Boston Globe reporter Angela Yang spotlights how the MIT Sloan School of Management has been offering a virtual speaker series focused on preparing students for a changing work and business landscape. Prof. Erin Kelly, who worked on a toolkit launched in July aimed at helping employers create more supportive work cultures, noted that it’s "an exciting moment, because we may be ready to look at how work can be more sane and sustainable across all kinds of occupations.”
Prof. Alessandro Bonatti speaks with Man In The Arena podcast host Gotham Chopra about how game theory can be applied to football. “Definitely on Sundays I see a lot of game theory on the field, and I think there are many coaches that would recognize that they are applying these principles but being a good strategist or a good manager involves thinking strategically at a very large degree,” says Bonatti.
Prof. Erik Demaine speaks with Popular Mechanics reporter Sarah Wells about the surprisingly complex math behind wrapping a present. "If [the wrapping] is a square piece of paper, we know the best [way]," Demaine says. "[But] what if I gave you an eight-and-a-half by eleven rectangle? The answer turns out to be really complicated…And again, this is just wrapping a cube. If you're wrapping a general box, it's going to get even messier. Here, we don't even know the right answer."
Prof. Sara Seager speaks with New York Times reporter Dennis Overybye about the James Webb Telescope. Seager is part of a team that is planning to use the telescope to observe an exoplanet named Trappist-1e to determine if the planet has an atmosphere.
NPR reporter David Gura spotlights U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler as he takes a new approach to his role as head of the SEC. After teaching a cryptocurrency course at MIT and serving as the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under President Obama, Gensler has “promised he’ll unveil new rules across the board as part of an ambitious agenda, from cryptocurrencies to new disclosure rules,” says Gura.
Prof. Stuart Madnick shares tips with NBC reporter Mike Manzoni about how to shop safely online this holiday season and protect your personal information. “If you get a notice from Best Buy that they are having a sale, that is relatively benign. If they ask you to fill in credit card information, then you want to be real cautious,” says Madnick.
Provost Martin A Schmidt has been named the 19th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), reports Diverse Issues in Higher Education reporter Jessica Ruf. “MIT has been a remarkable home for me,” Schmidt told Ruf. “It has allowed me to pursue my research and teaching passion, and I’ve been presented with outstanding opportunities.”
MIT Provost Martin Schmidt has been named the next president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where he received his undergraduate degree, reports the Associated Press. “Marty is a unifying, visionary leader, and a renowned scholar in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science," said Arthur F. Golden, chair of the Rensselaer Board of Trustees.
Prof. Haoxiang Zhu has been named head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets, “where he is expected to help the regulator lead major new policies around equity market structure, among other priorities,” reports Katanga Johnson for Reuters.
Prof. Jeffrey A. Hoffman will be featured in the Boston Jewish Film Festival in a new documentary called “Space Torah,” reports WBUR writer Erin Trahan. The documentary includes some of Hoffman’s proudest moments as an astronaut, “a brief history of human space exploration [and] how Hoffman turned his intergalactic childhood wonder into a remarkable career,” writes Trahan.
Prof. Emerita Nancy Hopkins, who has made “significant strides in molecular biology and a tireless advocate for gender equity in science,” has been named the recipient of STAT’s 2021 Biomedical Innovation Award, reports Isabella Cueto for STAT. “It’s very easy to forget how much progress there has been because we haven’t arrived where we’d like to be,” said Hopkins at the 2021 STAT Summit, where she was honored. “So we see the problems that still lie ahead. But you periodically have to pause and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, look how far we came.’”
Inc. columnist Justin Bariso spotlights the late Prof. Patrick Winston’s IAP course “How to Speak,” which was aimed at helping people improve their communications skills while also underscoring the important role engagement plays in becoming a better listener. Some people ask why [no laptops, no cellphones] is a rule of engagement," said Winston. "The answer is, we humans only have one language processor. And if your language processor is engaged ... you're distracted. And, worse yet, you distract all of the people around you. Studies have shown that."
MIT Prof. M. Taylor Fravel and University of Pennsylvania Prof. Fiona Cunningham explores what China’s investment in its nuclear arsenal means for U.S. – China relations in a piece for The Washington Post. “Two shifts in China’s nuclear thinking may be happening. First, Chinese leaders believe that they now need to threaten the United States with greater nuclear damage to deter a U.S. nuclear first-strike: a handful of warheads is no longer enough,” they write. “Second, China’s leaders may be finding Beijing’s promises not to engage in a nuclear arms race increasingly difficult to fulfill — or less of a priority than deterring U.S. nuclear use with more confidence.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. John Sterman details how he reduced his personal carbon footprint, from commuting via bicycle to completing a deep-energy retrofit on his home. “The project was great fun, cost-effective and the house is far more comfortable,” writes Sterman. “But personal action, though essential, isn’t sufficient. Building a prosperous, safe and equitable world requires that we transform our economy and institutions. To do so we must act now. There is no time to waste.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Sherry Turkle explores how in order to fix social media platforms, we also need to alter our views on empathy and disagreement. “We lose out when we don’t take the time to listen to each other, especially to those who are not like us,” writes Turkle. “We need to learn again to tolerate difference and disagreement.”