News & Stories

Embarking upon a leadership journey

Current developments in the Middle East continue to challenge people in the region and open windows to make a sustainable impact. Challenges like water access, health care, IT, vocational training, and others can be addressed collaboratively with entrepreneurial and novel problem-solving capabilities. To do so, future leaders need to understand the challenges through a regional […]

MIT-Israel tackles present challenges with an eye toward the future

“Students’ global engagement is a key experience enabling them to grow both in their course of study and in their leadership skills,” says MIT-Israel Faculty Director Eran Ben-Joseph. “The Covid-19 pandemic is challenging us all and changed our students’ Israel plans.” MIT-Israel is a part of MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI), an experiential […]

For cultural and political conflicts, a humanizing imperative

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, Nasir Almasri heard so many discussions about the political struggles of Palestinians that by the time he was 7, he thought he’d heard enough to last a lifetime. He was wrong. Decades later, Almasri is now in his fourth year in the MIT political science PhD program pursuing […]

Faculty seed projects grow into pandemic research opportunities

Global partnerships are a fundamental component of research at MIT — even during this time of suspended travel. MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) supports those connections via MISTI Global Seed Funds (GSF). GSF enables participating faculty teams to collaborate with international peers, either at MIT or abroad, to develop and launch joint research projects. MISTI […]

MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab to launch research center at American University in Cairo

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT is launching a new regional research center in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to focus on innovative research and policy engagement to reduce poverty. Policy challenges in the MENA region are complex and interconnected: Children in the region have among the lowest learning […]

When culture clashes with Covid-19

In China, wearing masks during an epidemic is a readily accepted practice — unlike the situation in, say, the United States or some European countries, where the issue of mask-wearing is revealing civic and political fault lines. To what extent are these differences attributable to the “culture” of each country? And how much have widespread […]

Cornerstone donation sparks bright future for MISTI MIT-Israel program

In the first major step toward solidifying a future for the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) MIT-Israel program, Arthur J. Samberg ’62 has made a $1 million donation. This extraordinary gift is a foundational move in making sure the program — a critical bridge between MIT and Israel for over a decade — will […]