The Translational Research Institute for Pain in Later Life, a New York City-based center to help older adults prevent and manage pain, has been awarded a five-year, $5 million renewal grant from the National Institute on Aging.
The report, carried out by analytics firm Clarivate, looks at the critical role of research in shaping global industrial innovation and societal impact, using data and expert insights derived from academic research and patent citations.
The report highlights how knowledge flows between academia and industry across countries and regions, underscoring the global nature of innovation. It identifies the top 50 universities named on the academic papers that received the highest number of citations from patents granted to the companies and organisations on the Top 100 Global Innovators 2024 list.
Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge, said: “Cambridge has a thriving community of spin-outs, start-ups and partnerships that demonstrates how academia and industry can work together to transform ideas into real-world impact. The University is key to this, and we are developing hugely ambitious plans that will transform the UK economy and reinforce the UK’s status as a leader in global innovation.”
The report comes the day after Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves unveiled her strategy to unleash the potential of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor by catalysing the growth of UK science and technology. The plan recognises the University of Cambridge as the world’s leading science and technological cluster by intensity, and its potential to rapidly build on the £30bn contribution it already makes to the UK economy.
According to the report, the top 10 universities influencing patented inventions are:
Harvard University (US)
Stanford University (US)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT (US)
University of California, Berkeley (US)
Université Paris Cité (France)
University of Cambridge (UK)
University of Washington, Seattle (US)
University of California, San Diego (US)
University of Michigan (US)
University of Toronto (Canada)
Among the report’s key findings was that the UK demonstrates particularly diverse international influence, with its research often serving as a bridge across regions.
Gordon Rogers, report author and Senior Manager, Data Science at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate, said: “Groundbreaking ideas driving the world’s most innovative companies often originate from academic research. Our report demonstrates that by fostering collaboration between academia and industry, we can fuel technological advancements, providing solutions to societal challenges in healthcare, sustainability, and economic development.”
The University of Cambridge has been named as the leading UK university in a new report on the top 50 universities powering global innovation.
Cambridge has a thriving community of spin-outs, start-ups and partnerships that demonstrates how academia and industry can work together to transform ideas into real-world impact
Deborah Prentice
Student at Maxwell Centre, University of Cambridge
With 37 new spin-offs, ETH Zurich continues its long-term upward trend in the launch of new companies from its research. Start-ups in the fields of artificial intelligence and biotechnology were particularly well represented.
Five years on from COVID-19s determination as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Australian Institute for Infectious Disease (AIID) is sharing four pivotal lessons learned which are critical to future global health security and greater international cooperation.
Highly energetic explosions in the sky are commonly attributed to gamma-ray bursts. We now understand that these bursts originate from either the merger of two neutron stars or the collapse of a massive star. In these scenarios, a newborn black hole is formed, emitting a jet that travels at nearly the speed of light. When these jets are directed toward Earth, we can observe them from vast distances — sometimes billions of light-years away — due to a relativistic effect known as Doppler boosting. Over the past decade, thousands of such gamma-ray bursts have been detected.
Since its launch in 2024, the Einstein Probe — an X-ray space telescope developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in partnership with European Space Agency (ESA) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics — has been scanning the skies looking for energetic explosions, and in April the telescope observed an unusual event designated as EP240408A. Now an international team of astronomers, including Dheeraj Pasham from MIT, Igor Andreoni from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Brendan O’Connor from Carnegie Mellon University, and others have investigated this explosion using a slew of ground-based and space-based telescopes, including NuSTAR, Swift, Gemini, Keck, DECam, VLA, ATCA, and NICER, which was developed in collaboration with MIT.
An open-access report of their findings, published Jan. 27 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, indicates that the characteristics of this explosion do not match those of typical gamma-ray bursts. Instead, it may represent a rare new class of powerful cosmic explosion — a jetted tidal disruption event, which occurs when a supermassive black hole tears apart a star.
“NICER’s ability to steer to pretty much any part of the sky and monitor for weeks has been instrumental in our understanding of these unusual cosmic explosions,” says Pasham, a research scientist at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.
While a jetted tidal disruption event is plausible, the researchers say the lack of radio emissions from this jet is puzzling. O’Connor surmises, “EP240408a ticks some of the boxes for several different kinds of phenomena, but it doesn’t tick all the boxes for anything. In particular, the short duration and high luminosity are hard to explain in other scenarios. The alternative is that we are seeing something entirely new!”
According to Pasham, the Einstein Probe is just beginning to scratch the surface of what seems possible. “I’m excited to chase the next weird explosion from the Einstein Probe”, he says, echoing astronomers worldwide who look forward to the prospect of discovering more unusual explosions from the farthest reaches of the cosmos.
Highly energetic explosions in the sky are commonly attributed to gamma-ray bursts. We now understand that these bursts originate from either the merger of two neutron stars or the collapse of a massive star. In these scenarios, a newborn black hole is formed, emitting a jet that travels at nearly the speed of light. When these jets are directed toward Earth, we can observe them from vast distances — sometimes billions of light-years away — due to a relativistic effect known as Doppler boosting. Over the past decade, thousands of such gamma-ray bursts have been detected.
Since its launch in 2024, the Einstein Probe — an X-ray space telescope developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in partnership with European Space Agency (ESA) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics — has been scanning the skies looking for energetic explosions, and in April the telescope observed an unusual event designated as EP240408A. Now an international team of astronomers, including Dheeraj Pasham from MIT, Igor Andreoni from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Brendan O’Connor from Carnegie Mellon University, and others have investigated this explosion using a slew of ground-based and space-based telescopes, including NuSTAR, Swift, Gemini, Keck, DECam, VLA, ATCA, and NICER, which was developed in collaboration with MIT.
An open-access report of their findings, published Jan. 27 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, indicates that the characteristics of this explosion do not match those of typical gamma-ray bursts. Instead, it may represent a rare new class of powerful cosmic explosion — a jetted tidal disruption event, which occurs when a supermassive black hole tears apart a star.
“NICER’s ability to steer to pretty much any part of the sky and monitor for weeks has been instrumental in our understanding of these unusual cosmic explosions,” says Pasham, a research scientist at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.
While a jetted tidal disruption event is plausible, the researchers say the lack of radio emissions from this jet is puzzling. O’Connor surmises, “EP240408a ticks some of the boxes for several different kinds of phenomena, but it doesn’t tick all the boxes for anything. In particular, the short duration and high luminosity are hard to explain in other scenarios. The alternative is that we are seeing something entirely new!”
According to Pasham, the Einstein Probe is just beginning to scratch the surface of what seems possible. “I’m excited to chase the next weird explosion from the Einstein Probe”, he says, echoing astronomers worldwide who look forward to the prospect of discovering more unusual explosions from the farthest reaches of the cosmos.
Eisgruber called on Princetonians to “celebrate fresh beginnings and remarkable achievements, rise to meet difficult challenges, and energetically pursue this University’s mission of teaching, research, and service in the year ahead.”
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently announced that MIT Associate Professor Evelina Fedorenko will receive a 2025 Troland Research Award for her groundbreaking contributions toward understanding the language network in the human brain.
The Troland Research Award is given annually to recognize unusual achievement by early-career researchers within the broad spectrum of experimental psychology.
Fedorenko, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and a McGovern Institute for Brain Research investigator, is interested in how minds and brains create language. Her lab is unpacking the internal architecture of the brain’s language system and exploring the relationship between language and various cognitive, perceptual, and motor systems. Her novel methods combine precise measures of an individual’s brain organization with innovative computational modeling to make fundamental discoveries about the computations that underlie the uniquely human ability for language.
Fedorenko has shown that the language network is selective for language processing over diverse non-linguistic processes that have been argued to share computational demands with language, such as math, music, and social reasoning. Her work has also demonstrated that syntactic processing is not localized to a particular region within the language network, and every brain region that responds to syntactic processing is at least as sensitive to word meanings.
She has also shown that representations from neural network language models, such as ChatGPT, are similar to those in the human language brain areas. Fedorenko also highlighted that although language models can master linguistic rules and patterns, they are less effective at using language in real-world situations. In the human brain, that kind of functional competence is distinct from formal language competence, she says, requiring not just language-processing circuits but also brain areas that store knowledge of the world, reason, and interpret social interactions. Contrary to a prominent view that language is essential for thinking, Fedorenko argues that language is not the medium of thought and is primarily a tool for communication.
Ultimately, Fedorenko’s cutting-edge work is uncovering the computations and representations that fuel language processing in the brain. She will receive the Troland Award this April, during the annual meeting of the NAS in Washington.
Imagine a boombox that tracks your every move and suggests music to match your personal dance style. That’s the idea behind “Be the Beat,” one of several projects from MIT course 4.043/4.044 (Interaction Intelligence), taught by Marcelo Coelho in the Department of Architecture, that were presented at the 38th annual NeurIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems) conference in December 2024. With over 16,000 attendees converging in Vancouver, NeurIPS is a competitive and prestigious conference dedicated to research and science in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and a premier venue for showcasing cutting-edge developments.
The course investigates the emerging field of large language objects, and how artificial intelligence can be extended into the physical world. While “Be the Beat” transforms the creative possibilities of dance, other student submissions span disciplines such as music, storytelling, critical thinking, and memory, creating generative experiences and new forms of human-computer interaction. Taken together, these projects illustrate a broader vision for artificial intelligence: one that goes beyond automation to catalyze creativity, reshape education, and reimagine social interactions.
Be the Beat
“Be the Beat,” by Ethan Chang, an MIT mechanical engineering and design student, and Zhixing Chen, an MIT mechanical engineering and music student, is an AI-powered boombox that suggests music from a dancer's movement. Dance has traditionally been guided by music throughout history and across cultures, yet the concept of dancing to create music is rarely explored.
“Be the Beat” creates a space for human-AI collaboration on freestyle dance, empowering dancers to rethink the traditional dynamic between dance and music. It uses PoseNet to describe movements for a large language model, enabling it to analyze dance style and query APIs to find music with similar style, energy, and tempo. Dancers interacting with the boombox reported having more control over artistic expression and described the boombox as a novel approach to discovering dance genres and choreographing creatively.
A Mystery for You
“A Mystery for You,” by Mrinalini Singha SM ’24, a recent graduate in the Art, Culture, and Technology program, and Haoheng Tang, a recent graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, is an educational game designed to cultivate critical thinking and fact-checking skills in young learners. The game leverages a large language model (LLM) and a tangible interface to create an immersive investigative experience. Players act as citizen fact-checkers, responding to AI-generated “news alerts” printed by the game interface. By inserting cartridge combinations to prompt follow-up “news updates,” they navigate ambiguous scenarios, analyze evidence, and weigh conflicting information to make informed decisions.
This human-computer interaction experience challenges our news-consumption habits by eliminating touchscreen interfaces, replacing perpetual scrolling and skim-reading with a haptically rich analog device. By combining the affordances of slow media with new generative media, the game promotes thoughtful, embodied interactions while equipping players to better understand and challenge today’s polarized media landscape, where misinformation and manipulative narratives thrive.
Memorscope
“Memorscope,” by MIT Media Lab research collaborator Keunwook Kim, is a device that creates collective memories by merging the deeply human experience of face-to-face interaction with advanced AI technologies. Inspired by how we use microscopes and telescopes to examine and uncover hidden and invisible details, Memorscope allows two users to “look into” each other’s faces, using this intimate interaction as a gateway to the creation and exploration of their shared memories.
The device leverages AI models such as OpenAI and Midjourney, introducing different aesthetic and emotional interpretations, which results in a dynamic and collective memory space. This space transcends the limitations of traditional shared albums, offering a fluid, interactive environment where memories are not just static snapshots but living, evolving narratives, shaped by the ongoing relationship between users.
Narratron
“Narratron,” by Harvard Graduate School of Design students Xiying (Aria) Bao and Yubo Zhao, is an interactive projector that co-creates and co-performs children's stories through shadow puppetry using large language models. Users can press the shutter to “capture” protagonists they want to be in the story, and it takes hand shadows (such as animal shapes) as input for the main characters. The system then develops the story plot as new shadow characters are introduced. The story appears through a projector as a backdrop for shadow puppetry while being narrated through a speaker as users turn a crank to “play” in real time. By combining visual, auditory, and bodily interactions in one system, the project aims to spark creativity in shadow play storytelling and enable multi-modal human-AI collaboration.
Perfect Syntax
“Perfect Syntax,” by Karyn Nakamura ’24, is a video art piece examining the syntactic logic behind motion and video. Using AI to manipulate video fragments, the project explores how the fluidity of motion and time can be simulated and reconstructed by machines. Drawing inspiration from both philosophical inquiry and artistic practice, Nakamura's work interrogates the relationship between perception, technology, and the movement that shapes our experience of the world. By reimagining video through computational processes, Nakamura investigates the complexities of how machines understand and represent the passage of time and motion.
"A Mystery for You" is an educational game that fosters critical thinking and fact-checking skills in young learners through immersive, hands-on investigations, using a tangible interface to navigate AI-generated news alerts and conflicting information.
Last year the Earth exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial times, a threshold beyond which wildfires, droughts, floods, and other climate impacts are expected to escalate in frequency, intensity, and lethality. To cap global warming at 1.5 C and avert that scenario, the nearly 200 signatory nations of the Paris Agreement on climate change will need to not only dramatically lower their greenhouse gas emissions, but also take measures to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and durably store it at or below the Earth’s surface.
Past analyses of the climate mitigation potential, costs, benefits, and drawbacks of different carbon dioxide removal (CDR) options have focused primarily on three strategies: bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), in which CO2-absorbing plant matter is converted into fuels or directly burned to generate energy, with some of the plant’s carbon content captured and then stored safely and permanently; afforestation/reforestation, in which CO2-absorbing trees are planted in large numbers; and direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS), a technology that captures and separates CO2 directly from ambient air, and injects it into geological reservoirs or incorporates it into durable products.
To provide a more comprehensive and actionable analysis of CDR, a new study by researchers at the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy (CS3) first expands the option set to include biochar (charcoal produced from plant matter and stored in soil) and enhanced weathering (EW) (spreading finely ground rock particles on land to accelerate storage of CO2 in soil and water). The study then evaluates portfolios of all five options — in isolation and in combination — to assess their capability to meet the 1.5 C goal, and their potential impacts on land, energy, and policy costs.
The study appears in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Aided by their global multi-region, multi-sector Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model, the MIT CS3 researchers produce three key findings.
First, the most cost-effective, low-impact strategy that policymakers can take to achieve global net-zero emissions — an essential step in meeting the 1.5 C goal — is to diversify their CDR portfolio, rather than rely on any single option. This approach minimizes overall cropland and energy consumption, and negative impacts such as increased food insecurity and decreased energy supplies.
By diversifying across multiple CDR options, the highest CDR deployment of around 31.5 gigatons of CO2 per year is achieved in 2100, while also proving the most cost-effective net-zero strategy. The study identifies BECCS and biochar as most cost-competitive in removing CO2 from the atmosphere, followed by EW, with DACCS as uncompetitive due to high capital and energy requirements. While posing logistical and other challenges, biochar and EW have the potential to improve soil quality and productivity across 45 percent of all croplands by 2100.
“Diversifying CDR portfolios is the most cost-effective net-zero strategy because it avoids relying on a single CDR option, thereby reducing and redistributing negative impacts on agriculture, forestry, and other land uses, as well as on the energy sector,” says Solene Chiquier, lead author of the study who was a CS3 postdoc during its preparation.
The second finding: There is no optimal CDR portfolio that will work well at global and national levels. The ideal CDR portfolio for a particular region will depend on local technological, economic, and geophysical conditions. For example, afforestation and reforestation would be of great benefit in places like Brazil, Latin America, and Africa, by not only sequestering carbon in more acreage of protected forest but also helping to preserve planetary well-being and human health.
“In designing a sustainable, cost-effective CDR portfolio, it is important to account for regional availability of agricultural, energy, and carbon-storage resources,” says Sergey Paltsev, CS3 deputy director, MIT Energy Initiative senior research scientist, and supervising co-author of the study. “Our study highlights the need for enhancing knowledge about local conditions that favor some CDR options over others.”
Finally, the MIT CS3 researchers show that delaying large-scale deployment of CDR portfolios could be very costly, leading to considerably higher carbon prices across the globe — a development sure to deter the climate mitigation efforts needed to achieve the 1.5 C goal. They recommend near-term implementation of policy and financial incentives to help fast-track those efforts.
A new MIT study finds that biochar (charcoal produced from plant matter and stored in soil) is a cost-competitive option for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide removal is expected to play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in alignment with long-term climate targets.
Last year the Earth exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial times, a threshold beyond which wildfires, droughts, floods, and other climate impacts are expected to escalate in frequency, intensity, and lethality. To cap global warming at 1.5 C and avert that scenario, the nearly 200 signatory nations of the Paris Agreement on climate change will need to not only dramatically lower their greenhouse gas emissions, but also take measures to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and durably store it at or below the Earth’s surface.
Past analyses of the climate mitigation potential, costs, benefits, and drawbacks of different carbon dioxide removal (CDR) options have focused primarily on three strategies: bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), in which CO2-absorbing plant matter is converted into fuels or directly burned to generate energy, with some of the plant’s carbon content captured and then stored safely and permanently; afforestation/reforestation, in which CO2-absorbing trees are planted in large numbers; and direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS), a technology that captures and separates CO2 directly from ambient air, and injects it into geological reservoirs or incorporates it into durable products.
To provide a more comprehensive and actionable analysis of CDR, a new study by researchers at the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy (CS3) first expands the option set to include biochar (charcoal produced from plant matter and stored in soil) and enhanced weathering (EW) (spreading finely ground rock particles on land to accelerate storage of CO2 in soil and water). The study then evaluates portfolios of all five options — in isolation and in combination — to assess their capability to meet the 1.5 C goal, and their potential impacts on land, energy, and policy costs.
The study appears in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Aided by their global multi-region, multi-sector Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model, the MIT CS3 researchers produce three key findings.
First, the most cost-effective, low-impact strategy that policymakers can take to achieve global net-zero emissions — an essential step in meeting the 1.5 C goal — is to diversify their CDR portfolio, rather than rely on any single option. This approach minimizes overall cropland and energy consumption, and negative impacts such as increased food insecurity and decreased energy supplies.
By diversifying across multiple CDR options, the highest CDR deployment of around 31.5 gigatons of CO2 per year is achieved in 2100, while also proving the most cost-effective net-zero strategy. The study identifies BECCS and biochar as most cost-competitive in removing CO2 from the atmosphere, followed by EW, with DACCS as uncompetitive due to high capital and energy requirements. While posing logistical and other challenges, biochar and EW have the potential to improve soil quality and productivity across 45 percent of all croplands by 2100.
“Diversifying CDR portfolios is the most cost-effective net-zero strategy because it avoids relying on a single CDR option, thereby reducing and redistributing negative impacts on agriculture, forestry, and other land uses, as well as on the energy sector,” says Solene Chiquier, lead author of the study who was a CS3 postdoc during its preparation.
The second finding: There is no optimal CDR portfolio that will work well at global and national levels. The ideal CDR portfolio for a particular region will depend on local technological, economic, and geophysical conditions. For example, afforestation and reforestation would be of great benefit in places like Brazil, Latin America, and Africa, by not only sequestering carbon in more acreage of protected forest but also helping to preserve planetary well-being and human health.
“In designing a sustainable, cost-effective CDR portfolio, it is important to account for regional availability of agricultural, energy, and carbon-storage resources,” says Sergey Paltsev, CS3 deputy director, MIT Energy Initiative senior research scientist, and supervising co-author of the study. “Our study highlights the need for enhancing knowledge about local conditions that favor some CDR options over others.”
Finally, the MIT CS3 researchers show that delaying large-scale deployment of CDR portfolios could be very costly, leading to considerably higher carbon prices across the globe — a development sure to deter the climate mitigation efforts needed to achieve the 1.5 C goal. They recommend near-term implementation of policy and financial incentives to help fast-track those efforts.
A new MIT study finds that biochar (charcoal produced from plant matter and stored in soil) is a cost-competitive option for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide removal is expected to play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in alignment with long-term climate targets.
Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have identified in a preclinical model a specific brain circuit whose inhibition appears to reduce anxiety without side effects.
Who can save us from social media? At this point, perhaps just us.
Nicholas Carr argues it may be too late for regulation as platforms took hold so quickly, outpacing our ability to spot darker effects on society, democracy
long read
Excerpted from “Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart” by Nicholas Carr, M.A. ’84.
It was a Sunday night, Oct. 19, 1952, and Frank Walsh, a Long Island electrician who moonlighted as a security guard, was worn out. He headed upstairs to bed while his wife, mother-in-law and five kids stayed down in the living room watching TV. They were engrossed in the latest episode of the new hit comedy “The Abbott and Costello Show.” Walsh tossed and turned but couldn’t fall asleep. The television was too loud, the laughter jarring. His irritation mounted, then turned to rage. He got up and grabbed the .38 Special he used in his guard job. Halfway down the stairs, the offending set came into view. He paused, took aim, and fired a bullet through the screen.
Walsh’s wife, furious, called the police. Officers arrived and confiscated the revolver, but they made no arrest. There’s no law, they explained, against shooting one’s own television. Two days later, The New York Times ran a brief, tongue-in-cheek notice about the incident, under the headline “Obviously Self-Defense.” The day after that, a Times columnist, Jack Gould, praised Walsh’s “public-spirited act.” He called on the authorities to give the man his gun back. “His work has barely started.” The paper’s coverage turned Walsh into a celebrity. Within a week, he appeared as a contestant on the popular prime-time game show “Strike It Rich.” He won a TV.
To shoot a television set, Frank Walsh discovered, is not to strike a blow against media and its dominion. It’s to merge into the televisual. It’s to act as someone on TV would act. As the producers of “Strike It Rich,” not to mention the editors of The New York Times, immediately recognized, Walsh’s shooting of his television was a made-for-media event — outrageous, funny, violent, relatable. Flattened into a figure of amusement and funneled into the media flow, Walsh succeeded only in turning himself into content. His act lived on, though. Firing a gun at a television would become a cultural trope, replayed endlessly in books, movies, songs, cartoons, and, of course, television shows. Elvis Presley made a habit of shooting his TVs and burying the carcasses in a “television graveyard” behind Graceland. He would then go out and buy more sets. He kept upwards of a dozen televisions in various locations around his mansion, plugged in and broadcasting. In surrounding himself with screens, the King was a trailblazer. We all live in Graceland now.
***
Thanks to its lack of attachments, its promiscuous flexibility, mass media has always been resilient. It absorbs the criticisms directed at it (even when they take the form of projectiles), turns them into programming, airs them, then distracts us from them with the next spectacle. Social media goes a step further. By encouraging an overheated style of rhetoric that breeds political polarization and governmental paralysis, it reduces the chances that it will be subjected to meaningful regulations or other legal controls. It’s protected by the conditions of distraction and dysfunction that it fosters. Politicians go on social media to express their disdain for social media, then eye the like count.
That’s not to say reform is impossible. The European Union, which has been much less sanguine than the United States about jettisoning the secrecy-of-correspondence doctrine, regularly passes laws and regulations aimed at restraining social media platforms. The rules provide citizens with more control over the information they share and the information they receive. Europeans are able to opt out of data-collection regimes, targeted advertising programs, and even, as of the summer of 2023, personalized news feeds. But the controls, however salutary, haven’t really changed the way social media operates. The reason is simple: they haven’t changed the behavior of most users. As surveys show, consumers have grown accustomed to trading personal information for tailored products and services. Few of them at this point are going to opt out of receiving content geared to their desires. Personalization has become central to people’s experience of media and to the enjoyment they derive from it. For avid TikTokers, taking the For You out of the For You page would be tantamount to switching off a pleasure center in the brain. Strong engagement isn’t only good for the platforms; users like it, too.
Antitrust actions against companies such as Google and Meta, which may be justified in economic terms, are also unlikely to change social media’s workings. Technological progress has an inertial force that rolls on independently of the maneuverings of the companies making money off it. While breaking up the tech giants or curbing their ability to enter into oligarchic alliances might well intensify competition and innovation in the internet industry, it’s unlikely to push media off the technological path it’s already on — a path that has been and will continue to be appealing to consumers and lucrative for companies. The point of antitrust prosecutions, argues Tim Wu, the Columbia law professor, is not to punish the big platforms but to force them “to make way for the next generation of technologists and their dreams.” That sounds stirring — until we remember that it’s the dreams of technologists that got us into our current fix. The next wave of innovations — larger language models, more convincing chatbots, more efficient content generation and censorship systems, more precise eye trackers and body sensors, more immersive virtual worlds, faster everything — will only drive us further into the emptiness of hyperreality.
The boldest and most creative of social media’s would-be reformers, a small group of legal scholars and other academics, joined by a handful of rebel programmers, have a more radical plan. They call it frictional design. They believe the existing technological system needs to be dismantled and rebuilt in a more humanistic form. Pursuing an approach reminiscent of the machine-breaking strategy of the 19th-century British Luddites, if without the violence, they seek, in effect, to sabotage existing social media platforms by reintroducing friction into their operations — throwing virtual sand into the virtual works.
“The relentless push to eliminate friction in the digital networked environment for the sake of efficiency,” explain two of the movement’s leading thinkers, Villanova’s Brett Frischmann and Harvard’s Susan Benesch, in a 2023 article in the Yale Journal of Law & Technology, has imposed large, hidden costs on society. “A general course correction is needed.” Invoking the “time, place, and manner” restrictions that have long been imposed on public speech — the prohibition on using a megaphone on a neighborhood street in the middle of the night, say, or the requirement that protesters get a permit before marching through a city — Frischmann and Benesch argue that legal restrictions can in a similar way be imposed on media software to encourage civil behavior and protect the general public interest. Unlike antitrust actions, privacy regulations, and opt-in requirements, which fail to address “the rampant techno-social engineering of humans by digital networked technologies,” government-mandated design constraints would, they write, transform the “digital architectures [and] interfaces that shape human interactions and behavior.” The constraints would change social relations by, to once again draw on sociologist Charles Horton Cooley’s terms, altering the mechanisms that determine how information flows and associations form.
Many kinds of “desirable inefficiencies” have been proposed. Limits could be set on the number of times a message can be forwarded or the number of people it can be forwarded to. The limits might become more stringent the more a message is shared. A delay of a few minutes could be introduced before a post appears on a platform, giving the person doing the posting time to reconsider its content and tone and slowing down the pace of exchanges. A similar delay or a few added clicks could be imposed before a person is allowed to like or reply to someone else’s post. A small fee might be required to broadcast a post or message to, say, more than 1,000 recipients. The fee might be increased for 10,000 recipients and again for 100,000. A broadcasting license might be required for any account with more than a quarter million followers or subscribers. Pop-up alerts could remind users of the number of people who might see a post or a message. Infinite scrolls, autoplay functions, and personalized feeds and advertisements could be banned outright.
There’s much to be said for the frictional design approach. It introduces values other than efficiency into media technology, and it would promote the construction of networks that, like the analog systems of old, encourage more deliberation and discretion on the part of viewers and listeners. If “code is law,” as Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig argued years ago, then shouldn’t the public’s values and interests be taken into account in the formulation of software that shapes how society works? We have speed bumps on roads to slow people down and safeguard the public; why not on the net? The approach also has precedents in recent experiments undertaken by the platforms themselves. In 2020, some Twitter users began seeing a pop-up asking “Want to read the article first?” when they were about to retweet an article they hadn’t read. The pop-ups stirred some irritation — “Who made you god?” one user tweeted — but they did seem to have an effect, increasing the likelihood that people would at least glance at an article before sharing it. Two years later, Twitter tested a similar pop-up to deter “abusive language” in tweets. It, too, seemed to have an effect, with users canceling or revising about a third of the flagged messages. Apple and Instagram have introduced algorithmic interventions aimed at curbing the exchange of nude photos among minors. Teenaged users of Apple’s Messages and Instagram’s direct-messaging service are warned before sending or receiving messages that include nude images, and the images themselves are sometimes automatically blurred.
But while frictional design may help curb certain well-defined types of undesirable online behavior, it is likely to prove as futile as Frank Walsh’s gunplay when it comes to changing how social media operates. Unlike traditional time, place, and motion laws, which don’t affect the day-to-day lives of most people, changes to the basic workings of social media would affect pretty much everyone all at once. Although the frictional design proposals focus on regulating how technological systems work rather than on what people say, they would still raise free-speech and free-press concerns. Many people, even among the growing number who would like to see stiffer controls placed on platform companies, would rebel against what they’d see as patriarchal overreach or nanny-state meddling. Others would object to the government imposing a single set of values on the general public’s means of communication and entertainment. Many would ask whether politicians and bureaucrats can be trusted to meddle with software without mucking everything up. Would every shift in the political winds bring sudden and confusing alterations to the way apps work?
The biggest obstacle to adding friction to communication, though, is likely to be the habits of social media users themselves. The history of technological progress shows that once people adapt to greater efficiency in any practice or process, reductions in efficiency, whatever the rationale, feel intolerable. The public is rarely willing to suffer delays and nuisances once it has been relieved of them. In a culture programmed for ease, speed, and diversion, friction is the hardest of all sells.
The distinguished technology historian Thomas Hughes, having spent decades studying electric utilities, manufacturing plants, and transportation and communication networks, argued that complex technological systems are difficult if not impossible to change once they become established. In a system’s early, formative days, the public has an opportunity to influence how it’s designed, run, and regulated. But as it becomes entwined in society’s workings and people’s lives — as the technology gains “momentum,” in Hughes’s formulation — it resists alteration. Changing the system in any far-reaching way causes too many disruptions for too many people. Society shapes itself to the system rather than the other way around.
In the 1990s, when the internet was just beginning its transition from an academic to a commercial network, we could have passed laws and imposed regulations that would have shaped the course of its development and, years later, influenced how social media works.
We could have updated the secrecy-of-correspondence doctrine for a new era of online communication. We could have applied the public-interest standard to internet companies. We could have made the companies legally responsible for the information they transmit. We could have drawn technological and regulatory distinctions between private and public communication. But none of that happened. It was hardly even talked about. The public’s enthusiasm for the web and its apparent democratizing power, an enthusiasm that swept through Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court, was too strong. Our faith in the benefits of ever more efficient communication overrode any concerns about risks or unintended consequences. Now, it’s too late to rethink the system. It has burrowed its way too deeply into society and the social mind.
But maybe it’s not too late to change ourselves.
Copyright (c) 2025 by Nicholas Carr. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
Imani Perry’s lyrical new book weaves memoir, history to consider central place of a color in Black America
Nikki Rojas
Harvard Staff Writer
7 min read
Imani Perry often slept in her grandmother’s bedroom as a child. The walls were grayish, a tile missing in the ceiling, which had been dropped to save on heat. Through that gap, she could see the room’s original color, a bright blue “like the sky in August.”
In her latest book, “Black in Blues,” the National Book Award-winning author reimagines the gap as a “portal” to consider the significance of the vibrant color within Black history and culture. Perry weaves memoir and history to consider shades of blue from Africa, across the Atlantic, and to the Americas through the eyes of the Black diaspora.
The Gazette spoke with Perry, the Henry A. Morss Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies, and Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, about her new book, the first since her 2022 bestseller “South to America.” This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What was the writing process like for “Black in Blues”?
I was really inspired by African American artist Romare Bearden. There’s this article where music critic and novelist Albert Murray describes Romare Bearden’s process of making collages. You look at the painting, and you see an image of something, but each of the pieces he’s cut out are in and of themselves art pieces.
Trying to put them all together to make a picture in a way that coheres or that makes sense was, for Bearden, the way that the aesthetics of [classical jazz] made their way into his visual work. For me, that’s how both make their way into my written work. Trying to get that compositional piece that I am so inspired by both visual arts and music.
The book reads as both a memoir and a lesson in Black history and culture. Why was it so important for you to weave in your personal experiences and connections to the color blue into this project?
Much of what I was sensing my way toward — and I mean sensing on not just an emotional level, but an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual level — was rooted in experiences and encounters with blue. So, that piece was important.
The relationship I felt to blue that came about as a result of sleeping in my grandmother’s bedroom was important. In some ways, I treat this missing tile and her ceiling as the portal that becomes this pathway for me to think about — not just why it produced this feeling and why I was seeing all these things, but then figuring out how to tell a story about that.
Your book underscores the fact that blue is often written about and explored by Black writers, scholars, and artists. Why do you think that is?
On one level, it’s because of the universality of blue. That is to say, blue is cherished the world over, and you can find references to blue in every tradition.
There’s something, in particular, that takes shape in Black life that is a result of the reality of the transatlantic slave trade and our relationship to ports. These were places that were nurturing and of worship and reflection that become places of devastation. That is part of why I say that Black life is a water epic. That crossroad of the site of the disaster, but also these places where people continuously go to have kind of spiritual encounters.
I try to make clear at the beginning of the book this idea of Black people as relatively new in human history. People were all these other things. It is a concept that comes about through empire and the disasters of empire, but people make something meaningful of it.
That also has to do with the color blue. I think that’s why the music became known as blues music. Blue is contrapuntal. It’s both a color of sorrow and joy. It’s the color of the water as terror, but also as possibility.
“Blue is contrapuntal. It’s both a color of sorrow and joy. It’s the color of the water as terror, but also as possibility.”
Early on in “Black in Blues” you write: “Black was a hard-earned love. But through it all, the blue blues — the certainly of the brilliant sky, deep water, and melancholy — have never left us … the blue in Black is nothing less than truth before trope. Everybody loves blue. It is human as can be. But everybody doesn’t love Black — many have hated it — and that is inhumane.” Can you delve into that powerful passage?
At the core I want to make clear that there’s this color that captivates people because it’s a universal human experience. We see the waters, and we see the sky. And it does this work upon us.
Then you have this categorization of human beings that’s meant as degradation and insult. But because we are human, we make something meaningful — even out of that condition — and create culture and art. All of these things are at once an insistence upon the fullness of the humanity of Black people and also an engagement with this universally captivating color.
You later discuss the revival of the blues and the renaissance of writing by Black women in the 1970s and 1980s. Why do you feel like this was such a distinct period for the color, sound, and artistry of blue?
In a sense, the mainstream Civil Rights Movement is an olive branch. It’s an insistence upon rights, but it’s also an olive branch to the larger society, from Black Americans, that is met with some legal gains, but also in many instances, with hostility, whether it’s white flight or the backlash against civil rights. Then there’s a moment of turning inward in Black communities. There’s this extraordinary bubbling up of artistic production.
For Black women, this also becomes particularly important, because we had the women’s movement, the beginnings of the gay rights movement, as well as Black Power. All these movements are people who have been on the margins, finding voice and space.
In this combination of the power of the freedom, you get this beautiful outpouring of creative production and access to mainstream publishing houses for the first time. For me, that work was being made literally as I was coming of age. I was born in 1972 and all of that work of the ’70s was all around me. It was an inheritance that I feel very passionate about.
What are you hoping readers take away from this latest project?
