News & Stories

Solving puzzles of international trade, war, and order

For Mariya Grinberg, the start of a research project often begins with a near-tangible sense of irritation. “I’d read something, a definition or idea that doesn’t make sense, that seems logically inconsistent — and it prickles,” says Grinberg, who joined the Department of Political Science as an assistant professor on July 1. “I try to […]

At the crossroads of language, technology, and empathy

Rujul Gandhi’s love of reading blossomed into a love of language at age 6, when she discovered a book at a garage sale called “What’s Behind the Word?” With forays into history, etymology, and language genealogies, the book captivated Gandhi, who as an MIT senior remains fascinated with words and how we use them. Growing […]

Refugee learners aim to lift up their communities

The MIT Refugee Action Hub (ReACT) recently celebrated the graduation of its third Certificate in Computer and Data Science cohort in an online ceremony. ReACT is a yearlong online learning program that creates education-to-employment pathways for talented refugees and displaced populations. The graduating cohort of 50 learners represented 22 countries worldwide — by far the […]

Call for Proposal: Skoltech-MIT Pilot Grants 2022

MIT Skoltech Program 2022 Call for Pilot Grant Proposals After the 2020 successful round of pilot grants, the MIT Skoltech Program is calling for another round of proposals from MIT Principal Investigators from any of the Institute’s schools, departments, laboratories, or centers. The pilot grants are designed to seed and support idea generation for MIT […]

Call for Proposal: MIT Sloan Latin America Office 2021-2022

The MIT Sloan Latin America Office (MSLAO) is excited to announce the call for seed fund proposals for the 2021-2022 academic year. The main goal of the MSLAO is to promote long- term collaboration between MIT and Latin America. The maximum amount of funding per project is $25,000 and we plan on distributing up to […]

MIT receives $15M USAID award to promote research and innovation at universities in Latin America

MIT has received a $15 million award from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), announced today at a ceremony in Guatemala City. USAID granted the award to fund the Achieving Sustainable Partnerships in Innovation, Research, and Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE) program. The award will support a collaboration between MIT, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG), […]

Maria Zuber testifies before Congress on striking the right balance between research security and openness

The United States must perform a careful balancing act to secure federally funded research against improper interference from China and other foreign governments without shutting down valuable international scientific research collaborations, MIT Vice President for Research Maria T. Zuber said this week in testimony before Congress. Speaking at a virtual hearing held by two subcommittees […]

Citizens emerge from the slums

Do the world’s nearly 1 billion urban poor, who subsist without legal housing, reliable water and sewer infrastructure, and predictable employment, lack political engagement as well? Ying Gao does not buy the claim by many social scientists that social and economic marginalization necessarily means political marginalization. “My results contradict the prevailing wisdom about slums and […]

Study: Global cancer risk from burning organic matter comes from unregulated chemicals

Whenever organic matter is burned, such as in a wildfire, a power plant, a car’s exhaust, or in daily cooking, the combustion releases polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) — a class of pollutants that is known to cause lung cancer. There are more than 100 known types of PAH compounds emitted daily into the atmosphere. Regulators, […]

End-to-end supply chain transparency

For years, companies have managed their extended supply chains with intermittent audits and certifications while attempting to persuade their suppliers to adhere to certain standards and codes of conduct. But they’ve lacked the concrete data necessary to prove their supply chains were working as they should. They most likely had baseline data about their suppliers […]