Alumni/ae

For Archinect, reporter Niall Patrick Walsh spotlights how the full archive of architect and alumnus I.M. Pei ‘40 has been donated to the MIT Museum. “Among the materials are drawings and documents from some of Pei’s best-known works, including the Louvre Museum modernization project in Paris, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland,” writes Walsh. “The archive also contains records relating to four buildings designed by Pei on the MIT campus: the Green Building, Dreyfus Building, Landau Building, and Wiesner Building.”

The archive of the renowned architect and alumnus I.M. Pei ’40 - including 1,500 rolls of architectural drawings, 50 models, and 1,000 linear feet of manuscripts – will be coming to the MIT Museum, reports Mark Feeney for The Boston Globe. “This landmark donation marks the homecoming of I.M. Pei to MIT,” says MIT Museum Director Michael John Gorman. “The MIT Museum is thrilled to steward his legacy and, together with MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, establish a global hub for the study of I.M. Pei.”

Fast Company reporter Nate Berg spotlights how the full archive of architect and alumnus I.M. Pei ‘40  will be housed at the MIT Museum, noting that the collection will be the largest single repository of works by Pei. “I think there’s something really fascinating about architectural projects that are not necessarily burdened by the realities of building,” says Jonathan Duval, assistant curator of architecture and design at the MIT Museum. “Those are moments where you can really see what an architect’s priorities and intentions might have been.” 

For Axios Boston, reporter Steph Solis highlights “Anita,” a solar-electric boat created by alumnus James Worden ‘89 that is due to launch this year. The boat was previewed at the 80th anniversary Charles River sail-a-thon. “The prototype, named ‘Anita’ after Worden's late wife, moves silently with no fumes or exhaust and uses LiFePO4 battery cells with a battery management system (it lets you charge the batteries while they're in use),” writes Solis. 

Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray features LymeAlert, a 15-minute home test kit created by alumna Erin Dawicki ‘24, that can detect Lyme disease from up to five ticks at a time. “For the people who find a tick, and it’s positive, we can give them one dose of antibiotic and have a pretty good chance of preventing the disease,” Dawicki explains. 

For Scientific American’s special section “The Young American Scientists” Bob Mumgaard PhD ‘15, co-founder and CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, speaks with Tara Haelle about the commercialization of fusion science and how automated tools have accelerated research. “Whether in areas such as fusion—or in drugs by design for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s or in [the creation of] materials we never thought possible—our ability to use new tools to tackle some of these big, meaty problems is super exciting,” says Mumgaard. 

In an interview conducted by Scientific American reporter Andrea Thompson for “The Young American Scientists” special section, seismologist Lucy Jones, PhD ‘81, emphasizes the importance of collaboration between scientists and policymakers to develop solutions to big issues, including natural disasters. “Solutions have to be done in collaboration, which means spending time with policymakers,” says Thompson. She adds: “I do see a change in attitude about the worthiness of applying science—of activation. That’s relatively new and really important.”

For Smithsonian Magazine, writer Hal Sundt explains how alumnus and meteorologist Horace Byers spearheaded the Thunderstorm Project, a national initiative mapping the internal structure of thunderstorms to improve air travel safety towards the end of World War II. “The meteorologist R.H. Simpson (after whom the category-based Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is partially named), described Byers as ‘the balance wheel in the administration of one of the greatest meteorology programs the world has ever known,’” writes Sundt.

Honorees on The Boston Globe’s 2026 Tech Power Players list shared their reasons for having optimism about the future of the Greater Boston area’s tech and innovation scene. President Sally Kornbluth says opportunities abound in what she calls “AI + X” — integrating AI into fields such as manufacturing, life sciences, and energy. “Massachusetts can absolutely lead in this next wave,” says Kornbluth. 

For Fast Company, reporter Max Ufberg features MIT startup Formlabs, a company that has spent over a decade building 3D printers that make professional grade prototyping cheaper and faster. Using the selective laser sintering (SLS) Fuse X1 machine, Ufberg notes that Formlabs will apply their playbook to larger industrial systems. “The goal has always been make it easier to go from an idea to a real thing,” says Formlabs CEO Maxim Lobovsky ‘11. 

Moving Health, a D-Lab spinout founded by MIT students, tackles maternal mortality in rural Ghana by decreasing transport time to hospitals. CNN reporter Maya Baylis highlights how Moving Health’s tricycle ambulances were designed to navigate narrow, rough roads in areas where ambulances are scarce or impractical. “Sometimes the biggest barrier to surviving a medical emergency isn’t the lack of hospitals,” says Emily Young ‘18, CEO and co-founder of Moving Health, “it’s being able to get there in time.”

Writing for The Daily Caller, Jesse Hamel Executive MBA ’25 - a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, an AC-130 gunship combat aviator, a former Air Force Special Operations Command drone squadron commander and founder of VICTUS Technologies - makes the case for the Department of War sponsoring graduate-level education and fellowships at MIT. “The talent base and the operational seriousness of MIT made VICTUS possible,” Hamel writes. “My time on [the MIT] campus from 2023 through 2025 reinforced that view. As a veteran, I encountered respect for my service alongside some of the most demanding technical and academic standards I have ever faced.” 

During her OneMIT Commencement address, Lisa Su 90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, Advanced Micro Devices CEO, shared her views on the critical role humans should play in the development and use of AI technologies, reports Courtney Connley-Hampton for Forbes. “For everything that AI can do, AI can’t decide which problems are worth solving. It can’t make the hard judgments when the data is not there. It can’t take responsibility for the outcomes. These are actually our responsibilities and they matter now more than ever,” Su emphasized. “Technology itself does not decide what the future looks like—the best people do.”

Fortune reporter Preston Fore spotlights Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, Advanced Micro Devices CEO, who was named to Fortune’s “2026 Most Powerful Women” list. “After immigrating from Taiwan to the U.S. with her family at a young age, Lisa Su spent her early years fascinated by technology. She studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, obtaining her bachelor’s and PhD focused on semiconductors,” writes Fore. Since being named president of AMD in 2014, Su has “led the company to the forefront of computing and the AI revolution.” 

In her address to the Class of 2026 during the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony, Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, Advanced Micro Devices CEO, emphasized that “the world does not just need people who know how to use powerful tools, it needs people who know what to use them for, people with a sense of purpose, judgment, courage.” She added: “For everything that AI can do, AI can’t decide which problems are worth solving. It can’t make the hard judgments when the data is not there. It can’t take responsibility for the outcomes. These are actually our responsibilities, and they matter now more than ever.”