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Top row (left-right): Wesley G. Bush ’83; R. Erich Caulfield SM ’01, PhD ’06; Heather Cogdell ’89; Drew Faust; Orit Gadiesh. Middle row: Jeffrey S. Halis ’76, SM ’76; Michelle K. Lee ’89, SM ’89; Adrianna C. Ma ’96, MEng ’96; Victor J. Menezes SM ’72; Indra Nooyi. Bottom row: Adedoyin Olateru-Olagbegi ’20; Phillip T. Ragon ’72; Jeffrey L. Silverman ’68; Janet C. Wolfenb...

MIT Corporation elects 12 term members, three life members

Term members will serve between one and five years on MIT’s board of trustees.

May 29, 2020

Sara Plana is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science. She is a student at the Security Studies Program (SSP), where her dissertation research focuses on proxy warfare.

Sara Plana receives inaugural Jeanne Guillemin Prize

The prize, which provides financial support to women working toward a PhD in international affairs, will be applied toward her research into proxy warfare.

May 21, 2020

“With all of us stuck at home or in remote locations, I’m not sure that anyone is feeling particularly inspired right now, but this pandemic will eventually end, and sometimes getting lost in the intricacies of Maxwell’s equations gives a nice break from what is going on in the world,” says theoretical physicist William Detmold.

Exploring the quantum field, from the sun’s core to the Big Bang

Theoretical physicist William Detmold unlocks the mysteries of quarks, gluons, and their “strong interactions” at the subatomic level.

May 13, 2020

Yukio Okamoto “brought to MIT an unparalleled set of experiences on the world stage. A great loss of a great man — and friend of us all,” said Richard Samuels, the Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the Center for International Studies.

Yukio Okamoto, Japanese diplomat and MIT research fellow, dies at 74

The former special advisor to two Japanese prime ministers fostered US-Japan relations.

May 11, 2020

Gabriela Schlau-Cohen will receive an unrestricted research grant of $75,000.

Gabriela Schlau-Cohen wins Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award

Award recognizes talents and leadership qualities of young faculty in the chemical sciences.

May 1, 2020

MIT physicist and historian David Kaiser explores the complicated history of quantum physics in a new book, “Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World,” published by the University of Chicago Press.

How growth of the scientific enterprise influenced a century of quantum physics

In a new book, Professor David Kaiser describes dramatic shifts in the history of an evolving discipline.

April 29, 2020

A report from the MIT Open Learning Workforce Education Project argues that higher education can and should play a vital role in providing workers with 21st-century skills suited to new technologies, as well as opportunities to move into better-paying jobs.

Workforce Education Project details how Covid-19 upends assumptions

Report finds that higher education institutions can play a significant role in reforming workforce education.

April 28, 2020

Graduate student Pyae Phyo uses the Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory's 800 MHz NMR spectrometer to observe plant wall structure, finding insights that could prove useful in creating biofuels.

Pyae Phyo: From Myanmar to NMR

PhD candidate’s journey to the center of the plant cell wall relies on nuclear magnetic resonance technology.

April 21, 2020

MIT literature professor and classicist Stephanie Frampton has become a leading global expert on the interplay between physical forms of writing and the generation of literature and learning in ancient times.

Taking a new look at ancient books

Classicist Stephanie Frampton traverses disciplines to study how the content and form of writing interacted in the ancient world.

April 19, 2020

2020 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellows include (left to right) Sabine Iatridou, professor of linguistics; Jonathan Gruber, professor of economics; and Rebecca Saxe, professor of cognitive neuroscience.

Three from MIT awarded 2020 Guggenheim Fellowships

MIT professors Sabine Iatridou, Jonathan Gruber, and Rebecca Saxe have been selected to pursue their work “under the freest possible conditions.”

April 14, 2020

Ulrich Becker, a professor emeritus in the Department of Physics, died on March 10 at the age of 81.

Professor Emeritus Ulrich Becker, who made major contributions to particle physics, dies at 81

Longtime MIT physicist and mentor created instruments that advanced high-energy physics, including the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the J particle.

April 9, 2020

“People are worried about the food supply chain,” says MIT supply chain expert Yossi Sheffi, who is the Elisha Gray II Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT, a professor in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. “However, the U.S. food supply chain is very robust.”

Supply chain outlook: Why the situation varies by industry

MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi describes the supply chain landscape in the U.S., from food security to concerns about medical supplies.

March 25, 2020

MIT researchers have discovered the structure of an unusual enzyme that some microbes use to break down a component of collagen in the human gut.

Bacterial enzyme could become a new target for antibiotics

Scientists discover the structure of an enzyme, found in the human gut, that breaks down a component of collagen.

March 17, 2020

A study co-authored by MIT economists links the fall in the percentage of gross domestic product going to workers to the gain in market share of large companies that spend more on capital and less on workers.

Why are workers getting smaller pieces of the pie?

Market concentration in the form of “superstar” firms has been lowering labor’s share of GDP in recent decades, a new study finds.

March 10, 2020

David Singer, an MIT professor and head of the Department of Political Science, is the co-author of a new book, “Banks on the Brink: Global Capital, Securities Markets, and the Political Roots of Financial Crises,” published by Cambridge University Press.

Why do banking crises occur?

In a new book, political scientist David Singer finds two key factors connected to financial-sector collapses around the globe.