Prof. Emeritus Robert M. Solow, recipient of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in economic growth theory, has died at age 99, reports Austen Hufford for Wall Street Journal. “Heinstilled in the field of economics a focus on turning complex issues into simple formulas, allowing even freshman in college to grasp and debate important topics,” writes Hufford.
Prof. Emeritus Robert M. Solow, winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Economics “for exploring the impact of technology on economic growth, work that spawned a wider understanding of what drives the expansion of industrial economics,” has died age 99, reports Edward Cowan for The Washington Post. “The strong role of technological progress identified by Dr. Solow contributed to a greater emphasis by governments on higher education and technological research,” writes Cowan.
Prof. Emeritus Robert M. Solow, a recipient of the 1987 Nobel Economics Prize who created a theoretical framework for growth theory – the branch of economics “which studies those factors that allow for increased production and improvements in economic welfare” – has died at age 99, reports Mike Feeney for The Boston Globe. “Dr. Solow was as celebrated among economists for who he was as for what he did,” writes Feeney. “His public-spiritedness, lucid writing, and sparkling, often self-deprecating wit made him a much-loved figure.”
Prof. Emeritus Robert M. Solow, a Nobel laureate whose work on economic growth became the model by which economists “came to practice their craft,” has died at age 99, reports Robert D. Hershey Jr., for The New York Times. Solow’s “work demonstrated the power of bringing mathematics to bear on important economic debates and simplifying the analysis by focusing on a small number of variables at a time,” writes Hershey.
Prof. Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, whose “studies on gender and science, the role of language in shaping how we see and study the world,” and analysis of key concepts in modern biology contributed to the history and philosophy of modern biology, has died at age 87, reports Marga Vicedo for Nature. Keller “proposed abandoning the idea that genes are master molecules that provide the blueprints for and direct the development of an organism,” writes Vicedo. Keller also showed how language, including people’s choice of metaphors, influences the directions of scientific research.”
Prof. Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, “scientist, feminist scholar, and author of influential publications on genetics, developmental biology and scientific language,” has died at 87, reports Angela N. H. Creager for Science. “After training in physics and working in mathematical biology, Evelyn turned her attention to understanding how societal constructs, especially gender, guide science,” writes Creager. “She brought feminist insights into the history and philosophy of biology and sparked broader interdisciplinary conversations about the role of metaphor and rhetoric in science.”
Joseph J. Kohn ’53, “who played a key role in extending the mathematics of calculus,” has died at 91, reports Kenneth Chang for The New York Times. “Dr. Kohn studied how mathematical functions behave in the realm of complex numbers,” writes Chang. “This field is esoteric, even to many mathematicians. But the techniques that Dr. Kohn developed have found use in tackling a wide range of problems in mathematics as well as fundamental equations in physics, including Einstein’s theory of general relativity.”
Professor Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, a MacArthur genius grant recipient, “theoretical physicist, philosopher and writer who viewed science through a feminist lens,” has died at 87, reports Georgina Ferry for The Guardian. Keller’s work explored “how the practice of science had come to be perceived as intrinsically masculine, and to think about what a gender-neutral science might look like,” writes Ferry.
Prof. Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, a MacArthur genius grant winner who brought attention to gender bias in science has died at 87, writes Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. “She was an icon,” says Prof. Sherry Turkle. Turkle notes that Keller’s “analysis was profound because you realized that the very words that you used to talk about doing an experiment — or learning, or what it meant to understand — was deeply gendered.”
Prof. Emerita Evelyn Fox Keller, who was known for her work as a “theoretical physicist, a mathematical biologist and, beginning in the late 1970s, a feminist theorist who explored the way gender pervades and distorts scientific inquiry,” has died, reports Clay Risen for The New York Times. “Keller trained as a physicist and focused much of her early work on applying mathematical concepts to biology,” writes Risen. “But as the feminist movement took hold, she began to think critically about how ideas of masculinity and femininity had affected her profession.”
William Pounds, the former dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management who was “famous for being willing to approach and talk to anybody,” has died at age 95. “As an administrator, he wanted to guide business school graduates to become able leaders of corporations like the ones where he had worked," writes Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe.
MIT alumnus Julian Bussgang SM ’52 - an entrepreneur, researcher and teacher who wrote about his experience escaping Poland during the Holocaust - has died at age 98, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. “I have been one of the lucky ones. I survived,” wrote Bussgang in his memoir, adding that “the Holocaust still affected me. Lurking in the depth of my soul, there is a gnawing sorrow and haunting memories.”
Nature contributor David Chandler writes about the late Prof. Edward Fredkin and his impact on computer science and physics. “Fredkin took things even further, concluding that the whole Universe could actually be seen as a kind of computer,” explains Chandler. “In his view, it was a ‘cellular automaton’: a collection of computational bits, or cells, that can flip states according to a defined set of rules determined by the states of the cells around them. Over time, these simple rules can give rise to all the complexities of the cosmos — even life.”
Gus Solomons Jr. '61, a “groundbreaking force in modern dance” has died at 84, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. “Teacher, student, dancer, and choreographer, [Solomons Jr.] was based in New York City and commuted to Boston to spend each Tuesday teaching,” writes Marquard. “Performances with numerous dance groups in both cities packed his calendar, even before he made history as the first Black member of the legendary Merce Cunningham Dance Company.”
Gus Solomons Jr. ’61, “a leading figure in modern and postmodern dance,” has died at 84, reports Gia Kourlas for The New York Times. Solomons began dancing at age 4, but didn’t begin training until he was a first year student at MIT, where he earned a degree in architecture. “Over his long career, Mr. Solomons danced with many companies and many choreographers, including Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham,” Kourlas notes. “He broke ground as the first Black dancer to join the Cunningham company.”