offered,” and was also “recognized for its undergraduate business program, coming in at No. 2,” writes Larson. 

Writing for The Hill, Prof. Jonathan Gruber, Representative Ro Khanna (D-California) and Matt Hourihan of the Federation of American Scientists write that there’s “an unfortunate history of Congress authorizing ambitious boosts for science only to fall short in appropriations. Congress deserves credit for getting the CHIPS and Science Act across the finish line, but legislators shouldn’t rest on their haunches. Instead, our leaders should sustain the moment they’ve started and ensure robust support for federal innovation — our future depends on it.”

A study by MIT researchers finds that the screening test used for autism creates a gender gap that impedes diagnosis and treatment for women and girls, reports Sydney Murphy for Health Day. The researchers found that “a screening test often used to decide who can take part in autism studies seems to exclude a much higher percentage of women than men,” writes Murphy.

A study co-authored by graduate student Evan J. Soltas finds that illness caused by Covid-19 shrank the U.S. labor force by around 500,000 people, reports Gwynn Guilford for The Wall Street Journal. “If we stay where we are with Covid infection rates going forward, we expect that 500,000-person loss to persist until either exposure goes down or severity goes down,” said Soltas.

Researchers from MIT, the University of Southern California, Redfin, and the National Bureau of Economic Research found that property listings with flood risks were less likely to be looked at and bid on by potential homebuyers, reports Leslie Kaufman for Bloomberg.