News & Stories

A collaboration across continents to solve a plastics problem

More than 60,000 tons of plastic makes the journey down the Amazon River to the Atlantic Ocean every year. And that doesn’t include what finds its way to the river’s banks, or the microplastics ingested by the region’s abundant and diverse wildlife. It’s easy to demonize plastic, but it has been crucial in developing the society […]

Toward sustainable decarbonization of aviation in Latin America

According to the International Energy Agency, aviation accounts for about 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and aviation emissions are expected to double by mid-century as demand for domestic and international air travel rises. To sharply reduce emissions in alignment with the Paris Agreement’s long-term goal to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, […]

Hearing Amazônia: MIT musicians in Manaus, Brazil

On Dec. 13, the MIT community came together for the premiere of “We Are The Forest,” a documentary by MIT Video Productions that tells the story of the MIT musicians who traveled to the Brazilian Amazon seeking culture and scientific exchange. The film features performances by Djuena Tikuna, Luciana Souza, Anat Cohen, and Evan Ziporyn, with […]

Q&A: Gabriela Sá Pessoa on Brazilian politics, human rights in the Amazon, and AI

Gabriela Sá Pessoa is a journalist passionate about the intersection of human rights and climate change. She came to MIT from The Washington Post, where she worked from her home country of Brazil as a news researcher reporting on the Amazon, human rights violations, and environmental crimes. Before that, she held roles at two of […]

Q&A: How studying Portuguese helps to look at life through a different lens

Theo St. Francis is an MIT senior majoring in aeronautics and astronautics. He is graduating this month with a concentration in Portuguese, and has visited Brazil with the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives’ Global Teaching Labs. This year, St. Francis was the recipient of the Global Languages Margarita Ribas Groeger Distinguished Scholar award. In […]

Nilma Dominique aims to build community and nourish the soul

Nilma Dominique makes it her mission to build bonds of community — whether it is in a language classroom at MIT, where she teaches Portuguese, more broadly across the Institute, or in the community at large. Dominique was one of four honorees recently awarded an MLK Jr. Leadership Award in recognition of her work embodying […]

Dragging your feet? Lack of sleep affects your walk, new study finds

Good sleep can be hard to come by. But a new study finds that if you can make up for lost sleep, even for just a few weekend hours, the extra zzz’s could help reduce fatigue-induced clumsiness, at least in how you walk. There’s plenty of evidence to show sleep, and how much we get […]

Traveling the world for global health solutions

As a kid, Andrea Orji always loved it when her grandpa would visit from Nigeria. He would share stories about his home to teach Orji, a Texas native, about her family’s heritage. But while she and her family attended school and work, her grandpa remained at the house, frequently alone. She could tell he longed […]

In Brazil, a look at why health care declines around elections

In October 2016, shortly after Brazil’s mayoral elections, significant numbers of public servants were dismissed from their positions in several municipalities across the country. Porto Nacional’s schools abruptly closed because there were simply not enough teachers staffed to keep the schools open. In Miracema do Tocantins, classes ended six weeks early after 30 percent of […]

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 […]