NPR’s Steve Inskeep notes that in a 2010 episode of “The Simpsons” Milhouse van Houten predicts that Prof. Bengt Holmström will win a Nobel Prize in economics. Inskeep jokes that Milhouse was a visionary, who “knew way before the rest of the world that MIT's Bengt Holmström had genius in him.”
MIT researchers have developed a new technique for making vaccines using freeze-dried cells, reports Ed Yong for The Atlantic. Yong explains that in addition to producing medicines, the technique provides a new way of “detecting important diseases, like Zika and Ebola, without relying on laboratories or sequencing machines.”
In an interview with Wired’s Editor-in-Chief Scott Dadich, President Barack Obama sits down with Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab, to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. “Everybody needs to understand that how AI behaves is important,” says Ito. “Because the question is, how do we build societal values into AI?”
Nobel laureate Prof. Bengt Holmström speaks with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about the importance of incentives. Holmström recounts becoming interested in incentives while working at a multinational conglomerate after realizing computers could not “replace a lot of what the human mind is thinking,” adding that incentives are how “you influence people’s behavior.”
In this video, Prof. Heather Hendershot speaks with Mary Kissel of The Wall Street Journal about her new book examining the impact of William F. Buckley’s program the “Firing Line.” “He was the key player in forging a sophisticated, urban, elegant image for right wing conservatism. And that got me interested in him,” Hendershot explains.
In an article for The Boston Globe, Steve Annear notes that during an episode of “The Simpsons” Milhouse Van Houten predicts that MIT Prof. Bengt Holmström will win a Nobel prize in economics. Annear writes that “Milhouse’s prediction was spot on — but a few years too early. On Monday, Holmström finally earned his due.”
BBC News reporter Atish Patel reports on a new study, co-authored by Prof. Abhijit Banerjee, that found informal health care providers in India can improve with modest training. The researchers found that those who had undergone training were more likely to “adhere to checklists after training and made big improvements in providing correct treatments.”
CNN reporter Katie Pisa spotlights alumnus Obinna Ukwuani’s dedication to opening a STEM school in Nigeria. Ukwuani says he was inspired by his time in Nigeria after years of studying in the U.S. "In the U.S., if you work hard, you'll be fine in this life. So I had that moment where I knew I wanted to improve things in Nigeria."
Charles Duxbury and Mike Bird write for The Wall Street Journal that Prof. Bengt Holmström is one of the recipients of the 2016 Nobel Prize in economics. Holmström was honored, in part, for developing a model that examines “how pay should be linked to performance and how an optimal contract carefully weighs risks against incentives.”
Prof. Bengt Holmström received the Nobel Prize in economics for his research on contract theory, writes Chris Giles for the Financial Times. Holmström, who said he was “dazed … very surprised and very happy” about winning the award, found “an optimal contract should link payments to outcomes that reveal the performance of either party to a contract.”
Lisa Mullins of WBUR’s All Things Considered speaks with Prof. Bengt Holmström about winning the Nobel Prize in economics for his work examining how contracts motivate and affect people’s behavior. Holmström explains, “incentives are not just about paying people, it is also about job design.”
Graduate student Alice Nasto speaks with Cynthia Graber of Scientific American about her research designing a material inspired by the fur that keeps beavers and sea otters warm. Nasto explains that the fur "evolved to trap air, and this air provides a layer of insulation for them in water.”
Prof. Bengt Holmström and Harvard Prof. Oliver Hart were awarded the Noel Prize in economics for their work on how to design better contracts, Deirdre Fernandes and Hiawatha Bray report for The Boston Globe. “Bengt and Oliver’s research has not only helped us to better understand incentives and institutions, it has helped us design better ones,” explains Prof. James Poterba.
Jeff Guo writes for The Washington Post about Prof. Bengt Holmström, one of the recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize in economics. “It’s just such a richly deserved prize,” said Glenn Ellison, head of MIT’s economics department. “Bengt’s work is outstanding both for answering really important questions, and for how beautifully crafted it is mathematically.”
Associated Press reporter Karl Ritter writes that Prof. Bengt Holmström has been honored with the Nobel Prize in economics. ‘‘I certainly did not expect it, at least at this time, so I was very surprised and very happy, of course,’’ Holmström said.