I always think of my books as artifacts, and I hope people find them interesting and pleasurable, or at least moving. But more than anything, I think of them as offerings that are companion pieces to living and to other work. I hope my readers will read a passage and then they’ll go out in the world, and something will resonate in the way that they encounter blue, and it will spur ideas, or become somehow nurturing, healing, or inspiring.
With all of my books — and my work in the classroom — I’m always both standing in a tradition and in a conversation. I’m always sort of trying to emphasize these threads of connection with other people, present and past and future. I want to make an invitation to the people who read the book to be in conversation with me.
During a speech in Oxfordshire, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves unveiled her strategy to unleash the potential of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor by catalysing the growth of UK science and technology. The plan recognises the University of Cambridge as the world’s leading science and technological cluster by intensity, and its potential to rapidly build on the £30 billion contribution it already makes to the UK economy.
As part of the announcement, the Chancellor welcomed Cambridge’s proposal for a new large-scale innovation hub in the city centre:
“I am delighted that Cambridge University has come forward with plans for a new flagship innovation hub at the centre of Cambridge – to attract global investment and foster a community that catalyses innovation. As other cities around the world like Boston and Paris have done.”
Modelled on The Engine in Boston and Station F in Paris, the hub will be a hothouse to rapidly transform the best research ideas from across the UK into the companies of tomorrow.
Significant investment will also be made in transport and infrastructure across Cambridge and the wider Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, as well as in securing water supplies and delivering new homes and associated community spaces such as schools, leisure facilities, and office and laboratory space.
Commenting on the speech and the importance of Cambridge as a partner in delivering UK growth, University Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice said:
“It is great to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer recognising how Cambridge can help drive transformational growth for the UK. We welcome the Government's commitment to the vital infrastructure that will support sustainable growth across the region, and we are delighted to partner with the Government to establish a national innovation hub in the heart of this city. The hub will bring together brilliant tech and life sciences companies, entrepreneurs and investors in one location to deliver innovation at scale.”
The announcement follows an open letter to the Government from the University and Cambridge businesses at the start of the year that sets out the case for renewed support for a region with a proven track record and which stands ready to deliver economic growth.
Cambridge is at the heart of Government plans announced on 29 January to go ‘further and faster’ to kick start economic growth in the UK.
Every second woman and every eighth man suffer from urinary tract infections. These are painful and can recur with serious health consequences. Pioneer Fellow Giorgia Greter has a solution.
A home robot trained to perform household tasks in a factory may fail to effectively scrub the sink or take out the trash when deployed in a user’s kitchen, since this new environment differs from its training space.
To avoid this, engineers often try to match the simulated training environment as closely as possible with the real world where the agent will be deployed.
However, researchers from MIT and elsewhere have now found that, despite this conventional wisdom, sometimes training in a completely different environment yields a better-performing artificial intelligence agent.
Their results indicate that, in some situations, training a simulated AI agent in a world with less uncertainty, or “noise,” enabled it to perform better than a competing AI agent trained in the same, noisy world they used to test both agents.
The researchers call this unexpected phenomenon the indoor training effect.
“If we learn to play tennis in an indoor environment where there is no noise, we might be able to more easily master different shots. Then, if we move to a noisier environment, like a windy tennis court, we could have a higher probability of playing tennis well than if we started learning in the windy environment,” explains Serena Bono, a research assistant in the MIT Media Lab and lead author of a paper on the indoor training effect.
The researchers studied this phenomenon by training AI agents to play Atari games, which they modified by adding some unpredictability. They were surprised to find that the indoor training effect consistently occurred across Atari games and game variations.
They hope these results fuel additional research toward developing better training methods for AI agents.
“This is an entirely new axis to think about. Rather than trying to match the training and testing environments, we may be able to construct simulated environments where an AI agent learns even better,” adds co-author Spandan Madan, a graduate student at Harvard University.
Bono and Madan are joined on the paper by Ishaan Grover, an MIT graduate student; Mao Yasueda, a graduate student at Yale University; Cynthia Breazeal, professor of media arts and sciences and leader of the Personal Robotics Group in the MIT Media Lab; Hanspeter Pfister, the An Wang Professor of Computer Science at Harvard; and Gabriel Kreiman, a professor at Harvard Medical School. The research will be presented at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Conference.
Training troubles
The researchers set out to explore why reinforcement learning agents tend to have such dismal performance when tested on environments that differ from their training space.
Reinforcement learning is a trial-and-error method in which the agent explores a training space and learns to take actions that maximize its reward.
The team developed a technique to explicitly add a certain amount of noise to one element of the reinforcement learning problem called the transition function. The transition function defines the probability an agent will move from one state to another, based on the action it chooses.
If the agent is playing Pac-Man, a transition function might define the probability that ghosts on the game board will move up, down, left, or right. In standard reinforcement learning, the AI would be trained and tested using the same transition function.
The researchers added noise to the transition function with this conventional approach and, as expected, it hurt the agent’s Pac-Man performance.
But when the researchers trained the agent with a noise-free Pac-Man game, then tested it in an environment where they injected noise into the transition function, it performed better than an agent trained on the noisy game.
“The rule of thumb is that you should try to capture the deployment condition’s transition function as well as you can during training to get the most bang for your buck. We really tested this insight to death because we couldn’t believe it ourselves,” Madan says.
Injecting varying amounts of noise into the transition function let the researchers test many environments, but it didn’t create realistic games. The more noise they injected into Pac-Man, the more likely ghosts would randomly teleport to different squares.
To see if the indoor training effect occurred in normal Pac-Man games, they adjusted underlying probabilities so ghosts moved normally but were more likely to move up and down, rather than left and right. AI agents trained in noise-free environments still performed better in these realistic games.
“It was not only due to the way we added noise to create ad hoc environments. This seems to be a property of the reinforcement learning problem. And that was even more surprising to see,” Bono says.
Exploration explanations
When the researchers dug deeper in search of an explanation, they saw some correlations in how the AI agents explore the training space.
When both AI agents explore mostly the same areas, the agent trained in the non-noisy environment performs better, perhaps because it is easier for the agent to learn the rules of the game without the interference of noise.
If their exploration patterns are different, then the agent trained in the noisy environment tends to perform better. This might occur because the agent needs to understand patterns it can’t learn in the noise-free environment.
“If I only learn to play tennis with my forehand in the non-noisy environment, but then in the noisy one I have to also play with my backhand, I won’t play as well in the non-noisy environment,” Bono explains.
In the future, the researchers hope to explore how the indoor training effect might occur in more complex reinforcement learning environments, or with other techniques like computer vision and natural language processing. They also want to build training environments designed to leverage the indoor training effect, which could help AI agents perform better in uncertain environments.
Gambling problems are mushrooming. Panel says we need to act now.
With recent leap in legalized sports betting and online options, public health experts outline therapeutic, legislative strategies
Clea Simon
Harvard Correspondent
5 min read
Problems with gambling issues have surged over the past half-dozen years with the rise of legalized sports betting and 24-hour online casino games. It’s gotten to the point where some researchers say something needs to be done now — and there are remedies.
That was the conclusion of a panel of public health and gambling experts gathered at a Zoom panel moderated by WBZ-TV journalist Laura Haefeli and hosted by the Studio at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Betting on the election, stocks, and more has become common, said Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA Problem Gambling Studies Program. Although gambling has been “part of human behavior for hundreds of thousands of years,” said Fong, this new surge “is not only endemic … it has changed the fabric of our bodies and our minds.”
A confluence of the gambling, technology, and financial industries has made this possible, added Shekhar Saxena, a Chan School adjunct professor of global mental health. “Tech makes sure the experience is seamless; the gambling industry make it tantalizing; and the financial industry makes it possible to put your money in with just a click or a tap,” he said. The combination “makes it more dangerous.”
Currently sports betting in casinos or racetracks is legal in 38 states and Washington, D.C., and at least 27 of those allow wagers online. Experts date the proliferation to a 2018 Supreme Court decision that struck down a federal law banning legalized sports betting in most states.
In addition, seven states allow online casino games and one other, Nevada, permits poker.
2.5 millionAmericans have severe gambling problems, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling
The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that about 2.5 million adults in the U.S. have severe problems and another 5 to 8 million have significant issues. And the dilemma may be getting worse, as gambling addiction hotlines have noted a rise in calls, and the age of callers is skewing younger.
Industries, particularly sports betting, are targeting young people, said Lia Nower, director of the Center for Gambling Studies and co-director of the Addiction Counselor Training Certificate Program at the Rutgers University School of Social Work.
“The groups most at risk are emerging adults and adolescents,” she said. Citing an upcoming study, the school’s associate dean for research noted how various workarounds, such as framing gambling as “sweepstakes,” help the industry evade age restrictions to lure new and younger gamblers.
Other well-known risk factors include low education and low economic status, said Victor Ortiz, director of the Massachusetts Office of Problem Gambling Services. That, however, is changing. Increasingly, he explained, “What we are seeing is that people with higher economic status and higher education are now at risk. We’re getting calls from people in significant distress who are not our typical callers.”
The problem, said the experts, is exacerbated by the constant availability of online gaming. Nower summoned an image of people “lying in bed [gambling] while their partners are asleep.”
“Online gambling is a public health issue and requires a public health strategy,” Ortiz said.
For starters, Fong said, recasting problems as a “gambling disorder” is a necessary step toward addressing it. Making clear that it is a mental health disorder with biological, psychological, and social components, he continued, helps alleviate the shame often attached to those unable to control their gambling.
This also helps the public understand that, as with other such disorders, medication and psychotherapy can help and can reconnect the sufferer with their family and community. “When you come into treatment,” he said, “you are going to do a lot better.”
“We need a federal presence like we have for cigarettes, alcohol, and other forms of addiction.”
Lia Nower, Center for Gambling Studies, Rutgers University School of Social Work
Enacting legislation to address the problem is the next step, experts agree.
“We need a federal presence like we have for cigarettes, alcohol, and other forms of addiction,” said Nower. Specifically, she noted the need for legislation that mandates online apps have an “opt out” system for various controls.
Right now users must specifically request to opt in to access controls that will automatically limit factors such as how much time they spend in the app and how much money they can spend. That setting should be the default, she said.
The recent surge in online gambling has left researchers, public health officials, and legislators playing catch-up.
“We don’t have advocacy groups and, unlike with substances, no one is tracking gambling-related health problems, gambling-related suicides, so we don’t have the public health data like we had with alcohol, like we had with cigarettes,” noted Nower. “And there’s a lot of shame, so families aren’t coming forward.”
“Responsible gambling is something that companies love to talk about,” added Saxena. “That puts the responsibility on the individual.”
This is especially problematic because of the shame surrounding gambling disorder, he explained. Framing the issue as one of public health instead of one of self-control involves “talking about the environment, the kind of incentives that are there.”
“Yes, people have some responsibility, but it’s the environment — the tech environment, the social environment, and the economic environment in which people live — that is important,” he stressed.
The Pedagogical Repository for Italian Media Activities, or PRIMA, helps students and faculty explore Italian language and culture by using voices and imagery that better represent the culture.
Researchers who studied healthcare in dozens of facilities link accreditation to better collaboration and treatment and fewer deaths
Christina Pazzanese
Harvard Staff Writer
6 min read
A 1976 Supreme Court decision said that while the Constitution requires that incarcerated people receive healthcare, the quality of the care doesn’t need to be top-notch, only “reasonably adequate.”
Too often, it’s not adequate, according to Marcella Alsan and Crystal Yang, who study healthcare in U.S. correctional facilities.
In a first-of-its-kind study, the researchers found that jails that undergo accreditation, like most hospitals, saw a marked improvement in healthcare delivery and standards, a substantial decrease in deaths, and millions in cost savings.
To identify accreditation’s potential effects, the researchers conducted a randomized trial of 44 jails over a four-year period. Half (described as treatment facilities) were given generous subsidies toward accreditation costs, while the other half (control facilities) were offered a more modest subsidy at the end of the study. Jails hold people awaiting adjudication on a short-term basis and are usually run by local law enforcement. The population experiences higher-than-normal rates of hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections and faces a range of mental health challenges.
In this edited conversation with the Gazette, Alsan, Angelopoulos Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and Yang, Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, discuss their findings.
What prompted this study and how would you characterize the quality of healthcare provided to people in jail?
ALSAN: We had been looking at the intersection of health and corrections and we realized that there were some key differences between the healthcare you and I might receive as civilians and the healthcare people who are incarcerated receive. People who are incarcerated have a constitutional right to healthcare; they’re the only group that does. Over 90 percent of hospitals are accredited, but there’s nothing like that for corrections.
YANG: The quality of healthcare is generally quite low and varies to a great degree. Our study focused on county jails; you might see more uniformity and a little more oversight at state prisons or federal prisons. In July, President Biden signed a Federal Prison Oversight Act that sets up an inspector general to perform independent audits of all federal Bureau of Prisons facilities. That type of framework doesn’t exist for our nation’s 3,000-plus county jails. It’s estimated that only about 17 percent of all correctional facilities have voluntarily sought accreditation.
There are unique problems specific to the correctional setting. One is that there are major staffing retention and recruitment concerns. That means there might be difficulties with getting high-quality personnel and with training. That’s where accreditation might help, because there are standards that govern personnel and training.
Crystal Yang.
Courtesy photo
What are some of the study’s most significant findings?
YANG: Collaboration between custody staff and medical staff is crucial to the delivery of healthcare in correctional facilities. We administered confidential staff surveys at the beginning of the study, as well as the end. One of the things that significantly improves is collaboration and coordination between medical and custody staff. That suggests accreditation is helping people work together better.
There were two major categories of quality standards where we saw increased compliance at treatment facilities versus control facilities. One is personnel and training. We also see substantial improvements in patient care and treatment — improvements in timeliness of early stage screenings for everyone who’s admitted. If county jails are analogous to an ER, it’s really important to get individuals in front of a qualified healthcare professional immediately after admission to figure out the best course of treatment.
Maybe the biggest finding is a 90 percent reduction in mortality in the treatment versus control facilities. That comes out to an estimate of almost 20 lives saved during the study. That’s huge, and makes accreditation also highly cost-effective. We also find suggestive reductions in six-month recidivism among individuals booked into the treatment facilities. This points to potential improvements in community safety. If you do a rough cost-benefit analysis, the net benefit of accreditation can be upward of $60 million in terms of saved lives and suggestive reductions in recidivism per jail per year.
Marcella Alsan.
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
Why does accreditation appear to have a positive effect?
ALSAN: What we learned from this experience is that there are very few instances where people are intending to produce harm. Oftentimes people don’t have the information they need as to how they should be conducting their training procedures, delivering their healthcare services. Sheriffs will say they did not volunteer to be the mental health providers for the U.S. But because of the upsurge in mental health challenges — the opioid epidemic and so on — they have become the default mental health care providers. So, there’s obviously a role for decarceration and improving mental health in the community.
But there’s also a role for providing support to sheriffs. The accreditation process is like a game plan: This is what you should be doing; this is what good care looks like. And this is how you translate those inputs into outputs. We subsidized the accreditation process for these facilities. We didn’t think the subsidy would be that crucial for obtaining accreditation. It’s about $5,000 to $10,000 for these small and medium-sized jails, which is the majority of jails in the United States. But just that amount of money is quite challenging to reallocate and budget for. We’re talking about county budgets, which are not always very fungible. So, this subsidy was really a facilitator for them becoming accredited.
What should policymakers and law enforcement learn from this research?
YANG: The main takeaway is that obtaining accreditation from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care is highly cost effective. It saves lives and might also have benefits for community safety given that we find suggestive reductions in recidivism. These findings might be important for a sheriff or local county official who hasn’t heard about accreditation but wants to minimize deaths, which will, in turn, minimize their litigation and liability risk, something sheriffs care a lot about. Sheriffs also care about community safety, and so, if recidivism is lower as a result of obtaining accreditation, that can be another attractive benefit.
ALSAN: Coming from a public policy standpoint, the federal government can affect the budget constraints of the states. It can provide subsidies; it can provide incentives for jails to take certain actions. Staffing is an issue — some jails don’t even have the staff to fill out the forms to get accredited.
So many systems have failed the people who find themselves arrested and in jail. Many of the men arrested have never seen a dentist. And so, there’s a level of frustration. Ninety to 95 percent of these people are going back into their communities. Why are we not using this as an opportunity for rehabilitation, for treatment, for screening? And that’s not even in our cost-benefit estimate; we’re just talking about the value of a statistical life. We’re not even including the potential prevention of community-based spread of different types of habits, different types of diseases, or just of despair. These are human beings. Not only that, they’re your neighbors.
The Riney Canine Health Center embodies a complete approach to canine health, combining innovative research with community engagement and education. The Bark in the Park serves as the most recent example of how the center is connecting researchers, veterinarians and dog enthusiasts to ensure that every advancement in canine health contributes meaningfully to the lives of dogs.
Differences in neuronal activation in mice with intact immune cells called regulatory T cells or Tregs (left) and depleted Tregs (right). The finding demonstrates that Tregs play a role in ensuring healthy neuronal activity under normal conditions.
Credit: Mathis/Benoist Lab
Ekaterina Pesheva
HMS Communications
6 min read
HMS research IDs special class of cells that safeguard immunity and memory, and may one day treat neurodegenerative disease
Immune cells called regulatory T cells have long been known for their role in countering inflammation. In the setting of infection, these so-called Tregs keep the immune system from going into overdrive and mistakenly attacking the body’s own organs.
Now scientists at Harvard Medical School have discovered a distinct population of Tregs dwelling in the protective layers of the brains of healthy mice, and their repertoire is much broader than inflammation control.
The research, published Tuesday in Science Immunology, shows that these specialized Tregs not only control access to the inner regions of the brain but also ensure the proper renewal of nerve cells in an area of the brain where short-term memories are formed and stored.
The research, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, represents an important step toward untangling the complex interplay of immune cells in the brain. If replicated in further animal studies and confirmed in humans, the research could open up new avenues for averting or mitigating disease-fueling inflammation in the brain.
“We found a thus-far-uncharacterized, unique compartment of regulatory T cells residing in the meninges surrounding the brain and involved in an array of protective functions, acting as gatekeepers for other immune cells and involved in nerve cell regeneration,” said study senior author Diane Mathis, the Morton Grove-Rasmussen Professor of Immunohematology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS.
The work adds to a growing body of research showing that Tregs go above and beyond their traditional immune-regulatory duties and act as tissue-specific guardians of health, the researchers said. Earlier work led by Mathis showed that Tregs in the muscles get activated during intense physical activity to fend off exercise-induced inflammation and maintain muscle health.
“The Tregs that we found in the meninges are endowed with skills customized to fit the needs of this particular tissue,” said study lead author Miguel Marin-Rodero, a doctoral student in the immunology program at Harvard Medical School in the Benoist-Mathis lab. “These findings are consistent with other studies showing that Tregs turn on and off specific genes to match the identity and needs of the organ they reside in — they are really the best immune cells ever.”
Illustration of the three protective layers under the skull.
Hank Grebe, 2018/Getty Images
Tregs dwelling at the brain border act as gatekeepers
The meninges, three protective tissue layers under the skull, shield the brain and spinal cord from injury, toxins, and infection. This brain border hosts a diverse population of immune cells. Most of these cells are innate, and their roles and functions have been fairly well defined. But the brain border is also home to adaptive immune cells, many of which develop after birth, whose roles in brain immunity have remained somewhat elusive. The new study provides a detailed profile of Tregs — a type of adaptive immune cell — at the body-brain interface.
To understand the role of Tregs in this context, the researchers used a genetic technique to deplete them from the meninges of mice. The meninges of animals lacking Tregs produced higher than normal levels of an inflammatory chemical called interferon-gamma, causing widespread inflammation of the meninges. The removal of Tregs also opened the brain’s inner regions to interferon-producing, inflammation-fueling immune cells and activated immune cells that reside nearby but are normally kept at bay by Tregs. No longer restrained by Tregs, these immune cells infiltrated the brain and caused widespread inflammation and tissue damage. The resulting inflammation, the researchers said, was reminiscent of the damage and immune-cell activity seen in human and mouse brains with Alzheimer’s disease.
“These experiments demonstrate that Tregs in the meninges act as gatekeepers to guard the innermost regions of the brain,” Marin-Rodero said.
Absence of Tregs scars a memory-making region of the brain
Next, researchers examined the effect of depleting Tregs on various brain regions. Not all brain regions were affected equally. In the absence of Tregs, inflammatory cells clustered mostly in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in learning, memory formation and storage, and spatial navigation. The hippocampus is also one of few regions in rodent and human brains that continues to produce neurons into adulthood, so an assault on this area could have repercussions for memory formation.
Neural stem cells in the hippocampus underwent the most dramatic changes as a result of Treg depletion. These cells are critical because they are capable of becoming many other specialized brain cells. But in the absence of Tregs, their ability to differentiate into other cells was critically hampered. Their activity slowed down or altogether ceased, and they started to die off.
Treg depletion appeared to leave a “scar” in the hippocampus, leading to a persistent functional defect in short-term memory formation, the researchers said. Treg-deficient animals developed problems with short-term memory that persisted even months after their Tregs were restored to normal.
But how exactly do Tregs keep other cells in check?
In a final set of experiments, the researchers found that in the brains of healthy mice, Tregs keep inflammation-driving immune cells under control by competing for a shared resource — a growth factor called IL-2. When Tregs were removed, other immune cells were able to gobble up this cellular fuel, multiply quickly, and produce inflammatory proteins.
A pathway to understand and treat neurodegenerative diseases
Inflammation has been long implicated in multiple neurodegenerative diseases, so the question that comes next, Mathis said, is: Do Tregs in human brains play a role in curbing the inflammation that drives these degenerative processes?
Mathis’ team is currently studying this very question using a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Simultaneously, they are also working with colleagues in the neuropathology and neurosurgery departments at Massachusetts General Hospital to investigate this process in human brains with Alzheimer’s.
In recent years, Treg-based therapies have generated excitement about the possibility of using these cells in an organ-specific or tissue-specific manner to treat immune-mediated diseases. These efforts include lab-modified Tregs (CAR-Tregs and T-cell receptor Tregs) as well as the design of therapeutic molecules that could alter Treg function in a precise and site-specific manner.
“Understanding exactly how Tregs perform their protective duties could one day help us design treatments that boost their activity to modulate a wide range of disease processes,” Mathis said.
Additional authors included Elisa Cintado, Alec J. Walker, Teshika Jayewickreme, Felipe A. Pinho-Ribeiro, Quentin Richardson, Ruaidhrí Jackson, Isaac M. Chiu, Christophe Benoist, Beth Stevens, and José Luís Trejo.
The research described in this story was supported by the JPB Foundation, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, National Institutes of Health, NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. Additional support was provided through HHMI and the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund and by a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness).
NUS will be setting up Acacia College in University Town – its fifth Residential College (RC) on campus and the first new RC to be established in a decade since the last RC was launched in 2015. The new RC will open its doors in August 2025 with an inaugural cohort of 100 students, scaling up to accommodate 600 students by August 2026.
Building upon the successful curricular design and pedagogical approaches of the four existing RCs and offering the University Town College Programme, Acacia College will be the first RC in NUS to study the theme – “Fundamentals of Artificial and Human Intelligences” – where students from different degree programmes come together and read interdisciplinary courses delivered through immersive small-group sessions at the college.
With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming integral in our daily lives and its pervasive influence reshaping our interactions with the world, there is a pressing need to equip students to thrive in this new hyper-technological era. As society grapples with the ethical, social and cultural implications of AI, students will explore the relationship between AI and all facets of life and work, while acquiring practical skills and know-how in Generative AI, AI programming and Machine Learning.
The expansion of NUS’ stable of RCs is aligned with NUSOne, the latest effort by the University to encourage and imbue greater self-directed growth through the vibrancy of student life, living on campus, and out-of-classroom experiences. It also marks another step towards NUS’ goal of providing every undergraduate the opportunity to experience on-campus living and learning for a year, especially during the freshman year.
LIKES curriculum for AI
Students who gain admission to Acacia College will embark on a two-year residency programme, gaining access to exclusive interdisciplinary courses. In their first year of residency, they will explore the concept of “AI versus humans” through Junior Seminars, learning about the tensions and conflicts between AI and humans, stemming from the fundamental similarities and differences between them. This will provide students with foundational knowledge to engage with advanced topics in AI in their Senior Seminars.
Building on this, the second year of residency will allow students to deep dive, through Senior Seminars, into cross-disciplinary topics on how “AI and humans” can co-exist across the diverse facets of life in the following areas:
AI and Living Explores how AI can be integrated into our everyday lives – whether in daily routines or leisure activities – from the creative arts to competitive athletics and even companionship.
AI and Innovation Analyses how AI is utilised across different industries and its unique role in revolutionising innovative breakthroughs, elucidating the triggers, catalysts, and other essential factors.
AI and Knowhow Imparts technical knowledge and knowhow, problem-solving skills and other practical skillsets to work confidently using Generative AI (text, image, video), AI programming and Machine Learning.
AI and Exploration Examines historical precedents and patterns of technological innovation, both past and present, to uncover unexplored territories within AI across the social, economic and cultural contexts.
AI and Susceptibility Delves into the legal and ethical considerations, such as controversies and dilemmas surrounding the usage, governance and exploitation of AI, to better understand the complexity and intricacies underlying policies within and across different countries.
Students at Acacia College will also get to lead and organise their own initiatives such as hackathons and symposia as well as benefit from opportunities for industry engagement, global exposure and pastoral care as part of the experiential educational journey of an RC.
Acacia College will be located on the premises currently occupied by NUS College (Cinnamon Wing). NUS College students will be moving into the residential buildings on the Yale-NUS College campus later this year.
Fostering interests with action and imagination
Associate Professor Heng Cheng Suang from the Department of Information Systems and Analytics at NUS School of Computing, who has served as the Master-Designate of Acacia College since 1 November 2024, will assume the role of Master from 1 July 2025. He is an Associate Professor with tenure at the Department of Information Systems and Analytics at NUS Computing, where his primary research focuses on how organisations strategise their use of technology.
Dr Heng is now ex officio after four years as Chair of NUS Teaching Academy, a unit under the NUS Office of the Provost that serves as a think tank for educational matters for the University. He also serves on the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) Steering Committee, Faculty Teaching Excellence Committee, Department Deputy Head (Research & Admin), Department Teaching Mentorship Chair, and Department Ethics Review Committee.
He has been appointed to the Editorial Review Board of academic journals MIS Quarterly and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, having served as the Track Chair and Associate Editor for the International Conference on Information Systems, European Conference on Information Systems, and Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems. In addition, he is a reviewer for top journals such as Information Systems Research and Research Policy.
The new RC will adopt the motto “Action. Imagination.”, with Dr Heng explaining: “Action turns dreams into reality, while imagination ignites the spark of possibility. We aspire to build a world where technology doesn't merely solve problems; it deepens understanding, fosters connections, and elevates the human spirit.”
“It is not the brilliance of technology alone that will lead us, but our shared humanity that will chart the course for true progress. By embracing both wisdom and empathy, I hope students of Acacia College will benefit greatly from their residential living experience and be bold in their endeavours, fuelled by curiosity, compassion, and care,” he added.
Fostering the next generation of AI talents
From Academic Year 2025/2026, NUS will also launch a new NUS AI Talent Scholarship awarded to 20 freshmen pursuing full-time undergraduate degree programmes in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Business Artificial Intelligence Systems, or Robotics and Machine Intelligence.
The NUS AI Talent Scholarship is open to Singapore citizens and offers a comprehensive package that includes full coverage of subsidised tuition fees, a living allowance for each academic year, as well as allowances for on-campus accommodation and travel grants for each semester.
In addition to financial support, scholarship recipients will benefit from development opportunities, such as mentorship by top AI researchers, entrepreneurship training opportunities in one of the start-up companies on an AI project through our flagship NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme in various locations, or gain overseas exposure and acquire global perspectives at a partner university through our Student Exchange Programme (SEP).
NUS AI Talent Scholars will also receive priority to enrol in the University Town College Programme. This includes access to Acacia College, a new Residential College set to open in August 2025 with a focus on AI. Acacia College will provide a unique living and learning environment, tailored to students with a passion for AI, to align their interests and fortify their strengths in this area.
Fifteen students from the University of Melbourne have been named as New Colombo Plan Scholars for 2025, marking a record number from the University to receive the scholarship since the program began in 2014.
The increase in physical activity was mainly seen in those doing semi-routine occupations such as bus driving or hairdressing, and routine occupations such as cleaning or waiting, or technical jobs. There was little change seen among people entering managerial or professional occupations.
People who work from home saw a decrease in levels of physical activity – though their sleep levels did not change when they started work.
Young adulthood – ages 16 to 30 years – is an important time in terms of health. Although we are typically at our peak physical health, it is also a time when many risk factors for long term diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer begin to develop.
Health guidelines recommend young adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep a night, engage in 150 minutes or more of moderate physical activity per week, and consume at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day.
Young adulthood is also the time when most people start work, which changes their daily routines and activities, resources such as time and money, and social and physical environments – all of which affect health behaviours and health in later life.
To quantify the impact that starting work has on health-related behaviours, a team led by researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge examined repeated data taken over time from more than 3,000 participants in the UK Household Longitudinal Study. All the participants were aged 16–30 years and started work for the first time between 2015 and 2023.
The results are published today in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Dr Eleanor Winpenny, who was based at the University of Cambridge when she carried out the work, but is now at Imperial College London, said: “We know about physical activity and sleep patterns among young people while they’re at school, but very little about what happens when they start work. Given the impact that work can have on our lives – and the lasting impacts this can have on our health – it’s important to try and understand what happens at this transition.”
The analysis showed that when people started work, their physical activity increased by an amount equivalent to around 28 min of moderate activity (such as cycling) per day on average – but then decreased each year after starting work by around 7 min per day.
The biggest increase was among males – up by an equivalent of around 45 min of moderate activity per day compared to an increase of around 16 min for females. People who did not have a university degree also showed a greater increase in physical activity compared to those with a university degree – equivalent to around a 42 min increase of moderate physical activity per day compared to 15 min per day.
Working from home, however, appeared to be associated with an initial decrease in physical activity, equivalent to around 32 min of moderate activity per day.
When young adults started work, the amount of time they slept per night dropped immediately by almost 10 minutes and remained stable at this level over time; however, people without a degree showed a continuing decrease of about 3 minutes of sleep per night each year after starting work, while those with a degree slowly increased back to their pre-work sleep levels.
There was little change in the amount of fruit and vegetables consumed after starting work.
Alena Oxenham, from the MRC Epidemiology Unit, said: “Beginning work can have a profound impact on our lifestyles and on behaviours that might make a difference to our health, if not immediately then later in life.
“Although we found that people tend to do more physical activity when they begin work, which is good news, these are averages, and some people – particularly those who work from home and, to a lesser degree, those with office-based jobs – may do less.
“If we want to stay healthy throughout our lives, we need to remember that keeping active is an important way of helping us achieve this goal. Those working at home might want to consider incorporating physical activity into their day, for example by going for a walk before or after work, or during a lunch break.”
Dr Winpenny added: “Workplaces provide an opportunity to create environments and cultures that support healthier diets, more physical activity and better sleep for young adults. This could result in healthier employees and fewer sick days in the immediate term, but also have long term benefits, helping prevent health issues in later life.”
The research was funded by the MRC and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
When young adults start working, the amount of daily physical activity they do increases sharply, only to fall away again over the next few years, while the amount of sleep they get falls slightly, according to new research led by scientists at the University of Cambridge.
If we want to stay healthy throughout our lives, we need to remember that keeping active is an important way of helping us achieve this goal
The MIT Press has announced that Direct to Open (D2O) will open access to over 80 new monographs and edited book collections in the spring and fall publishing seasons, after reaching its full funding goal for 2025.
“It has been one of the greatest privileges of my career to contribute to this program and demonstrate that our academic community can unite to publish high-quality open-access monographs at scale,” says Amy Harris, senior manager of library relations and sales at the MIT Press. “We are deeply grateful to all of the consortia that have partnered with us and to the hundreds of libraries that have invested in this program. Together, we are expanding the public knowledge commons in ways that benefit scholars, the academy, and readers around the world.”
Among the highlights from the MIT Press’s fourth D2O funding cycle is a new three-year, consortium-wide commitment from the Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC) and a renewed three-year commitment from the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA). These long-term collaborations will play a pivotal role in supporting the press’s open-access efforts for years to come.
“The Florida Virtual Campus is honored to participate in D2O in order to provide this collection of high-quality scholarship to more than 1.2 million students and faculty at the 28 state colleges and 12 state universities of Florida,” says Elijah Scott, executive director of library services for the Florida Virtual Campus. “The D2O program allows FLVC to make this research collection available to our member libraries while concurrently fostering the larger global aspiration of sustainable and equitable access to information.”
“The libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance are committed to supporting the creation of open-access content,” adds Kate McCready, program director for open publishing at the Big Ten Academic Alliance Library. “We're thrilled that our participation in D2O contributes to the opening of this collection, as well as championing the exploration of new models for opening scholarly monographs.”
In 2025, hundreds of libraries renewed their support thanks to the teams at consortia around the world, including the Council of Australasian University Librarians, the CBB Library Consortium, the California Digital Library, the Canadian Research Knowledge Network, CRL/NERL, the Greater Western Library Alliance, Jisc, Lyrasis, MOBIUS, PALCI, SCELC, and the Tri-College Library Consortium.
Launched in 2021, D2O is an innovative sustainable framework for open-access monographs that shifts publishing from a solely market-based, purchase model where individuals and libraries buy single e-books, to a collaborative, library-supported open-access model.
Many other models offer open-access opportunities on a title-by-title basis or within specific disciplines. D2O’s particular advantage is that it enables a press to provide open access to its entire list of scholarly books at scale, embargo-free, during each funding cycle. Thanks to D2O, all MIT Press monograph authors have the opportunity for their work to be published open access, with equal support to traditionally underserved and underfunded disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.
Melissa Smith PhD ’12 is an associate leader in the Advanced Materials and Microsystems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Her team, which is embedded within the laboratory’s Advanced Technology Division, drives innovation in fields including computation, aerospace, optical systems, and bioengineering by applying micro- and nanofabrication techniques. Smith, an inventor of 11 patents, strongly believes in the power of collaboration when it comes to her own work, the work of her Lincoln Laboratory colleagues, and the innovative research done by MIT professors and students.
Lincoln Laboratory researches and develops advanced technologies in support of national security. Research done at the laboratory is applied, meaning staff members are given a specific problem to solve by a deadline. Divisions within the laboratory are made up of technical experts, ranging from biologists to cybersecurity researchers, working on different projects simultaneously. Smith appreciates the broad application space of her group’s work, which feeds into programs across the laboratory. “We are like a kitchen drawer full of indispensable gadgets,” she says, some of which are used to develop picosatellites, smart textiles, or microrobots. Their position as a catch-all team makes their work fun, somewhat open-ended, and always interesting.
In 2012, Smith received her PhD from the MIT Department of Materials Science & Engineering (DMSE). After graduation, she remained at the Institute for nine months as a postdoc before beginning her career as an engineer at IBM. While at IBM, Smith maintained a research affiliation with MIT to continue to work on patents and write papers. In 2015, she formally returned to MIT as a technical staff member at Lincoln Laboratory. In 2020, she was promoted to the position of assistant group leader and was awarded the laboratory’s Best Invention Award for “Electrospray devices and methods for fabricating electrospray devices” (U.S. Patent 11,708,182 B2). In 2024, she was promoted to associate group leader.
