Ted ’55 and Mary Papastavros recently established a scholarship to support first-generation college students. Photo: Ed Quinn

Creating Opportunity

Ted ‘55 and Mary Papastavros of Weston, Ma., endow a scholarship for first-generation college students.

Clay Struve, who loved living in his fraternity, gives MIT $99,000 to help others build bonds. Photo: Roark Johnson

Gift of Gratitude

Clay Struve of Chicago, who loved living in his fraternity, gives MIT $99,000 to help others build bonds.

Prof. Diane Davis is project director of Jerusalem 2050: Vision for a Place of Peace, a four-year project that is an invitation to re-envision Jerusalem as a place of peace in the year 2050. Photo: Ed Quinn

Imagining a New Jerusalem

Prof. Diane Davis is director of Jerusalem 2050, a project that brings together the world’s leading experts to create a dream of peace in the year 2050.

Angela Belcher, an associate professor of materials science, has emerged as a path-finding inventor and innovator. Her best-known invention is a new technique for creating objects that range from minuscule wires, to energy-efficient solarpanel materials, to smart textiles that can signal the presence of dangerous infectious agents. Photo: Ed Quinn

Building on Nature

Assoc. Prof. Angela Belcher draws on nature to create valuable materials and devices.

Prof. Evan Ziporyn is a renowned composer, clarinetist, and world music specialist. He began a Balinese orchestra at MIT in 1993. This year, they performed at Carnegie Hall. Photo: Ed Quinn

Sounds of Success

Prof. Evan Ziporyn –– a composer and clarinetist who founded MIT’s Gamelan Galak Tika, an orchestra of Balinese instruments –– recently performed at Carnegie Hall.

John Gabrieli, professor of brain and cognitive sciences, says recent research has lent credence to the idea that the “wisdom of age” is real. Photo: Ed Quinn

Illuminating the Mind

John Gabrieli, professor of brain and cognitive sciences, says research shows that the “wisdom of age” is real.

Yang Shao-Horn, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and member of the MIT Energy Research Council, says fuel cells have real promise for use in cars and trucks. Photo: Ed Quinn

Better Fuel Cells

Asst. Prof. Yang Shao-Horn, a member of the MIT Energy Research Council, says fuel cells have real promise for use in cars and trucks.

Tim Heidel’s first trip outside the U.S. was as an exchange student at Cambridge University in England. The experience, he says, sparked in him a desire to see the world. He is shown here enjoying a recent trip to Venice. Photo: Monica Lewis

MIT and Cambridge

Tim Heidel, a student in the Cambridge-MIT Exchange program, was so inspired by the international experience that he organized a group to identify engineering problems in Ghana.

MIT Junior Joshua Maciejewski, shown fixing his hard drive, began a computer business at 13. “One client thought I was the assistant to the guy who was supposed to be coming. I had to explain, no one else is coming, and my Mom drove me here so we need to get moving because she has things to do.” Photo: Ed Quinn

Thinking Big

MIT junior Joshua Maciejewski launched a company when he was 13.

Larry Linden gives MIT $1 million to support the life of the earth. Photo: Bob Handelman

Protecting the Earth

Larry Linden, who gave MIT $1 million, says graduate students can help to sustain the life of the earth.