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Homegrown help: Seeding a culture of innovation in Nigeria
Nigeria may not be known as a global hub for innovation, but officials there hope someday it will be. And they’ve recruited MIT Professional Education to help jump-start the process. In September, more than 80 top federal civil service officials from across ministries, departments and government agencies in Nigeria gathered in the capital city of […]
Scaling up a cleaner-burning alternative for cookstoves
For millions of people globally, cooking in their own homes can be detrimental to their health, and sometimes deadly. The World Health Organization estimates that 3.8 million people a year die as a result of the soot and smoke generated in traditional wood-burning cookstoves. Women and children in particular are at risk of pneumonia, stroke, […]
New process could make hydrogen peroxide available in remote places
Hydrogen peroxide, a useful all-purpose disinfectant, is found in most medicine cabinets in the developed world. But in remote villages in developing countries, where it could play an important role in health and sanitation, it can be hard to come by. Now, a process developed at MIT could lead to a simple, inexpensive, portable device […]
MIT Policy Lab issues fifth call for proposals to faculty and researchers
The MIT Policy Lab at the Center for International Studies, which encourages academically informed solutions to major public policy challenges, has announced its fifth call for proposals. The Policy Lab works with faculty at MIT to develop strategies for creating two-way dialogues between scholars and policymakers, helping to ensure that public policies are informed by the […]
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 […]
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 […]