QuEra Computing, a cloud-based quantum computer service co-founded by faculty from MIT and Harvard, has “teamed up with Amazon’s AWS cloud service to sell online access to the device,” reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. The device “can be used by universities and corporate researchers worldwide for a variety of advanced tasks, like simulating the behavior of subatomic particles or developing new chemical compounds,” writes Bray.
QuEra, co-founded by faculty from MIT and Harvard, is a quantum computing startup that uses “neutral atoms in a vacuum chamber and use lasers to cool and control them,” reports Jane Lanhee Lee for Reuters. The startup has announced its “computer is now accessible to the public through Amazon.com cloud’s quantum compute service Braket,” writes Lee.
Postdoctoral fellow Suhas Eswarappa Prameela speaks with Science Careers about how to develop and maintain successful relationships with advisors, mentors, and supervisors. “Faculty members are inundated with multiple administrative, teaching, and service activities, so being proactive, articulating your needs, and clearly communicating hurdles in the lab is key,” notes Prameela.
Landmark Bio, a cell and gene therapy manufacturing company co-founded by MIT and a number of other institutions, is focused on accelerating access to innovative therapies for patients, reports Rowan Walrath for Boston Business Journal. "Landmark's new facility includes laboratory space for research and early-stage drug development, as well as analytics tools,” writes Walrath.
MIT and a number of other local institutions have launched Landmark Bio, a cell and gene therapy manufacturing firm aimed at helping small startups develop experimental therapies that are reliable, consistent, and large enough to be used in clinical trials, reports Ryan Cross for The Boston Globe.
Prof. Alan Lightman is the host of an upcoming docuseries, Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science, which will premiere on PBS in January. “Lightman’s areas of inquiry are as vast as the universe and as tiny as the smallest particle of matter,” writes Matthew Carey for Deadline. He “brings to his explorations the rigor of a scientist and the artistic sensibility of a poet.”
Prof. Peter Shor has been named one of the winners of the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, reports Nature. “Shor’s most renowned contribution is the development of quantum algorithms for prime number factorization,” writes Nature.
Prof. Mary Anne Ocampo speaks with Madame Architect reporter Gail Kutac about what inspired her passion for architecture and urban planning, and her advice for new designers. “The impact I would like to have in this world is creating strong collaborations that promote inclusive and resilient design visions,” says Ocampo. “To me, there’s this combination of understanding design as a process, and design as a commitment that helps us to recognize the ways we value our environment and people.”
Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, speaks with Forbes reporter John Koetsier about the future of robotics. “I have been on a quest to have universal machines,” says Rus. “My idea is to create universal robot cells that could combine to form different types of machines, each with the same capability.”
Duke Provost Sally Kornbluth has been named the next president of MIT, reports Paul Basken for Times Higher Education. “MIT’s announcement credited Professor Kornbluth with prioritizing investments in faculty, especially from under-represented groups, and strengthening interdisciplinary research and education,” writes Basken.
The hosts of Bloomberg Radio’s Baystate Business discussed the announcement that Sally Kornbluth has been named the 18th president of MIT. "[Kornbluth] said that she was excited for those 'global challenges,' and that is something that has been really the mantle of MIT: solving the world’s problems with technology,” reports Janet Wu. “It sounded like she wanted to be part of that.”
Forbes contributor Michael T. Nietzel spotlights how Sally Kornbluth, the provost of Duke University, has been selected as the 18th President-elect of MIT. “A highly accomplished researcher, Kornbluth is currently the Jo Rae Wright University Professor of Biology at Duke where she has been a member of the faculty since 1994, first in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at the Duke University School of Medicine and then as a member of the Department of Biology in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences,” writes Nietzel.
President-elect Sally Kornbluth discusses her hopes and aspirations for her tenure as MIT’s president with Katie Mogg of The Boston Globe. “I just want to continue the excellence of MIT,” she said. “I hope when I turn my head back down the road some years from now that this will have been viewed as a period of continued excellence, but also of the discovery, innovation, and invention of things that continue to really have a huge impact on the world stage.”
New York Times reporter Anemona Hartocollis writes that Sally Kornbluth, the 18th President-elect of MIT, will be the “second female president of the university, and will join a long list of women in its top leadership ranks. The provost, chancellor, dean of science and chair of the M.I.T. Corporation, the school’s governing body, are all women.”
Sally Kornbluth has been named the next president of MIT, reports the Associated Press. “Maybe above all, I was drawn here because this is a moment when humanity faces huge global problems, problems that urgently demand the world’s most skillful minds and hands,” said Kornbluth. “In short, I believe this is MIT’s moment. I could not imagine a greater privilege than helping the people of MIT seize its full potential.”