Management is an important aspect of Smith’s role, and she credits the laboratory for cultivating people with both academic and technical backgrounds to learn how to effectively run programs and teams. Her demonstrated efficacy in the academic and corporate spaces — both of which contain deadlines and collaborative work — allows her to inspire her team to be innovative and efficient. She keeps her group running smoothly by removing potential roadblocks so they can adequately attend to their projects. Smith focuses on specific tasks that aid in her group’s success, including writing grant proposals, a skill she learned while working at the laboratory, which allows her staff to prioritize their technical work. That, she says, is the value of working as a team.
A true champion of teamwork, Smith advises new staff members to maintain an open mind because they can learn something from everyone they encounter, especially when first starting at the Institute. She notes that every colleague has something unique to offer, and taking time to understand the wealth of experience and knowledge around you will only help you succeed as a staff member at MIT. “Be who you are, do what you do, and run with it,” she says.
Soundbytes
Q: What project at MIT are you the proudest of?
Smith: We are building a wafer-scale satellite, which is a little bit out-there as an idea. It was thought up in the 1960s, but the technology wasn't to the point where it could be realized. Technology today is more than capable of making this small space microsystem. I was tasked with taking the idea further. Some people say that it is impossible, and for a lot of good reasons! Slowly addressing the technical issues to the point where people now say, “Oh, you could probably do this,” is exciting.
I never want to be someone who thinks something is impossible. I'll say, “I can't do it, but maybe somebody else can,” and I will also add, “Here is what I tried, here is all the data, and here is how I came to the point where I got stuck.” I like taking something that was initially met with disbelief and rendering it. Lincoln Laboratory is active with professors and students. I am collaborating with students from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics on the project, and we now have a patent on the technology that came from it. I am happy to have students assist, write papers, and occasionally get their names on patents. It is seeding additional innovation. We don't have the system quite yet, but I've converted a few skeptics!
Q: What are your favorite campus memories from when you were a student?
Smith: When I was a graduate student, I would go with friends to the Muddy Charles Pub in Walker Memorial. One of the things I really enjoy about Walker Memorial is the prime view over the Charles River, and I remember staring out of the windows at the top of Walker Memorial after exams. Also, during Independent Activities Period I learned how to snowboard. I'm from Illinois where there are no mountains. When I came to the East Coast and saw that there were a lot of mountains with people strapping metal to their feet in the snow, I thought, “OK, let's try it.” I love snowboarding to this day. MIT has this kind of unfettered freedom in a way that, even beyond the technical stuff, people can try things from a personal standpoint they maybe wouldn’t have tried somewhere else.
Q: What do you like the most about the culture at MIT?
Smith: We help people grow professionally. The staff here are above average in terms of capability in what they do. When I interviewed for my job, I asked where people work when they leave MIT. People move on to other labs like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or companies like Raytheon, they become professors, or they start their own companies. I make sure that people are learning what they want to do with their careers while they work at the laboratory. That is the cultural overlay that exists on campus. When I was a student, I interned at John Deere, 3M, Xerox, and IBM and saw how they are innovative in their own ways that define their corporate cultures. At MIT, you are supported to explore and play. At Lincoln Laboratory people are not pigeonholed into a particular role. If you have an idea, you are encouraged to explore it, as long as it aligns with the mission. There is a specific freedom you can experience at MIT that is above and beyond a typical academic environment.
Gerald E. Schneider, a professor emeritus of psychology and member of the MIT community for over 60 years, passed away on Dec. 11, 2024. He was 84.
Schneider was an authority on the relationships between brain structure and behavior, concentrating on neuronal development, regeneration or altered growth after brain injury, and the behavioral consequences of altered connections in the brain.
Using the Syrian golden hamster as his test subject of choice, Schneider made numerous contributions to the advancement of neuroscience. He laid out the concept of two visual systems — one for locating objects and one for the identification of objects — in a 1969 issue of Science, a milestone in the study of brain-behavior relationships. In 1973, he described a “pruning effect” in the optic tract axons of adult hamsters who had brain lesions early in life. In 2006, his lab reported a previously undiscovered nanobiomedical technology for tissue repair and restoration in Biological Sciences. The paper showed how a designed self-assembling peptide nanofiber scaffold could create a permissive environment for axons, not only to regenerate through the site of an acute injury in the optic tract of hamsters, but also to knit the brain tissue together.
His work shaped the research and thinking of numerous colleagues and trainees. Mriganka Sur, the Newton Professor of Neuroscience and former Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) department head, recalls how Schneider’s paper, “Is it really better to have your brain lesion early? A revision of the ‘Kennard Principle,’” published in 1979 in the journal Neuropsychologia, influenced his work on rewiring retinal projections to the auditory thalamus, which was used to derive principles of functional plasticity in the cortex.
“Jerry was an extremely innovative thinker. His hypothesis of two visual systems — for detailed spatial processing and for movement processing — based on his analysis of visual pathways in hamsters presaged and inspired later work on form and motion pathways in the primate brain,” Sur says. “His description of conservation of axonal arbor during development laid the foundation for later ideas about homeostatic mechanisms that co-regulate neuronal plasticity.”
Institute Professor Ann Graybiel was a colleague of Schneider’s for over five decades. She recalls early in her career being asked by Schneider to help make a map of the superior colliculus.
“I took it as an honor to be asked, and I worked very hard on this, with great excitement. It was my first such mapping, to be followed by much more in the future,” Graybiel recalls. “Jerry was fascinated by animal behavior, and from early on he made many discoveries using hamsters as his main animals of choice. He found that they could play. He found that they could operate in ways that seemed very sophisticated. And, yes, he mapped out pathways in their brains.”
Schneider was raised in Wheaton, Illinois, and graduated from Wheaton College in 1962 with a degree in physics. He was recruited to MIT by Hans-Lukas Teuber, one of the founders of the Department of Psychology, which eventually became the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Walle Nauta, another founder of the department, taught Schneider neuroanatomy. The pair were deeply influential in shaping his interests in neuroscience and his research.
“He admired them both very much and was very attached to them,” his daughter, Nimisha Schneider, says. “He was an interdisciplinary scholar and he liked that aspect of neuroscience, and he was fascinated by the mysteries of the human brain.”
Shortly after completing his PhD in psychology in 1966, he was hired as an assistant professor in 1967. He was named an associate professor in 1970, received tenure in 1975, and was appointed a full professor in 1977.
After his retirement in 2017, Schneider remained involved with the Department of BCS. Professor Pawan Sinha brought Schneider to campus for what would be his last on-campus engagement, as part of the “SilverMinds Series,” an initiative in the Sinha Lab to engage with scientists now in their “silver years.”
Schneider’s research made an indelible impact on Sinha, beginning as a graduate student when he was inspired by Schneider’s work linking brain structure and function. His work on nerve regeneration, which merged fundamental science and real-world impact, served as a “North Star” that guided Sinha’s own work as he established his lab as a junior faculty member.
“Even through the sadness of his loss, I am grateful for the inspiring example he has left for us of a life that so seamlessly combined brilliance, kindness, modesty, and tenacity,” Sinha says. “He will be missed.”
Schneider’s life centered around his research and teaching, but he also had many other skills and hobbies. Early in his life, he enjoyed painting, and as he grew older he was drawn to poetry. He was also skilled in carpentry and making furniture. He built the original hamster cages for his lab himself, along with numerous pieces of home furniture and shelving. He enjoyed nature anywhere it could be found, from the bees in his backyard to hiking and visiting state and national parks.
He was a Type 1 diabetic, and at the time of his death, he was nearing the completion of a book on the effects of hypoglycemia on the brain, which his family hopes to have published in the future. He was also the author of “Brain Structure and Its Origins,” published in 2014 by MIT Press.
He is survived by his wife, Aiping; his children, Cybele, Aniket, and Nimisha; and step-daughter Anna. He was predeceased by a daughter, Brenna. He is also survived by eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. A memorial in his honor was held on Jan. 11 at Saint James Episcopal Church in Cambridge.
Need to boost population? Encourage dads to step up at home.
Christy DeSmith
Harvard Staff Writer
5 min read
New historical research by economist Claudia Goldin finds link between fertility rates, gender roles
Fertility rates have fallen everywhere outside of sub-Saharan Africa. And they have fallen faster, and dropped even further, in some developed nations than others.
In a new paper, Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics, explains this divergence with a data-tested model that shows gendered and generational conflicts arising with swift economic change. The 2023 Nobel laureate notes countries whose economies grew gradually over the 20th century — including the U.S. and Sweden — now average around 1.7 children born to each woman. However, latecomers to development like Japan, Korea, and Italy average far fewer children.
The study illustrates how women in transitioning modern economies can be especially disadvantaged by traditional gender roles. “Children take time, and that time isn’t easily contracted out or mechanized,” said Goldin in a presentation of the research to the European Central Bank’s Annual Research Conference last fall. “Therefore much of the change in fertility will depend on if men assume more work in the home as women are drawn into the market, particularly if the home has children.
“If they don’t,” she continued, “women will be forced to cut back on something.”
Claudia Goldin.
File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
Her analysis builds upon findings from a 2009 study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives titled “Will the Stork Return to Europe and Japan?” The paper — by economists James Feyrer, Bruce I. Sacerdote, Ph.D. ’97, and Ariel Dora Stern, Ph.D. ’14 — found birthrates are highest in countries with low-income levels and low female employment. But a surprising pattern was observed in wealthier countries.
“They note that women’s participation in the economy is actually greater in countries with higher fertility,” said Goldin, who is also the Lee and Ezpeleta Professor of Arts and Sciences.
Her paper compares fertility rates in two groups of six countries. The first set — comprised of Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S. — saw relatively continuous economic development over the 20th century even with the disruptions of the Great Depression and two world wars. All had reached a total fertility rate of around two children per woman by the 1970s. Not until the 2010s did rates fall below that figure.
The second group — Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Portugal, and Spain — developed quickly from the mid-1950s and ’60s after long periods of economic stagnation or decline. Each averaged three children or more per woman in 1970. But all six had dropped below two by the mid-1980s. Most had converged to around 1.3 by the mid-1990s, with Korea being the extreme case. Its total fertility rate for 2022 (the last year included in Goldin’s analysis) was 0.78 children per woman.
Demographers have dubbed the fertility rates of those nations the “lowest-low.”
Total fertility rates for two groups of nations, 1920 to 2022
Source: “Babies and the Macroeconomy”Source: “Babies and the Macroeconomy”
Goldin theorized that families in the second set of countries had been “catapulted” into the modern economy, with less time for adjusting gender norms. Korea, for example, saw incomes quadruple between the 1960s and ’80s, with 30 percent of the population moving from rural areas to urban areas (usually Seoul) over the same period.
“Rapid economic change often challenges strongly held beliefs,” she summarized. “And beliefs change more slowly than economies do.”
Her paper introduces a framework for understanding how such conflicts lead to lower fertility. It assumes that family traditions and beliefs inform a person’s fertility plans. But so do economic conditions observed in young adulthood. This all comes together as couples plan family size, with men putting more weight on factors inherited from previous generations and women acting as “agents of change” by emphasizing economic self-interest.
“It’s not that boys are more traditional than girls; it’s that boys have more to gain from the traditional home,” Goldin explained. “But girls suddenly see that their options have changed. They can get an education. They can go out and work.”
Goldin’s model demonstrates that greater macroeconomic growth from childhood to adulthood means greater generational conflict and wider gulfs between men’s and women’s preferred family size. It assumes that men who contribute more at home have more of an influence on family size. But women’s desires win out when caregiving and other household tasks fall primarily on them.
Goldin’s model demonstrates that greater macroeconomic growth from childhood to adulthood means greater generational conflict and wider gulfs between men’s and women’s preferred family size.
To test her ideas, Goldin started with 100 years of economic and geographic data from all 12 countries. Sure enough, the “lowest-low” nations saw meteoric growth in per-capita gross domestic product, combined with huge rural-to-urban migrations, beginning in the mid-20th century. Meanwhile, GDP charted a slow, steady incline in the first set of countries, with far fewer migrations to big cities.
Time-use surveys, assembled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, provided Goldin with evidence of gendered divisions of unpaid caregiving and household labor between 2009 and 2019. She uncovered a bigger gap between men and women in the “lowest-low” countries. Women, on average, devoted 3.1 more hours per day to household duties in Japan and three more hours per day in Italy. Compare that with the U.S., where women logged about 1.79 more daily hours on household duties, or Sweden, where the difference was just 0.8 hours.
“The bottom line is,” Goldin said, “countries that saw this very, very rapid increase in standards of living are probably at sub-optimal birthrates.”
The labor economist and economic historian ends by floating a novel solution. The U.S. baby boom, which peaked above 3.5 children per woman in the late 1950s, is the rare example of a wealthy country temporarily increasing its fertility rate. It was accomplished by “glorifying marriage, motherhood, the ‘good wife,’ and the home,” Goldin writes.
Societies that want to encourage more babies today, she suggests, should try venerating fatherhood.
How exactly does ketamine work? New research offers insight.
Marc Duque Ramírez in the lab.
Photos by Grace DuVal
Clea Simon
Harvard Correspondent
4 min read
Anesthetic growing in popularity as game-changing therapy for severe, treatment-resistant depression
The anesthetic ketamine has become increasingly popular as a treatment for people with severe depression that resists conventional therapies. A number of studies have documented the drug’s game-changing effects, but scientists have been unsure exactly how it works. Now, a tiny, translucent fish appears to provide important new insights.
Zebrafish, a member of the minnow family popular as a model for neuroscience research and in home aquariums, do not get depressed, exactly. However, when placed in a virtual environment that simulates the lack of forward movement, they do seem to “give up” — that is, they stop swimming.
Researchers have leveraged this behavior, which is reminiscent of persistent traits in human depression, as well as the tiny fish’s see-through body to observe how their tendency to give up changes when ketamine is introduced. In research published last month in the journal Neuron, scientists at Harvard and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus were able to trace the drug’s interaction with an unexpected neural partner.
Alex Chen (left) and Marc Duque Ramírez study the movements of zebrafish.
As in humans, ketamine makes zebrafish “more resilient to this kind of futility,” said Alex Chen, a Ph.D. student in the Engert Lab in Harvard’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Ahrens Lab at Janelia, who co-authored the paper.
Most research attention has focused on neurons, said Chen and co-lead author Marc Duque Ramírez, but their team found that supporting cells called astroglia were the ones in play with this fish “depression” and its treatment.
When the fish first perceive they aren’t moving, activity in the astroglia cells ramps up, and the zebrafish begin to swim harder. The astroglia eventually reach a threshold that signals the fish’s neurons to stop swimming. Ketamine, however, appears to overstimulate the astroglia, making them less sensitive. This overstimulation, which occurs through its stimulation of noradrenergic neurons that activate astrocytes (like astroglia), paradoxically calms the “giving up” response, so the fish continues to swim.
“That was definitely a surprise for us,” said Chen. “We knew these cells were involved in the behavior, and so we are wondering whether giving the fish ketamine would affect these cells after the drug is washed out. But we had no idea that the cells would react so strongly to the drug.”
“We expected it to have the opposite effect,” added Duque Ramírez, a Ph.D. student in the Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences who is also in the Engert Lab.
The first 10 seconds show the larval zebrafish at rest. When the pattern changes to one simulating being stuck in place, the ketamine-treated fish struggles at first, but does not give up as easily and is less passive than an untreated fish.
Credit: Duque, Chen, Hsu, et al.
Duque Ramírez explained that the drug alters calcium levels in the cells, blocking increases that usually lead to the “giving up” trigger. “The hypothesis we have is that by causing this hyperactivation of astroglia, it somehow readjusts the system to a new homeostatic set point where it takes a lot more calcium to induce giving up.”
While the study increases understanding of how ketamine works, the light it has shed on the role of astroglia is key.
“Astroglia cells have historically been thought to play more of a passive role in the brain,” said Chen. “More recently we have seen that these cells can act as active signaling partners to neurons. What seems to happen is that the astroglia cells respond to norepinephrine, which is a transmitter that is released in times of stress or high arousal. The effect in fish is that when these astrocytes are activated by norepinephrine, they suppress swimming, and the fish give up.”
But while the reaction sheds light on how ketamine works, the insight does not appear to apply to other drugs.
“We also tested a bunch of other antidepressants,” said Duque Ramírez. “With some of the psychedelic compounds, even though we saw the same effect behaviorally, they didn’t cause this increase in astroglia in calcium. We think that this could suggest that these other drugs are working on parallel pathways, that they might eventually converge into the same targets, but that this effect was very specific to ketamine.”
“Most of the work being done right now on ketamine and other fast-acting antidepressants has focused primarily on their effects on neurons,” said Chen. “It seems possible that by ignoring these other cell types in the brain, it’s been an obstacle in how the field understands how these drugs work.”
This research was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
A series of random questions answered by Harvard experts.
Teachers can have a lasting effect on our success later in life. We asked Heather Hill, the Hazen-Nicoli Professor in Teacher Learning and Practice at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, what skills a good teacher possesses.
Most scholars would say that a good teacher does three key things: They establish strong, caring teacher-student relationships; challenge students to think, reason, and communicate their ideas; and convey subject matter accurately and clearly.
Good teachers have strong knowledge of their students as individuals — how they think and think about themselves as learners — as well as of their students’ culture and community.
They not only understand the subject matter they teach; they understand it in ways that are particular to their work in a classroom. For instance, they know how to coordinate different definitions of fractions (as a part of a single whole object, as part of a set of objects, and as a point on number line) in ways that help their learners develop a robust understanding of the topic. In the fraction lesson, good teachers know to use Piaget’s theory of cognitive development — that the world becomes gradually more complex as students progress — and what mistakes students will make when solving one-half plus one-quarter.
It’s impossible (believe me, I’ve tried) to identify objectively “good decisions” in classrooms unless you have knowledge of almost everything about the content taught, the students, and the teacher.
Good teachers can solidly explain content to learners, lead whole-class discussions, and set up and manage small-group work. But perhaps one of the most important, but hardest to define, skills is teachers’ decision-making capability.
Knowing what to do or say next during the flow of instruction is never easy, partly because there’s no “one best way” to engage students, present content, or address a student mistake. In fact, what next instructional step works will vary by the teacher’s goals for a lesson, who the kids are, and how those kids are thinking about the content being taught. It’s impossible (believe me, I’ve tried) to identify objectively “good decisions” in classrooms unless you have knowledge of almost everything about the content taught, the students, and the teacher.
The best teachers check all of the above boxes. They can respond smoothly in the moment when students don’t understand material or get distracted. And students in these classrooms not only do better academically, they enjoy school and get excited about learning — in other words, they thrive.
In some places, teaching is very prescribed, which leaves educators unable to use good judgment. This is fine for novices, who need a lot of support, but probably not so fine for experienced teachers, to whom it can be demoralizing.
I often get asked whether good teachers are born or made. While there’s a fraction of educators who are just not a good fit for the job, it’s also true that teachers learn a ton in the first few years. All of this learning shows up quite clearly in student test score data — students of experienced teachers gain a lot more over the course of a year than students of inexperienced teachers.
Good (and bad) teachers also learn a lot from colleagues. Some of this learning can be less than optimal. I once watched one teacher tell another to use a “Tarzan” division worksheet from Pinterest and spent the rest of the day making a mental list of all the ways implementing that worksheet could go wrong. But a lot of teacher collaborative learning is really positive — it’s teachers with more expertise helping others solve all sorts of problems, with well-established benefits for student learning.
And some kinds of formal training can help OK teachers turn into good ones. For instance, in STEM teaching, it benefits student learning when teachers learn how to use curriculum materials. Coaching is relatively effective in helping teachers develop instructional skills, and there are some effective and relatively brief ways to help improve student-teacher relationships, like helping teachers develop empathy for their most challenging learners.
Non-white communities had significantly less access to opioid medications commonly prescribed for moderate to severe pain than white communities over the decade beginning in 2011, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.
A 43-unit development at 65 Seattle St. in Allston is one of two Harvard-enabled affordable housing projects to receive funding from the city of Boston.
Rendering provided by Urbanica Inc.
Amy Kamosa
Harvard Correspondent
4 min read
Nearly 100 units to be created in Allston
Celebrating the funding of more than $60 million to create and preserve affordable housing throughout Boston, Harvard Executive Vice President Meredith Weenick welcomed city leadership — including Mayor Michelle Wu’s chief of staff, Tiffany Chu, and chief of housing, Sheila Dillon — to the Harvard Ed Portal in Allston to announce awards for 12 projects.
“We know that the housing crisis is one of the biggest sources of stress for families in our city, and that’s why every action we need to take creates more housing production and ensures affordability,” Chu said. “The 12 projects receiving funding here today include affordable units for rent and purchase, affordable housing, senior housing, supportive housing, and will be built on both public and private land.”
“At a time when affordable housing need has never been greater, these awards are an important step forward,” said Weenick. “We’re proud to partner in this effort, and I want to recognize that it takes a village to support these types of projects. All of you have so many partners, including the city, and we’re lucky to have such terrific partners all across our neighborhood.”
“At a time when affordable housing need has never been greater, these awards are an important step forward.”
Meredith Weenick, Harvard executive vice president
Meredith Weenick.
Photos by Veasey Conway/Harvard Staff Photographer
Once complete, the funded projects will provide 637 units of income-restricted housing in the neighborhoods of Allston, Brighton, Chinatown, Dorchester, Fenway, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, and Roxbury.
The Harvard-enabled Allston projects included in this funding announcement are the creation of 43 affordable homeownership units on land donated by Harvard at 65 Seattle St. in Allston, and the transformation of the historic Hill Memorial Baptist Church on North Harvard St. into 49 affordable rental units for Boston seniors. Harvard contributed $4.8 million to fully fund site acquisition for the latter.
“As a longtime member of the Allston-Brighton community, Harvard has developed a complex housing strategy that adapts to the dynamic needs of city requirements and city residents,” Weenick said. “And we are excited to be involved in enabling two of the projects that will be announced today. These two projects represent nearly 100 units of affordable housing in Allston and they exemplify what we can activate through creativity, responsiveness, and partnership.”
Harvard’s efforts beyond the campus in Allston already have enabled more than 1,300 new housing units, approximately 25 percent of which are affordable. Harvard donated land at the former site of Brookline Machine at 90 Antwerp St., enabling the creation of 20 homeownership units, 12 of which are affordable. Through regulatory agreements associated with construction of the Enterprise Research Campus, Havard has committed $25 million over 12 years to support affordable housing creation in the neighborhood and will ensure that 20 percent of the residential units in the ERC are affordable.
Additionally, the Harvard-funded All Bright Homeownership Program supports homeownership stabilization in Allston-Brighton by enabling the Allston Brighton Community Development Corp. to purchase and resell homes with deed restrictions to ensure housing remains owner-occupied. On a regional scale, the long-standing Harvard Local Housing Collaborative has funded more than $20 million in low-interest revolving loans since its creation in 2000, helping create and preserve more than 7,000 units of affordable housing in Greater Boston.
According to Boston officials, all of the new construction projects funded in this round will be required to follow the Zero Emissions Building requirements outlined in the MOH Design Standards, and new developments will use electricity and on-site solar panels as the sole (or primary) fuel sources.
Expressing appreciation for the award recipients, Dillon remarked, “You responded to our request for proposals and our funding awards, because you seized an opportunity out there. You saw a great development idea. You put together quality applications. You agreed to make your developments carbon-neutral, and have made commitments to ensure that local businesses, local Boston businesses, are benefiting from this economic activity. Your housing developments will not only house our residents, but they’ll contribute to Boston’s climate goals and economic equity goals, so thank you for all that you have done through this funding round.”
“We’re delighted to celebrate this milestone with all of you. The announcement of these awards is not just financially significant, but is a testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in the effort to create and preserve housing throughout the city of Boston,” stated Weenick.
A book titled Sensory Anthropology: Culture and Experience in Asia by sociologist Associate Professor Kelvin Low was named an “Outstanding Academic Title” by the American Library Association (ALA) in “The Choice Outstanding Academic Titles list of 2024”.
This prestigious list reflects the best in scholarly titles, both print and digital, that were reviewed the year before by ALA’s publishing unit, Choice, and brings with it the extraordinary recognition of the academic library community. ALA noted that the list is quite selective, containing approximately ten per cent of some 5,000 works reviewed annually by Choice.
Published on 9 March 2023 by Cambridge University Press, the volume is a pioneering exploration of how different Asian cultures understand and value sensory experiences – such as sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and beyond – and reveal the ways in which these are deeply tied to cultural meanings and social practices. For instance, it looks at sensory rituals, the role of sensory experiences in religious practices, and how sensory engagement can shape identity and social interaction.
Assoc Prof Low, Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, focuses his research on sensory studies, migration and transnationalism, food and foodways, and social memory and heritage. His current research projects include human-non-human relations and sensory encounters in the city, as well as sensory craft in relation to ceramic artists and learners in Singapore.
On the accolade, Assoc Prof Low said, “I am humbled and privileged to receive this acknowledgement from the ALA. More importantly, it is gratifying to see that sensory scholarship continues to gain important traction and academic visibility, with a focus on Asian contexts and cultures”.
Researchers aim to use vibrations to stimulate bone growth. Now, a new study paves the way for developing new therapies that may one day benefit patients suffering from bone fractures and age-related bone loss.
Horseshoe crabs are often referred to as the “living fossils” of our planet — the four known species, including three in Asia and one in North America, remain nearly identical to their ancient relatives from hundreds of millions of years ago. These arthropods are a fundamental building block of coastal marine ecosystems. Their eggs, for example, serve as a major food source for shorebirds, some of which have evolved to time their migrations to coincide with peak horseshoe crab spawning activity. In addition to their ecological role, horseshoe crabs are also used in biomedicine to test for harmful toxins in vaccines.
Among the four species, only the Atlantic horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), found along the Atlantic coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico, has been extensively studied. In contrast, scientific information about the three Asian species is so scant and scattered that the IUCN Red List, which tracks the extinction risk of species around the world, listed two of them (the mangrove horseshoe crab and the coastal horseshoe crab) as “data deficient”. This designation indicates insufficient data to assess their extinction risk. On the other hand, the tri-spine horseshoe crab is considered endangered.
Understanding our planet’s living fossils
To help fill in these knowledge gaps, a research team led by Associate Professor Frank Rheindt from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science conducted the first comprehensive population genomic study of all three Asian horseshoe crab species: the mangrove horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda), coastal horseshoe crab (Tachypleus gigas), and tri-spine horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus).
The study underscores the importance of Southeast Asia’s Sunda Shelf, a shallow-marine region, as a critical coastal marine habitat. Importantly, this region has sustained the survival of these ancient arthropods for millennia and could continue to act as a refuge for Asian horseshoe crabs amid accelerating anthropogenic climate change.
The researchers have also established the first-ever genomic baseline dataset for these species, which lay the groundwork for targeted conservation planning. Their findings, which propose different conservation strategies for each species, were published in Conservation Letters on 16 December 2024.
Back to the basics: Filling data gaps to advance conservation efforts
“To protect and conserve these species, it is crucial that we first cover the basics — understanding their population structure, evolutionary histories and climate-change-driven vulnerabilities,” said Assoc Prof Rheindt. “This foundational knowledge will enable us to develop targeted conservation strategies and prioritise habitats critical for their survival.”
Tracking and monitoring Asian horseshoe crabs is in and of itself a challenging feat. They spend most of their lives on the seabed, making them difficult to observe, and they take 14 years to mature — too long to assess population changes effectively through traditional surveys. To overcome these challenges, the researchers turned to population genomic approaches, where they analysed DNA from 251 horseshoe crabs collected across 52 sites in 11 countries.
Using this data, NUS researchers created the first genomic baseline dataset for Asian horseshoe crabs. This dataset enabled the team to map population structures and delineate genetic boundaries among the three species. “Such distinctions are important, as they highlight populations that harbour unique genetic traits essential for adapting to specific local environments,” said Dr Tang Qian, the first author of the study. “Genomic data also helps us pinpoint coastal hotspots that should be prioritised for conservation.”
The study also revealed how horseshoe crabs have responded to environmental fluctuations over time. The Sunda Shelf emerged as a vital refuge for horseshoe crabs during periods of past climate change. By reconstructing the species’ evolutionary histories, the researchers found that the region has not only preserved genetic diversity but also served as a migratory corridor, which allowed populations to remain connected despite environmental changes.
Tailored conservation strategies needed
The study highlighted that future climate change poses varying levels of risk to the three species of Asian horseshoe crabs. While all are vulnerable, their ability to adapt differs. For instance, the mangrove horseshoe crab, with its limited dispersal capacity, faces higher threats of local extinction compared to the more mobile coastal and tri-spine horseshoe crabs.
Based on these findings, the researchers have proposed tailored conservation strategies to support each species in adapting to climate change:
· Mangrove horseshoe crabs
o Protect and restore mangrove habitats, which are essential for the species’ survival and ability to migrate southward in response to rising temperatures.
o Prioritise the conservation of populations in the Gulf of Tonkin and South China as they face the highest evolutionary pressures from climate change.
· Coastal horseshoe crabs
o Protect the Sunda Shelf region, which serves as a critical refugial habitat, particularly around the Bay of Bengal, the Malacca Strait and Southern Vietnam.
o Maintain connectivity between populations by safeguarding coastal corridors to mitigate the species’ vulnerability to habitat fragmentation.
· Tri-spine horseshoe crabs
o Implement sustainable fishery regulations and restore coastal habitats, especially in areas with a history of intensive development, such as Japan, Taiwan and China.
o Focus conservation efforts on reducing human-driven threats like harvesting and habitat loss as these currently pose greater risks than climate change.
Next steps
“Our study provides an important impetus and the necessary baseline data for the preservation of key habitats for horseshoe crabs’ future survival,” said Dr Tang. “As an important caveat, however, our work is only based on environmental factors and does not take into account future human activities that may directly alter habitats, such as coastal development. The survival of horseshoe crabs will therefore critically depend on interventions based on local contexts.”
Looking ahead, the researchers plan to further explore the evolutionary potential of Asian horseshoe crabs. This includes studying how specific functional genes contribute to their ability to adapt to local environments and changing climates.
“We have established the Horseshoe Crab Global Biorepository, with its physical collection located at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at NUS, to support ongoing and future research,” added Assoc Prof Rheindt. “Through this resource, we hope to foster collaborations and secure funding to advance genomic research on horseshoe crabs. We are currently working with the Chinese University of Hong Kong on genomic research specifically focused on the tri-spine horseshoe crab.”
A major study of botanic gardens around the world has revealed their struggles with one fundamental aim: to safeguard the world’s most threatened plants from extinction.
Researchers analysed a century’s worth of records - from 1921 to 2021 - from fifty botanic gardens and arboreta currently growing half a million plants, to see how the world’s living plant collections have changed over time.
The results suggest that the world’s living collections have collectively reached peak capacity, and that restrictions on wild plant collecting around the world are hampering efforts to gather plant diversity on the scale needed to study and protect it.
There is little evidence that institutions are managing to conserve threatened plants within collections, on a global scale, despite accelerating rates of elevated extinction risk.
The findings imply that tackling the loss of biodiversity has not been prioritised across the world’s botanic gardens as a collective - a fact the researchers say must be urgently addressed.
Curator of Cambridge University Botanic Garden Professor Samuel Brockington, who led the work, said: “A concerted, collaborative effort across the world’s botanic gardens is now needed to conserve a genetically diverse range of plants, and to make them available for research and future reintroduction into the wild.”
In their report, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the researchers say the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has effectively halved the level at which plants are being collected from the wild, and also created obstacles to the international exchange of plants.
Brockington, who is also Professor of Evolution in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, said: “The impact of the Convention on Biological Diversity is a remarkable demonstration of the power and value of international agreements. But it seems to be preventing individual botanic gardens from working with many globally threatened plant species that we could help save from extinction.”
Collective thinking
As much as 40% of the world’s plant diversity is at elevated risk of extinction. Acceptance that individual collections have limited capacity to single-handedly prevent species extinction demands a rethink as to how they collaborate to store and safeguard diversity in living collections.
The researchers say it will be vital for the living collections to be considered as a ‘meta-collection’ in future: only by working closely together will the world’s botanic gardens be able to hold the range of plants needed to make a meaningful contribution to conservation efforts. This will include sharing data and expertise and supporting the development of new collections in the global south, where much of the world’s biodiversity is located.
The researchers point out that some individual institutions, like the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, have successfully targeted and measurably conserved threatened conifer species. Similarly, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has established numerous global conservation consortia. However, these initiatives are the exception.
Wild decline
Plants must be regularly replaced or propagated within living collections: the average lifetime of a specimen is just 15 years. But the team’s analysis found that the number of wild-origin plants - those collected in the wild - in the collections peaked in 1993 and has been in decline ever since.
“It is certainly not getting any easier to sustain the diversity of our collections. This is especially true for wild-collected plants, and they’re the most valuable for us in terms for supporting research, and in finding solutions to the twin challenges of climate change and global biodiversity loss,” said Brockington.
Weather worries
As climate change alters growing conditions in different regions of the world, it will become more challenging for individual botanic gardens to continue to grow such a diverse range of species.
Brockington said: “Climate change affects our work directly by altering local weather conditions - we’ve already seen record-breaking temperatures in Cambridge in recent years. That’s going to affect how well our plants survive, so we need to think rationally and collectively about the best locations to hold different species across the global network of living collections.”
On 25 July 2019, Cambridge University Botanic Garden reached 38.70C - the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK at that time.
Diversity is key
Genetic diversity is important when it comes to protecting plants at risk of extinction, because it allows for breeding populations of species that can adapt to future challenges.
The more individual plants of a particular species in a collection, the greater the genetic diversity is likely to be.
The team says data from the International Conifer Conservation Programme, run by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, shows that living collections can make a valuable contribution to conservation efforts - given the right resource and focus. By distributing threatened species across a network of safe sites, the trees are grown where they grow best, and as a whole they represent a strong sample of the genetic diversity of this important group.
Ethical collecting
Last year, Cambridge University Botanic Garden advertised for a new ‘Expedition Botanist’ to lead global plant-collection expeditions and contribute to vital conservation efforts.
Brockington says these expeditions remain vital to work to safeguard and study the world’s plant species. He suggests that collaborative collecting work is possible, in a fair and ethical way, that builds equitable international partnerships.
The CBD is a global agreement, signed by 150 government leaders in 1992, dedicated to promoting sustainable development. It makes each country responsible for protecting its own biodiversity, and supports fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of that biodiversity.
There are 3,500 botanic gardens and arboreta worldwide. They exist so that scientists can study, conserve and provide access to the world’s plants, as well as showcasing them to the public.
Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is a charity whose purpose is to mobilise botanic gardens and engage partners in securing plant diversity for the wellbeing of people and the planet.
The world’s botanic gardens must pull together to protect global plant biodiversity in the face of the extinction crisis, amid restrictions on wild-collecting, say researchers.
