News & Stories

Susan Solomon earns Killian Award, MIT’s highest faculty honor

Atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon, whose pioneering scientific and environmental policy work has helped to shape international agreements for healing the ozone layer and mitigating climate change, has been named the recipient of the 2020-2021 James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award. The Killian Award is the highest honor the MIT faculty can give to one […]

Yukio Okamoto, Japanese diplomat and MIT research fellow, dies at 74

Yukio Okamoto, a Japanese diplomat and fellow at MIT, died from Covid-19 on April 24 at the age of 74. The former special advisor to two prime ministers of Japan joined the Center for International Studies (CIS) in 2012 as a Robert E. Wilhelm fellow and served as a distinguished research fellow at CIS until his death. […]

MIT monitoring 2019 novel coronavirus

On Dec. 31, 2019, the World Health Organization learned about a number of cases of pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan City, in the Hubei Province of China. On Jan. 7, Chinese authorities identified the cause as a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) — a member of the coronavirus family that had never been encountered before. Common […]

Jeanne Guillemin, biological warfare expert and senior advisor at MIT, dies at 76

Jeanne Guillemin, a medical anthropologist and biological warfare expert, died on Nov. 15, 2019, at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was 76. Guillemin received her bachelor’s degree in social psychology from Harvard University in 1968 and her doctorate in sociology and anthropology from Brandeis University in 1973. She was a professor of international relations […]

Hazel Sive named dean of Northeastern University College of Science

Hazel Sive, a globally respected developmental biologist and educator, will become dean of the Northeastern University College of Science, beginning in June 2020. Sive, a member of the Whitehead Institute who has also been on the faculty of the MIT Department of Biology since 1991, is a much-lauded teacher and academic leader at MIT. “The […]

Three MIT seniors to join 2021 class of Schwarzman Scholars

Three MIT seniors, Mariam Dogar, Adedoyin Olateru-Olagbegi, and Jessica Quaye, and alumna Jessica Wang ’16, MEng ’17 are recipients of this year’s Schwarzman Scholarship distinguished fellowship. Another alumna was also awarded a scholarship but is waiting to make a public announcement until she has shared the news with her employer. The five winners were selected […]

At the Center for International Studies, a student endowment for women in international affairs

The Center for International Studies has announced that its longtime colleague, the sociologist of science and national security Jeanne Guillemin, has established an endowed fund to provide financial support to female PhD candidates studying international affairs. The first disbursements of this fund will be made in the spring for the next academic year. “My hope is […]

MIT expands global supply chain research with opening of new facilities in Ningbo, China

The Ningbo Supply Chain Innovation Institute China (NSCIIC) has strengthened its role as China’s premier center for supply chain research and education with the appointment of Jiequn “Jay” Guo as center director, and the opening of new facilities at its Meishan campus near the port of Ningbo, Zhejiang, China. Guo has pledged to expand NSCIIC’s […]

MIT economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee win Nobel Prize

Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, MIT economists whose work has helped transform antipoverty research and relief efforts, have been named co-winners of the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, along with another co-winner, Harvard University economist Michael Kremer. “We are incredibly happy and humbled,” Duflo told MIT News after […]

J-WAFS announces 2019 Solutions Grants supporting agriculture and clean water

The development of new technologies often starts with funded university research. Venture capital firms are eager to back well-tested products or services that are ready to enter the startup phase. However, funding that bridges the gap between these two stages can be hard to come by. The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food System Lab […]