From the President
A Letter from the President
A Place of New Beginnings
Fall 2014
Lift Off
Giant Steps. MIT pioneered the nation’s first aeronautical engineering course in 1914, and now faculty are preparing for a fantastic future of autonomous automobiles and aircraft, and visits to Mars and beyond to search for signs of life.
Giant Steps: Celebrating 100 Years of Flight
This fall, MIT celebrates 100 years of achievements in aeronautics and astronautics and its amazing history of leadership to the nation and the world.
MIT Firsts
Programs that launched at the Institute.
Nanoscale Work Yields Big Results
Silvija Gradečak’s nanoscale work creates big-scale results that could transform energy production, storage, and lighting.
A Revolution in Higher Education
Sanjay Sarma is leading an educational revolution now underway in higher education.
Catalyzing Greener Products
Yuriy Román knew that to change the future of catalysis he’d have to cross the boundary between chemical engineering and materials science.
Sophisticated Medicine
Sangeeta Bhatia’s research defies tradition, drawing on biological and medical sciences, and multiple engineering disciplines.
Of Yeast, Ecology, and Cancer
Jeff Gore’s work with baker’s yeast helps ecologists respond to trends, like vanishing fisheries and missing tissues.
From Fiction to Science
Peter Reddien believes human stem cells one day could be regulated to replace aged, damaged, and missing tissues.
New Strategies for Anesthesia
Emery Brown says anesthesia drugs have been used in the US for more than 160 years but were largely misunderstood until now.
Preemptive Design Saving Cities
Miho Mazereeuw, founder of the Urban Risk Lab, has roots in two countries that have dealt with floods, earthquakes, and typhoons.
Controlling the Brain with Light
Ed Boyden says that optogenetics’ first human application may be to treat some forms of blindness.
Innovative Entrepreneurship
Fiona Murray will help guide the next generation of business founders to bring innovations to the world.
Measuring Health Care
Amy Finkelstein spotted an opportunity to bring the gold standard in scientific research to one of the most pressing questions of the day.
Philanthropic Investments
Earl and Suzette Rennison give MIT a scholarship, and entrepreneurs Colin and Erika Angle support innovation at MIT.
Saving Lives
John Lewandowski invents a device that could wipe out malaria.