News & Stories

New optical sensing system will improve space domain awareness

Earlier this year, the first of two space domain awareness (SDA) payloads, called the QZS6-HP1, launched from Tanegashima, Japan. Recently, that payload collected its first imaging data, a moment known as first light. Sponsored by the United States Space Force (USSF), MIT Lincoln Laboratory designed, built, and delivered the two payloads as part of a […]

3 Questions: The Climate Project at MIT

MIT is preparing a major campus-wide effort to develop technological, behavioral, and policy solutions to some of the toughest problems now impeding an effective global climate response. The Climate Project at MIT, as the new enterprise is known, includes new arrangements for promoting cross-Institute collaborations and new mechanisms for engaging with outside partners to speed […]

Four from MIT awarded National Medals of Technology, Science

The White House honored four MIT affiliates today with the nation’s highest awards for scientists and innovators. At a ceremony this afternoon, President Joe Biden announced the recipients of this year’s National Medals of Technology and Innovation and National Medals of Science. James Fujimoto ’79, SM ’81, PhD ’84, the Elihu Thomson Professor in Electrical […]

MIT PhD student enhances STEM education in underrepresented communities in Puerto Rico

Taylor Baum knows that access is everything. So the fourth-year MIT PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has been working in recent years to enhance STEM education in underrepresented communities in Puerto Rico. As the founder of social impact venture Sprouting, Baum has been leading programs to facilitate community between […]

Seeing the natural world through a mathematical lens

Growing up in Wallingford, Connecticut, David Darrow loved spending time outside, hiking and camping with his Boy Scout troop. He was fascinated by the environment around him, constantly asking questions about the natural world. Now a senior at MIT majoring in math and minoring in German and physics, Darrow is still studying natural phenomena. With […]

MIT, US Space Force to explore opportunities for research and workforce development

Advancing human understanding and exploration in space is a long-standing pursuit of researchers and students at MIT. For the U.S. military, space technologies and discovery have wide-ranging implications on national security. With that history and context in mind, the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) hosted an on-campus event on Aug. 31, marking a […]

Daniel Hastings and Maria Yang appointed associate deans of engineering

Professors Daniel Hastings and Maria Yang have been named associate deans of MIT’s School of Engineering. Their new roles took effect August 1. Hastings is the Cecil and Ida Green Education Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a role which he will continue in addition to his associate dean appointment. […]

Jing Wang, professor of Chinese media and cultural studies, dies at 71

Jing Wang, the S.C. Fang Professor of Chinese Languages and Culture, and a longtime member of the MIT faculty in Global Studies and Languages and Comparative Media Studies/Writing, passed away on Sunday in Boston after a heart attack. For decades, Wang was a leading scholar of the intersection of media and activism in China. Following […]

How aspirations become actions

Minutes before finding out he’d been accepted to MIT, Mussie Demisse ’21 was shaking Governor Charlie Baker’s hand. Demisse was at an awards ceremony at the Massachusetts State House, being honored as one of the 2018 “29 Who Shine,” a select group of graduates from the Commonwealth’s higher education system who’d made an impact at […]

New approach could change how we track extreme air pollution events

When extreme and dangerous air pollution events strike and blanket the air with hazardous levels of pollution, it causes a major threat to public health and safety. It’s also exceedingly challenging to monitor. The pollutants move quickly through the atmosphere, and can undergo chemical transformations from one form to another, leaving it difficult to predict […]