Forbes reporter Janet Burns writes that Prof. Tim Berners-Lee has been named the recipient of this year’s Turing Award. In an interview with Burns, Berners-Lee emphasized the importance of internet privacy, and explained that he is currently working on building a “basic infrastructure in which each person has control of their own data.”
Prof. Vipin Narang speaks with New York Times reporter Max Fisher about a potential shift in India’s nuclear weapons doctrine to allow for pre-emptive nuclear strikes. “There is increasing evidence that India will not allow Pakistan to go first,” Narang told a gathering of international government officials and policy experts in Washington D.C.
Prof. Krystyn Van Vliet speaks with Samantha Boh of The Straits Times. Van Vliet explains that "My work gives me added motivation because at the end of the day you are not just engineering a new toy or learning something for yourself, but engineering a whole process where the outcome has the potential to restore health."
The March 2017 issue of Italian design magazine Domus includes a special section that explores the fringes of architectural innovation in four aspects: design, materials, production, and interaction. Curated by Prof. Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, the section’s articles feature an array of MIT architects, designers, and innovators.
Prof. César Hidalgo documented his professional and personal life in an eight-part video series called “In My Shoes,” reports Lisa Zyga for Phys.org. Hidalgo explains that the “goal of the series is to help show younger people considering an academic career what the day-to-day of the life of a scholar is like.”
Prof. Adam Berinsky writes for The Washington Post about his research investigating how to counter political rumors. “Just as important as how a rumor is debunked is who does the debunking,” he writes. “Politicians who support good public policy by speaking against their partisan interests…are considered credible sources by citizens from across the ideological spectrum.”
In this video, WCVB Chronicle host Anthony Everett visits Prof. Neil Gershenfeld at the Center for Bits and Atoms to learn about the global network of Fab Labs. Everett explains that Gershenfeld sees Fab Labs as places of “collaboration and networking and mentoring where ideas can literally take form. Where you don’t borrow, but make what you want.”
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. David Singer examines how an overhaul of the H-1B visa program could impact the American job market. Singer writes that “restricting visas for highly skilled foreign workers could prompt high-tech firms in the United States to shift operations overseas in search of skilled labor.”
Calla Cofield writes for Scientific American that a grant will allow the HERA team to search for light from the universe’s first generation of stars. Prof. Jacqueline Hewitt, who is leading the grant, says it’s “remarkable we're designing instruments so we can detect what was happening 13 billion years ago.”
Alan Yuhas of The Guardian reports that Prof. Ernest Moniz, who recently returned to MIT, finds the current administration’s “anti-scientific” comments worrying. “If we’re not going to have fact-based discussions it’s very, very difficult to have an informed electorate and informed opinions,” says Prof. Moniz.
After serving as the U.S. Energy Secretary for nearly four years, Prof. Ernest Moniz has returned to MIT as a part time physics professor and special adviser to President L. Rafael Reif, reports the Associated Press.
John Authers of the Financial Times writes about Prof. Stephen Ross, best known for the arbitrage pricing model, who died at age 73. Ross was "one of the world’s most respected financial economists,” writes Authers. “Exceptionally versatile, he had at least three insights each deserving of a Nobel citation.”
Bloomberg View reporter Noah Smith spotlights the research of Prof. David Autor, who has been “pioneering ways to make the economics discipline both more credible and more relevant.” To mitigate the impacts of trade, Smith writes that Autor believes the “U.S. government should focus attention on manufacturing industries, and even use industrial policy to bolster the sector.”
Science reporter Elizabeth Pennisi spotlights Institute Professor Sallie “Penny” Chisholm’s pioneering research into uncovering the secrets of Prochlorococcus. Prof. Michael Follows says that Chisholm, "has beautifully shown us how this microbe works and how the ocean world is organized."
Prof. Stephen Ross, whose work helped reshape the field of financial economics, died at 73, reports Jessica Silver-Greenberg for The New York Times. Prof. Antoinette Schoar said that all of Ross’ “intellectually intricate finance theories were aimed at solving real-world problems,” adding this the models he developed were “both extremely elegant and extremely practical.”