Alumni/ae

MIT startup Optimus Ride is launching a self-driving shuttle service at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, reports Andrew J. Hawkins for The Verge.

Forbes reporter Amy Feldman spotlights MIT startup Ginkgo Bioworks, which aims to “design, modify and manufacture organisms to make existing industrial processes cheaper and entirely new processes possible.” Feldman notes that the promise of synthetic biology is “not just a proliferation of new products, but also a reduction of the environmental harm that comes from our heavy reliance on petrochemicals.”

In an article originally written for Popular Mechanics for the 25^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, MIT alumnus Buzz Aldrin makes a case for why Americans should aim to travel to the Moon again. “A return to the Moon offers a way to leverage an evolutionary expansion of our capability in space,” Aldrin wrote.

New York Times reporter Neil Genzlinger memorializes the work of Philip Freelon, an MIT alumnus and well-known architect. Genzlinger writes that Freelon’s “long list of credits includes museums and other cultural institutions devoted to the black experience, among them the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the Mall in Washington.”

MIT alumnus Philip Freelon, a renowned architect known for his work designing the National Museum of African American History and Culture, has died at 66, reports Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan for Fast Company. Campbell-Dollaghan notes that Freelon was also known for his efforts to make the field of architecture more diverse and inclusive.

TechCrunch reporter Jonathan Shieber writes about the women’s rental clothing service Armoire, an MIT spinoff. Shieber explains that Armoire aims to “provide a daily wardrobe for professional women at a price point that could be attractive enough to switch from an ownership to a rental model for fashion.”

Boston Globe reporter Alison Kuznitz writes that during MIT’s Commencement, former mayor Michael Bloomberg detailed plans for a new initiative aimed at tackling climate change. “This has gone from a scientific challenge to a political problem,” said Bloomberg, “and it’s time for everyone to recognize that climate change is the challenge of our time.”

Boston Magazine reporter Asia Bradlee spotlights Maelove, a beauty company founded by two MIT graduates that is aimed at providing luxury skincare products at affordable prices. Bradlee writes that the Maelove team “used clinical research, collaborated with dermatologists and medical researchers, and analyzed over three million product reviews to get a better idea of what ingredients made consumers the happiest.”

MIT alumnus Murray Gell-Mann, a pioneering physicist who “helped make sense of the very small,” died at the age of 89, reports George Dvorsky for Gizmodo. Dvorsky writes that Gell-Mann will be remembered for “bringing order to the chaotic field of particle physics, and for coining the term ‘quark.’”

The Associated Press memorializes the life and work of Murray Gell-Mann, an MIT alumnus who “transformed physics by devising a method for sorting subatomic particles into simple groups of eight.”

MIT alumnus Murray Gell-Mann, a Nobel laureate known for his work conceiving the idea of quarks, died on May 24, reports Martin Weil for The Washington Post. Gell-Mann, who earned a doctorate in physics at MIT, was a “pioneer in the development of what is called the ‘standard model’ of particle physics, a guide to the fundamental behavior of the constituents of the universe.”

Smithsonian reporter Rachael Lallensack spotlights how MIT alumnus Anirudh Sharma developed a commercial ink from air pollution. Sharma explains that he hopes the ink, which is now on display at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, inspires others “to start looking at new forms of waste that are lying outside, unutilized.”

Boston Globe reporter Sean Smyth spotlights how the work of the late I.M. Pei, a renowned architect and MIT alumnus, can be found throughout the MIT campus and around the world. Smyth notes that Pei’s portfolio included the Green Building at MIT, the Landau Building at MIT, the West Wing addition to the MFA in Boston and the Louvre pyramid in Paris.

MIT alumnus I.M. Pei, “who was widely recognized as the most prominent American architect of his generation,” has died at age 102, reports Robert Campbell for The Boston Globe. Campbell notes that Pei “charted his own course, remaining a canonical modernist and ignoring the fads and revolutions in taste.”

I.M Pei, an MIT graduate and architect known for designing some of the world’s best-known buildings, has died at 102, reports Kathy McCormick and Deepti Hajela for the Associated Press. Pei’s buildings “added elegance to landscapes worldwide with their powerful geometric shapes and grand spaces.”