President Barack Obama honored Prof. Michael Artin and RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson, an MIT Corporation Life Member, with The National Medal of Science. Artin was honored for “leadership in modern algebraic geometry,” and Jackson for her work in “condensed matter physics and particle physics, and science-rooted public policy achievements,” according to AP reporter Darlene Superville.
Prof. Thomas Kochan speaks with WBUR reporter Deborah Becker about the contract dispute between Verizon and the company’s employees. Kochan says that in order to avoid these situations in the future, “we need to fundamentally change our labor policy to provide more workers access to a variety of different ways to have a voice at work.”
Prof. Earl Miller speaks with Meghna Chakrabarti, host of Radio Boston, about the dangers of distracted driving. Miller explains that our brains “have a very limited capacity for simultaneous thought.” He adds that people have a hard time ignoring their phones while driving because the “brain evolved to find new information rewarding.”
Boston Globe reporter Eric Moskowitz chronicles the life and work of Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, from his childhood passion for tinkering with radios to the decades he spent dedicated to the search for gravitational waves. Kip Thorne, a professor at Caltech, remarks that Weiss “really is, by a large margin, the most influential person this field has seen.”
Professors Edward Boyden and Max Tegmark are honored as “Game Changers” in a Boston Globe special section dedicated to highlighting people and organizations for their work. The Globe features Boyden’s work developing tools to better understand the brain, and Tegmark’s involvement in the Future of Life Institute.
Hashim Sarkis, dean of SA+P, speaks with Vanessa Quirk of Metropolis about MIT’s widespread presence at the 2016 Venice Biennale, the Institute’s approach to architectural challenges and its interdisciplinary ethos. “MIT thrives on what it calls complex societal problems,” says Sarkis. “And what better complex societal problems are there today than cities and architecture and the environment.”
Bloomberg West broadcasts live from the MIT campus in a special segment highlighting cutting-edge research underway across campus and MIT’s role in driving innovation. “In general, technology can help people,” says Prof. John Leonard. “That’s one of the things I believe as an MIT professor is that technology can make the world a better place.”
MIT celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Institute’s move from Boston to Cambridge with an innovative parade by land and water, the Boston Herald reports. “MIT alumnus Oliver Smoot, class of ’62 — of the “smoot” unit of measurement — led the parade over the bridge as Grand Marshal, and Car Talk’s Ray Magliozzi, class of ’73, was on hand.”
FOX 25’s Kerry Kavanaugh reports on MIT’s Moving Day parade, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Institute’s move from Boston to Cambridge. “More than 50 boats, floats and vehicles designed by students, faculty and alumni took part,” Kavanaugh reports.
A Boston.com slideshow highlights photographs of MIT’s Moving Day celebrations, which featured a parade of boats, floats and other creations crossing the Charles River by land and water. The parade commemorated the ceremonial journey of MIT’s charter, which was transported across the river by a barge in 1916.
Boston Globe reporter Nicole Fleming recounts MIT’s Moving Day celebrations, which featured a parade to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Institute’s move from Boston to Cambridge. “From rafts and fantastical wheeled contraptions to salsa dancers and puppets, a colorful array of MIT creations crossed the Charles River -- by land and by water."
Writing for The Boston Globe, Jaclyn Reiss highlights that MIT was named one of the most prestigious colleges in the world in a new ranking by Times Higher Education.
Prof. John Ochsendorf speaks with Boston.com reporter Allison Pohle about MIT’s Moving Day celebrations. Ocsendorf notes that the celebrations are a “once in a lifetime opportunity to celebrate MIT and bring it to the larger community.”
In an article for Scientific American, Prof. César Hidalgo examines how to improve the design of and make open data websites more usable. “To make open data really open, we need to make it searchable, and for that we need to bring data to the surface of the web,” writes Hidalgo.
Boston Globe reporter David Weininger writes about “Persona,” a new opera by Prof. Jay Scheib and Prof. Keeril Makan, based on a 1966 Ingmar Bergman film. The opera is staged as if the action is being filmed, which allows viewers to be “more involved with what’s happening than I think they’re expecting,” explains Makan.