A concerted, collaborative effort across the world’s botanic gardens is now needed to conserve a genetically diverse range of plants.
Researchers combined cosmological data from two major surveys of the universe’s evolutionary history and found that it may have become “messier and complicated” than expected in recent years.
The University’s nexus for technology transfer supports researchers in their innovative efforts, from CAR T to mRNA advancements that have dramatically reshaped the world.
How to avoid really bad decisions. (Hint: One tip is just hit pause.)
Business ethicist details ways to analyze complex, thorny issues, legal gray areas, and offers advice we can all use
Christina Pazzanese
Harvard Staff Writer
7 min read
Joseph Badaracco.
Photo by Susan Young
The business world is certainly no stranger to executives who either intentionally or accidentally cross ethical or even legal lines.
Take, for instance, the cases of Sam Bankman-Fried and Elizabeth Holmes.
Bankman-Fried was convicted in 2023 of financial crimes after the collapse of FTX, the high-profile cryptocurrency exchange he founded and ran. Holmes’ tech startup, Theranos, sold home blood testing devices that never worked. She is now serving a prison sentence for defrauding investors out of millions.
These cases are, of course, outliers. The vast majority of business leaders routinely make sound, ethical, and legal calls for their firms. But they do face challenges, and it takes a solid process to work through the complexities of many decisions, says Joseph Badaracco, John Shad Professor of Business Ethics at Harvard Business School.
Badaracco has been teaching M.B.A. students and business leaders for 30 years. His work led to the launch of the School’s first required ethics course in 2004. The Gazette asked Badaracco about how business ethics have changed and to offer some decision-making strategies. Interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How has the definition of business ethics changed over the last 30 years?
When I got started, a lot of business ethics was essentially applied moral philosophy. So, you would teach students the basics of utilitarianism or deontology, and maybe some Aristotle, and then apply that to particular problems.
I think that approach has faded. Certainly, the philosophical concepts are still important, but this idea of top-down application has faded.
At HBS, we approach things in more of a bottom-up way. We focus on the problem, the circumstances, the situation, and then we ask what ethical and practical perspectives are going to be helpful in figuring out what’s right in this situation? So that would be one shift.
Secondly, things are much more in flux now. So many more ethical issues are now in a context that’s international compared to, say, 30 years ago. And then, you’ve got these big technological transitions like AI and robotics and trying to figure out what the ethical implications of that are for your workforce and intellectual property. If you are a student, there’s the question of how do you use AI? What is your work and what isn’t?
One other thing I’m writing about now: During much of the last century, there was much more of a sense of a company as an independent economic unit competing in markets. It had some rules, laws, and regulations that it had to follow. And the major question was: How much, if at all, should executives pay attention to the stakeholders as opposed to the shareholders?
Now, so many companies are enmeshed in really complicated relationships with other organizations — through their IT systems, because societies have delegated so many social responsibilities to companies (clean the air, keep the workplaces safe, hire fairly, and things like that). Companies, in response, have become much more politically active and sophisticated, and they’re much more involved in all these complex relationships with regulators, interest groups, state, local, federal.
“Our minds are a kind of black box, and what matters is what we put into the box as we get ready to make a decision.”
Are the ethical challenges themselves different today than they once were?
When an executive or a manager or even a young manager from an M.B.A. program is trying to figure out what’s right, their accountability is much more complicated because of all these different groups they’re enmeshed with.
When they try to figure out what’s really important in a situation: What are the critical facts? What are the risks? What are the expert opinions? That is vastly more complicated. They also have different legal and ethical responsibilities to all these groups. And then, when they have to think about what is practical, that becomes even more complicated, as well.
So, there’s an open-endedness to the fundamental managerial questions of what’s important, what’s responsible, and what’s practical, that just wasn’t there a couple decades ago.
In a recent paper, you say that good and bad judgments are not black or white, they exist along a spectrum, and that making ethical decisions more closely resembles aesthetic or artistic judgments rather than statistical or logical conclusions. If it’s more art than science, how can those striving to act ethically be confident that’s what they’re, in fact, doing?
There are two kinds of problems, that is, two kinds of questions and decisions. Sometimes there are black-and-white lines. Sam Bankman-Fried may not have been sufficiently aware of them, but he crossed the lines and so did some of his fellow executives.
There is right and wrong, legal and illegal, and it’s hazardous to even get close to those lines because you may stumble across them, and if you’re a leader at any level, the people working for you may think, “Let’s see how close to the line, just like our boss.”
Then there are other complex issues we call “gray areas.” One obligation conflicts with another, or there’s just so much uncertainty you’re not sure what the key facts are. This is where personal judgment plays a much bigger role.
So, how do you know you’re doing something responsible? A lot of it has to do with how you approach the decision. If you have thought in depth and carefully about what really matters in the situation, about your central responsibilities, and what will work, you’ve loaded the dice in favor of a responsible, practical decision.
How do decision-makers get around the problem of seeing beyond their own cognitive biases to avoid making self-serving decisions that are potentially unethical or illegal, particularly in situations that are full of gray areas?
What may have happened at FTX and has happened in a lot of other cases is somebody takes something that’s black-and-white, legal or illegal, and they say, “Wait a minute. It’s not really clear.” That’s a dangerous activity, and that can certainly be done in self-serving ways.
But with a gray problem, there really isn’t a clear right decision. If there was, you wouldn’t be struggling with it, the people you work with might not be disagreeing with you on it. A lot of biases can come into play with gray-area decisions.
So, one question is: Have you tried to wring the biases out by working with other people and focusing sharply, honestly, and analytically on what matters, what is responsible, and what is practical? This will help you make the best decision you can.
But we are inevitably influenced by all sorts of factors, conscious and unconscious. In the end, you want to be able to feel that you have done all you can to make a sound, responsible decision, but with gray-area problems, there are no guarantees.
It’s one thing to make an ethical decision based on facts laid out in a book or case study, but quite another to do so while surrounded by outside factors and changing circumstances. How do people prevent these things from obscuring the best way forward?
I wrote a book a number of years ago about reflection, based on in-depth interviews with 100 executives and managers. I discovered that almost everybody had some way of reflecting. It took all different forms: driving to work, exercising, sitting quietly and looking out the window, talking with someone they trust and respect, and praying. One executive said when he was struggling with a really hard decision, he would put on earphones and listen to some of his favorite Broadway show tunes, and then he would often find that his mind was clearer and he was comfortable making a decision.
My fundamental conviction is decision-making and reflection should be guided by the questions of: What really matters; what are my central responsibilities; and what will work? Then the final question is: What can I live with? Then you decide. I don’t think we really understand how we make these final decisions and judgments. And the current state of neuroscience, our minds are a kind of black box, and what matters is what we put into the box as we get ready to make a decision.
In biology textbooks, the endoplasmic reticulum is often portrayed as a distinct, compact organelle near the nucleus, and is commonly known to be responsible for protein trafficking and secretion. In reality, the ER is vast and dynamic, spread throughout the cell and able to establish contact and communication with and between other organelles. These membrane contacts regulate processes as diverse as fat metabolism, sugar metabolism, and immune responses.
Exploring how pathogens manipulate and hijack essential processes to promote their own life cycles can reveal much about fundamental cellular functions and provide insight into viable treatment options for understudied pathogens.
New research from the Lamason Lab in the Department of Biology at MIT recently published in the Journal of Cell Biology has shown that Rickettsia parkeri, a bacterial pathogen that lives freely in the cytosol, can interact in an extensive and stable way with the rough endoplasmic reticulum, forming previously unseen contacts with the organelle.
It’s the first known example of a direct interkingdom contact site between an intracellular bacterial pathogen and a eukaryotic membrane.
The Lamason Lab studies R. parkeri as a model for infection of the more virulent Rickettsia rickettsii. R. rickettsii, carried and transmitted by ticks, causes Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Left untreated, the infection can cause symptoms as severe as organ failure and death.
Rickettsia is difficult to study because it is an obligate pathogen, meaning it can only live and reproduce inside living cells, much like a virus. Researchers must get creative to parse out fundamental questions and molecular players in the R. parkeri life cycle, and much remains unclear about how R. parkeri spreads.
Detour to the junction
First author Yamilex Acevedo-Sánchez, a BSG-MSRP-Bio program alum and a graduate student at the time, stumbled across the ER and R. parkeri interactions while trying to observe Rickettsia reaching a cell junction.
The current model for Rickettsia infection involves R. parkeri spreading cell to cell by traveling to the specialized contact sites between cells and being engulfed by the neighboring cell in order to spread. Listeria monocytogenes, which the Lamason Lab also studies, uses actin tails to forcefully propel itself into a neighboring cell. By contrast, R. parkeri can form an actin tail, but loses it before reaching the cell junction. Somehow, R. parkeri is still able to spread to neighboring cells.
After an MIT seminar about the ER’s lesser-known functions, Acevedo-Sánchez developed a cell line to observe whether Rickettsia might be spreading to neighboring cells by hitching a ride on the ER to reach the cell junction.
Instead, she saw an unexpectedly high percentage of R. parkeri surrounded and enveloped by the ER, at a distance of about 55 nanometers. This distance is significant because membrane contacts for interorganelle communication in eukaryotic cells form connections from 10-80 nanometers wide. The researchers ruled out that what they saw was not an immune response, and the sections of the ER interacting with the R. parkeri were still connected to the wider network of the ER.
“I’m of the mind that if you want to learn new biology, just look at cells,” Acevedo-Sánchez says. “Manipulating the organelle that establishes contact with other organelles could be a great way for a pathogen to gain control during infection.”
The stable connections were unexpected because the ER is constantly breaking and reforming connections, lasting seconds or minutes. It was surprising to see the ER stably associating around the bacteria. As a cytosolic pathogen that exists freely in the cytosol of the cells it infects, it was also unexpected to see R. parkeri surrounded by a membrane at all.
Small margins
Acevedo-Sánchez collaborated with the Center for Nanoscale Systems at Harvard University to view her initial observations at higher resolution using focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy. FIB-SEM involves taking a sample of cells and blasting them with a focused ion beam in order to shave off a section of the block of cells. With each layer, a high-resolution image is taken. The result of this process is a stack of images.
From there, Acevedo-Sánchez marked what different areas of the images were — such as the mitochondria, Rickettsia, or the ER — and a program called ORS Dragonfly, a machine learning program, sorted through the thousand or so images to identify those categories. That information was then used to create 3D models of the samples.
Acevedo-Sánchez noted that less than 5 percent of R. parkeri formed connections with the ER — but small quantities of certain characteristics are known to be critical for R. parkeri infection. R. parkeri can exist in two states: motile, with an actin tail, and nonmotile, without it. In mutants unable to form actin tails, R. parkeri are unable to progress to adjacent cells — but in nonmutants, the percentage of R. parkeri that have tails starts at about 2 percent in early infection and never exceeds 15 percent at the height of it.
The ER only interacts with nonmotile R. parkeri, and those interactions increased 25-fold in mutants that couldn’t form tails.
Creating connections
Co-authors Acevedo-Sánchez, Patrick Woida, and Caroline Anderson also investigated possible ways the connections with the ER are mediated. VAP proteins, which mediate ER interactions with other organelles, are known to be co-opted by other pathogens during infection.
During infection by R. parkeri, VAP proteins were recruited to the bacteria; when VAP proteins were knocked out, the frequency of interactions between R. parkeri and the ER decreased, indicating R. parkeri may be taking advantage of these cellular mechanisms for its own purposes during infection.
Although Acevedo-Sánchez now works as a senior scientist at AbbVie, the Lamason Lab is continuing the work of exploring the molecular players that may be involved, how these interactions are mediated, and whether the contacts affect the host or bacteria’s life cycle.
Senior author and associate professor of biology Rebecca Lamason noted that these potential interactions are particularly interesting because bacteria and mitochondria are thought to have evolved from a common ancestor. The Lamason Lab has been exploring whether R. parkeri could form the same membrane contacts that mitochondria do, although they haven’t proven that yet. So far, R. parkeri is the only cytosolic pathogen that has been observed behaving this way.
“It’s not just bacteria accidentally bumping into the ER. These interactions are extremely stable. The ER is clearly extensively wrapping around the bacterium, and is still connected to the ER network,” Lamason says. “It seems like it has a purpose — what that purpose is remains a mystery.”
The bacterium R. parkeri (magenta) can be seen here forming direct interkingdom contacts with the rough endoplasmic reticulum (cyan), the first known example of an intracellular pathogen interacting with a eukaryotic membrane in this way.
“There is no treatment available for your son. We can’t do anything to help him.”
When Fernando Goldsztein MBA ’03 heard those words, something inside him snapped.
“I refused to accept what the doctors were saying. I transformed my fear into my greatest strength and started fighting.”
Goldsztein’s 12-year-old son Frederico was diagnosed with relapsing medulloblastoma, a life-threatening pediatric brain tumor. Goldsztein's life — and career plan — changed in an instant. He had to learn to become a different kind of leader altogether.
While Goldsztein never set out to become a founder, the MIT Sloan School of Management taught him the importance of networking, building friendships, and making career connections with peers and faculty from all walks of life. He began using those skills in a new way — boldly reaching out to the top medulloblastoma doctors and scientists at hospitals around the world to ask for help.
“I knew that I had to do something to save Frederico, but also the other estimated 15,000 children diagnosed with the disease around the world each year,” he says.
In 2021, Goldsztein launched The Medulloblastoma Initiative (MBI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding a cure using a remarkable new model for funding rare disease research.
In just 18 months, the organization — which is still in startup mode — has raised $11 million in private funding and brought together 14 of the world’s most prestigious labs and hospitals from across North America, Europe, and Brazil.
Two promising trials will launch in the coming months, and three additional trials are in the pipeline and currently awaiting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
All of this in an industry that is notorious for bureaucratic red tape, and where the timeline from an initial lab discovery to a patient receiving a first treatment averages seven to 15 years.
While government research grants typically allocate just 4 cents on the dollar toward pediatric cancer research — pennies doled out across multiple labs pursuing uncoordinated efforts — MBI is laser-focused on pushing 100 percent of their funding toward a singular goal, without any overhead or administrative costs.
“There is no time to lose,” Goldsztein says. “We are making science move faster than it ever has before.”
The MBI blueprint for funding cures for rare diseases is replicable, and likely to disrupt the standard way health care research is funded and carried out by radically shortening the timeline.
From despair to strength
After his initial diagnosis at age 9, Frederico went through a nine-hour brain surgery and came to the United States to receive standard treatment. Goldsztein looked on helplessly as his son received radiation and then nine grueling rounds of chemotherapy.
First pioneered in the 1980s, this standard treatment protocol cures 70 percent of children. Still, it leaves most of them with lifelong side effects like cognitive problems, endocrine issues that stunt growth, and secondary tumors. Frederico was on the wrong side of that statistic. Just three years later, his tumor relapsed.
Goldsztein grimaces as he recalls the prognosis he and his wife heard from the doctors.
“It was unbelievable to me that there had been almost no discoveries in 40 years,” he says.
Ultimately, he found hope and partnership in Roger Packer, the director of the Brain Tumor Institute and the Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute of Children’s National Hospital. He is also the very doctor who created the standard treatment years before.
Packer explains that finding effective therapies for medulloblastoma was complex for 30 years because it is an umbrella term for 13 types of tumors. Frederico suffers from the most common one, Group 4.
Part of the reason the treatment has not changed is that, until recently, medicine has not advanced enough to detect differences between the different tumor types. Packer explains, “Now with molecular genetic testing and methylation, which is a way to essentially sort tumors, that has changed.”
The problem for Frederico was that very few researchers were working on Group 4, the sub-type of medulloblastoma that is the most common tumor, yet also the one that scientists know the least about.
Goldsztein challenged Packer: “If I can get you the funding, what can your lab do to advance medulloblastoma research quickly?”
An open-source consortium model
Packer advised that they work together to “try something different,” instead of just throwing money at research without any guideposts.
“We set up a consortium of leading institutions around the world doing medulloblastoma research, asked them to change their lab approach to focus on the Group 4 tumor, and assigned each lab a question to answer. We charged them with coming up with therapy — not in seven to 10 years, which is the normal transition from discovery to developing a drug and getting it to a patient, but within a two-year timeline,” he says.
Initially, seven labs signed on. Today, the Cure Group 4 Consortium is made up of 14 partners and reads like a who’s who of medulloblastoma heavy hitters: Children’s National Hospital, SickKids, Hopp Children’s Cancer Center, and Texas Children’s Hospital.
Labs can only join the consortium if they agree to follow some unusual rules. As Goldsztein explains, “To be accepted into this group and receive funding, there are no silos, and there is no duplicated work. Everyone has a piece of the puzzle, and we work together to move fast. That is the magic of our model.”
Inspired by MIT’s open-source methods, researchers must share data freely with one another to accelerate the group’s overall progress. This kind of partnership across labs and borders is unprecedented in a highly competitive sector.
Mariano Gargiulo MBA ’03 met Goldsztein on the first day of their MIT Sloan Fellows MBA program orientation and has been his dear friend ever since. An early-stage donor to MBI and a Houston-based executive in the energy sector, Gargiulo sat down with Goldsztein as he first conceptualized MBI’s operating model.
“Usually, startup business models plot out the next 10-15 years; Fernando’s timeline was only two years, and his benchmarks were in three-month increments.” It was audaciously optimistic, says Gargiulo, but so was the founder.
“When I saw it, I did not doubt that he would achieve his goals. I’m seeing Fernando hit those first targets now and it’s amazing to watch,” Gargiulo says.
Children’s National Hospital endorsed MBI in 2023 and invited Goldsztein to sit on its foundation’s board, adding credibility to the initiative and his ability to fundraise more ambitiously.
According to Packer, in the next few months, the first two MBI protocols will reach patients for the first time: an immunotherapy protocol, which “leverages the body’s immune response to target cancer cells more effectively and safely than traditional therapies,” and a medulloblastoma vaccine, which “adapts similar methodologies used in Covid-19 vaccine development. This approach aims to provide a versatile and mobile treatment that could be distributed globally.”
A matter of when
When Goldsztein is not with his own family in Brazil, fundraising, or managing MBI, he is on Zoom with a network of more than 70 other families with children with relapsed medulloblastoma. “I’m not a doctor and I don’t give out medical advice, but with these trials, we are giving each other hope,” he explains.
Hope and purpose are commodities that Goldsztein has in spades. “I don’t understand the idea of doing business and accumulating assets, but not helping others,” he says. He shared that message with an auditorium of his fellow alumni at his 2023 MIT Sloan Reunion.
Frederico, who defied all odds and lived with the threat of recurrence, recently graduated high school. He is interested in international relations and passionate about photography. “This is about finding a cure for Frederico and for all kids,” Goldsztein says.
When asked how the world would be impacted if MBI found a cure for medulloblastoma, Goldsztein shakes his head.
“We are going to find the cure. It’s not if, it’s a matter of when.”
His next goal is to scale MBI and have it serve as a resource for groups that want to replicate its playbook to solve other childhood diseases.
In biology textbooks, the endoplasmic reticulum is often portrayed as a distinct, compact organelle near the nucleus, and is commonly known to be responsible for protein trafficking and secretion. In reality, the ER is vast and dynamic, spread throughout the cell and able to establish contact and communication with and between other organelles. These membrane contacts regulate processes as diverse as fat metabolism, sugar metabolism, and immune responses.
Exploring how pathogens manipulate and hijack essential processes to promote their own life cycles can reveal much about fundamental cellular functions and provide insight into viable treatment options for understudied pathogens.
New research from the Lamason Lab in the Department of Biology at MIT recently published in the Journal of Cell Biology has shown that Rickettsia parkeri, a bacterial pathogen that lives freely in the cytosol, can interact in an extensive and stable way with the rough endoplasmic reticulum, forming previously unseen contacts with the organelle.
It’s the first known example of a direct interkingdom contact site between an intracellular bacterial pathogen and a eukaryotic membrane.
The Lamason Lab studies R. parkeri as a model for infection of the more virulent Rickettsia rickettsii. R. rickettsii, carried and transmitted by ticks, causes Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Left untreated, the infection can cause symptoms as severe as organ failure and death.
Rickettsia is difficult to study because it is an obligate pathogen, meaning it can only live and reproduce inside living cells, much like a virus. Researchers must get creative to parse out fundamental questions and molecular players in the R. parkeri life cycle, and much remains unclear about how R. parkeri spreads.
Detour to the junction
First author Yamilex Acevedo-Sánchez, a BSG-MSRP-Bio program alum and a graduate student at the time, stumbled across the ER and R. parkeri interactions while trying to observe Rickettsia reaching a cell junction.
The current model for Rickettsia infection involves R. parkeri spreading cell to cell by traveling to the specialized contact sites between cells and being engulfed by the neighboring cell in order to spread. Listeria monocytogenes, which the Lamason Lab also studies, uses actin tails to forcefully propel itself into a neighboring cell. By contrast, R. parkeri can form an actin tail, but loses it before reaching the cell junction. Somehow, R. parkeri is still able to spread to neighboring cells.
After an MIT seminar about the ER’s lesser-known functions, Acevedo-Sánchez developed a cell line to observe whether Rickettsia might be spreading to neighboring cells by hitching a ride on the ER to reach the cell junction.
Instead, she saw an unexpectedly high percentage of R. parkeri surrounded and enveloped by the ER, at a distance of about 55 nanometers. This distance is significant because membrane contacts for interorganelle communication in eukaryotic cells form connections from 10-80 nanometers wide. The researchers ruled out that what they saw was not an immune response, and the sections of the ER interacting with the R. parkeri were still connected to the wider network of the ER.
“I’m of the mind that if you want to learn new biology, just look at cells,” Acevedo-Sánchez says. “Manipulating the organelle that establishes contact with other organelles could be a great way for a pathogen to gain control during infection.”
The stable connections were unexpected because the ER is constantly breaking and reforming connections, lasting seconds or minutes. It was surprising to see the ER stably associating around the bacteria. As a cytosolic pathogen that exists freely in the cytosol of the cells it infects, it was also unexpected to see R. parkeri surrounded by a membrane at all.
Small margins
Acevedo-Sánchez collaborated with the Center for Nanoscale Systems at Harvard University to view her initial observations at higher resolution using focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy. FIB-SEM involves taking a sample of cells and blasting them with a focused ion beam in order to shave off a section of the block of cells. With each layer, a high-resolution image is taken. The result of this process is a stack of images.
From there, Acevedo-Sánchez marked what different areas of the images were — such as the mitochondria, Rickettsia, or the ER — and a program called ORS Dragonfly, a machine learning program, sorted through the thousand or so images to identify those categories. That information was then used to create 3D models of the samples.
Acevedo-Sánchez noted that less than 5 percent of R. parkeri formed connections with the ER — but small quantities of certain characteristics are known to be critical for R. parkeri infection. R. parkeri can exist in two states: motile, with an actin tail, and nonmotile, without it. In mutants unable to form actin tails, R. parkeri are unable to progress to adjacent cells — but in nonmutants, the percentage of R. parkeri that have tails starts at about 2 percent in early infection and never exceeds 15 percent at the height of it.
The ER only interacts with nonmotile R. parkeri, and those interactions increased 25-fold in mutants that couldn’t form tails.
Creating connections
Co-authors Acevedo-Sánchez, Patrick Woida, and Caroline Anderson also investigated possible ways the connections with the ER are mediated. VAP proteins, which mediate ER interactions with other organelles, are known to be co-opted by other pathogens during infection.
During infection by R. parkeri, VAP proteins were recruited to the bacteria; when VAP proteins were knocked out, the frequency of interactions between R. parkeri and the ER decreased, indicating R. parkeri may be taking advantage of these cellular mechanisms for its own purposes during infection.
Although Acevedo-Sánchez now works as a senior scientist at AbbVie, the Lamason Lab is continuing the work of exploring the molecular players that may be involved, how these interactions are mediated, and whether the contacts affect the host or bacteria’s life cycle.
Senior author and associate professor of biology Rebecca Lamason noted that these potential interactions are particularly interesting because bacteria and mitochondria are thought to have evolved from a common ancestor. The Lamason Lab has been exploring whether R. parkeri could form the same membrane contacts that mitochondria do, although they haven’t proven that yet. So far, R. parkeri is the only cytosolic pathogen that has been observed behaving this way.
“It’s not just bacteria accidentally bumping into the ER. These interactions are extremely stable. The ER is clearly extensively wrapping around the bacterium, and is still connected to the ER network,” Lamason says. “It seems like it has a purpose — what that purpose is remains a mystery.”
The bacterium R. parkeri (magenta) can be seen here forming direct interkingdom contacts with the rough endoplasmic reticulum (cyan), the first known example of an intracellular pathogen interacting with a eukaryotic membrane in this way.
“There is no treatment available for your son. We can’t do anything to help him.”
When Fernando Goldsztein MBA ’03 heard those words, something inside him snapped.
“I refused to accept what the doctors were saying. I transformed my fear into my greatest strength and started fighting.”
Goldsztein’s 12-year-old son Frederico was diagnosed with relapsing medulloblastoma, a life-threatening pediatric brain tumor. Goldsztein's life — and career plan — changed in an instant. He had to learn to become a different kind of leader altogether.
While Goldsztein never set out to become a founder, the MIT Sloan School of Management taught him the importance of networking, building friendships, and making career connections with peers and faculty from all walks of life. He began using those skills in a new way — boldly reaching out to the top medulloblastoma doctors and scientists at hospitals around the world to ask for help.
“I knew that I had to do something to save Frederico, but also the other estimated 15,000 children diagnosed with the disease around the world each year,” he says.
In 2021, Goldsztein launched The Medulloblastoma Initiative (MBI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding a cure using a remarkable new model for funding rare disease research.
In just 18 months, the organization — which is still in startup mode — has raised $11 million in private funding and brought together 14 of the world’s most prestigious labs and hospitals from across North America, Europe, and Brazil.
Two promising trials will launch in the coming months, and three additional trials are in the pipeline and currently awaiting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
All of this in an industry that is notorious for bureaucratic red tape, and where the timeline from an initial lab discovery to a patient receiving a first treatment averages seven to 15 years.
While government research grants typically allocate just 4 cents on the dollar toward pediatric cancer research — pennies doled out across multiple labs pursuing uncoordinated efforts — MBI is laser-focused on pushing 100 percent of their funding toward a singular goal, without any overhead or administrative costs.
“There is no time to lose,” Goldsztein says. “We are making science move faster than it ever has before.”
The MBI blueprint for funding cures for rare diseases is replicable, and likely to disrupt the standard way health care research is funded and carried out by radically shortening the timeline.
From despair to strength
After his initial diagnosis at age 9, Frederico went through a nine-hour brain surgery and came to the United States to receive standard treatment. Goldsztein looked on helplessly as his son received radiation and then nine grueling rounds of chemotherapy.
First pioneered in the 1980s, this standard treatment protocol cures 70 percent of children. Still, it leaves most of them with lifelong side effects like cognitive problems, endocrine issues that stunt growth, and secondary tumors. Frederico was on the wrong side of that statistic. Just three years later, his tumor relapsed.
Goldsztein grimaces as he recalls the prognosis he and his wife heard from the doctors.
“It was unbelievable to me that there had been almost no discoveries in 40 years,” he says.
Ultimately, he found hope and partnership in Roger Packer, the director of the Brain Tumor Institute and the Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute of Children’s National Hospital. He is also the very doctor who created the standard treatment years before.
Packer explains that finding effective therapies for medulloblastoma was complex for 30 years because it is an umbrella term for 13 types of tumors. Frederico suffers from the most common one, Group 4.
Part of the reason the treatment has not changed is that, until recently, medicine has not advanced enough to detect differences between the different tumor types. Packer explains, “Now with molecular genetic testing and methylation, which is a way to essentially sort tumors, that has changed.”
The problem for Frederico was that very few researchers were working on Group 4, the sub-type of medulloblastoma that is the most common tumor, yet also the one that scientists know the least about.
Goldsztein challenged Packer: “If I can get you the funding, what can your lab do to advance medulloblastoma research quickly?”
An open-source consortium model
Packer advised that they work together to “try something different,” instead of just throwing money at research without any guideposts.
“We set up a consortium of leading institutions around the world doing medulloblastoma research, asked them to change their lab approach to focus on the Group 4 tumor, and assigned each lab a question to answer. We charged them with coming up with therapy — not in seven to 10 years, which is the normal transition from discovery to developing a drug and getting it to a patient, but within a two-year timeline,” he says.
Initially, seven labs signed on. Today, the Cure Group 4 Consortium is made up of 14 partners and reads like a who’s who of medulloblastoma heavy hitters: Children’s National Hospital, SickKids, Hopp Children’s Cancer Center, and Texas Children’s Hospital.
Labs can only join the consortium if they agree to follow some unusual rules. As Goldsztein explains, “To be accepted into this group and receive funding, there are no silos, and there is no duplicated work. Everyone has a piece of the puzzle, and we work together to move fast. That is the magic of our model.”
Inspired by MIT’s open-source methods, researchers must share data freely with one another to accelerate the group’s overall progress. This kind of partnership across labs and borders is unprecedented in a highly competitive sector.
Mariano Gargiulo MBA ’03 met Goldsztein on the first day of their MIT Sloan Fellows MBA program orientation and has been his dear friend ever since. An early-stage donor to MBI and a Houston-based executive in the energy sector, Gargiulo sat down with Goldsztein as he first conceptualized MBI’s operating model.
“Usually, startup business models plot out the next 10-15 years; Fernando’s timeline was only two years, and his benchmarks were in three-month increments.” It was audaciously optimistic, says Gargiulo, but so was the founder.
“When I saw it, I did not doubt that he would achieve his goals. I’m seeing Fernando hit those first targets now and it’s amazing to watch,” Gargiulo says.
Children’s National Hospital endorsed MBI in 2023 and invited Goldsztein to sit on its foundation’s board, adding credibility to the initiative and his ability to fundraise more ambitiously.
According to Packer, in the next few months, the first two MBI protocols will reach patients for the first time: an immunotherapy protocol, which “leverages the body’s immune response to target cancer cells more effectively and safely than traditional therapies,” and a medulloblastoma vaccine, which “adapts similar methodologies used in Covid-19 vaccine development. This approach aims to provide a versatile and mobile treatment that could be distributed globally.”
A matter of when
When Goldsztein is not with his own family in Brazil, fundraising, or managing MBI, he is on Zoom with a network of more than 70 other families with children with relapsed medulloblastoma. “I’m not a doctor and I don’t give out medical advice, but with these trials, we are giving each other hope,” he explains.
Hope and purpose are commodities that Goldsztein has in spades. “I don’t understand the idea of doing business and accumulating assets, but not helping others,” he says. He shared that message with an auditorium of his fellow alumni at his 2023 MIT Sloan Reunion.
Frederico, who defied all odds and lived with the threat of recurrence, recently graduated high school. He is interested in international relations and passionate about photography. “This is about finding a cure for Frederico and for all kids,” Goldsztein says.
When asked how the world would be impacted if MBI found a cure for medulloblastoma, Goldsztein shakes his head.
“We are going to find the cure. It’s not if, it’s a matter of when.”
His next goal is to scale MBI and have it serve as a resource for groups that want to replicate its playbook to solve other childhood diseases.
When Youyeon Choi was in high school, she discovered she really liked “thinking in geometry.” The shapes, the dimensions … she was into all of it. Today, geometry plays a prominent role in her doctoral work under the guidance of Professor Koroush Shirvan, as she explores ways to increase the competitiveness of small modular reactors (SMRs).
Central to the thesis is metallic nuclear fuel in a helical cruciform shape, which improves surface area and lowers heat flux as compared to the traditional cylindrical equivalent.
A childhood in a prominent nuclear energy country
Her passion for geometry notwithstanding, Choi admits she was not “really into studying” in middle school. But that changed when she started excelling in technical subjects in her high school years. And because it was the natural sciences that first caught Choi’s eye, she assumed she would major in the subject when she went to university.
This focus, too, would change. Growing up in Seoul, Choi was becoming increasingly aware of the critical role nuclear energy played in meeting her native country’s energy needs. Twenty-six reactors provide nearly a third of South Korea’s electricity, according to the World Nuclear Association. The country is also one of the world’s most prominent nuclear energy entities.
In such an ecosystem, Choi understood the stakes at play, especially with electricity-guzzling technologies such as AI and electric vehicles on the rise. Her father also discussed energy-related topics with Choi when she was in high school. Being soaked in that atmosphere eventually led Choi to nuclear engineering.
Early work in South Korea
Excelling in high school math and science, Choi was a shoo-in for college at Seoul National University. Initially intent on studying nuclear fusion, Choi switched to fission because she saw that the path to fusion was more convoluted and was still in the early stages of exploration.
Choi went on to complete her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nuclear engineering from the university. As part of her master’s thesis, she worked on a multi-physics modeling project involving high-fidelity simulations of reactor physics and thermal hydraulics to analyze reactor cores.
South Korea exports its nuclear know-how widely, so work in the field can be immensely rewarding. Indeed, after graduate school, Choi moved to Daejeon, which has the moniker “Science City.” As an intern at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), she conducted experimental studies on the passive safety systems of nuclear reactors. Choi then moved to the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control, where she worked as a researcher developing nuclear security programs for countries. Given South Korea’s dominance in the field, other countries would tap its knowledge resource to tap their own nuclear energy programs. The focus was on international training programs, an arm of which involved cybersecurity and physical protection.
While the work was impactful, Choi found she missed the modeling work she did as part of her master’s thesis. Looking to return to technical research, she applied to the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE). “MIT has the best nuclear engineering program in the States, and maybe even the world,” Choi says, explaining her decision to enroll as a doctoral student.
Innovative research at MIT
At NSE, Choi is working to make SMRs more price competitive as compared to traditional nuclear energy power plants.
Due to their smaller size, SMRs are able to serve areas where larger reactors might not work, but they’re more expensive. One way to address costs is to squeeze more electricity out of a unit of fuel — to increase the power density. Choi is doing so by replacing the traditional uranium dioxide ceramic fuel in a cylindrical shape with a metal one in a helical cruciform. Such a replacement potentially offers twin advantages: the metal fuel has high conductivity, which means the fuel will operate even more safely at lower temperatures. And the twisted shape gives more surface area and lower heat flux. The net result is more electricity for the same volume.
The project receives funding from a collaboration between Lightbridge Corp., which is exploring how advanced fuel technologies can improve the performance of water-cooled SMRs, and the U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Energy University Program.
With SMR efficiencies in mind, Choi is indulging her love of multi-physics modeling, and focusing on reactor physics, thermal hydraulics, and fuel performance simulation. “The goal of this modeling and simulation is to see if we can really use this fuel in the SMR,” Choi says. “I’m really enjoying doing the simulations because the geometry is really hard to model. Because the shape is twisted, there’s no symmetry at all,” she says. Always up for a challenge, Choi learned the various aspects of physics and a variety of computational tools, including the Monte Carlo code for reactor physics.
Being at MIT has a whole roster of advantages, Choi says, and she especially appreciates the respect researchers have for each other. She appreciates being able to discuss projects with Shirvan and his focus on practical applications of research. At the same time, Choi appreciates the “exotic” nature of her project. “Even assessing if this SMR fuel is at all feasible is really hard, but I think it’s all possible because it’s MIT and my PI [principal investigator] is really invested in innovation,” she says.
