Fall 2003 – MIT Spectrum

UROP

MIT’s UROP program — which matches students with faculty in research partnerships — has become the centerpiece of an MIT education.

Larry Benedict, dean for student life. Photo: Edward McCluney

Campaign Winners

Students emerge as major beneficiaries in the Campaign for MIT.

“Character is crucial,” Al Wilson says. Photo: Ed Quinn

Ethical Foundation

Al Wilson gives MIT $100,000 to educate students with the highest ethical standards. “Character,” he says, “is crucial.”

Literary Sensation

At 27, Junot Diaz wrote his first book, Drown, a literary smash. Now, Diaz is an MIT associate professor teaching creative writing and immigrant literature.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian John Dower is helping Americans and Japanese better understand each other, showing how we are more alike than we are different. Photo: Ed Quinn

Connecting Cultures

Historian John Dower is helping Americans and Japanese better understand each other, showing us how we are more alike than we are different.

Economics Prof. Xavier Gabaix and a team of Boston University researchers have found that the artificial world of financial markets follows a pattern similar to one in the natural world. Photo: Bob Handelman

Natural Laws

Economics Prof. Xavier Gabaix has discovered that the ups and downs of the stock market follow a mathematical pattern of frequency similar to that of earthquakes.

Anette Hosoi, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, along with her research group, recently developed “Robosnail,” a 10-inch long device that uses a large, undulating pad to propel itself forward. The device has implications for the effective development of miniscule medical instruments. Photo: Ed Quinn

Slick Physics

Asst. Prof. Anette Hosoi, along with her research group, has developed ‘Robosnail,” a device that could lead to a host of innovations.

Physician and Biology Prof. Michael Yaffe says: “When you take care of a group of very sick patients, you realize how hard it is to apply what you’re learning in the lab to help make them well. And that helps keep you humble.” Photo: Ed Quinn

Assisting Others

Michael Yaffe, a physician and biochemist, says when you care for the very sick, you realize how hard it is to apply what you learn in the lab to heal them. “And that keeps you humble.”