In the Media

Ben Armstrong, interim executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center, speaks with Forbes contributor Ethan Karp about the labor shortage in manufacturing and the future of the field. “We want to have companies that are really driving technology forward and forcing us to adjust our training system to be more technologically advanced,” says Armstrong. “Instead, the problem is that a lot of small and medium manufacturers are offering comparatively low-wage, low-tech jobs that are oftentimes low-skilled. So companies are adapting a lot of their operations to a lower-technology, lower-wage, lower-skill equilibrium.”

Prof. Taylor Perron has been named a recipient of the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship for his work investigating the processes that create a planet’s landforms, reports Ellen McCarthy for The Washington Post.

CBS Boston spotlights how Prof. Taylor Perron has been honored with a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship for his work “unraveling the mechanisms that create landscapes on Earth and other planets.” CBS Boston notes that Perron is “currently studying river networks on Mars and one of Saturn’s moons for clues about the climate history of each celestial body.”

Prof. David Autor joins On Point to discuss the economic and social crisis facing American men. “It matters because we care about the welfare of all individuals,” says Autor. “It affects the people they would partner with, their potential spouses. It affects their children. It affects the level of crime incarceration. It affects the tax base. it affects our ability to grow and innovate in all kinds of ways. We're all kind of in this together.”

Dennis Whyte, director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, and Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, join Bruce Mohl on CommonWealth Magazine’s podcast, The Codcast, to discuss how their recent successful test of a high-temperature superconducting electromagnet will impact the quest for fusion energy. “With the advent of this new technology, there is nothing stopping us from building that first demonstration, the Kitty Hawk moment of fusion, when you see net energy from a system for the first time on earth,” said Whyte.

A report by researchers from MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation finds that there should not be any changes to flight paths over Massachusetts towns, reports the AP. The researchers found “any alternative pattern would affect more people than the current paths, creating safety issues and a problem for air traffic controllers.”

Speaking at the Fast Company Innovation Festival, Profs. Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee underscored the need for “governments need to do better in addressing different needs within their populations, and providing variations of cash relief for different circumstances.”

Boston Herald reporter Rick Sobey spotlights how Army Maj. David Frost, a graduate student in the Sloan School of Management, is running in this year’s Boston Marathon to help raise funds for Boston Children’s Hospital, where he had emergency surgery for a cavernous angioma when he was eight-years-old. “It was a life-changing moment for me,” says Frost. “I’ll forever be thankful for the work they do, the care they provide, and their ability to show empathy for kids.”

Fortune reporter Shawn Tully writes that a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that examines the amount of e-waste Bitcoin generates. The researchers found that: “In 2020, the Bitcoin network processed 120 million transactions,” writes Tully. “For every sale or purchase recorded on the blockchain, the miners disposed of e-waste equal in weight to two iPhone 12 Minis. In other words, the industry trashed the equivalent of 240 million of the 135 gram mobile devices.”

A new study by graduate student Chi Heem Wong examines panic selling during periods of stock market volatility dips, reports Kate Dore for CNBC. “Panic selling is predictable,” explains Wong. “It’s pretty consistent over time that people with certain attributes tend to panic sell more often than others.”

Alexis Sablone ’16, a professional skateboarded who competed in the 2021 Olympics, speaks with New York Times reporter Allie Conti about how she spends a typical Sunday in New York, “where she currently builds public art projects and furniture. And skates. A lot.”

Institute Professor Paula Hammond, head of MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, has been selected to serve on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, “a group of external advisers tasked with making science, technology and innovation policy recommendations to the White House and the president,” reports Alexis Gravely for Inside Higher Ed. Professors Maria Zuber, MIT vice president for research, and Eric Lander, the president’s science adviser and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, are two of the co-chairs for the council.

Research affiliate Hunt Allcott speaks with Vice reporter David Shultz about his research on the nutrition gap in America. Allcott and his colleagues “have proposed a sort of expansion on the soda tax, in which unhealthy foods are taxed more, and that money is used to subsidize healthier foods,” writes Shultz.

Forbes contributor Jeff Kart spotlights the teams selected for MIT Solve’s Resilient Ecosystems Challenge, which is focused on how communities can sustainably protect, manage and restore their local ecosystems. “Ecosystems are a critical resource for communities in so many ways, and face their own pressures from both the climate crisis and development,” says Alexander Dale, the lead for sustainability and U.S. communities at MIT Solve. “Finding ways to strengthen ecosystems against these shocks and stresses while also helping local communities thrive is key for the long-term success of humanity.”

New York Times columnist Thomas B. Edsall spotlights Prof. David Autor’s research exploring the state of men in the U.S., including the growing gender gaps in educational attainment and the labor market.