It’s an exciting time to be in nuclear engineering, Choi says. She serves as one of the board members of the student section of the American Nuclear Society and is an NSE representative of the Graduate Student Council for the 2024-25 academic year.
Choi is excited about the global momentum toward nuclear as more countries are exploring the energy source and trying to build more nuclear power plants on the path to decarbonization. “I really do believe nuclear energy is going to be a leading carbon-free energy. It’s very important for our collective futures,” Choi says.
“I really do believe nuclear energy is going to be a leading carbon-free energy. It’s very important for our collective futures,” says Youyeon Choi, a doctoral student in MIT's Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering.
Jenny Greene, a professor of astrophysical sciences and the director of Princeton’s Prison Teaching Initiative, was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.
Harvard University Housing (HUH) manages approximately 3,000 apartments, offering a broad choice of locations, unit types, amenities, and sizes to meet the individual budgets and housing needs of eligible Harvard affiliates (full-time graduate students, faculty members, and employees). Harvard affiliates may apply for Harvard University Housing online at www.huhousing.harvard.edu. The website also provides information about additional housing options and useful Harvard and community resources for incoming and current affiliates.
In accordance with the University’s rent policy, Harvard University Housing charges market rents*. To establish the proposed rents for 2025–2026, Jayendu Patel of Economic, Financial & Statistical Consulting Services performed and endorsed the results of a regression analysis on three years of market rents for more than 14,700 apartments. The data on apartments included in the analysis were obtained from a variety of sources, including rentals posted on the HUH Off-Campus Housing website by private-market property owners, information supplied by a real estate appraisal firm, and various non-Harvard rental websites, in order to provide comparable private rental market listings for competing apartment complexes in Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville. As always, all revenues generated by Harvard University Housing in excess of operating expenses and debt service are used to fund capital improvements and renewal of the facilities in HUH’s existing residential portfolio.
The rents noted in this article have been reviewed and endorsed by the Faculty Advisory Committee on Harvard University Housing and will take effect for the 2025-2026 leasing season. Written comments on the proposed rents may be sent to the Faculty Advisory Committee on Harvard University Housing, c/o Harvard University Housing, Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave., Room 827, Cambridge, MA 02138. Comments to the committee may also be sent via email to leasing@harvard.edu. Any written comments should be submitted by Feb. 7.
2025–2026 rents for continuing HUH tenants
Current HUH tenants who choose to extend their lease will receive, on average, a 5 percent rent increase, with actual increases ranging from 0 percent to 6.5 percent. Heat, hot water, electricity, and gas, where applicable, are included in all Harvard University Housing apartment rents; internet service and air conditioning may also be included where available.
Harvard University Housing tenants will receive an email in March 2025 with instructions on how to submit a request to either extend or terminate their current lease. Tenants who would like additional information or help in determining their continuing rental rates for 2025–2026may call the HUH Leasing Office at (617) 495-1459.
2025–2026 rents for new HUH tenants for the 2025-2026 leasing season
The results of this market analysis and of other market research indicate that Harvard University Housing 2025–2026 market rents will be as listed below. Heat, hot water, electricity, and gas, where applicable, are included in all Harvard University Housing apartment rents; internet service and air conditioning may also be included, where available.
Haskins Hall: studios $2,364–$2,460; one bedrooms $2,628–$2,904.
Holden Green: one bedrooms $2,508–$2,880; two bedrooms $2,880–$4,056; three bedrooms$3,768–$3,852.
2 Holyoke Street: one bedrooms $2,856–$3,024.
Kirkland Court: one bedrooms $2,532–$3,000; two bedrooms $3,336–$3,588; three bedrooms $4,296–$4,596.
8A Mt. Auburn Street: one bedrooms $2,856–$3,024.
Peabody Terrace: studios $2,316–$2,976; one bedrooms $2,796–$3,312; two bedrooms $3,228–$3,852; three bedrooms $4,740–$5,160.
16 Prescott Street: studios $2,316–$2,472; one bedrooms $2,676–$2,880.
18 Prescott Street: studios $2,256–$2,328; one bedrooms $2,664–$2,928.
85–95 Prescott Street: studios $2,376–$2,628; one bedrooms $2,688–$3,132; two bedrooms $3,144.
Shaler Lane: one bedrooms $2,544–$2,736; two bedrooms $2,904–$3,444.
Soldiers Field Park: studios $2,772–$3,264; one bedrooms $3,192–$3,648; two bedrooms $3,912–$4,932; three bedrooms $4,332–$5,668; four bedrooms $5,688-$5,856.
Terry Terrace: studios $2,448–$2,532; one bedrooms $2,700–$3,000; two bedrooms $3,336–$3,372.
9–13A Ware Street: studios$2,352–$2,496; one bedrooms $2,664–$2,988; two bedrooms $3,324–$3,348.
15 Ware Street: studios $2,580; one bedrooms $3,504; two bedrooms $4,080.
19 Ware Street: two bedrooms $3,876–$3,924; three bedrooms $4,164.
One Western Avenue: studios $2,532–$2,820; one bedrooms $2,724–$3,180; two bedrooms $3,192–$3,984; three bedrooms $4,608–$4,980.
Wood Frame Buildings: studios $1,728–$2,448; one bedrooms $2,496–$3,468; two bedrooms $3,132–$4,800; three bedrooms $3,504–$6,384; four bedrooms $5,400–$6,000.
The comments received will be reviewed by the Faculty Advisory Committee, which includes: Suzanne Cooper, Edith M. Stokey Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Nancy Hill, Charles Bigelow Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Howell Jackson, James S. Reid Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Jerold S. Kayden, Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design, Graduate School of Design; John Macomber, Gloria A. Dauten Real Estate Fellow, senior lecturer, Harvard Business School; Daniel P. Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geologyand Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and Sean Caron, vice president for Campus Services (chair), Office of Executive Vice President for Administration.
*The rents for tenants of Harvard University Housing are set at prevailing market rates, in keeping with the University’s affiliated housing rent policy. This policy was established in 1983 by President Derek Bok based on recommendations from a study led by Professor Archibald Cox and the Committee on Affiliated Housing. The original faculty committee determined that market rate pricing was the fairest method of allocating apartments and that setting rents for Harvard University Housing below market rate would be a form of financial aid, which should be determined by each individual School, not via the rent setting process. Additionally, the cost of housing should be considered when financial aid is determined.
Successful test in breast cancer patients: the active agent digoxin, a cardiac medication, dissolves clusters of circulating breast cancer cells in the blood, thus reducing the risk of metastases formation.
A team of researchers from NUS has developed a novel method to enhance the precision of cancer treatment using gold nanoparticles tagged with DNA barcodes.
Led by Assistant Professor Andy Tay from the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Design and Engineering and Institute of Health Innovation & Technology at NUS, the study demonstrates how gold nanoparticles of specific shapes, such as triangles, excel in delivering therapeutic nucleic acids and heating tumour cells during photothermal therapy. These findings uncover the distinct preferences of tumour cells for certain nanoparticle configurations, which could enable the development of personalised cancer treatments that are safer and more effective.
The team’s novel technique, detailed in a paper published in Advanced Functional Materials on 24 November 2024, enables high-throughput screening of nanoparticle shapes, sizes and modifications, reducing associated screening costs. Beyond cancer treatment, the method has broader therapeutic applications, including RNA delivery and targeting diseases at the organ-specific level.
Size and shape matter
Gold is more than just bling. When reduced to about one-thousandth the width of human hair, gold nanoparticles shine as therapeutic agents for cancer therapy. For instance, specks of the precious metal are used in photothermal therapy, where particles delivered to the tumour site convert specific wavelengths of light to heat, killing surrounding cancer cells. Gold nanoparticles can also serve as messengers to deliver drugs directly to specific locations within a tumour.
“But for these gold nanoparticles to work, they first need to get into the targeted sites successfully,” said Asst Prof Tay. “Think of it as a delivery person with a special key — if the key doesn’t fit the lock, the package won’t get through.”
Achieving this level of precision requires finding the right nanoparticle design — its shape, size and surface properties must align with the preferences of target cells. However, existing screening methods to pinpoint optimal designs are akin to searching for needles in a haystack. Moreover, these methods often overlook the preferences of different cell types within a tumour, from immune to endothelial to cancer cells.
To tackle these challenges, the NUS researchers turned to DNA barcoding. Each nanoparticle is tagged with a unique DNA sequence, with which the researchers could tag and track individual designs, much like registering a parcel to be shipped by post in a delivery system. Importantly, these barcodes enabled the team to monitor multiple nanoparticle designs simultaneously in vivo, as their sequences could be easily extracted and analysed to locate the nanoparticles’ whereabouts within the body.
“We used thiol-functionalisation to securely anchor the DNA barcodes to the surface of the gold nanoparticles. This ensures the barcodes remain stable, resistant to enzymatic degradation and do not interfere with cellular uptake,” said Asst Prof Tay, highlighting an important novelty of the team’s work.
To demonstrate this, the researchers prepared nanoparticles in six different shapes and sizes, where their distribution and uptake across various cell types were monitored. They found that round nanoparticles, despite showing poor uptake in cell culture studies, were excellent in targeting tumours in preclinical models as they were less likely to be eliminated by the immune system. On the other hand, triangular nanoparticles excelled in both in vitro and in vivo tests, resulting in high cellular uptake and strong photothermal properties.
Making cancer treatments safer
The team’s work shines a light on nanoparticle interactions in biological systems and the need to bridge discrepancies between in vitro and in vivo findings, as evidenced by those revealed by the round gold nanoparticles. These insights could guide the development of shape-morphing nanoparticles or intermediate designs tailored to optimise different stages of drug delivery.
Additionally, the research also illuminates the untapped potential of exploring nanoparticle shapes beyond spheres, which dominate those approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The researchers’ DNA barcoding method could also extend to screen other inorganic nanoparticles such as iron and silica in vivo, broadening the scope for drug delivery and precision medicine.
Looking ahead, the researchers are expanding their nanoparticle library to include 30 designs to identify candidates capable of targeting subcellular organelles. Suitable ones will then be tested for their efficacy in gene silencing and photothermal therapy for breast cancer. Asst Prof Tay also shared that the findings could significantly improve our understanding of RNA biology and advance RNA delivery techniques, which are increasingly being applied in therapeutics for treatment of various diseases.
“We have addressed a key challenge in cancer treatment — delivering drugs specifically to cancer tissues with greater efficiency,” said Asst Prof Tay. “The Achilles’ heel of existing nanoparticle-based drugs is their assumption of uniform delivery across all organs, but the reality is that different organs respond differently. Designing optimally-shaped nanoparticles for organ-specific targeting enhances the safety and efficacy of nanotherapeutics for cancer treatment — and beyond.”
Buildings cost a lot these days. But when concrete buildings are being constructed, there’s another material that can make them less expensive: mud.
MIT researchers have developed a method to use lightly treated mud, including soil from a building site, as the “formwork” molds into which concrete is poured. The technique deploys 3D printing and can replace the more costly method of building elaborate wood formworks for concrete construction.
“What we’ve demonstrated is that we can essentially take the ground we’re standing on, or waste soil from a construction site, and transform it into accurate, highly complex, and flexible formwork for customized concrete structures,” says Sandy Curth, a PhD student in MIT’s Department of Architecture who has helped spearhead the project.
The approach could help concrete-based construction take place more quickly and efficiently. It could also reduce costs and carbon emissions.
“It has the potential for immediate impact and doesn’t require changing the nature of the construction industry,” says Curth, who doubles as director of the Programmable Mud Initiative.
Curth has co-authored multiple papers about the method, most recently, “EarthWorks: Zero waste 3D printed earthen formwork for shape-optimized, reinforced concrete construction,” published in the journal Construction and Building Materials. Curth wrote that paper with nine co-authors, including Natalie Pearl, Emily Wissemann, Tim Cousin, Latifa Alkhayat, Vincent Jackow, Keith Lee, and Oliver Moldow, all MIT students; and Mohamed Ismail of the University of Virginia.
The paper’s final two co-authors are Lawrence Sass, professor and chair of the Computation Group in MIT’s Department of Architecture, and Caitlin Mueller, an associate professor at MIT in the Department of Architecture and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Sass is Curth’s graduate advisor.
Building a structure once, not twice
Constructing wooden formwork for a building is costly and time-consuming. There is saying in the industry that concrete structures have to be built twice — once through the wooden formwork, then again in the concrete poured into the forms.
Using soil for the formwork could change that process. While it might seem like an unusual material compared to the solidity of wooden formwork, soil is firm enough to handle poured concrete. The EarthWorks method, as its known, introduces some additive materials, such as straw, and a wax-like coating for the soil material to prevent any water from draining out of the concrete. Using large-scale 3D printing, the researchers can take soil from a construction site and print it into a custom-designed formwork shape.
“What we’ve done is make a system where we are using what is largely straightforward, large-scale 3D printing technology, and making it highly functional for the material,” Curth says. “We found a way to make formwork that is infinitely recyclable. It’s just dirt.”
Beyond cost and ease of acquiring the materials, the method offers at least two other interrelated advantages. One is environmental: Concrete construction accounts for as much as 8 percent of global carbon emissions, and this approach supports substantial emissions reductions, both through the formwork material itself and the ease of shaping the resulting concrete to only use what is structurally required. Using a method called shape optimization, developed for reinforced concrete in previous research by Ismail and Mueller, it is possible to reduce the carbon emissions of concrete structural frames by more than 50 percent.
“The EarthWorks technique brings these complex, optimized structures much closer to built reality by offering a low-cost, low-carbon fabrication technique for formwork that can be deployed anywhere in the world,” Mueller says.
“It’s an enabling technology to make reinforced concrete buildings much, much more materially efficient, which has a direct impact on global carbon emissions,” Curth adds.
More generally, the EarthWorks method allows architects and engineers to create customized concrete shapes more easily, due to the flexibility of the formwork material. It is easier to cast concrete in an unusual shape when molding it with soil, not wood.
“What’s cool here is we’re able to make shape-optimized building elements for the same amount of time and energy it would take to make rectilinear building elements,” Curth says.
Group project
As Curth notes, the projects developed by the Programmable Mud group are highly collaborative. He emphasizes the roles played by both Sass, a leader in using computation to help develop low-cost housing, and Mueller, whose work also deploys new computational methods to assess innovative structural ideas in architecture.
“Concrete is a wonderful material when it is used thoughtfully and efficiently, which is inherently connected to how it is shaped,” Mueller says. “However, the minimal forms that emerge from optimization are at odds with conventional construction logics. It is very exciting to advance a technique that subverts this supposed tradeoff, showing that performance-driven complexity can be achieved with low carbon emissions and low cost.”
While finishing his doctorate at MIT, Curth has also founded a firm, FORMA Systems, through which he hopes to take the EarthWorks method into the construction industry. Using this approach does mean builders would need to have a large 3D printer on-site. However, they would also save significantly on materials costs, he says.
Further in the future, Curth envisions a time when the method could be used not just for formworks, but to construct templates for, say, two-story residential building made entirely out of earth. Of course, some parts of the world, including the U.S., extensively use adobe architecture already, but the idea here would be to systematize the production of such homes and make them inexpensive in the process.
In either case, Curth says, as formwork for concrete or by itself, we now have new ways to apply soil to construction.
“People have built with earth for as long as we’ve had buildings, but given contemporary demands for urban concrete buildings, this approach basically decouples cost from complexity,” Curth says. “I guarantee you we can start to make higher-performance buildings for less money.”
The project was supported by the Sidara Urban Research Seed Fund administered by MIT’s Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, and by lyndaLABS.
“What’s cool here is we’re able to make shape-optimized building elements for the same amount of time and energy it would take to make rectilinear building elements,” Sandy Curth says.
Several years ago, the residents of a manufactured-home neighborhood in southeast suburban Houston, not far from the Buffalo Bayou, took a major step in dealing with climate problems: They bought the land under their homes. Then they installed better drainage and developed strategies to share expertise and tools for home repairs. The result? The neighborhood made it through Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and a winter freeze in 2021 without major damage.
The neighborhood is part of a U.S. movement toward the Resident Owned Community (ROC) model for manufactured home parks. Many people in manufactured homes — mobile homes — do not own the land under them. But if the residents of a manufactured-home park can form an ROC, they can take action to adapt to climate risks — and ease the threat of eviction. With an ROC, manufactured-home residents can be there to stay.
That speaks to a larger issue: In cities, lower-income residents are often especially vulnerable to natural hazards, such as flooding, extreme heat, and wildfire. But efforts aimed at helping cities as a whole withstand these disasters can lead to interventions that displace already-disadvantaged residents — by turning a low-lying neighborhood into a storm buffer, for instance.
“The global climate crisis has very differential effects on cities, and neighborhoods within cities,” says Lawrence Vale, a professor of urban studies at MIT and co-author of a new book on the subject, “The Equitably Resilient City,” published by the MIT Press and co-authored with Zachary B. Lamb PhD ’18, an assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
In the book, the scholars delve into 12 case studies from around the globe which, they believe, have it both ways: Low- and middle-income communities have driven climate progress through tangible built projects, while also keeping people from being displaced, and indeed helping them participate in local governance and neighborhood decision-making.
“We can either dive into despair about climate issues, or think they’re solvable and ask what it takes to succeed in a more equitable way,” says Vale, who is the Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning at MIT. “This book is asking how people look at problems more holistically — to show how environmental impacts are integrated with their livelihoods, with feeling they can have security from displacement, and feeling they’re not going to be displaced, with being empowered to share in the governance where they live.”
As Lamb notes, “Pursuing equitable urban climate adaptation requires both changes in the physical built environment of cities and innovations in institutions and governance practices to address deep-seated causes of inequality.”
Twelve projects, four elements
Research for “The Equitably Resilient City” began with exploration of about 200 potential cases, and ultimately focused on 12 projects from around the globe, including the U.S., Brazil, Thailand, and France. Vale and Lamb, coordinating with locally-based research teams, visited these diverse sites and conducted interviews in nine languages.
All 12 projects work on multiple levels at once: They are steps toward environmental progress that also help local communities in civic and economic terms. The book uses the acronym LEGS (“livelihood, environment, governance, and security”) to encapsulate this need to make equitable progress on four different fronts.
“Doing one of those things well is worth recognition, and doing all of them well is exciting,” Vale says. “It’s important to understand not just what these communities did, but how they did it and whose views were involved. These 12 cases are not a random sample. The book looks for people who are partially succeeding at difficult things in difficult circumstances.”
One case study is set in São Paolo, Brazil, where low-income residents of a hilly favela benefitted from new housing in the area on undeveloped land that is less prone to slides. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, residents of low-lying neighborhoods abutting a water channel formed a durable set of community groups to create a fairer solution to flooding: Although the channel needed to be re-widened, the local coalition insisted on limiting displacement, supporting local livelihoods and improving environmental conditions and public space.
“There is a backlash to older practices,” Vale says, referring to the large-scale urban planning and infrastructure projects of the mid-20th century, which often ignored community input. “People saw what happened during the urban renewal era and said, ‘You’re not going to do that to us again.’”
Indeed, one through-line in “The Equitably Resilient City” is that cities, like all places, can be contested political terrain. Often, solid solutions emerge when local groups organize, advocate for new solutions, and eventually gain enough traction to enact them.
“Every one of our examples and cases has probably 15 or 20 years of activity behind it, as well as engagements with a much deeper history,” Vale says. “They’re all rooted in a very often troubled [political] context. And yet these are places that have made progress possible.”
Think locally, adapt anywhere
Another motif of “The Equitably Resilient City” is that local progress matters greatly, for a few reasons — including the value of having communities develop projects that meet their own needs, based on their input. Vale and Lamb are interested in projects even if they are very small-scale, and devote one chapter of the book to the Paris OASIS program, which has developed a series of cleverly designed, heavily tree-dotted school playgrounds across Paris. These projects provide environmental education opportunities and help mitigate flooding and urban heat while adding CO2-harnessing greenery to the cityscape.
An individual park, by itself, can only do so much, but the concept behind it can be adopted by anyone.
“This book is mostly centered on local projects rather than national schemes,” Vale says. “The hope is they serve as an inspiration for people to adapt to their own situations.”
After all, the urban geography and governance of places such as Paris or São Paulo will differ widely. But efforts to make improvements to public open space or to well-located inexpensive housing stock applies in cities across the world.
Similarly, the authors devote a chapter to work in the Cully neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, where community leaders have instituted a raft of urban environmental improvements while creating and preserving more affordable housing. The idea in the Cully area, as in all these cases, is to make places more resistant to climate change while enhancing them as good places to live for those already there.
“Climate adaptation is going to mobilize enormous public and private resources to reshape cities across the globe,” Lamb notes. “These cases suggest pathways where those resources can make cities both more resilient in the face of climate change and more equitable. In fact, these projects show how making cities more equitable can be part of making them more resilient.”
Other scholars have praised the book. Eric Klinenberg, director of New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge has called it “at once scholarly, constructive, and uplifting, a reminder that better, more just cities remain within our reach.”
Vale also teaches some of the book’s concepts in his classes, finding that MIT students, wherever they are from, enjoy the idea of thinking creatively about climate resilience.
“At MIT, students want to find ways of applying technical skills to urgent global challenges,” Vale says. “I do think there are many opportunities, especially at a time of climate crisis. We try to highlight some of the solutions that are out there. Give us an opportunity, and we’ll show you what a place can be.”
One year since becoming the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Raghavendran discusses Penn’s advancements from the past year, the purpose of a values statement, and Penn’s strengths as a cultivator of American leadership.
Samsung's newest smartphone will feature AI capabilities developed by Professors Boris Motik, Bernardo Cuenca Grau, Ian Horrocks, and Oxford Semantic Technologies
As the capabilities of generative AI models have grown, you've probably seen how they can transform simple text prompts into hyperrealistic images and even extended video clips.
More recently, generative AI has shown potential in helping chemists and biologists explore static molecules, like proteins and DNA. Models like AlphaFold can predict molecular structures to accelerate drug discovery, and the MIT-assisted “RFdiffusion,” for example, can help design new proteins. One challenge, though, is that molecules are constantly moving and jiggling, which is important to model when constructing new proteins and drugs. Simulating these motions on a computer using physics — a technique known as molecular dynamics — can be very expensive, requiring billions of time steps on supercomputers.
As a step toward simulating these behaviors more efficiently, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Department of Mathematics researchers have developed a generative model that learns from prior data. The team’s system, called MDGen, can take a frame of a 3D molecule and simulate what will happen next like a video, connect separate stills, and even fill in missing frames. By hitting the “play button” on molecules, the tool could potentially help chemists design new molecules and closely study how well their drug prototypes for cancer and other diseases would interact with the molecular structure it intends to impact.
Co-lead author Bowen Jing SM ’22 says that MDGen is an early proof of concept, but it suggests the beginning of an exciting new research direction. “Early on, generative AI models produced somewhat simple videos, like a person blinking or a dog wagging its tail,” says Jing, a PhD student at CSAIL. “Fast forward a few years, and now we have amazing models like Sora or Veo that can be useful in all sorts of interesting ways. We hope to instill a similar vision for the molecular world, where dynamics trajectories are the videos. For example, you can give the model the first and 10th frame, and it’ll animate what’s in between, or it can remove noise from a molecular video and guess what was hidden.”
The researchers say that MDGen represents a paradigm shift from previous comparable works with generative AI in a way that enables much broader use cases. Previous approaches were “autoregressive,” meaning they relied on the previous still frame to build the next, starting from the very first frame to create a video sequence. In contrast, MDGen generates the frames in parallel with diffusion. This means MDGen can be used to, for example, connect frames at the endpoints, or “upsample” a low frame-rate trajectory in addition to pressing play on the initial frame.
This work was presented in a paper shown at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) this past December. Last summer, it was awarded for its potential commercial impact at the International Conference on Machine Learning’s ML4LMS Workshop.
Some small steps forward for molecular dynamics
In experiments, Jing and his colleagues found that MDGen’s simulations were similar to running the physical simulations directly, while producing trajectories 10 to 100 times faster.
The team first tested their model’s ability to take in a 3D frame of a molecule and generate the next 100 nanoseconds. Their system pieced together successive 10-nanosecond blocks for these generations to reach that duration. The team found that MDGen was able to compete with the accuracy of a baseline model, while completing the video generation process in roughly a minute — a mere fraction of the three hours that it took the baseline model to simulate the same dynamic.
When given the first and last frame of a one-nanosecond sequence, MDGen also modeled the steps in between. The researchers’ system demonstrated a degree of realism in over 100,000 different predictions: It simulated more likely molecular trajectories than its baselines on clips shorter than 100 nanoseconds. In these tests, MDGen also indicated an ability to generalize on peptides it hadn’t seen before.
MDGen’s capabilities also include simulating frames within frames, “upsampling” the steps between each nanosecond to capture faster molecular phenomena more adequately. It can even “inpaint” structures of molecules, restoring information about them that was removed. These features could eventually be used by researchers to design proteins based on a specification of how different parts of the molecule should move.
Toying around with protein dynamics
Jing and co-lead author Hannes Stärk say that MDGen is an early sign of progress toward generating molecular dynamics more efficiently. Still, they lack the data to make these models immediately impactful in designing drugs or molecules that induce the movements chemists will want to see in a target structure.
The researchers aim to scale MDGen from modeling molecules to predicting how proteins will change over time. “Currently, we’re using toy systems,” says Stärk, also a PhD student at CSAIL. “To enhance MDGen’s predictive capabilities to model proteins, we’ll need to build on the current architecture and data available. We don’t have a YouTube-scale repository for those types of simulations yet, so we’re hoping to develop a separate machine-learning method that can speed up the data collection process for our model.”
For now, MDGen presents an encouraging path forward in modeling molecular changes invisible to the naked eye. Chemists could also use these simulations to delve deeper into the behavior of medicine prototypes for diseases like cancer or tuberculosis.
“Machine learning methods that learn from physical simulation represent a burgeoning new frontier in AI for science,” says Bonnie Berger, MIT Simons Professor of Mathematics, CSAIL principal investigator, and senior author on the paper. “MDGen is a versatile, multipurpose modeling framework that connects these two domains, and we’re very excited to share our early models in this direction.”
“Sampling realistic transition paths between molecular states is a major challenge,” says fellow senior author Tommi Jaakkola, who is the MIT Thomas Siebel Professor of electrical engineering and computer science and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, and a CSAIL principal investigator. “This early work shows how we might begin to address such challenges by shifting generative modeling to full simulation runs.”
Researchers across the field of bioinformatics have heralded this system for its ability to simulate molecular transformations. “MDGen models molecular dynamics simulations as a joint distribution of structural embeddings, capturing molecular movements between discrete time steps,” says Chalmers University of Technology associate professor Simon Olsson, who wasn’t involved in the research. “Leveraging a masked learning objective, MDGen enables innovative use cases such as transition path sampling, drawing analogies to inpainting trajectories connecting metastable phases.”
The researchers’ work on MDGen was supported, in part, by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Machine Learning for Pharmaceutical Discovery and Synthesis Consortium, the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
By hitting the “play button” on molecules, MDGen could potentially help chemists design new molecules and closely study how well their drug prototypes for cancer and other diseases would interact with the molecular structure it intends to impact.
MIT physicists have created a new ultrathin, two-dimensional material with unusual magnetic properties that initially surprised the researchers before they went on to solve the complicated puzzle behind those properties’ emergence. As a result, the work introduces a new platform for studying how materials behave at the most fundamental level — the world of quantum physics.
Ultrathin materials made of a single layer of atoms have riveted scientists’ attention since the discovery of the first such material — graphene, composed of carbon — about 20 years ago. Among other advances since then, researchers have found that stacking individual sheets of the 2D materials, and sometimes twisting them at a slight angle to each other, can give them new properties, from superconductivity to magnetism. Enter the field of twistronics, which was pioneered at MIT by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at MIT.
In the current research, reported in the Jan. 7 issue of Nature Physics, the scientists, led by Jarillo-Herrero, worked with three layers of graphene. Each layer was twisted on top of the next at the same angle, creating a helical structure akin to the DNA helix or a hand of three cards that are fanned apart.
“Helicity is a fundamental concept in science, from basic physics to chemistry and molecular biology. With 2D materials, one can create special helical structures, with novel properties which we are just beginning to understand. This work represents a new twist in the field of twistronics, and the community is very excited to see what else we can discover using this helical materials platform!” says Jarillo-Herrero, who is also affiliated with MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory.
Do the twist
Twistronics can lead to new properties in ultrathin materials because arranging sheets of 2D materials in this way results in a unique pattern called a moiré lattice. And a moiré pattern, in turn, has an impact on the behavior of electrons.
“It changes the spectrum of energy levels available to the electrons and can provide the conditions for interesting phenomena to arise,” says Sergio C. de la Barrera, one of three co-first authors of the recent paper. De la Barrera, who conducted the work while a postdoc at MIT, is now an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
In the current work, the helical structure created by the three graphene layers forms two moiré lattices. One is created by the first two overlapping sheets; the other is formed between the second and third sheets.
The two moiré patterns together form a third moiré, a supermoiré, or “moiré of a moiré,” says Li-Qiao Xia, a graduate student in MIT physics and another of the three co-first authors of the Nature Physics paper. “It’s like a moiré hierarchy.” While the first two moiré patterns are only nanometers, or billionths of a meter, in scale, the supermoiré appears at a scale of hundreds of nanometers superimposed over the other two. You can only see it if you zoom out to get a much wider view of the system.
A major surprise
The physicists expected to observe signatures of this moiré hierarchy. They got a huge surprise, however, when they applied and varied a magnetic field. The system responded with an experimental signature for magnetism, one that arises from the motion of electrons. In fact, this orbital magnetism persisted to -263 degrees Celsius — the highest temperature reported in carbon-based materials to date.
But that magnetism can only occur in a system that lacks a specific symmetry — one that the team’s new material should have had. “So the fact that we saw this was very puzzling. We didn’t really understand what was going on,” says Aviram Uri, an MIT Pappalardo postdoc in physics and the third co-first author of the new paper.
Other authors of the paper include MIT professor of physics Liang Fu; Aaron Sharpe of Sandia National Laboratories; Yves H. Kwan of Princeton University; Ziyan Zhu, David Goldhaber-Gordon, and Trithep Devakul of Stanford University; and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi of the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan.
What was happening?
It turns out that the new system did indeed break the symmetry that prohibits the orbital magnetism the team observed, but in a very unusual way. “What happens is that the atoms in this system aren’t very comfortable, so they move in a subtle orchestrated way that we call lattice relaxation,” says Xia. And the new structure formed by that relaxation does indeed break the symmetry locally, on the moiré length scale.
This opens the possibility for the orbital magnetism the team observed. However, if you zoom out to view the system on the supermoiré scale, the symmetry is restored. “The moiré hierarchy turns out to support interesting phenomena at different length scales,” says de la Barrera.
Concludes Uri: “It’s a lot of fun when you solve a riddle and it’s such an elegant solution. We’ve gained new insights into how electrons behave in these complex systems, insights that we couldn’t have had unless our experimental observations forced to think about these things.”
This work was supported by the Army Research Office, the National Science Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Ross M. Brown Family Foundation, an MIT Pappalardo Fellowship, the VATAT Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellowship in Quantum Science and Technology, the JSPS KAKENHI, and a Stanford Science Fellowship.
MIT physicists have created an ultrathin, two-dimensional material with unusual magnetic properties. Left to right: Sergio C. de la Barrera, Li-Qiao Xia, and Aviram Uri, co-first authors of a new paper presenting the research.
Harvard partners with national nonprofit to recruit high-achieving low-income students
First QuestBridge Scholars will matriculate in fall 2026
2 min read
Harvard University has announced a new partnership with QuestBridge, a national nonprofit program that connects high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds with top liberal arts colleges and research universities with a promise of full financial aid for four years. This new effort, said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William Fitzsimmons, will help strengthen Harvard Admissions’ outreach to recruit the most exceptional students from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.
“The Harvard College Office of Admissions and Financial Aid is committed to bringing the most promising students to Harvard from all socioeconomic backgrounds. We are excited to partner with QuestBridge,” said Fitzsimmons. “We look forward to working together to attract the nation’s brightest students from low-income backgrounds and enhancing our efforts to provide educational opportunities to talented students everywhere.”
“Harvard’s world-class financial aid allows any talented student to attend, if admitted, and our relationship with QuestBridge greatly expands our reach around the country.”
Jake Kaufmann, Griffin Director of Financial Aid
Beginning in the fall, Harvard will be part of the QuestBridge National College Match program, a college and scholarship application process that matches QuestBridge’s finalist students with admission and four-year scholarships to its college partners. Finalists can list up to 15 partner institutions during the match process, and typically receive match results in early December. Finalists who do not match with any institutions may then apply to any college or university through their regular-decision programs. Harvard’s first QuestBridge Scholars will matriculate in fall 2026.
“QuestBridge has created an attractive program for extraordinary high school students from less-resourced families to navigate the application process at many top colleges. We hope that by joining QuestBridge, we have created another compelling opportunity to consider Harvard,” said Director of Admissions Joy St. John.
“Harvard’s world-class financial aid allows any talented student to attend, if admitted, and our relationship with QuestBridge greatly expands our reach around the country,” said Jake Kaufmann, Griffin Director of Financial Aid.
“We are delighted that Harvard College has joined the QuestBridge partnership. A campus dedicated to the power of a liberal arts and sciences education that strives to educate citizen-leaders is an excellent place for our scholars to call home,” said Ana Rowena Mallari, co-founder and CEO of QuestBridge.
For more information about how Harvard works with QuestBridge, visit our Admissions page.
Will be recognized for her barrier-breaking career
2 min read
Academy Award-winning actress and filmmaker Jodie Foster will receive the Radcliffe Medal on May 9, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute announced Thursday.
Each year, the institute awards the medal to an individual who embodies Radcliffe’s commitment to excellence and impact. The medal was first awarded to Lena Horne in 1987; recent honorees include Sonia Sotomayor, Ophelia Dahl, Sherrilyn Ifill, Melinda French Gates, and Dolores Huerta.
In making its announcement, Radcliffe noted that Foster will be honored for her barrier-breaking career, which has contributed to important progress in an industry that has long been male dominated, inspiring countless individuals in and beyond her field. In addition to her work in front of and behind the camera, she has advanced efforts to improve the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ young people.
The afternoon program will begin with a panel on the representation of women in film, featuring industry and scholarly perspectives on gender and age stereotypes, role modeling, the role of cinema in illuminating social issues and creating change, and future opportunities for progress and creativity. Following a testimonial, Foster will engage in a keynote conversation with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. The program will conclude with the formal award presentation by Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and a community reception for all registered in-person attendees.
Additional event and registration details will be available in March. Please note that Radcliffe Day 2025 will occur in advance of Harvard University Commencement Week (May 26–30).
MIT physicists have created a new ultrathin, two-dimensional material with unusual magnetic properties that initially surprised the researchers before they went on to solve the complicated puzzle behind those properties’ emergence. As a result, the work introduces a new platform for studying how materials behave at the most fundamental level — the world of quantum physics.
