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The MIT-Portugal Program enters Phase 4
New phase will support continued exploration of ideas and solutions in fields ranging from AI to nanotech to climate — with emphasis on educational exchanges and entrepreneurship.
MIT in the world
MIT Portugal Program 2025 call for seed grant proposals
The call is open to MIT principal investigators from any of the Institute’s schools, departments, laboratories, or centers.
Four from MIT awarded 2025 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
Fellowship honors contributions of immigrants to American society by awarding $90,000 in funding for graduate studies.
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3 Questions: Historian Elizabeth Wood on election interference
Elizabeth Wood is a professor of history and the author of three books on Russia: “Roots of Russia’s War in Ukraine” (co-authored; Woodrow Wilson Center and Columbia University Press, 2016); “Performing Justice: Agitation Trials in Early Soviet Russia” (Cornell University Press, 2005); and “The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia” (Indiana […]
3 Questions: Alan Lightman’s new novel about Cambodia and family
MIT’s Alan Lightman is a physicist who made a leap to becoming a writer — one with an unusually broad range of interests. In his novels, nonfiction books, and essays, Lightman, a professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT, has explored many topics, from science to society. His new novel, “Three Flames,” recently […]
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 […]
Learning about China by learning its language
Among MIT students who didn’t grow up speaking Chinese, few are able to discuss “machine learning models” in passable Mandarin. But that is just what computer science and engineering senior Max Allen is able to do, and this ability comes as a result of academic work, stints abroad, an internship, and also just having the […]
A look at Japan’s evolving intelligence efforts
Once upon a time — from the 1600s through the 1800s — Japan had a spy corps so famous we know their name today: the ninjas, intelligence agents serving the ruling Tokugawa family. Over the last 75 years, however, as international spying and espionage has proliferated, Japan has mostly been on the sidelines of this […]
Deploying drones to prepare for climate change
While doing field research for her graduate thesis in her hometown of Cairo, Norhan Magdy Bayomi observed firsthand the impact of climate change on her local community. The residents of the low-income neighborhood she was studying were living in small, poorly insulated apartments that were ill-equipped for dealing with the region’s rising temperatures. Sharing cramped […]
Tracing the origins of air pollutants in India
At any moment in Delhi, India, a resident might start their car, releasing exhaust that floats into the atmosphere. In northwest India, a farmer might set fire to his field after the wheat harvest to clear it quickly, releasing smoke that’ll be carried by the wind. A small family might burn wood to light their […]
Bridging the information gap in solar energy
Just 30 seconds into their walk to the town center of Kitale, in Kenya, where they would later conduct a focus group about locally available solar energy options, Elise Harrington and her research partner came across a vendor selling a counterfeit solar lantern. Because they had been studying these very products, they knew immediately it […]
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 […]
Reaching climate solutions through negotiation
Evaluating the many possible strategies for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting the destructive effects of a warming planet is a daunting and contentious task. This week, about 50 MIT students got a chance to try out new software that can visually demonstrate how different policy choices could affect the global outcome. At Tuesday’s “SimPlanet” […]