Professor Emeritus Jack Ruina, a noted expert on strategic arms control who served as MIT’s vice president for special laboratories and was the first director of MIT’s Security Studies Program, passed away Feb. 4, reports Boston Globe reporter Bryan Marquard. Prof. Emeritus George Rathjens said that “there wasn’t a better faculty member that I knew in the universe.”
David Hoag, an MIT alumnus and aeronautical engineer for the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (now the Draper Laboratory) who led the development of the guidance, navigation and control systems for several Apollo systems, died on Jan. 19, reports Jasper Craven for The Boston Globe. “Technically, he was about as gifted a person as I have ever encountered,” said former colleague Norman Sears.
The Associated Press reports on the career of Professor Emeritus Irving Singer, a prominent philosopher who passed away Feb. 1 at the age of 89. Singer, who served on the MIT faculty for more than 50 years, wrote 21 books in the field of humanistic philosophy.
Professor Emeritus Irving Singer, who taught philosophy at MIT for more than 50 years and was well known for his three-volume work, “The Nature of Love,” died on Feb. 1, reports Sam Roberts for The New York Times. Singer penned 21 books on everything from creativity and morality to love aesthetics, literature, music and film.
Charles H. Townes, a physicist whose long and distinguished career included service as MIT’s second provost, died Tuesday at age 99, reports Robert D. McFadden for The New York Times. While the Institute’s provost, Townes shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics for research that led to the development of the laser.
Boston Globe reporter Bryan Marquard writes about the life and work of Danielle Guichard-Ashbrook, associate dean for international students and director of MIT’s International Students Office, who passed away last week. Guichard-Ashbrook “touched the lives of thousands of students,” said Maria Brennan, assistant director of the International Students Office.
NPR’s Lynn Neary writes about the life and legacy of MIT alumnus Tom Magliozzi, who along with his brother, Ray, became famous for their NPR program Car Talk. “They liked to act like they were just a couple of regular guys who happened to be mechanics, but both of them graduated from MIT,” writes Neary.
Los Angeles Times reporter Steve Chawkins writes about Tom Magliozzi, an MIT alumnus and co-host of NPR’s Car Talk, highlighting the MIT commencement address Magliozzi delivered with his brother in 1999. "I became a bum," said Magliozzi of the period in his life after he quit his job as an engineer. "I spent two years in Harvard Square drinking coffee."
Washington Post reporter Adam Bernstein writes about Tom Magliozzi, an MIT alumnus and co-host of the popular NPR program Car Talk, who passed away at age 77. “As youngsters, Tom and Ray, who is 12 years his junior, conducted science experiments in the back yard and enjoyed tinkering with their father’s Depression-era car,” writes Bernstein.
“Wielding his unmistakable laughter as ably he would a wrench, Tom Magliozzi hosted NPR’s “Car Talk” for 35 years with his brother, Ray, instructing and entertaining millions,” writes Boston Globe reporter Bryan Marquard of MIT alumnus Tom Magliozzi, who passed away Monday.
MIT alumnus Tom Magliozzi ‘58, co-host of Car Talk on NPR, has died at 77. In a remembrance on WBUR, Bruce Gellerman highlights a clip from Magliozzi’s 1999 commencement speech at MIT, where he used the speech to elaborate on his famous “theory of life.”
Emma Stickgold of The Boston Globe writes about the life and work of Institute Professor Emeritus John S. Waugh, who passed away in August. “His pioneering research expanded the range of nuclear magnetic resonance as he showed how the phenomenon, which previously was used to examine liquids, could also be used to study solids,” writes Stickgold.
“Mrs. Stratton became a leading force for the humanities, bringing art onto the campus, launching a lecture series, and holding court each week at her Memorial Drive residence in what those invited came to think of as an elegant salon,” writes Boston Globe reporter Bryan Marquard of the life and legacy of Catherine Stratton, wife of former MIT President Julius Stratton.
In a piece for The Guardian, Charles Darwent looks back at the life and work of Professor Emeritus Otto Peine, the former director of the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. Peine, who died last week in Berlin at the age of 86, was one of the pioneers of the ‘Zero’ art movement in postwar Germany.
The Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is presenting Professor Emeritus Otto Piene’s large-scale slide installation The Proliferation of the Sun through Aug. 31, reports The Huffington Post. Piene, the former director of MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies, died shortly after the exhibit opened.