Ultrathin materials made of a single layer of atoms have riveted scientists’ attention since the discovery of the first such material — graphene, composed of carbon — about 20 years ago. Among other advances since then, researchers have found that stacking individual sheets of the 2D materials, and sometimes twisting them at a slight angle to each other, can give them new properties, from superconductivity to magnetism. Enter the field of twistronics, which was pioneered at MIT by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at MIT.
In the current research, reported in the Jan. 7 issue of Nature Physics, the scientists, led by Jarillo-Herrero, worked with three layers of graphene. Each layer was twisted on top of the next at the same angle, creating a helical structure akin to the DNA helix or a hand of three cards that are fanned apart.
“Helicity is a fundamental concept in science, from basic physics to chemistry and molecular biology. With 2D materials, one can create special helical structures, with novel properties which we are just beginning to understand. This work represents a new twist in the field of twistronics, and the community is very excited to see what else we can discover using this helical materials platform!” says Jarillo-Herrero, who is also affiliated with MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory.
Do the twist
Twistronics can lead to new properties in ultrathin materials because arranging sheets of 2D materials in this way results in a unique pattern called a moiré lattice. And a moiré pattern, in turn, has an impact on the behavior of electrons.
“It changes the spectrum of energy levels available to the electrons and can provide the conditions for interesting phenomena to arise,” says Sergio C. de la Barrera, one of three co-first authors of the recent paper. De la Barrera, who conducted the work while a postdoc at MIT, is now an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
In the current work, the helical structure created by the three graphene layers forms two moiré lattices. One is created by the first two overlapping sheets; the other is formed between the second and third sheets.
The two moiré patterns together form a third moiré, a supermoiré, or “moiré of a moiré,” says Li-Qiao Xia, a graduate student in MIT physics and another of the three co-first authors of the Nature Physics paper. “It’s like a moiré hierarchy.” While the first two moiré patterns are only nanometers, or billionths of a meter, in scale, the supermoiré appears at a scale of hundreds of nanometers superimposed over the other two. You can only see it if you zoom out to get a much wider view of the system.
A major surprise
The physicists expected to observe signatures of this moiré hierarchy. They got a huge surprise, however, when they applied and varied a magnetic field. The system responded with an experimental signature for magnetism, one that arises from the motion of electrons. In fact, this orbital magnetism persisted to -263 degrees Celsius — the highest temperature reported in carbon-based materials to date.
But that magnetism can only occur in a system that lacks a specific symmetry — one that the team’s new material should have had. “So the fact that we saw this was very puzzling. We didn’t really understand what was going on,” says Aviram Uri, an MIT Pappalardo postdoc in physics and the third co-first author of the new paper.
Other authors of the paper include MIT professor of physics Liang Fu; Aaron Sharpe of Sandia National Laboratories; Yves H. Kwan of Princeton University; Ziyan Zhu, David Goldhaber-Gordon, and Trithep Devakul of Stanford University; and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi of the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan.
What was happening?
It turns out that the new system did indeed break the symmetry that prohibits the orbital magnetism the team observed, but in a very unusual way. “What happens is that the atoms in this system aren’t very comfortable, so they move in a subtle orchestrated way that we call lattice relaxation,” says Xia. And the new structure formed by that relaxation does indeed break the symmetry locally, on the moiré length scale.
This opens the possibility for the orbital magnetism the team observed. However, if you zoom out to view the system on the supermoiré scale, the symmetry is restored. “The moiré hierarchy turns out to support interesting phenomena at different length scales,” says de la Barrera.
Concludes Uri: “It’s a lot of fun when you solve a riddle and it’s such an elegant solution. We’ve gained new insights into how electrons behave in these complex systems, insights that we couldn’t have had unless our experimental observations forced to think about these things.”
This work was supported by the Army Research Office, the National Science Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Ross M. Brown Family Foundation, an MIT Pappalardo Fellowship, the VATAT Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellowship in Quantum Science and Technology, the JSPS KAKENHI, and a Stanford Science Fellowship.
MIT physicists have created an ultrathin, two-dimensional material with unusual magnetic properties. Left to right: Sergio C. de la Barrera, Li-Qiao Xia, and Aviram Uri, co-first authors of a new paper presenting the research.
MIT.nano has announced seven new companies to join START.nano, a program aimed at speeding the transition of hard-tech innovation to market. The program supports new ventures through discounted use of MIT.nano’s facilities and access to the MIT innovation ecosystem.
The advancements pursued by the newly engages startups include wearables for health care, green alternatives to fossil fuel-based energy, novel battery technologies, enhancements in data systems, and interconnecting nanofabrication knowledge networks, among others.
“The transition of the grand idea that is imagined in the laboratory to something that a million people can use in their hands is a journey fraught with many challenges,” MIT.nano Director Vladimir Bulović said at the 2024 Nano Summit, where nine START.nano companies presented their work. The program provides resources to ease startups over the first two hurdles — finding stakeholders and building a well-developed prototype.
In addition to access to laboratory tools necessary to advance their technologies, START.nano companies receive advice from MIT.nano expert staff, are connected to MIT.nano Consortium companies, gain a broader exposure at MIT conferences and community events, and are eligible to join the MIT Startup Exchange.
“MIT.nano has allowed us to push our project to the frontiers of sensing by implementing advanced fabrication techniques using their machinery,” said Uroš Kuzmanović, CEO and founder of Biosens8. “START.nano has surrounded us with exciting peers, a strong support system, and a spotlight to present our work. By taking advantage of all that the program has to offer, BioSens8 is moving faster than we could anywhere else.”
Here are the seven new START.nano participants:
Analog Photonicsis developing lidar and optical communications technology using silicon photonics.
Biosens8 is engineering novel devices to enable health ownership. Their research focuses on multiplexed wearables for hormones, neurotransmitters, organ health markers, and drug use that will give insight into the body's health state, opening the door to personalized medicine and proactive, data-driven health decisions.
Casimir, Inc.is working on power-generating nanotechnology that interacts with quantum fields to create a continuous source of power. The team compares their technology to a solar panel that works in the dark or a battery that never needs to be recharged.
Central Spiral focuses on lossless data compression. Their technology allows for the compression of any type of data, including those that are already compressed, reducing data storage and transmission costs, lowering carbon dioxide emissions, and enhancing efficiency.
FabuBlox connects stakeholders across the nanofabrication ecosystem and resolves issues of scattered, unorganized, and isolated fab knowledge. Their cloud-based platform combines a generative process design and simulation interface with GitHub-like repository building capabilities.
Metal Fuels is converting industrial waste aluminum to onsite energy and high-value aluminum/aluminum-oxide powders. Their approach combines existing mature technologies of molten metal purification and water atomization to develop a self-sustaining reactor that produces alumina of higher value than our input scrap aluminum feedstock, while also collecting the hydrogen off-gas.
PolyJoule, Inc. is an energy storage startup working on conductive polymer battery technology. The team’s goal is a grid battery of the future that is ultra-safe, sustainable, long living, and low-cost.
In addition to the seven startups that are actively using MIT.nano, nine other companies have been invited to join the latest START.nano cohort:
Acorn Genetics
American Boronite Corp.
Copernic Catalysts
Envoya Bio
Helix Carbon
Minerali
Plaid Semiconductors
Quantum Network Technologies
Wober Tech
Launched in 2021, START.nano now comprises over 20 companies and eight graduates — ventures that have moved beyond the initial startup stages and some into commercialization.
A new experimental vaccine developed by researchers at MIT and Caltech could offer protection against emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, as well as related coronaviruses, known as sarbecoviruses, that could spill over from animals to humans.
In addition to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, sarbecoviruses — a subgenus of coronaviruses — include the virus that led to the outbreak of the original SARS in the early 2000s. Sarbecoviruses that currently circulate in bats and other mammals may also hold the potential to spread to humans in the future.
By attaching up to eight different versions of sarbecovirus receptor-binding proteins (RBDs) to nanoparticles, the researchers created a vaccine that generates antibodies that recognize regions of RBDs that tend to remain unchanged across all strains of the viruses. That makes it much more difficult for viruses to evolve to escape vaccine-induced antibodies.
“This work is an example of how bringing together computation and immunological experiments can be fruitful,” says Arup K. Chakraborty, the John M. Deutch Institute Professor at MIT and a member of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and the Ragon Institute of MIT, MGH and Harvard University.
Chakraborty and Pamela Bjorkman, a professor of biology and biological engineering at Caltech, are the senior authors of the study, which appears today in Cell. The paper’s lead authors are Eric Wang PhD ’24, Caltech postdoc Alexander Cohen, and Caltech graduate student Luis Caldera.
Mosaic nanoparticles
The new study builds on a project begun in Bjorkman’s lab, in which she and Cohen created a “mosaic” 60-mer nanoparticle that presents eight different sarbecovirus RBD proteins. The RBD is the part of the viral spike protein that helps the virus get into host cells. It is also the region of the coronavirus spike protein that is usually targeted by antibodies against sarbecoviruses.
RBDs contain some regions that are variable and can easily mutate to escape antibodies. Most of the antibodies generated by mRNA COVID-19 vaccines target those variable regions because they are more easily accessible. That is one reason why mRNA vaccines need to be updated to keep up with the emergence of new strains.
If researchers could create a vaccine that stimulates production of antibodies that target RBD regions that can’t easily change and are shared across viral strains, it could offer broader protection against a variety of sarbecoviruses.
Such a vaccine would have to stimulate B cells that have receptors (which then become antibodies) that target those shared, or “conserved,” regions. When B cells circulating in the body encounter a vaccine or other antigen, their B cell receptors, each of which have two “arms,” are more effectively activated if two copies of the antigen are available for binding to each arm. The conserved regions tend to be less accessible to B cell receptors, so if a nanoparticle vaccine presents just one type of RBD, B cells with receptors that bind to the more accessible variable regions, are most likely to be activated.
To overcome this, the Caltech researchers designed a nanoparticle vaccine that includes 60 copies of RBDs from eight different related sarbecoviruses, which have different variable regions but similar conserved regions. Because eight different RBDs are displayed on each nanoparticle, it’s unlikely that two identical RBDs will end up next to each other. Therefore, when a B cell receptor encounters the nanoparticle immunogen, the B cell is more likely to become activated if its receptor can recognize the conserved regions of the RBD.
“The concept behind the vaccine is that by co-displaying all these different RBDs on the nanoparticle, you are selecting for B cells that recognize the conserved regions that are shared between them,” Cohen says. “As a result, you’re selecting for B cells that are more cross-reactive. Therefore, the antibody response would be more cross-reactive and you could potentially get broader protection.”
In studies conducted in animals, the researchers showed that this vaccine, known as mosaic-8, produced strong antibody responses against diverse strains of SARS-CoV-2 and other sarbecoviruses and protected from challenges by both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV (original SARS).
Broadly neutralizing antibodies
After these studies were published in 2021 and 2022, the Caltech researchers teamed up with Chakraborty’s lab at MIT to pursue computational strategies that could allow them to identify RBD combinations that would generate even better antibody responses against a wider variety of sarbecoviruses.
Led by Wang, the MIT researchers pursued two different strategies — first, a large-scale computational screen of many possible mutations to the RBD of SARS-CoV-2, and second, an analysis of naturally occurring RBD proteins from zoonotic sarbecoviruses.
For the first approach, the researchers began with the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and generated sequences of about 800,000 RBD candidates by making substitutions in locations that are known to affect antibody binding to variable portions of the RBD. Then, they screened those candidates for their stability and solubility, to make sure they could withstand attachment to the nanoparticle and injection as a vaccine.
From the remaining candidates, the researchers chose 10 based on how different their variable regions were. They then used these to create mosaic nanoparticles coated with either two or five different RBD proteins (mosaic-2COM and mosaic-5COM).
In their second approach, instead of mutating the RBD sequences, the researchers chose seven naturally occurring RBD proteins, using computational techniques to select RBDs that were different from each other in regions that are variable, but retained their conserved regions. They used these to create another vaccine, mosaic-7COM.
Once the researchers produced the RBD-nanoparticles, they evaluated each one in mice. After each mouse received three doses of one of the vaccines, the researchers analyzed how well the resulting antibodies bound to and neutralized seven variants of SARS-CoV-2 and four other sarbecoviruses.
They also compared the mosaic nanoparticle vaccines to a nanoparticle with only one type of RBD displayed, and to the original mosaic-8 particle from their 2021, 2022, and 2024 studies. They found that mosaic-2COM and mosaic-5COM outperformed both of those vaccines, and mosaic-7COM showed the best responses of all. Mosaic-7COM elicited antibodies with binding to most of the viruses tested, and these antibodies were also able to prevent the viruses from entering cells.
The researchers saw similar results when they tested the new vaccines in mice that were previously vaccinated with a bivalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
“We wanted to simulate the fact that people have already been infected and/or vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2,” Wang says. “In pre-vaccinated mice, mosaic-7COM is consistently giving the highest binding titers for both SARS-CoV-2 variants and other sarbecoviruses.”
Bjorkman’s lab has received funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to do a clinical trial of the mosaic-8 RBD-nanoparticle. They also hope to move mosaic-7COM, which performed better in the current study, into clinical trials. The researchers plan to work on redesigning the vaccines so that they could be delivered as mRNA, which would make them easier to manufacture.
The research was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Leap, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the Caltech Merkin Institute for Translational Research.
As part of a £69 million funding programme supported by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), Professor George Malliaras from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering will co-lead a project that uses small clusters of brain cells called midbrain organoids to develop a new type of brain implant, which will be tested in animal models of Parkinson’s disease.
The project led by Malliaras and Professor Roger Barker from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, which involves colleagues from the University of Oxford, the University of Lund and BIOS Health, is one of 18 projects funded by ARIA as part of its Precision Neurotechnologies programme, which is supporting research teams across academia, non-profit R&D organisations, and startups dedicated to advancing brain-computer interface technologies.
The programme will direct £69 million over four years to unlock new methods for interfacing with the human brain at the neural circuit level, to treat many of the most complex neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, from Alzheimer’s to epilepsy to depression.
By addressing bottlenecks in funding and the lack of precision offered by current approaches, the outputs of this programme will pave the way for addressing a much broader range of conditions than ever before, significantly reducing the social and economic impact of brain disorders across the UK.
Parkinson’s disease occurs when the brain cells that make dopamine (a chemical that helps control movement) die off, causing movement problems and other symptoms. Current treatments, like dopamine-based drugs, work well early on, but can cause serious side effects over time.
In the UK, 130,000 people have Parkinson’s disease, and it costs affected families about £16,000 per year on average – more than £2 billion in the UK annually. As more people age, the number of cases will grow, and new treatments are urgently needed.
One idea is to replace the lost dopamine cells by transplanting new ones into the brain. But these cells need to connect properly to the brain’s network to fix the problem, and current methods don’t fully achieve that.
In the ARIA-funded project, Malliaras and his colleagues are working on a new approach using small clusters of brain cells called midbrain organoids. These will be placed in the right part of the brain in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease. They’ll also use advanced materials and electrical stimulation to help the new cells connect and rebuild the damaged pathways.
“Our ultimate goal is to create precise brain therapies that can restore normal brain function in people with Parkinson’s,” said Malliaras.
“To date, there’s been little serious investment into methodologies that interface precisely with the human brain, beyond ‘brute force’ approaches or highly invasive implants,” said ARIA Programme Director Jacques Carolan. “We’re showing that it’s possible to develop elegant means of understanding, identifying, and treating many of the most complex and devastating brain disorders. Ultimately, this could deliver transformative impact for people with lived experiences of brain disorders.”
Other teams funded by the programme include one at Imperial College London who is developing an entirely new class of biohybridised technology focused on engineering transplanted neurons with bioelectric components. A Glasgow-led team will build advanced neural robots for closed-loop neuromodulation, specifically targeting epilepsy treatment, while London-based Navira will develop a technology for delivering gene therapies across the blood-brain barrier, a crucial step towards developing safer and more effective treatments.
Adapted from an ARIA media release.
Cambridge researchers are developing implants that could help repair the brain pathways damaged by Parkinson’s disease.
Our ultimate goal is to create precise brain therapies that can restore normal brain function in people with Parkinson’s
The study will lead to new guidance encouraging both the comics industry and enthusiasts to make comics communities better places for neurodivergent fans and artists. It is being led by academics at the University’s Faculty of Education and will begin this month with an open, online survey aimed at autistic comics fans.
Research by the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) – which will also be part of the collaboration – indicates that hundreds of young people self-identifying as neurodivergent are involved in Britain’s comics community, either as fans or creators.
The CCIC also suggests, however, that neurodivergent enthusiasts often find spaces like fan conventions, comic book stores, online communities and the comics industry less than welcoming, and frequently feel ‘siloed’. How to address that – and what it is about comics that attracts so many autistic people in the first place – have never been fully explored.
The online survey will begin to answer these questions by collecting information from autistic comics fans and creators. Professor Jenny Gibson, an expert in neurodiversity and autism and one of the project’s academic leads, described it as “kick-starting a wider conversation about comics and autism”.
“Comics seem to have massive appeal for a surprising number of autistic people, and many of them are not just fans but enormously talented cartoonists, artists and illustrators,” Gibson said.
“This is something the comics community is increasingly aware of, and there is a lot of enthusiasm for becoming better allies for autistic people. What we lack is information about how we can best do that, partly because we don’t know enough about the perspectives and experiences of autistic comics enthusiasts.”
The project is called ‘The Collaboration for Comics and Autism’. As well as the CCIC, Gibson and co-lead Dr Joe Sutliff Sanders will be working with the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Dekko Comics (a specialist publisher supporting neurodivergent learners), the Association of Illustrators, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration and autistic cartoonists Bex Ollerton and Eliza Fricker.
Beyond this, they want to involve as many autistic artists and fans as possible by gathering their experiences of engaging with comics culture and of the opportunities and barriers they have encountered.
Various explanations have been proposed for why comics seem to have such appeal for autistic people. Dekko Comics argues on its website that many autistic young people, who may often find verbal communication challenging, respond positively to the clear and accessible sensory material in comics, which may be an important bridge between their inner and outer worlds. Research by Dr Neil Cohn suggests that over 90% of children with autism spectrum disorder and language disorders enjoy comics, compared with about 60% of neurotypical children.
Comics and art also provide many autistic people with a valuable outlet for self-expression. The Cambridge project, for example, originated from a workshop at the People’s History Museum in Manchester for autistic comics artists, which Gibson and Sanders co-led with the editor of Sensory: Life on the Spectrum, an anthology by dozens of autistic creators.
Sanders, a leading comics scholar, also highlights the richly detailed imaginative world of comics in which fans immerse themselves, often becoming aficionados in the process. This may mean comics are particularly well suited to helping autistic people satisfy psychological needs that we all share, such as the need for a sense of belonging, competence, and having control over our own lives.
“Comics have the power to spark a particular kind of obsession and passion among fans,” Sanders said. “They enable a sort of flow state; that pure joy that comes from losing yourself in something that you find interesting and engaging. They are almost ready-made for accumulating knowledge and sharing it with like-minded people who will really value what you have to say.”
“The problem is that, like so many other parts of society, fan conventions and communities – and the comics industry as a whole – can sometimes inadvertently brush aside neurodivergent people. We need to understand what we can do differently in order to make this world as inclusive and accessible as possible.”
The results of the online survey will provide the basis for a series of workshops in Cambridge later this year, during which artists, fans and people involved in the industry will begin to develop a best-practice guide for autistic inclusion.
Gibson and Sanders plan to launch it at the Lakes International Festival in September. The guide will also be distributed to a wider network including fan groups, publishers, galleries and professional bodies. It will be released as a comic book, and its impact will be tested through a follow-up survey so that it can be refined as necessary in future editions.
“Too often the question of how to support autistic people is addressed from a deficit perspective, as if the problem is that they lack neurotypical skills,” Gibson said. “This project will flip that perspective. By learning more about how autistic fans connect with comics, we will begin to understand what we can do differently to make the most of their knowledge, talents and enthusiasm.”
Autistic people in the UK are being invited to participate in a University of Cambridge-led project exploring the uniquely powerful connection between autism and comics.
Too often the question of how to support autistic people is addressed from a deficit perspective
Location data allows rich insights into private details about our lives: where we live and work, how we spend our free time and what is important to us, says Nina Wiedemann. This poses a considerable security risk – even if we have nothing to hide.
Through global trips and weekly seminars, the program centers students’ interests in global policy to help solve real-world problems, and the students gain one-of-a-kind experience along the way.
Steven Strang, a writer and literary scholar who founded MIT’s Writing and Communication Center in 1981 and directed it for 40 years, died with family at his side on Dec. 29, 2024. He was 77.
His vision for the center was ambitious. After an MIT working group identified gaps between the students’ technical knowledge and their ability to communicate it — particularly once in positions of leadership — Strang advocated an even broader approach rarely used at other universities. Rather than student-tutors working with peers, Strang hired instructors with doctorates, subject matter expertise, and teaching experience to help train all MIT community members for the current and future careers becoming increasingly reliant on persuasion and the need to communicate with varied audiences.
“He made an indelible mark on the MIT community,” wrote current director Elena Kallestinova in a message to WCC staff soon after Strang’s death. “He was deeply respected as a leader, educator, mentor, and colleague.”
Beginning his professional life as a journalist with the Bangor Daily News, Strang soon shifted to academia, receiving a PhD in English from Brown University and over the decades publishing countless pieces of fiction, poetry, and criticism, in addition to his pedagogical articles on writing and rhetoric.
But the Writing and Communication Center is his legacy. At a retirement party, longtime MIT lecturer and colleague Thalia Rubio called the WCC “Steve’s creation,” pointing out that it went on to serve many thousands of students and others. Another colleague, Bob Irwin, described in a note Strang’s commitment to making the WCC “a place that offered both friendliness and the highest professional standards of advice and consultation on all communication tasks and issues. Steve himself was conscientious, a respectful director, and a warm and reliable mentor to me and others. I think he was exemplary in his job.”
MIT recognized Strang’s major contributions with a Levitan Teaching Award, an Infinite Mile Award, and an Excellence Award. In nomination letters and testimonials, students and peers alike told of a “tireless commitment,” that “they might not have graduated, or been hired to the job they have today, or gained admittance to graduate school had it not been for the help of The Writing Center.”
Strang is also remembered for his work founding the MIT Writers Group, which he first offered as a creative writing workshop for Independent Activities Period in 2002. In yet another example of Strang recognizing and meeting a community need, about 70 people from across the Institute showed up that first year.
Materials like car tires, human tissues, and spider webs are diverse in composition, but all contain networks of interconnected strands. A long-standing question about the durability of these materials asks: What is the energy required to fracture these diverse networks? A recently published paper by MIT researchers offers new insights.
“Our findings reveal a simple, general law that governs the fracture energy of networks across various materials and length scales,” says Xuanhe Zhao, the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor and professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at MIT. “This discovery has significant implications for the design of new materials, structures, and metamaterials, allowing for the creation of systems that are incredibly tough, soft, and stretchable.”
Despite an established understanding of the importance of failure resistance in design of such networks, no existing physical model effectively linked strand mechanics and connectivity to predict bulk fracture — until now. This new research reveals a universal scaling law that bridges length scales and makes it possible to predict the intrinsic fracture energy of diverse networks.
“This theory helps us predict how much energy it takes to break these networks by advancing a crack,” says graduate student Chase Hartquist, one of the paper’s lead authors. “It turns out that you can design tougher versions of these materials by making the strands longer, more stretchable, or resistant to higher forces before breaking.”
To validate their results, the team 3D-printed a giant, stretchable network, allowing them to demonstrate fracture properties in practice. They found that despite the differences in the networks, they all followed a simple and predictable rule. Beyond the changes to the strands themselves, a network can also be toughened by connecting the strands into larger loops.
“By adjusting these properties, car tires could last longer, tissues could better resist injury, and spider webs could become more durable,” says Hartquist.
Shu Wang, a postdoc in Zhao’s lab and fellow lead author of the paper, called the research findings “an extremely fulfilling moment ... it meant that the same rules could be applied to describe a wide variety of materials, making it easier to design the best material for a given situation.”
The researchers explain that this work represents progress in an exciting and emerging field called “architected materials,” where the structure within the material itself gives it unique properties. They say the discovery sheds light on how to make these materials even tougher, by focusing on designing the segments within the architecture stronger and more stretchable. The strategy is adaptable for materials across fields and can be applied to improve durability of soft robotic actuators, enhance the toughness of engineered tissues, or even create resilient lattices for aerospace technology.
To validate their results on research relating to networks of interconnected strands, an MIT team 3D-printed a giant, stretchable network that demonstrated fracture properties in practice.
Materials like car tires, human tissues, and spider webs are diverse in composition, but all contain networks of interconnected strands. A long-standing question about the durability of these materials asks: What is the energy required to fracture these diverse networks? A recently published paper by MIT researchers offers new insights.
“Our findings reveal a simple, general law that governs the fracture energy of networks across various materials and length scales,” says Xuanhe Zhao, the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor and professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at MIT. “This discovery has significant implications for the design of new materials, structures, and metamaterials, allowing for the creation of systems that are incredibly tough, soft, and stretchable.”
Despite an established understanding of the importance of failure resistance in design of such networks, no existing physical model effectively linked strand mechanics and connectivity to predict bulk fracture — until now. This new research reveals a universal scaling law that bridges length scales and makes it possible to predict the intrinsic fracture energy of diverse networks.
“This theory helps us predict how much energy it takes to break these networks by advancing a crack,” says graduate student Chase Hartquist, one of the paper’s lead authors. “It turns out that you can design tougher versions of these materials by making the strands longer, more stretchable, or resistant to higher forces before breaking.”
To validate their results, the team 3D-printed a giant, stretchable network, allowing them to demonstrate fracture properties in practice. They found that despite the differences in the networks, they all followed a simple and predictable rule. Beyond the changes to the strands themselves, a network can also be toughened by connecting the strands into larger loops.
“By adjusting these properties, car tires could last longer, tissues could better resist injury, and spider webs could become more durable,” says Hartquist.
Shu Wang, a postdoc in Zhao’s lab and fellow lead author of the paper, called the research findings “an extremely fulfilling moment ... it meant that the same rules could be applied to describe a wide variety of materials, making it easier to design the best material for a given situation.”
The researchers explain that this work represents progress in an exciting and emerging field called “architected materials,” where the structure within the material itself gives it unique properties. They say the discovery sheds light on how to make these materials even tougher, by focusing on designing the segments within the architecture stronger and more stretchable. The strategy is adaptable for materials across fields and can be applied to improve durability of soft robotic actuators, enhance the toughness of engineered tissues, or even create resilient lattices for aerospace technology.
To validate their results on research relating to networks of interconnected strands, an MIT team 3D-printed a giant, stretchable network that demonstrated fracture properties in practice.
Bia Adams, a London-based neuropsychologist, former professional ballet dancer, and MIT Open Learning learner, has built her career across decades of diverse, interconnected experiences and an emphasis on lifelong learning. She earned her bachelor’s degree in clinical and behavioral psychology, and then worked as a psychologist and therapist for several years before taking a sabbatical in her late 20s to study at the London Contemporary Dance School and The Royal Ballet — fulfilling a long-time dream.
“In hindsight, I think what drew me most to ballet was not so much the form itself,” says Adams, “but more of a subconscious desire to make sense of my body moving through space and time, my emotions and motivations — all within a discipline that is rigorous, meticulous, and routine-based. It’s an endeavor to make sense of the world and myself.”
After acquiring some dance-related injuries, Adams returned to psychology. She completed an online certificate program specializing in medical neuroscience via Duke University, focusing on how pathology arises out of the way the brain computes information and generates behavior.
In addition to her clinical practice, she has also worked at a data science and AI consultancy for neural network research.
In 2022, in search of new things to learn and apply to both her work and personal life, Adams discovered MIT OpenCourseWare within MIT Open Learning. She was drawn to class 8.04 (Quantum Physics I), which specifically focuses on quantum mechanics, as she was hoping to finally gain some understanding of complex topics that she had tried to teach herself in the past with limited success. She credits the course’s lectures, taught by Allan Adams (physicist and principal investigator of the MIT Future Ocean Lab), with finally making these challenging topics approachable.
“I still talk to my friends at length about exciting moments in these lectures,” says Adams. “After the first class, I was hooked.”
Adams’s journey through MIT Open Learning’s educational resources quickly led to a deeper interest in computational neuroscience. She learned how to use tools from mathematics and computer science to better understand the brain, nervous system, and behavior.
She says she gained many new insights from class 6.034 (Artificial Intelligence), particularly in watching the late Professor Patrick Winston’s lectures. She appreciated learning more about the cognitive psychology aspect of AI, including how pioneers in the field looked at how the brain processes information and aimed to build programs that could solve problems. She further enhanced her understanding of AI with the Minds and Machines course on MITx Online, part of Open Learning.
“I am multilingual, and I think the way my brain processes code is similar to the way computers code,” says Adams. “I find learning to code similar to learning a foreign language: both exhilarating and intimidating. Learning the rules, deciphering the syntax, and building my own world through code is one of the most fascinating challenges of my life.”
Adams is also pursuing a master’s degree at Duke and the University College of London, focusing on the neurobiology of sleep and looking particularly at how the biochemistry of the brain can affect this critical function. As a complement to this research, she is currently exploring class 9.40 (Introduction to Neural Computation), taught by Michale Fee and Daniel Zysman, which introduces quantitative approaches to understanding brain and cognitive functions and neurons and covers foundational quantitative tools of data analysis in neuroscience.
In addition to the courses related more directly to her field, MIT Open Learning also provided Adams an opportunity to explore other academic areas. She delved into philosophy for the first time, taking Paradox and Infinity, taught by Professor Agustín Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and Digital Learning Lab Fellow David Balcarras, which looks at the intersection of philosophy and mathematics. She also was able to explore in more depth immunology, which had always been of great interest to her, through Professor Adam Martin’s lectures on this topic in class 7.016 (Introductory Biology).
“I am forever grateful for MIT Open Learning,” says Adams, “for making knowledge accessible and fostering a network of curious minds, all striving to share, expand, and apply this knowledge for the greater good.”
Bia Adams, a London-based neuropsychologist and former professional ballet dancer, says of her MIT Open Learning courses: “I still talk to my friends at length about exciting moments in these lectures. After the first class, I was hooked.”
James J. Husson returns to Harvard to succeed Brian K. Lee this spring
4 min read
James J. “Jim” Husson has been appointed the new vice president for alumni affairs and development, President Alan Garber announced Wednesday.
“An accomplished and admired leader in the field of advancement, Jim has devoted his career to strengthening institutions through both philanthropy and engagement,” said Garber in a message to the Harvard community. Garber praised “Jim’s curiosity and humility, as well as his belief in universities as a force for social good. These qualities and others will serve him well as he works to strengthen the University at a critical moment for all of American higher education.”
Husson brings more than three decades of leadership in higher education to the role. Currently serving as vice president for development and alumni relations at the University of Pennsylvania, Husson got his start in higher education at Harvard and has developed over the years a strong record of fostering engagement with alumni and driving successful, cross-university fundraising initiatives.
“I’m thrilled to be returning to Harvard, a place that was my professional home for much of my early career and that continues to inspire me. Harvard’s role in higher education has never been more important, and its extraordinary alumni community — through their commitment, engagement, and generosity — will be essential partners in advancing the University’s academic and societal mission,” said Husson.
In his new role, Husson will oversee the University Development Office, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Development, and the Harvard Alumni Association. Husson will officially assume his duties on April 1.
“I’m deeply grateful to President Garber for this opportunity to join his leadership team. I look forward to working with Harvard’s dedicated alumni affairs and development professionals to ensure that the University remains a beacon of excellence, innovation, opportunity, and global impact for generations to come.”
Prior to Penn, Husson oversaw development and alumni relations at Boston College (BC), where his two-decade tenure included the then largest philanthropic campaign in that institution’s history. BC’s Light of the World campaign raised $1.6 billion, enabling enhanced financial aid and current-use scholarships along with the creation of over three dozen professorships, and 10 major research centers including the Shea Center for Entrepreneurship, Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy, and McGillycuddy-Logue Center for Undergraduate Global Studies. The campaign also played an important part in the expansion of the University’s campus, with significant gifts supporting the construction and renovation of numerous buildings and facilities.
At Harvard, Husson served in various development roles across the University. He began his career in higher education as director of annual giving at the Graduate School of Design in 1989. He also held leadership roles in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the University Development Office, including as director of major gifts during the University’s then-record-breaking $2.6 billion capital campaign in the 1990s. Between Harvard and Boston College, Husson oversaw development at Brown University.
A prominent leader in the field of advancement and alumni affairs, Husson served on the faculty and as chair for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Summer Institute in Educational Fundraising. Husson’s exceptional teaching skills have been recognized by his peers with CASE’s Crystal Apple Award for Teaching Excellence.
Husson’s appointment concludes the search to replace Brian K. Lee, who has served as vice president since 2018 and announced in July that he would step down. Lee will continue in his current role through the end of March. “With customary generosity and grace, Brian has offered to see the University through this important leadership transition,” said Garber. “I join countless others in thanking him for his extraordinary contributions to our mission and to our community.”
Garber also expressed gratitude to members of the community who advised on the search. “The excellent result of our search process was guided by the perspectives and insights of individuals throughout our community,” he said. “I am grateful to everyone who devoted time and attention to this effort, especially the members of our search advisory committee.”
A native of Lowell, Massachusetts, Husson is a first-generation college graduate whose grandparents immigrated from Greece and Lebanon in the early 20th century. He is a grad of the University of Rochester and Northfield Mount Hermon School, where he also began his career in philanthropy as an annual giving officer. Parents of two adult children, Husson and his wife are longtime residents of Arlington, Massachusetts.
New study maps the ‘dental deserts’ in the U.S. — and there are lots of them
Harvard research shows 1.7 million lack access to care
Heather Denny
HSDM Communications
4 min read
Imagine having to travel for hours for a routine dental cleaning or wait days to get treatment for a toothache. For nearly 1.7 million people in the U.S., this is a reality.
A new study published in JAMA Network Open takes a look at the issue of access to dental care, using a more nuanced approach to identify areas with limited dental services across the U.S.
Led by Hawazin Elani, assistant professor in oral health policy and epidemiology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the study is one of the first to map spatial accessibility to dental clinics nationally at a granular level. By analyzing data at the block group level — the smallest geographical unit used by the U.S. Census Bureau defined by clusters of blocks — the researchers provide a more detailed picture of dental care access, revealing significant disparities within specific geographic areas of the country.
“These areas are really ‘dental deserts’ where you’d have to go to great distances to find a dentist. Our findings highlight a concerning geographic maldistribution of dentists, with many rural and disadvantaged communities left without access to care,” Elani said.
The study’s approach builds on existing efforts to understand dental care access, including the Health Resources and Services Administration’s designation of Health Professional Shortage Areas for dental services, but takes it a step further by using an advanced gravity-based method to assess the availability of clinicians, accessibility, and adjustments for demand and supply factors at the block group level.
“We were able to identify areas with limited access to dental care that may have been missed by previous studies,” said Md. Shahinoor Rahman, co-author of the study.
