BetaBoston reporter Sophie Chamas writes about MIT alumna Hala Fadel and her work founding the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pan-Arab Region in an effort to nurture entrepreneurial growth in the Middle East. “I wanted to create a forum for people to meet and learn from others,” Fadel explains.
Alumna Noramay Cadena writes for WBUR about encouraging Latinas to pursue STEM careers, sharing how an MIT student inspired her. “Here was a successful person who looked like me, who sounded like me, and who truly understood my life experience, telling me I had what it took to go to MIT.”
In an article for The New York Times, Paul Krugman examines how MIT-educated economists came to assume such a prominent position in policy-making today. “Analytically, empirically, the MIT style has had an astonishing triumph,” writes Krugman.
David Hoag, an MIT alumnus and aeronautical engineer for the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (now the Draper Laboratory) who led the development of the guidance, navigation and control systems for several Apollo systems, died on Jan. 19, reports Jasper Craven for The Boston Globe. “Technically, he was about as gifted a person as I have ever encountered,” said former colleague Norman Sears.
Boston Magazine reporter Olivia Rassow writes about how Robert Robinson Taylor, MIT’s first black alumnus, is being inducted into the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage Stamp series. The stamp honoring Taylor “depicts a black-and-white photograph of Taylor taken when he was 22 years old and a student at MIT.”
The U.S. Postal Service has issued a stamp in honor of Robert Robinson Taylor, MIT’s first black alumnus, writes Krissah Thompson of The Washington Post. Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama and Taylor’s great-granddaughter, said that whenever she faces a daunting task she thinks of Taylor, “the son of a slave, who traveled all the way from Wilmington, North Carolina, to attend MIT.”
Prof. Robert Langer speaks with Chris Baraniuk of New Scientist about winning the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering and his career in biotechnology. “It’s going to be the entrepreneurs, the new professors, the young people who are willing to think outside the box and not necessarily go down a conventional path,” says Langer of the future of medicine.
Dennis Keohane writes for BetaBoston about Start6, an IAP offering from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) aimed at teaching students about entrepreneurship. “The course exposed the students not just to one way of thinking but a multitude of different ways to think about starting a business,” says EECS Dept. Head Anantha Chandrakasan.
Professor Robert Langer has won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for his pioneering work with medical technologies, reports David Shukman for BBC News. Shukman notes that “as many as two billion people have in some way been touched by technologies devised and developed by him and his teams.”
Nidhi Subbaraman reports for BetaBoston that Professor Robert Langer has been named the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for his research on tissue engineering and drug delivery. “It’s a real thrill, a real honor,” says Langer. “I feel incredible lucky.”
Prof. Robert Langer has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, writes Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson. Lord Broers, chair of the QE Prize judges, explains that Langer was honored for his “immense contribution to healthcare and to numerous other fields.”
The Cambridge Chronicle reports that alumnus Samuel Tak Lee has donated $118 million to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab at MIT. The lab will have a particular focus on China, and “will promote social responsibility among entrepreneurs and academics in the real estate profession worldwide.”
Heidi Legg writes for BetaBoston about the Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship networking reception held last week as part of EECS’s entrepreneurship course, Start6. “The world would be a better place with more women entrepreneurs,” said Prof. Cynthia Breazeal.
Tech reporter Amy Wang writes about the recent gift from alumnus Samuel Tak Lee that will establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab at MIT. “Real estate and urban planning is very interdisciplinary to begin with, so this donation already is incredibly well positioned to generate opportunities across all fields,” says Prof. Albert Saiz.
Robert Olsen of Forbes profiles MIT alumnus Samuel Tak Lee, who recently made one of the largest gifts in MIT’s history to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab. “Now that he’s achieved such success, he’s helping others to follow a similar path by supporting the schools he attended,” writes Olsen.