Policy

With peer institutions, MIT files amicus brief against revised travel ban

Ensuring that students and scholars from around the globe can continue to enter the US is vital to universities’ missions, brief argues.

March 31, 2017

In a study of 365,000 NIH grants — nearly every NIH grant awarded for 27 years — researchers found that 31 percent produce articles that are later cited by patents in the biomedical sector.

Study: NIH funding generates large numbers of private-sector patents

New research shows large spillover from the lab to commercial activity.

March 30, 2017

J. Phillip Thompson, MIT associate professor of urban studies and planning, was instrumental in shaping a comprehensive approach to health in Brooklyn, New York.

3Q: J. Phillip Thompson on revitalizing Central Brooklyn

Advisor to $1.4 billion state plan sees health care as foundation for “Vital Brooklyn.”

March 30, 2017

Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the euro area

Thought leaders in academia, government, risk capital, and industry address the EU innovation gap during a two-day workshop.

March 29, 2017

Maria Zuber: Federal government has unique role in supporting scientific discovery

MIT vice president for research and chair of National Science Board testifies before Congress.

March 29, 2017

An MIT report urges the Trump administration to develop a coherent cybersecurity plan that coordinates efforts across departments, encourages investment, and removes parts of key infrastructure, like the electric grid, from the internet.

MIT experts urge Trump administration to take immediate action on cybersecurity

Report warns of hacking risk to electric grid, oil pipelines, and other critical infrastructure.

March 28, 2017

MIT Vice President for Research Maria Zuber takes part in a panel on post-Paris Agreement climate and energy strategies at CERAWeek 2017 in Houston, Texas.

Setting the pace for change in the energy sector

MIT energy and climate thought leaders play integral part in discussions at CERAWeek 2017.

March 24, 2017

3 Questions: Lourdes Melgar on Mexico’s energy reform

MIT alumna, Robert Wilhelm Fellow, and former Mexican government official discusses opportunities and challenges of recent reforms.

March 22, 2017

$“We have a fractured society,” says MIT professor Peter Temin. “The middle class is vanishing.” His new book, “The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy,” is being published this month by MIT Press.$

America’s two-track economy

Economist’s new book examines decline of the nation’s middle class.

March 13, 2017

"Over the last 15 years, Muslim and South Asian Americans have been told that they are outsiders and newcomers to the United States," says MIT Associate Professor Vivek Bald, winner of the 2017 Levitan Prize. "One of the central goals of the Bengali Harlem project from the beginning — and this has become more important over time — is to demonstrate the longstanding presence of Muslims in the U...

Vivek Bald awarded Levitan Prize in the Humanities, named Whiting Public Engagement Fellow

Both awards support Bald's research-based media projects on South Asian American communities.

March 10, 2017

“We found that companies with high leverage around 2006 ended up laying off more people,” says Xavier Giroud, the Ford International Career Development Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a new study that sheds further light on the Great Recession.

The corporate debt trap

Study: Firms that owed more also laid off more workers during the 2007-2009 recession.

March 2, 2017

"One of the principal ways historians contribute to problem-solving work at MIT and elsewhere is by helping to identify what the real problem is in the first place," says Malick Ghachem, an MIT professor of history. "When we understand and articulate the roots and sources of a problem, we have a much better chance of actually solving it."

3 Questions: How history helps us solve today's issues

Professor Malick Ghachem discusses how historians contribute to problem-solving by identifying the roots and sources of a problem.

February 28, 2017

Climate@MIT

New online publication reports on climate science research at the Institute.

February 27, 2017

Left to right: Ashley Morishige, Tonio Buonassisi, and Mallory Jensen of the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering have identified defects that may be causing a promising type of high-efficiency silicon solar cell to generate decreasing amounts of electricity in sunlight and have made recommendations to manufacturers that may help prevent the problem. Here, the researchers display a silicon bri...

Advanced silicon solar cells

MIT mechanical engineers are leading an effort to detect defects that reduce efficiency.

February 17, 2017

J-PAL North America aims to make rigorous evaluation of key questions in social policy easier for researchers with a new catalog.

Cheaper, faster randomized evaluations

J-PAL North America releases new catalog of administrative data sets to give researchers a leg up in conducting rigorous evaluations of social programs.