This disparity is evident in the ratio of dentists to population, with rural areas having one dentist available for every 3,850 people, compared with urban areas, which have more than 2½ times more dentists, with one dentist for every 1,470 people.
By state, Alaska had the highest percentage of the population (10.4 percent) living in dental deserts, followed by Montana (7.8 percent) and North Dakota (7.7 percent). Only four states — Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, and New Jersey — along with Washington, D.C., were identified as having no dental deserts.
Elani and her co-authors also examined socioeconomic data to contrast racial and ethnic composition, population by age group, poverty level, educational attainment, median household income, and health insurance. The results showed that nearly 24.7 million individuals lived in dental care shortage areas. In these counties, nearly 15.6 percent of the population lived below the federal poverty level. Racially, more white populations lived in rural areas with a shortage of dentists, as compared with Hispanic and Black populations. However, in urban areas with segregation and a concentration of poverty, Hispanic and Black individuals were likelier to live in areas with a shortage of dental care. A high proportion of individuals in rural shortage areas were also uninsured, and more likely to experience spatial disparities in access to dental care.
Elani noted that this has serious implications for oral and overall health, saying, “The situation is likely even more dire for Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries, who face additional barriers due to low dentist participation, worsening existing disparities. This can lead to people putting off much-needed care due to access challenges.”
“With this more precise data, we hope our findings can inform dental workforce planning efforts and targeted interventions at the federal and state levels to encourage dentists to practice in underserved areas and reduce disparities in access to dental care,” Elani said.
This work was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award No. R01MD017093.
Amid the benefits that algorithmic decision-making and artificial intelligence offer — including revolutionizing speed, efficiency, and predictive ability in a vast range of fields — Manish Raghavan is working to mitigate associated risks, while also seeking opportunities to apply the technologies to help with preexisting social concerns.
“I ultimately want my research to push towards better solutions to long-standing societal problems,” says Raghavan, the Drew Houston Career Development Professor who is a shared faculty member between the MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, as well as a principal investigator at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).
A good example of Raghavan’s intention can be found in his exploration of the use AI in hiring.
Raghavan says, “It’s hard to argue that hiring practices historically have been particularly good or worth preserving, and tools that learn from historical data inherit all of the biases and mistakes that humans have made in the past.”
Here, however, Raghavan cites a potential opportunity.
“It’s always been hard to measure discrimination,” he says, adding, “AI-driven systems are sometimes easier to observe and measure than humans, and one goal of my work is to understand how we might leverage this improved visibility to come up with new ways to figure out when systems are behaving badly.”
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area with parents who both have computer science degrees, Raghavan says he originally wanted to be a doctor. Just before starting college, though, his love of math and computing called him to follow his family example into computer science. After spending a summer as an undergraduate doing research at Cornell University with Jon Kleinberg, professor of computer science and information science, he decided he wanted to earn his PhD there, writing his thesis on “The Societal Impacts of Algorithmic Decision-Making.”
Raghavan won awards for his work, including a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program award, a Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship, and the Cornell University Department of Computer Science PhD Dissertation Award.
In 2022, he joined the MIT faculty.
Perhaps hearkening back to his early interest in medicine, Raghavan has done research on whether the determinations of a highly accurate algorithmic screening tool used in triage of patients with gastrointestinal bleeding, known as the Glasgow-Blatchford Score (GBS), are improved with complementary expert physician advice.
“The GBS is roughly as good as humans on average, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t individual patients, or small groups of patients, where the GBS is wrong and doctors are likely to be right,” he says. “Our hope is that we can identify these patients ahead of time so that doctors’ feedback is particularly valuable there.”
Raghavan has also worked on how online platforms affect their users, considering how social media algorithms observe the content a user chooses and then show them more of that same kind of content. The difficulty, Raghavan says, is that users may be choosing what they view in the same way they might grab bag of potato chips, which are of course delicious but not all that nutritious. The experience may be satisfying in the moment, but it can leave the user feeling slightly sick.
Raghavan and his colleagues have developed a model of how a user with conflicting desires — for immediate gratification versus a wish of longer-term satisfaction — interacts with a platform. The model demonstrates how a platform’s design can be changed to encourage a more wholesome experience. The model won the Exemplary Applied Modeling Track Paper Award at the 2022 Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Economics and Computation.
“Long-term satisfaction is ultimately important, even if all you care about is a company’s interests,” Raghavan says. “If we can start to build evidence that user and corporate interests are more aligned, my hope is that we can push for healthier platforms without needing to resolve conflicts of interest between users and platforms. Of course, this is idealistic. But my sense is that enough people at these companies believe there’s room to make everyone happier, and they just lack the conceptual and technical tools to make it happen.”
Regarding his process of coming up with ideas for such tools and concepts for how to best apply computational techniques, Raghavan says his best ideas come to him when he’s been thinking about a problem off and on for a time. He would advise his students, he says, to follow his example of putting a very difficult problem away for a day and then coming back to it.
“Things are often better the next day,” he says.
When he's not puzzling out a problem or teaching, Raghavan can often be found outdoors on a soccer field, as a coach of the Harvard Men’s Soccer Club, a position he cherishes.
“I can’t procrastinate if I know I’ll have to spend the evening at the field, and it gives me something to look forward to at the end of the day,” he says. “I try to have things in my schedule that seem at least as important to me as work to put those challenges and setbacks into context.”
As Raghavan considers how to apply computational technologies to best serve our world, he says he finds the most exciting thing going on his field is the idea that AI will open up new insights into “humans and human society.”
“I’m hoping,” he says, “that we can use it to better understand ourselves.”
“I ultimately want my research to push towards better solutions to long-standing societal problems,” says Manish Raghavan, the Drew Houston Career Development Professor in the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and a principal investigator at LIDS.
By Dr Rayner Tan, from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at NUS, and Ms Sugidha Nithiananthan, Director of Advocacy, Research and Communications at the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE)
Whether tunnels or retaining walls – many Swiss reinforced concrete structures from the 1960s to the 1980s are at risk. Corrosion can make them unstable. ETH start-up Talpa Inspection has now developed a solution to localise corrosion more easily, even in hard-to-reach places.
Faith Brooks, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, has had a clear dream since the age of 4: to become a pilot.
“At around 8 years old, my neighbor knew I wanted to fly and showed me pictures of her dad landing a jet on an aircraft carrier, and I was immediately captivated,” says Brooks. Further inspired by her grandfather’s experience in the U.S. Navy (USN), and owing to a lifelong fascination with aviation, she knew nothing would stand in her way.
Brooks explored several different paths to becoming a pilot, but she says one conversation with her longtime mentor, Capt. Matt Skone, USN (Ret.), changed the trajectory of her life.
“He asked if I had heard of the Naval Academy,” she recalls. “At the time, I hadn’t … I immediately knew that that was where I wanted to go, and everything else I learned about United States Naval Academy (USNA) reinforced that for me.”
In her “firstie” (senior) year at the USNA, Brooks was selected to go to Pensacola, Florida, and train to become a naval pilot as a student naval aviator, taking her one step closer to her dream. The USNA also helped guide her path to MIT. Her journey to joining the MIT-WHOI Joint Program began with the USNA’s professional knowledge curriculum, where she read about retired Capt. Wendy Lawrence SM ’88, a naval aviator and astronaut.
“Reading her bio prompted me to look into the program, and it sounded like the perfect program for me — where else could you get a better education in ocean engineering than MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution [WHOI]?”
In the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, Brooks is researching the impact of coastal pond breaching on preventing and mitigating harmful algal blooms. Her work focuses on the biannual mechanical breaching of Nantucket’s Sesachacha Pond to the ocean and the resultant impact on the pond’s water quality. This practice aims to improve water quality and mitigate harmful algal blooms (HABs), especially in summer.
Breaching in coastal ponds is a process that was initially used to enhance salinity for herring and shellfish habitats, but has since shifted to address water quality concerns. Traditionally, an excavator creates a breach in the pond, which naturally closes within one to five days, influenced by sediment transport and weather conditions. High winds and waves can accelerate sediment movement, limiting ocean water exchange and potentially increasing eutrophication, where excessive nutrients lead to dense plant growth and depletion of oxygen. In brackish water environments, harmful algal blooms are often driven by elevated nitrogen levels and higher temperatures, with higher nitrogen concentrating leading to more frequent and severe blooms as temperatures rise.
The Nantucket Natural Resources Department (NRD) has been collaborating with local homeowners to investigate the pond breaching process. Existing data are mainly anecdotal evidence and NRD’s monthly sampling since 2022, which has not shown the expected decrease in eutrophication. Brooks’ research will focus on data before, during, and after the breach at two pond sites to assess water changes to evaluate its effectiveness in improving water quality.
When Brooks isn’t knee-deep in the waters of the Sesachacha or training with her MIT Triathlon team, she takes additional opportunities to further her education. Last year, Brooks participated in the MIT-Portugal Marine Robotics Summer School in Faial, Azores, in Portugal, and immersed herself in a combination of a hands-on design projects and lectures on a variety of topics related to oceanography, engineering, and marine robotics.
“My favorite part of the program was how interdisciplinary it was. We had a combination of mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, marine biologists, and oceanographers, and we had teams that included each of these specialties,” she says. “Our project involved designing a lander equipped with an underwater camera connected to a surface buoy that would transmit the footage. Having worked in mostly just engineering teams previously, it was a great experience to work with a more diverse group and I gained a much better understanding of how to design instruments and systems in accordance with what the marine biologists need.”
Brooks also earned her Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) license to operate the lab’s drone with a multispectral camera for her upcoming fieldwork. When she graduates from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program next September, she’ll report to the Naval Aviation Schools Command in Pensacola, Florida, to begin flight training.
While she says she’ll miss Boston’s charm and history, as well as the Shining Sea Bikeway on crisp fall days in Woods Hole, Brooks is looking forward to putting her uniform back on, and starting her naval career and flight school. The time Brooks has spent at MIT will support her in these future endeavors. She advises others interested in a similar path to focus on research within their areas of interest.
“The biggest lesson that I’ve learned from both research theses is that any research project will change over time, and it’s often a good idea to take a step back and look at how your work fits into the larger picture,” she says. “I couldn’t recommend doing research more; it’s such a great opportunity to dig into something that you’re interested in, and is also very fulfilling.”
Faith Brooks is researching the impact of coastal pond breaching on the prevention and mitigation of harmful algal blooms. Her work focuses on the biannual mechanical breaching of Nantucket’s Sesachacha Pond to the ocean and the resultant impact on the pond’s water quality.
The Cancer Data-Driven Detection programme will be led by Antonis Antoniou, Professor of Cancer Risk Prediction at the University of Cambridge. It is funded by Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
The programme aims to access and link data from different sources - including health records, genomics, family history, demographics, and behavioural data - to develop statistical models that help scientists accurately predict who is most likely to get cancer. Alongside this, the programme will develop powerful new tools that use AI to analyse the data and calculate an individual’s risk of cancer throughout their lifetime.
Professor Antoniou said: “Finding people at the highest risk of developing cancer, including those with vague symptoms, is a major challenge. The UK’s strengths in population-scale data resources, combined with advanced analytical tools like AI, offer tremendous opportunities to link disparate datasets and uncover clues that could lead to earlier detection, diagnosis, and prevention of more cancers.”
Over the next five years, the funding will build the infrastructure required to access and link these datasets, train new data scientists, create the algorithms behind the risk models and evaluate the algorithms and AI tools to ensure that they are giving accurate and clinically useful information about cancer risk. The scientific programme will be guided by partnerships with cancer patients, the public, clinical experts and industry, while addressing ethical and legal considerations to ensure that the models and tools work well in practice.
Professor Antoniou added: “Ultimately, [the Cancer Data Driven Detection programme] could inform public health policy and empower individuals and their healthcare providers to make shared decisions. By understanding individual cancer risks, people can take proactive steps to stop cancer before it gets worse or even begins in the first place.”
The models generated from this research could be used to help people at higher risk of cancer in different ways. For example, the NHS could offer more frequent cancer screening sessions or screening at a younger age to those at higher risk, whilst those at lower risk could be spared unnecessary tests. People identified as higher risk could also be sent for cancer testing faster when they go to their GP with possible cancer signs or symptoms. Individuals at higher risk could also access different ways to prevent cancer.
Earlier diagnosis of cancer saves lives, yet according to analysis of NHS figures by Cancer Research UK, only 54% of cancers in England are diagnosed at stages one and two, where treatment is more likely to be successful. NHS England has set a target to diagnose 75% of cancers at stages one and two by 2028, and this will only be achieved with research and embracing new technologies to catch cancer earlier.
Last week, the Prime Minister announced backing for the power of big data and AI, which has the potential to help even more patients, including those with cancer.
Science Minister Lord Vallance said: “There are huge opportunities in AI to improve UK healthcare, from scans detecting illnesses earlier to bringing NHS waiting lists down by planning appointments more efficiently, and these will continue to develop.
“This investment in harnessing the potential of data to spot those at risk of cancer represents the sort of innovation the Government’s new AI Opportunities Action Plan sets out to realise, so this technology improves lives, while transforming public services and boosting growth.”
Minister for Public Health and Prevention, Andrew Gwynne said: “Using the latest technology could revolutionise how the NHS diagnoses and treats patients. As part of this government’s Plan for Change, we will transform our health service from analogue to digital, and innovative projects like this show exactly how we will achieve it.”
The Cancer Data Driven Detection programme is jointly supported by Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health & Care Research, the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, Health Data Research UK, and Administrative Data Research UK.
Head of Prevention and Early Detection Research at Cancer Research UK, Dr David Crosby, said: “The single most important thing we can do to beat cancer is to find it earlier, when treatment is more likely to be successful. With half a million cancer cases per year expected in the UK by 2040, we need a major shift towards more accurate diagnosis and detection of early cancer.”
Adapted from a press release from Cancer Research UK
Cambridge researchers are to lead a £10 million project that could result in doctors being able to predict your individual chances of getting cancer and offer personalised detection and prevention.
The UK’s strengths in population-scale data resources, combined with advanced analytical tools like AI, offer tremendous opportunities to link disparate datasets and uncover clues that could lead to earlier detection, diagnosis, and prevention of more cancers
The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) are the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government for early-career scientists and engineers.
From Erivo’s celebrated performances in the film “Harriet” and Broadway’s “The Color Purple” to her recently critically acclaimed role as Elphaba in Universal’s “Wicked: Part One,” the Pudding is proud to celebrate her truly unique and impactful presence in the world of entertainment, said organizers.
Erivo is a Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning actress, singer, and producer, as well as an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and SAG nominee. Erivo will guest star in the second season of “Poker Face,” Peacock’s critically acclaimed series starring Natasha Lyonne.
“We are holding space for Cynthia Erivo’s arrival,” said Hannah Frazer, Man and Woman of the Year events coordinator. “We’re sweeping out our broomstick closets and prepping some wicked smart humor as we eagerly await her in February. Before she flies off with her Pudding Pot, she’ll have to work a little magic to earn it.”
“Looks like someone might need to hold Cynthia’s hand — or finger — during this roast,” joked Hasty Pudding producer Daisy Nussbaum. “That said, we promise not to be as mean as the wizard. By the end, she’ll be the one who’s truly popular with the crowd.”
The Woman of the Year Award is Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ oldest honor, bestowed annually on performers who have made lasting and impressive contributions to the world of entertainment. Established in 1951, the prize has been given to many notable and talented entertainers including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Kerry Washington, and most recently Annette Bening, the 74th Woman of the Year. The Hasty Pudding Theatricals is a program of The Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770.
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals will host a celebratory roast for Erivo on Feb. 5 at 7 p.m., after which she will be presented with her Pudding Pot at Farkas Hall, the Hasty Pudding’s historic home in Harvard Square since 1888. A press conference will follow the presentation at 7:20 p.m. Afterward, Erivo will attend a performance of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 176th production “101 Damnations.”
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, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set a goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Which raises the question: Are there technologically feasible and economically viable strategies to reach that goal within the next 25 years?
Chief among those options is the development and deployment of sustainable aviation fuel. Currently produced from low- and zero-carbon sources (feedstock) including municipal waste and non-food crops, and requiring practically no alteration of aircraft systems or refueling infrastructure, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has the potential to perform just as well as petroleum-based jet fuel with as low as 20 percent of its carbon footprint.
Focused on Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, the researchers assessed SAF feedstock availability, the costs of corresponding SAF pathways, and how SAF deployment would likely impact fuel use, prices, emissions, and aviation demand in each country. They also explored how efficiency improvements and market-based mechanisms could help the region to reach decarbonization targets. The team’s findings appear in a CS3 Special Report.
SAF emissions, costs, and sources
Under an ambitious emissions mitigation scenario designed to cap global warming at 1.5 C and raise the rate of SAF use in Latin America to 65 percent by 2050, the researchers projected aviation emissions to be reduced by about 60 percent in 2050 compared to a scenario in which existing climate policies are not strengthened. To achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, other measures would be required, such as improvements in operational and air traffic efficiencies, airplane fleet renewal, alternative forms of propulsion, and carbon offsets and removals.
As of 2024, jet fuel prices in Latin Americaare around $0.70 per liter. Based on the current availability of feedstocks, the researchers projected SAF costs within the six countries studied to range from $1.11 to $2.86 per liter. They cautioned that increased fuel prices could affect operating costs of the aviation sector and overall aviation demand unless strategies to manage price increases are implemented.
Under the 1.5 C scenario, the total cumulative capital investments required to build new SAF producing plants between 2025 and 2050 were estimated at $204 billion for the six countries (ranging from $5 billion in Ecuador to $84 billion in Brazil). The researchers identified sugarcane- and corn-based ethanol-to-jet fuel, palm oil- and soybean-based hydro-processed esters and fatty acids as the most promising feedstock sources in the near term for SAF production in Latin America.
“Our findings show that SAF offers a significant decarbonization pathway, which must be combined with an economy-wide emissions mitigation policy that uses market-based mechanisms to offset the remaining emissions,” says Sergey Paltsev, lead author of the report, MIT CS3 deputy director, and senior research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative.
Recommendations
The researchers concluded the report with recommendations for national policymakers and aviation industry leaders in Latin America.
They stressed that government policy and regulatory mechanisms will be needed to create sufficient conditions to attract SAF investments in the region and make SAF commercially viable as the aviation industry decarbonizes operations. Without appropriate policy frameworks, SAF requirements will affect the cost of air travel. For fuel producers, stable, long-term-oriented policies and regulations will be needed to create robust supply chains, build demand for establishing economies of scale, and develop innovative pathways for producing SAF.
Finally, the research team recommended a region-wide collaboration in designing SAF policies. A unified decarbonization strategy among all countries in the region will help ensure competitiveness, economies of scale, and achievement of long-term carbon emissions-reduction goals.
“Regional feedstock availability and costs make Latin America a potential major player in SAF production,” says Angelo Gurgel, a principal research scientist at MIT CS3 and co-author of the study. “SAF requirements, combined with government support mechanisms, will ensure sustainable decarbonization while enhancing the region’s connectivity and the ability of disadvantaged communities to access air transport.”
Financial support for this study was provided by LATAM Airlines and Airbus.
In a recent study, researchers assessed sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) feedstock availability, the costs of corresponding SAF pathways, and how SAF deployment would likely impact fuel use, prices, emissions, and aviation demand in six countries.
Drawing on her background as a scholar of gender in media and founder of the Center for Collaborative Communication, she is supporting community members as they drive communication research around democracy, climate, health, and more.
Penn Physicist Andrea Liu and collaborators modeled the behavior of tissue during a stage of fly development and found, surprisingly, it doesn’t fluidize as it shrinks but stays solid. Their approach could offer insights physical systems with complex functionality.
Two members of the Class of 2023, Chuanyuan (Suzanne) Liu and Habib Salim, have each receivedSchwarzman Scholarship funding for a one-year master’s degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
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, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set a goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Which raises the question: Are there technologically feasible and economically viable strategies to reach that goal within the next 25 years?
Chief among those options is the development and deployment of sustainable aviation fuel. Currently produced from low- and zero-carbon sources (feedstock) including municipal waste and non-food crops, and requiring practically no alteration of aircraft systems or refueling infrastructure, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has the potential to perform just as well as petroleum-based jet fuel with as low as 20 percent of its carbon footprint.
Focused on Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, the researchers assessed SAF feedstock availability, the costs of corresponding SAF pathways, and how SAF deployment would likely impact fuel use, prices, emissions, and aviation demand in each country. They also explored how efficiency improvements and market-based mechanisms could help the region to reach decarbonization targets. The team’s findings appear in a CS3 Special Report.
SAF emissions, costs, and sources
Under an ambitious emissions mitigation scenario designed to cap global warming at 1.5 C and raise the rate of SAF use in Latin America to 65 percent by 2050, the researchers projected aviation emissions to be reduced by about 60 percent in 2050 compared to a scenario in which existing climate policies are not strengthened. To achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, other measures would be required, such as improvements in operational and air traffic efficiencies, airplane fleet renewal, alternative forms of propulsion, and carbon offsets and removals.
As of 2024, jet fuel prices in Latin Americaare around $0.70 per liter. Based on the current availability of feedstocks, the researchers projected SAF costs within the six countries studied to range from $1.11 to $2.86 per liter. They cautioned that increased fuel prices could affect operating costs of the aviation sector and overall aviation demand unless strategies to manage price increases are implemented.
Under the 1.5 C scenario, the total cumulative capital investments required to build new SAF producing plants between 2025 and 2050 were estimated at $204 billion for the six countries (ranging from $5 billion in Ecuador to $84 billion in Brazil). The researchers identified sugarcane- and corn-based ethanol-to-jet fuel, palm oil- and soybean-based hydro-processed esters and fatty acids as the most promising feedstock sources in the near term for SAF production in Latin America.
“Our findings show that SAF offers a significant decarbonization pathway, which must be combined with an economy-wide emissions mitigation policy that uses market-based mechanisms to offset the remaining emissions,” says Sergey Paltsev, lead author of the report, MIT CS3 deputy director, and senior research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative.
Recommendations
The researchers concluded the report with recommendations for national policymakers and aviation industry leaders in Latin America.
They stressed that government policy and regulatory mechanisms will be needed to create sufficient conditions to attract SAF investments in the region and make SAF commercially viable as the aviation industry decarbonizes operations. Without appropriate policy frameworks, SAF requirements will affect the cost of air travel. For fuel producers, stable, long-term-oriented policies and regulations will be needed to create robust supply chains, build demand for establishing economies of scale, and develop innovative pathways for producing SAF.
Finally, the research team recommended a region-wide collaboration in designing SAF policies. A unified decarbonization strategy among all countries in the region will help ensure competitiveness, economies of scale, and achievement of long-term carbon emissions-reduction goals.
“Regional feedstock availability and costs make Latin America a potential major player in SAF production,” says Angelo Gurgel, a principal research scientist at MIT CS3 and co-author of the study. “SAF requirements, combined with government support mechanisms, will ensure sustainable decarbonization while enhancing the region’s connectivity and the ability of disadvantaged communities to access air transport.”
Financial support for this study was provided by LATAM Airlines and Airbus.
In a recent study, researchers assessed sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) feedstock availability, the costs of corresponding SAF pathways, and how SAF deployment would likely impact fuel use, prices, emissions, and aviation demand in six countries.
Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL), and the founder and co-leader of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium and the Human Factors Evaluator for Automotive Demand Consortium in the MIT AgeLab, has been appointed to the Task Force on Human Factors in Aviation Safety Aviation Rulemaking Committee (HF Task Force ARC). The HF Task Force ARC will provide recommendations to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the most significant human factors and the relative contribution of these factors to aviation safety risk.
Reimer, who has worked at MIT since 2003, joins a committee whose operational or academic expertise includes air carrier operations, air traffic control, pilot experience, aeronautical information, aircraft maintenance and mechanics psychology, human-machine integration, and general aviation operations. Their recommendations to the FAA will help ensure safety for passengers, aircraft crews, and cargo for years to come. His appointment follows a year of serving on the Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee (TTAC) for the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he has taken on the role of vice chair on the Artificial Intelligence subcommittee. The TTAC recently released a report to the Secretary of Transportation in response to its charter.
As a mobility and technology futurist working at the intersection of technology, human behavior, and public policy, Reimer brings his expertise in human-machine integration, transportation safety, and AI to the committee. The committee, chartered by congressional mandate through the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, specifically calls for a portion of the committee to have expertise on human factors but whose experience and training are not primarily in aviation, which Reimer will provide.
MIT CTL creates supply chain innovation and drives it into practice through the three pillars of research, outreach, and education, working with businesses, government, and nongovernmental organizations. As a longtime advocate of collaboration across public and private sectors to ensure consumers’ safety in transportation, Reimer’s particular expertise will help the FAA more broadly consider the human element of aviation safety. Yossi Sheffi, director of MIT CTL, says, “Aviation plays a critical role in the rapid and reliable transportation of goods across vast distances, making it essential for delivering time-sensitive products globally. We must understand the current human factors involved in this process to help ensure smooth operation of this indispensable service amid potential disruptions.”
Reimer recently discussed his research on an episode of The Ojo-Yoshida Report with Phil Koopman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering.
HF Task Force ARC members will serve a two-year term. The first ARC plenary meeting was held Jan. 15-16 in Washington.
Artificial intelligence has become vital in business and financial dealings, medical care, technology development, research, and much more. Without realizing it, consumers rely on AI when they stream a video, do online banking, or perform an online search. Behind these capabilities are more than 10,000 data centers globally, each one a huge warehouse containing thousands of computer servers and other infrastructure for storing, managing, and processing data. There are now over 5,000 data centers in the United States, and new ones are being built every day — in the U.S. and worldwide. Often dozens are clustered together right near where people live, attracted by policies that provide tax breaks and other incentives, and by what looks like abundant electricity.
And data centers do consume huge amounts of electricity.U.S. data centers consumed more than 4 percent of the country’s total electricity in 2023, and by 2030 that fraction could rise to 9 percent, according to the Electric Power Research Institute. A single large data center can consume as much electricity as 50,000 homes.
The sudden need for so many data centers presents a massive challenge to the technology and energy industries, government policymakers, and everyday consumers. Research scientists and faculty members at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) are exploring multiple facets of this problem — from sourcing power to grid improvement to analytical tools that increase efficiency, and more. Data centers have quickly become the energy issue of our day.
Unexpected demand brings unexpected solutions
Severalcompanies that use data centers to provide cloud computing and data management services are announcing some surprising steps to deliver all that electricity. Proposals include building their own small nuclear plants near their data centers and even restarting one of the undamaged nuclear reactors at Three Mile Island, which has been shuttered since 2019. (A different reactor at that plant partially melted down in 1979, causing the nation’s worst nuclear power accident.) Already the need to power AI is causing delays in the planned shutdown of some coal-fired power plants and raising prices for residential consumers. Meeting the needs of data centers is not only stressing power grids, but also setting back the transition to clean energy needed to stop climate change.
There are many aspects to the data center problem from a power perspective. Here are some that MIT researchers are focusing on, and why they’re important.
An unprecedented surge in the demand for electricity
“In the past, computing was not a significant user of electricity,” says William H. Green, director of MITEI and the Hoyt C. Hottel Professor in the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering. “Electricity was used for running industrial processes and powering household devices such as air conditioners and lights, and more recently for powering heat pumps and charging electric cars. But now all of a sudden, electricity used for computing in general, and by data centers in particular, is becoming a gigantic new demand that no one anticipated.”
Why the lack of foresight? Usually, demand for electric power increases by roughly half-a-percent per year, and utilities bring in new power generators and make other investments as needed to meet the expected new demand. But the data centers now coming online are creating unprecedented leaps in demand that operators didn’t see coming. In addition, the new demand is constant. It’s critical that a data center provides its services all day, every day. There can be no interruptions in processing large datasets, accessing stored data, and running the cooling equipment needed to keep all the packed-together computers churning away without overheating.
Moreover, even if enough electricity is generated, getting it to where it’s needed may be a problem, explains Deepjyoti Deka, a MITEI research scientist. “A grid is a network-wide operation, and the grid operator may have sufficient generation at another location or even elsewhere in the country, but the wires may not have sufficient capacity to carry the electricity to where it’s wanted.” So transmission capacity must be expanded — and, says Deka, that’s a slow process.
Then there’s the “interconnection queue.” Sometimes, adding either a new user (a “load”) or a new generator to an existing grid can cause instabilities or other problems for everyone else already on the grid. In that situation, bringing a new data center online may be delayed. Enough delays can result in new loads or generators having to stand in line and wait for their turn. Right now, much of the interconnection queue is already filled up with new solar and wind projects. The delay is now about five years. Meeting the demand from newly installed data centers while ensuring that the quality of service elsewhere is not hampered is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Finding clean electricity sources
To further complicate the challenge, many companies — including so-called “hyperscalers” such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon — have made public commitments to having net-zero carbon emissions within the next 10 years. Many have been making strides toward achieving their clean-energy goals by buying “power purchase agreements.” They sign a contract to buy electricity from, say, a solar or wind facility, sometimes providing funding for the facility to be built. But that approach to accessing clean energy has its limits when faced with the extreme electricity demand of a data center.
Meanwhile, soaring power consumption is delaying coal plant closures in many states. There are simply not enough sources of renewable energy to serve both the hyperscalers and the existing users, including individual consumers. As a result, conventional plants fired by fossil fuels such as coal are needed more than ever.
As the hyperscalers look for sources of clean energy for their data centers, one option could be to build their own wind and solar installations. But such facilities would generate electricity only intermittently. Given the need for uninterrupted power, the data center would have to maintain energy storage units, which are expensive. They could instead rely on natural gas or diesel generators for backup power — but those devices would need to be coupled with equipment to capture the carbon emissions, plus a nearby site for permanently disposing of the captured carbon.
Because of such complications, several of the hyperscalers are turning to nuclear power. As Green notes, “Nuclear energy is well matched to the demand of data centers, because nuclear plants can generate lots of power reliably, without interruption.”
In a much-publicized move in September, Microsoft signed a deal to buy power for 20 years after Constellation Energy reopens one of the undamaged reactors at its now-shuttered nuclear plant at Three Mile Island, the site of the much-publicized nuclear accident in 1979. If approved by regulators, Constellation will bring that reactor online by 2028, with Microsoft buying all of the power it produces. Amazon also reached a deal to purchase power produced by another nuclear plant threatened with closure due to financial troubles. And in early December, Meta released a request for proposals to identify nuclear energy developers to help the company meet their AI needs and their sustainability goals.
Other nuclear news focuses on small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), factory-built, modular power plants that could be installed near data centers, potentially without the cost overruns and delays often experienced in building large plants. Google recently ordered a fleet of SMRs to generate the power needed by its data centers. The first one will be completed by 2030 and the remainder by 2035.
Some hyperscalers are betting on new technologies. For example, Google is pursuing next-generation geothermal projects, and Microsoft has signed a contract to purchase electricity from a startup’s fusion power plant beginning in 2028 — even though the fusion technology hasn’t yet been demonstrated.
Reducing electricity demand
Other approaches to providing sufficient clean electricity focus on making the data center and the operations it houses more energy efficient so as to perform the same computing tasks using less power. Using faster computer chips and optimizing algorithms that use less energy are already helping to reduce the load, and also the heat generated.
Another idea being tried involves shifting computing tasks to times and places where carbon-free energy is available on the grid. Deka explains: “If a task doesn’t have to be completed immediately, but rather by a certain deadline, can it be delayed or moved to a data center elsewhere in the U.S. or overseas where electricity is more abundant, cheaper, and/or cleaner? This approach is known as ‘carbon-aware computing.’” We’re not yet sure whether every task can be moved or delayed easily, says Deka. “If you think of a generative AI-based task, can it easily be separated into small tasks that can be taken to different parts of the country, solved using clean energy, and then be brought back together? What is the cost of doing this kind of division of tasks?”
That approach is, of course, limited by the problem of the interconnection queue. It’s difficult to access clean energy in another region or state. But efforts are under way to ease the regulatory framework to make sure that critical interconnections can be developed more quickly and easily.
What about the neighbors?
A major concern running through all the options for powering data centers is the impact on residential energy consumers. When a data center comes into a neighborhood, there are not only aesthetic concerns but also more practical worries. Will the local electricity service become less reliable? Where will the new transmission lines be located? And who will pay for the new generators, upgrades to existing equipment, and so on? When new manufacturing facilities or industrial plants go into a neighborhood, the downsides are generally offset by the availability of new jobs. Not so with a data center, which may require just a couple dozen employees.
There are standard rules about how maintenance and upgrade costs are shared and allocated. But the situation is totally changed by the presence of a new data center. As a result, utilities now need to rethink their traditional rate structures so as not to place an undue burden on residents to pay for the infrastructure changes needed to host data centers.
MIT’s contributions
At MIT, researchers are thinking about and exploring a range of options for tackling the problem of providing clean power to data centers. For example, they are investigating architectural designs that will use natural ventilation to facilitate cooling, equipment layouts that will permit better airflow and power distribution, and highly energy-efficient air conditioning systems based on novel materials. They are creating new analytical tools for evaluating the impact of data center deployments on the U.S. power system and for finding the most efficient ways to provide the facilities with clean energy. Other work looks at how to match the output of small nuclear reactors to the needs of a data center, and how to speed up the construction of such reactors.
MIT teams also focus on determining the best sources of backup power and long-duration storage, and on developing decision support systems for locating proposed new data centers, taking into account the availability of electric power and water and also regulatory considerations, and even the potential for using what can be significant waste heat, for example, for heating nearby buildings. Technology development projects include designing faster, more efficient computer chips and more energy-efficient computing algorithms.
In addition to providing leadership and funding for many research projects, MITEI is acting as a convenor, bringing together companies and stakeholders to address this issue. At MITEI’s 2024 Annual Research Conference, a panel of representatives from two hyperscalers and two companies that design and construct data centers together discussed their challenges, possible solutions, and where MIT research could be most beneficial.
As data centers continue to be built, and computing continues to create an unprecedented increase in demand for electricity, Green says, scientists and engineers are in a race to provide the ideas, innovations, and technologies that can meet this need, and at the same time continue to advance the transition to a decarbonized energy system.
When you ask MIT students to tell you the story of how they came to Cambridge, you might hear some common themes: a favorite science teacher; an interest in computers that turned into an obsession; a bedroom decorated with NASA posters and glow-in-the-dark stars.
But for a few, the road to MIT starts with an invitation to a special summer program: not a camp with canoes or cabins or campgrounds, but instead one taking place in classrooms and labs with discussions of Arduinos, variable scope and aliasing, and Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics. The classroom and labs are in Barbados at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies, and all the students are gifted Caribbean high schoolers, ages 16-18, who’ve been selected for the extremely competitive Student Program for Innovation in Science and Engineering (SPISE). Their summer will not include much time for leisure or lots of sleep; instead, they’ll be tackling a five-week high-intensity curriculum with courses in university-level calculus, physics, biochemistry, computer programming, electronics and entrepreneurship, including hands-on projects in the last three. For several students currently on campus, SPISE was their gateway to MIT.
“The full story is even bigger,” says Cardinal Warde, MIT professor of electrical engineering and founder of SPISE, who is originally from Barbados in the Caribbean. “Over the past 10 years, exactly 30 of the 245 students in total from the SPISE program have attended MIT as undergrads and/or graduate students.”
While many SPISE alumni have gone on to Harvard University, Stanford University, Caltech, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and other prestigious schools, the emphasis on science and technology creates a natural pipeline to MIT, whose faculty and instructors volunteered their time and expertise to help Warde design a curriculum that was both challenging and engaging.
Jacob White, the Cecil H. Green Professor in Electrical Engineering, was one of the first of those volunteers. “When Covid forced SPISE to run remotely, Professor Warde felt it was critical to continue having hands-on engineering labs, and sought my help,” White explains. “Kits were cobbled together using EECS-donated microcontroller boards, motors and magnets; Dinah Sah (the SPISE director) got those kits to students spread over half-a-dozen islands.” White, and several of his graduate students, collaborated to write a curriculum that would give the students enough grounding in fundamentals to empower them to create their own designs.
When SPISE returned to in-person education, Steve Leeb, the Emanuel E. Landsman (1958) Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and a member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), was inspired by the challenge of teaching electronics remotely.
“SPISE is exactly the kind of opportunity we're looking for in the RLE educational outreach programs: bright, enthusiastic young folks who would benefit from new perspectives on science and engineering — a community of folks where we can bring new perspectives, share energy and excitement, and, ideally, make lifelong connections to our academic programs here at MIT. It's a natural fit that benefits us all,” says Leeb, who, together with his graduate students, adapted the portable “take-home” Electronics FIRST curriculum pioneered at MIT and taught in course 6.2030. “The Electronics FIRST exercises and lectures are designed to connect electronic circuit techniques — digital gates, microcontrollers, and other electronics technologies — that are recognizable as elements of commercial products,” says Leeb. “So the projects naturally engage students in building with components that have a connection to commercial products and product ideas. This flows naturally into a 'final project' that the students create in SPISE, a product of their own conception, for example a music synthesizer.”
Crucially, the curriculum isn’t simplified for the high school students. “We adapted the projects to fit the different program length — SPISE is shorter than a full MIT term,” says Leeb. “We did not reduce the rigor or challenge of the activities, and, in fact, have brought new ideas from the SPISE students back to campus to improve 6.2030.”
Departments beyond EECS pitched in to develop SPISE, with major teaching contributions coming from the Department of Physics, where Lecturer Alex Shvonski, Senior Technical Instructor Caleb Bonyun, and Senior Technical Instructor Joshua Wolfe, who also manages the Physics Instructional Resource Lab, collaborated on developing hands-on projects and on the teaching for both Physics I and Calculus I courses. Additional supplies came from the MIT Sea Grant Program, which supplied underwater robots to SPISE for six consecutive years before the Covid-19 pandemic. (In the wake of the pandemic, the program pivoted to focus on embedded systems.)
But the core inspiration for SPISE doesn’t come from an academic department at all. “SPISE was based on a model that’s proven to work: MITES,” explains Ebony Hearn, executive director of the MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science. “The program, which offers access and opportunity to intensive courses in science, technology, engineering, and math for talented high school students in every zip code, has helped thousands of students for nearly 50 years gain admission to top universities and pursue successful careers in STEM while being immersed in a community of caring mentors and leaders in the profession.”
The shared DNA of the two programs is no coincidence. Cardinal Warde has been the faculty director of MITES for the past 27 years, and took the lessons of five decades of the transformative pre-college experience into account when envisioning an equivalent program in the Caribbean. Much like MITES, SPISE encourages its participants to develop a sense of belonging in STEM and to picture the possibilities at top schools; over the years, the program has added sessions with admissions officers from MIT, Columbia, Princeton, and U Penn. “SPISE changed my perspective of myself,” says Chenise Harper, a first-year student at MIT who is currently interested in Course 6-5 (Electrical Engineering With Computing). “It gave me the confidence to apply to universities I thought were completely out of my reach.”
Harper’s trajectory is exactly what the designers of the program hoped for. “We have been very successful with the shorter-term goal of increasing the numbers of Caribbean students pursuing advanced degrees in STEM and grooming the next generation of STEM and business leaders in the Region,” says Dinah Sah ’81, director of the program (and wife of Cardinal Warde). “We have SPISE graduates who have, or are currently pursuing, graduate degrees at the top universities around the world, including (but not limited to) MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, and Oxford, including a Rhodes Scholar. We fully believe that SPISE graduates represent part of the next generation of STEM and business leaders in the Caribbean and that SPISE has played a significant role in their trajectories.”
Notably, the SPISE program also includes an element of entrepreneurship, encouraging students to envision tech-based solutions to problems in their own backyards. Keonna Simon, who hails from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, developed a business pitch with other SPISE participants for an innovative “reverse vending machine.” “In the Caribbean, tourism is a key contributor to the economy, but littering is an issue that detracts from the beauty of our islands and harms our abundant marine life,” explains Simon, now a junior majoring in Course 6-7 (Computer Science and Molecular Biology). “Our project aimed to tackle this by placing reverse vending machines in heavily polluted areas. People could deposit recyclable plastic bottles, and the machine would convert the weight of the plastic into cash rewards on a card, redeemable for discounts at supermarkets.”
One SPISE alum, Quilee Simeon, decided to work on a renewable energy system at SPISE as a way of addressing global warming’s effects on his homeland of St. Lucia. “I chose to work on the renewable energy project, where we designed and built a prototype wind turbine using low-resource materials like PVC pipes. It was exciting because I thought it had real applications to developing island states like ours, where we don’t have an abundance of the manufacturing materials used in larger countries, and we are disproportionately affected by climate change,” says Simeon. “So building cheap and effective renewable energy resources was, in my view, an important problem to tackle.”
As Simeon worked on his prototype turbine and tackled late nights with his new classmates at SPISE, he realized how different the experience was from his prior schooling. For most students, the summer program is a first time away from home — but for all, it is the first exposure to the firehose-like experience of tackling multiple college-level courses with simultaneous assignments and problem sets. “It was honestly a primer to MIT,” says Simeon. “They not only challenged us with rigorous math and science, but also provided guidance on college applications and explained the vast opportunities a STEM degree could unlock. SPISE changed my view of myself as a scholar, though probably in an unexpected way. I thought I was smart before attending SPISE, but I realized how much I didn’t know and how many things were lacking or wrong with the style of education I had grown used to (rote learning, memorization, etc.). SPISE made me realize that being a scholar isn’t just about consuming knowledge — it's about creating and applying it.”
The difficulty of the SPISE curriculum is a deliberate choice, made to aid students in preparing for higher education, confirms Sah. “When we started SPISE in 2012, [we decided] to focus on teaching the fundamentals in each of the courses … The homework problems and the quizzes would require the application of these fundamentals to solving challenging problems. This is in distinct contrast to rote memorization of facts, which is the method of learning these students had generally been exposed to. So, yes, this was in fact a very deliberate choice, and a critical change that we wanted to bring to these very high-potential students in their approach to learning and thinking.”
MIT’s emphasis on creative, outside-the-box thinking was just the beginning of the culture shocks that awaited SPISE students who made the transition to an American university from the summer program. Many are surprised by the American students’ habit of referring to their professors by first name, which would be considered disrespectful at home. Conversely, small daily interactions in the Northeast can feel remote and chilly to Caribbean students. “Moving from a small island with just around 100,000 people to Harvard was initially jarring,” says Gerard Porter, who participated in SPISE in 2017 before attending Harvard for his undergraduate degree. “In my first year, I was often met with puzzled stares when I greeted strangers in an elevator or students in my dorm whom I did not know personally. I quickly learned that politeness meant something very different in the Northeastern United States compared to the warm Caribbean.”
Other SPISE alumni report experiencing similar chilliness — literally. Quilee Simeon’s first winter in Cambridge was jarring. “I knew about the concept of winter and was told to expect cold weather, but I never actually knew how cold 'cold' was until I felt it myself,” says Simeon. “That was terrible!” Ronaldo Lee, a first-year from Jamaica interested in computer science and electrical engineering, found warmth among fellow SPISE alumni here at MIT. “Nothing beats the tropical climate! But honestly, the community at MIT has been amazing. I was surprised by how quickly I felt comfortable, thanks to the incredible people around me. The Black and Caribbean community especially made me feel at home; I’ve met some truly fascinating, driven, and like-minded people who’ve become close friends. One of the biggest surprises was discovering how similar we all are, despite our different cultural backgrounds. Everyone here is incredibly smart and shares a common drive to make the world a better place and pursue exciting STEM projects.”
The common drive to improve the world through STEM is evident in the paths the SPISE alumni have taken.
Gerard Porter, now a graduate student in the Kiessling Group within the Department of Chemistry at MIT, conducts research “focusing on unraveling the biological roles of glycans that cover all cells on Earth. I work on developing chemical tools to study critical regions of the bacterial cell wall that have been relatively unexplored.” Porter hopes that learning more about the molecular mechanisms at play within cell walls will open the doorway to the development of novel antibiotics.
Quilee Simeon has discovered an affinity for computational neuroscience, and is currently developing a computational model of the C. elegans nervous system. “My hope is that this model organism will prove fruitful for computational neuroscience research as it has for biology,” says Simeon, who plans to work in industry after graduation.
Computational biology has also captured the attention of junior Keonna Simon, who is excited to take courses such as 6.8711 (Computational Systems Biology: Deep Learning in the Life Sciences), saying, “This nexus holds a lot of potential for solving complex biological problems through computational methods, and I’m eager to dive deeper into that space!”
Chenise Harper found SPISE’s emphasis on bringing tech entrepreneurship home inspiring. “Living in the Caribbean has stimulated a dream of a future where robots are partners in rebuilding our community after natural disasters,” she says. “There are also so many issues that I would like to one day contribute to, like climate change issues and even cybersecurity. Electrical Engineering with Computing is the kind of major that will allow me to at least touch on the areas I am interested in, and allow me to explore both software and hardware concepts that excite me and will inspire me to develop a concrete way to give back to the community that has lifted me up to where I am now.”
Ronaldo Lee also found his academic home in computer science and electrical engineering, fabricating and characterizing perovskite solar cells in his Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program project and building a small offshore wind turbine for the Collegiate Wind Competition as part of the MIT WIND team. “I’d love to focus on the energy sector, particularly in improving the grid system and integrating renewable energy sources to ensure more reliable access,” says Lee. “I want to help make energy access more sustainable and inclusive, driving development for the region as a whole.”
Lee’s plans are perfectly in line with the long-term goals set by Warde and Sah as they planned SPISE. “Diversifying the economies of the region and raising the standard of living by stimulating more technology-based entrepreneurship will take time,” says Sah. “We are optimistic that our SPISE graduates will, with time, change the world to make it a better place for all, including the Caribbean.”
SPISE is championed by a power couple, Professor Cardinal Warde and Dinah Sah ’81, who have collaborated to bring transformational STEM experiences to gifted Caribbean students for more than a decade.
The White House has recognized six Cornell faculty members, three from the Ithaca campus and three from Weill Cornell Medicine, with 2025 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. The awards were announced Jan. 14.
Spreading gospel — and strategies — of productive disagreement
Eric Beerbohm looks back on successes, challenges of first year of new Civil Discourse initiative
Christy DeSmith
Harvard Staff Writer
8 min read
Eric Beerbohm believes disagreement — whether with people or texts — fuels research and brings out the best in teaching. “It’s really the lifeblood of a university,” says the inaugural Alfred and Rebecca Lin Professor of Government.
Beerbohm was engaged with similar work as faculty director of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics when Hopi Hoekstra, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, tapped him to lead her new Civil Discourse initiative. The Quincy House Faculty Dean and affiliate with the Department of Philosophy has spent the last year guiding a wide-ranging exploration of strategies to foster more open, respectful dialogue across campus.
“These conversations need to be handled in ways that affirm others with empathetic listening,” Beerbohm said. “As a first step, what we’ve done is to set out the conditions for, model, and then provide opportunities to practice civil discourse.”
As the Civil Discourse initiative enters its second year, we asked Beerbohm about first-year successes and challenges around the effort. He also previewed its next generation of programming. The interview was edited for length and clarity.
What have you learned over the past year about the FAS community’s ability to engage with civility on ethically charged topics?
We’ve learned that many students are eager to jump right in, but they’re not always sure how. In interviews I did with Tomiko Brown-Nagin for the University’s open inquiry report and in the listening sessions David Laibson and Maya Jasanoff led for the FAS Classroom Social Compact Committee, students kept telling us the same thing: They want to speak up in class, but they need clearer norms. They want more explicit frameworks and a better sense of what’s expected when they share deep convictions versus when they offer a knee-jerk conjecture.
And it’s not just students. Faculty and graduate students — myself very much included — bring a lot of smuggled assumptions into the classroom. Many students think that any argument they make will be seen as a deep reflection of who they are. Some believe that disagreeing with peers or professors is rude, when in fact it’s often exactly what good learning looks like. We need to flip that script. Open disagreement isn’t a roadblock; it’s a sign we’re doing our jobs. Helping everyone see that even contentious contributions are welcome and productive has been central to our efforts this year.
“Open disagreement isn’t a roadblock; it’s a sign we’re doing our jobs.”
How exactly can faculty go about setting the explicit frameworks you mentioned?
Some Law School faculty use the Chatham House Rule to create a space for candid discussion, while faculty from other Schools have emphasized co-creating norms with students at the start of the semester.
We’ve hosted several workshops and events where faculty shared the norm-setting strategies they use in their classrooms. One was a webinar featuring Meira Levinson, Archon Fung, and Janet Halley, who shared how they set the tone for open dialogue in their classrooms, offering practical methods like fostering intellectual humility, establishing structured participation guidelines, and modeling respectful disagreement.
The Ethics Center has been collecting these strategies and consolidating them into a database that faculty can draw from to tailor approaches to their teaching needs. We have also modeled constructive engagement through our “Ethics Monday” and “Ethics in Your World” lunchtime talks. These events tackle pressing issues — from legacy admissions to political threats to democracy — using a format that showcases open, structured dialogue. The strong attendance at these sessions shows that our community is eager for better ways to disagree productively.
We are also working with the Bok Center and the Intellectual Vitality initiative to bring innovative tools into classrooms. One of our key efforts involves piloting simulations where teaching fellows tackle challenging scenarios, such as managing a class in which students are reluctant to take on assigned roles. By combining faculty insights, curated resources, and live demonstrations of these techniques, we’re equipping educators with the tools they need to foster inclusive and dynamic discussions in any classroom.
How does this work carry into House life?
We are breaking down walls between the classroom and the House communities, fostering richer, ongoing conversations. For example, in the 800-student course “Justice: Ethical Reasoning in Polarized Times,” many sections met in the Houses just before dinner. This scheduling encouraged debates to spill over into mealtime discussions, creating a seamless flow between academic learning and communal life.
The Ethics Center’s Fellows in Values Engagement (FiVE) program has further deepened this connection. Proctors and tutors have hosted intimate sessions on topics ranging from moral dilemmas in public service to the ethical implications of living forever and questions of animal status and veganism. Looking ahead, they are planning live podcasts in the Houses this spring. Imagine a lively conversation on a hot-button topic unfolding right in a common room — students can watch, jump in with questions, and shape the direction of the dialogue.
What more can we expect in the initiative’s second year?
This fall, Dean Hoekstra assembled an FAS-wide advisory group on civil discourse, which I co-chair with Director of the Bok Center Karen Thornber. We have students, staff, and faculty all working together to scale up last year’s pilot programs. With help from the Harvard Initiative for Learning & Teaching (HILT), we are planning to convene Harvard’s experts on negotiation and facilitation, whose teaching doesn’t always travel beyond our professional Schools. The idea is to connect the dots among the Ethics Center, the Bok Center, the College’s Intellectual Vitality initiative, and the Office of Undergraduate Education. We want to weave civil discourse practices through every layer of campus life.
This spring, we’ll launch two new event series. The first pairs longtime FAS faculty friends who passionately disagree — across disciplines and within them. The second spotlights faculty whose research challenges basic assumptions about disagreement. We’ll learn from poets and social scientists alike, digging into depolarization, exploring the differences between “civil” and “civic,” and even looking at the fight-or-flight neuroscience behind conflict.
We’re also kicking off an interdisciplinary research lab focused on civil disagreement and hosting a February conference to highlight new research and evidence-based practices. Plus, we’ll hold a roundtable on listening — both the theory and the practice.
Were there any public events from year one that you found particularly successful in modeling or inviting civil discourse?
Philosopher Emily McTernan’s talk on “Taking Offense” was a standout. She tackled the tough question of what to do when conversations get uncomfortable. Her message: “Don’t run away. Lean in.”
Another high point was “Who Wants to Be a Trillionaire?” — a panel on extreme wealth featuring scholars with wildly different viewpoints. It got heated, but never crossed the line. The result? A deeper, more illuminating conversation that revealed new insights and strategies.
Which ethically charged topics will you tackle in 2025?
We’ve got a full slate, including the ethical dilemmas raised by social media, the manipulative power of generative AI, and the nuances of academic freedom. We look for issues that don’t fit neatly into left/right binaries but instead open space for unexpected agreements and creative solutions. Curiosity and empathy will remain at the core, along with the know-how to push back constructively when we disagree.
This year, we’re also piloting a new format inspired by the original PBS “Ethics in America” series at Harvard Law School. In this approach, a moderator will guide participants through a labyrinth of ethical dilemmas, assigning roles — sometimes unsettling ones — on the spot. A journalist might find themselves stepping into the shoes of a legislator, or a student might be asked to think like the dean of the College.
Our belief, supported by robust research, is that the ability to engage in empathetic disagreement is like a muscle — it grows stronger with deliberate practice. These kinds of scenarios, where participants are challenged to inhabit new perspectives and make tough calls, provide exactly that kind of exercise.
I see you have a new title — Alfred and Rebecca Lin Professor of Government — named for two alumni who specifically set out to support civil discourse.
I’m honored and grateful. It shows how closely my scholarship has merged with this initiative. With support from this professorship, I planned to write a book about how formal parliamentary rules can be misused to manipulate decisions. But after a year of watching how people navigate tough topics in classrooms and House lounges — even testing ideas with Quincy House students in their weekly Big Questions gathering — I’m starting at a more personal level: everyday disagreements among friends and family. The working title is “How to Disagree.” It will draw on all the lessons we’re learning here and hopefully help foster a braver, more open discourse culture far beyond Harvard’s gates.
Map of the road from Dublin to Wexford, circa 1845.
Courtesy of Harvard Library
Curator takes alternative route through cartographic history and finds a few surprises
Today many people would be lost without the interactive, highly mathematical GPS maps that we carry in our pockets. But entire traditions of mapmaking exist outside the norms of latitude and longitude, from routes drawn in sand to itineraries for early traders to topographical guides for the earliest hobby cyclists.
“Rivers & Roads: The Art of Getting There,” an exhibit on display through Jan. 31 in the corridor gallery of Pusey Library, explores methods of mapmaking “that don’t adhere to this latitude and longitude system but are still very effective,” said curator Molly Taylor-Poleskey, Harvard Map Librarian. Taylor-Poleskey spoke to the Gazette about what these unusual maps can tell us about how we think about getting from here to there. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
What inspired you to focus on maps that don’t rely on a grid system?
There is a Western tradition of mathematical mapping that undergirds digital wayfinding like what you have on your Google Maps. Other ways of saying this are Cartesian, universal, or Ptolemaic maps, from the ancient Greek mathematician who came up with the idea of placing an imaginary grid over the globe from which you could measure one point to another.
Molly Taylor-Poleskey, Map Librarian at Harvard Library.
Veasey Conway/Harvard Staff Photographer
But that’s only one kind of distance, and it’s not the way that I think about distance when I move around in my everyday life. I think, “OK, I’m going to bike to work today. Where are the hills, where’s the dangerous intersections?” Mapping throughout time and in different cultures has approached the question of getting around in so many ways, but we’ve become so used to thinking about mapping in this one way.
We’ve had this idea about accuracy that goes along with math as universally and completely objective. I wanted to say, it’s not objective. A lot of the maps in this exhibit are hyperlocal, and they need to be seen in their contexts to understand what they’re trying to accomplish. I wasn’t interested in the global worldview; it’s really about communication between the mapmaker and the map user. What I found in the process of curating the exhibit was a beautiful variety of ways of doing that.
Sultan Bello’s Map of the Niger River’s Course, 1826, misrepresents the river.
Courtesy of Harvard Library
You have on display a map of the Niger River, published in 1826, that was originally drawn in the sand by Muhammad Bello, Sultan of the Sokoto Caliphate, for a British explorer named Hugh Clapperton. You say it’s believed that Bello purposefully misrepresented the river to discourage Europeans from further exploration of the area. What does that tell us about the balance between objective and objectivity in these hyperlocal maps?
Mapmakers are always selective. In that particular map, we know Sultan Bello is giving some misinformation about something he knew quite intimately. We can conjecture about the things he wanted to hold back. Maps are about control of information, so there’s a specificity about what’s useful and what’s not.
I’ll also say that the question of objectivity comes up in another way in the history of mapmaking. Western maps in a certain era would say “There be monsters here,” and that was code for “We don’t know, and what we don’t know is dangerous.”
There’s a switch in about the 19th century in Western maps where you stop seeing what today we think of as ornamental elements. That’s because there’s this idea that people have conquered nature, and it’s not so scary.
What other themes emerged as you put together this exhibit?
Roads started appearing in European maps much later than I would have thought, not until the 17th century. I was curious about what Europeans used for wayfinding before that, and I discovered it was itineraries. It came out of the medieval pilgrimage tradition. You’d convey the route from one place to another by listing the places along the way. In the early modern period, merchants created itineraries showing the routes connecting sites of production to market cities. Those maps didn’t have political boundaries because you didn’t need them. That’s a different perspective than we get 100 years later in the 17th century when rulers were making state-sponsored maps.
Also, maps don’t just document roads: In a way, they led to the development of roads themselves. In the late 19th century, we have a huge transition. For the first time, there was a middle class in Europe and America that had money and time for leisure activities. At the same time, bicycles become safer and massively popular. You have a lot of newly urban people who are venturing out to enjoy the countryside recreationally. So how do they know how to get around? There are no road signs. This vogue for excursions into the countryside led to the development of route maps that you could fold up and put in your pocket. We have a map of bicycle routes in Paris that shows elevation change because you want to know when you’re going to have to push. It’s so interesting to me because it has some features like a GPS navigation system would have today that say, “turn left,” or “straight ahead.” It’s just one little instruction because you are simultaneously navigating and riding and do not want to be distracted by extraneous information.
Bicycle routes near Paris, circa the early 20th century.
Courtesy of Harvard Library
Hobby cyclists would find themselves lost or broken down with no information about where they were or where they could get help, and the roads were almost all unpaved. So they became huge road advocates. We have an 1888 cyclists’ road book from Connecticut, the first modern tourist guidebook. It was made by the League of American Wheelmen, and they had a campaign for marking roads and systematizing them. That kind of advocacy work in government and through their publications is copied by automobile associations right afterward, which become democratized shortly after. Organizations like the American Automobile Association, AAA, took on the same methods of advocacy starting in the 1920s. It was largely thanks to the Good Roads bicycle movement that early motorists had any passable roads to travel through the American countryside.
A visitor examines a map during a tour of “Rivers & Roads: The Art of Getting There.”
A team led by Kang-Kuen Ni (center), including Gabriel Patenotte (left) and Samuel Gebretsadkan, among others, successfully trapped molecules to perform quantum operations for the first time.
Trapping molecules for use in systems may help make ultra-high-speed experimental technology even faster
Molecules haven’t been used in quantum computing, even though they have the potential to make the ultra-high-speed experimental technology even faster. Their rich internal structures were seen as too complicated, too delicate, too unpredictable to manage, so smaller particles have been used.
But a team of Harvard scientists has succeeded for the first time in trapping molecules to perform quantum operations. This feat was accomplished by using ultra-cold polar molecules as qubits, or the fundamental units of information that power the technology. The findings, recently published in the journal Nature, open new realms of possibility for harnessing the complexity of molecular structures for future applications.
“As a field we have been trying to do this for 20 years,” said senior co-author Kang-Kuen Ni, Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics. “And we’ve finally been able to do it!”
Physicists and engineers have been working to develop quantum computing for several decades. The technology, which exploits aspects of quantum mechanics for computation, promises speeds exponentially faster than classical computers, which could enable game-changing advances in fields including medicine, science, and finance.
“Our work … is the last building block necessary to build a molecular quantum computer.”
Annie Park, study co-author, postdoctoral fellow
Dominating the world of quantum computing are experiments with trapped ions, neutral atoms, and superconducting circuits. In these systems, tiny individual particles can be reliably trapped to serve as qubits and form quantum logic gates. The Harvard team’s paper details the far more complicated process involved with using molecules to form an iSWAP gate, a key quantum circuit that creates entanglement — the very property that makes quantum computing so powerful.
The researchers started by trapping sodium-cesium (NaCs) molecules with optical tweezers in a stable and extremely cold environment. The electric dipole-dipole (or positive-negative) interactions between the molecules were then used to perform a quantum operation. By carefully controlling how the molecules rotated with respect to one another, the team managed to entangle two molecules, creating a quantum state known as a two-qubit Bell state with 94 percent accuracy.
Logic gates enable information processing in quantum computers just as they do in traditional computers. But while classical gates manipulate binary bits (0s and 1s), quantum gates operate on qubits — which can achieve what are called superpositions, existing in multiple states simultaneously. That means quantum computers can do things that would be impossible for traditional machines, such as creating entangled states in the first place — or even performing operations in multiple computational states at once.
Quantum gates are also reversible and capable of manipulating qubits with precision while preserving their quantum nature. The iSWAP gate used in this experiment swapped the states of two qubits and applied what is called a phase shift, an essential step in generating entanglement where the states of two qubits become correlated regardless of the distance in between.
“Our work marks a milestone in trapped molecule technology and is the last building block necessary to build a molecular quantum computer,” said co-author and postdoctoral fellow Annie Park. “The unique properties of molecules, such as their rich internal structure, offer many opportunities to advance these technologies.”
Scientists have dreamed since the 1990s of harnessing molecular systems, with their nuclear spins and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, for quantum computing. A series of early experiments showed encouraging results, but molecules proved generally unstable for use in quantum operations due to their unpredictable movements. That can interfere with coherence, the delicate quantum state necessary for reliable operations.
But trapping molecules in ultra-cold environments, where the molecule’s intricate internal structures can be controlled, helps overcome this hurdle. Once holding these molecules with optical tweezers — with precisely focused lasers for controlling tiny objects — researchers were able to minimize the molecules’ motion and manipulate their quantum states.
Making this breakthrough possible were several members of Ni’s lab including Lewis R.B. Picard, Annie J. Park, Gabriel E. Patenotte, and Samuel Gebretsadkan, as well as physicists with the University of Colorado’s Center for Theory of Quantum Matter.
To evaluate the whole operation, the research team measured the resulting two-qubit Bell state and studied errors caused by any motion that did occur. This left them with ideas for improving the stability and accuracy of their setup in future experiments. Switching between interacting and non-interacting states also enabled researchers to digitize their experiment, providing additional insights.
“There’s a lot of room for innovations and new ideas about how to leverage the advantages of the molecular platform,” Ni said. “I’m excited to see what comes out of this.”
This research was supported by multiple sources including the Air Force of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, the Physics Frontier Center, and Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative.
The study, led by researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Exeter, identified several drugs already licensed and in use that have the potential to be repurposed to treat dementia.
Dementia is a leading cause of death in the UK and can lead to profound distress in the individual and among those caring for them. It has been estimated to have a worldwide economic cost in excess of US$1 trillion dollars.
Despite intensive efforts, progress in identifying drugs that can slow or even prevent dementia has been disappointing. Until recently, dementia drugs were effective only for symptoms and have a modest effect. Recently, lecanemab and donanemab have been shown to reduce the build-up in the brain of amyloid plaques – a key characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease – and to slow down progression of the disease, but the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) concluded that the benefits were insufficient to justify approval for use within the NHS.
Scientists are increasingly turning to existing drugs to see if they may be repurposed to treat dementia. As the safety profile of these drugs is already known, the move to clinical trials can be accelerated significantly.
Dr Ben Underwood, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We urgently need new treatments to slow the progress of dementia, if not to prevent it. If we can find drugs that are already licensed for other conditions, then we can get them into trials and – crucially – may be able to make them available to patients much, much faster than we could do for an entirely new drug. The fact they are already available is likely to reduce cost and therefore make them more likely to be approved for use in the NHS.”
In a study published today in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, Dr Underwood, together with Dr Ilianna Lourida from the University of Exeter, led a systematic review of existing scientific literature to look for evidence of prescription drugs that altered the risk of dementia. Systematic reviews allow researchers to pool several studies where evidence may be weak, or even contradictory, to arrive at more robust conclusions.
In total, the team examined 14 studies that used large clinical datasets and medical records, capturing data from more than 130 million individuals and 1 million dementia cases. Although they found a lack of consistency between studies in identifying individual drugs that affect the risk of dementia, they identified several drug classes associated with altered risk.
One unexpected finding was an association between antibiotics, antivirals and vaccines, and a reduced risk of dementia. This finding supports the hypothesis that common dementias may be triggered by viral or bacterial infections, and supports recent interest in vaccines, such as the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis, and decreased risk of dementia.
Anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen were also found to be associated with reduced risk. Inflammation is increasingly being seen to be a significant contributor to a wide range of diseases, and its role in dementia is supported by the fact that some genes that increase the risk of dementia are part of inflammatory pathways.
The team found conflicting evidence for several classes of drugs, with some blood pressure medications and anti-depressants and, to a lesser extent, diabetes medication associated with a decreased risk of dementia and others associated with increased risk.
Dr Ilianna Lourida from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC), University of Exeter, said: “Because a particular drug is associated with an altered risk of dementia, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it causes or indeed helps in dementia. We know that diabetes increases your risk of dementia, for example, so anyone on medication to manage their glucose levels would naturally also be at a higher risk of dementia – but that doesn’t mean the drug increases your risk.
“It’s important to remember that all drugs have benefits and risks. You should never change your medicine without discussing this first with your doctor, and you should speak to them if you have any concerns.”
The conflicting evidence may also reflect differences in how particular studies were conducted and how data was collected, as well as the fact that different medications even within the same class often target different biological mechanisms.
The UK government is supporting the development of an Alzheimer’s trial platform to evaluate drugs rapidly and efficiently, including repurposed drugs currently used for other conditions.
“Pooling these massive health data sets provides one source of evidence which we can use to help us focus on which drugs we should try first,” said Dr Underwood. “We’re hopeful this will mean we can find some much-needed new treatments for dementia and speed up the process of getting them to patients.”
Antibiotics, antivirals, vaccinations and anti-inflammatory medication are associated with reduced risk of dementia, according to new research that looked at health data from over 130 million individuals.
We urgently need new treatments to slow the progress of dementia, if not to prevent it. If we can find drugs that are already licensed for other conditions, then we can get them into trials much faster than we could do for an entirely new drug
Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and computing at the National University of Singapore (NUS) get a major boost with today's official opening of two state-of-the-art buildings, Sea Building and Sea Connect. Together, the two new buildings provide dynamic and versatile spaces, spanning a total area of 21,570 sqm, to drive NUS’ bold ambitions in cutting-edge research, education, and collaboration, advancing the rapidly evolving fields in computing such as AI and data science.
The naming of the buildings is in honour of the generous S$50 million gift from Sea Limited (Sea) in 2021. The donation, the largest corporate gift received by the NUS School of Computing (NUS Computing) to date, is used to fund scholarships, fellowships, and grants that will enhance the School’s ability to attract talent and pursue advanced research.
Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Education, attended the official opening of Sea Building and Sea Connect as the Guest-of-Honour, together with Professor Tan Eng Chye, NUS President, and Mr Forrest Li, Chairman and CEO, Sea.
Prof Tan said, “We are deeply appreciative of the generous gift from Sea in 2021, which has been instrumental in expanding the resources at the NUS Computing to foster innovation, enhance education, and support cutting-edge research in AI, computing, and related fields. The Sea Building and Sea Connect have enabled us to expand considerably our learning and teaching facilities, research labs as well as collaborative and leisure spaces for students within and beyond the School. We are excited to fully leverage the gift and our longstanding partnership with Sea to build human capital, harness the power of technology and drive meaningful impact."
Beyond the enhancement of physical infrastructure, the gift from Sea has also already benefitted more than 700 students through scholarships and awards for undergraduate and postgraduate students, sponsorships for international symposia, and provided seed funding for research projects.
Mr Li said, “The local tech ecosystem was a key enabler of our growth from a small Singapore startup in 2009 to a global company today. With the success we achieved, we feel it is important to give back to our community and help Singapore continue to produce some of the best tech talent in Asia and beyond. We chose to partner with the NUS School of Computing because it shares our mission of pushing the boundaries of technology to advance humanity and uplift communities around the world. We look forward to deepening our collaboration with NUS in the coming years, working together to transform research into meaningful solutions that will improve lives everywhere.”
In his speech, Mr Chan noted that beyond the gift, Sea brings to NUS “a partnership that can define the competitiveness of Singapore”. While Singapore has limitations in terms of size, resources and people, Mr Chan highlighted that it can compete on speed, network and ideas. He added that the partnership between NUS and Sea will inspire many more others to come and join the “venture for Singapore to remain competitive and defy the odds of history”.
New education programmes in AI
Come Academic Year 2025/26, the new cohort of Computing as well as Engineering students can look forward to new AI-centric programmes and other AI-related initiatives. This educational undertaking by NUS will help to grow the pool of AI talents in support of the Singapore National AI Strategy.
The NUS Computing will be offering a new Bachelor of Computing in Artificial Intelligence, a four-year direct honours degree programme which will provide students with a comprehensive education in AI and prepare them for AI-centric job roles. They will also learn about the responsible use of AI, including issues of ethics, privacy and AI governance.
The current Bachelor of Computing in Information Systems offered by NUS Computing will be revamped into the Bachelor of Computing in Business Artificial Intelligence Systems, to strengthen the focus on AI solutioning and governance for businesses and organisations. This programme is envisioned to be the first-of-its-kind offering a full spectrum of knowledge and skills in AI, including end-to-end solutioning, governance and management, and its impact on business and society.
Postgraduate students at NUS Computing can also opt for the new Master of Computing in Artificial Intelligence, a comprehensive and rigorous graduate programme with specialised courses that include the latest research findings in both applied and fundamental computing fields. It will provide systematic breadth-and-depth training in AI to meet the growing demand for AI-focused education and research as well as training for careers in industry.
The College of Design and Engineering at NUS will also be introducing a new four-year direct honours Bachelor of Engineering in Robotics and Machine Intelligence programme. This programme addresses the transformative trends of today’s engineering industry where we see a market demand for graduates equipped with the skills and knowledge in this field.
A dynamic hub that drives high-impact research and synergistic industry collaboration
Sea Building and Sea Connect are home to 12 research labs, including NUS AI Institute, Health Informatics Research Lab, Information Systems & Analytics Research Lab, and more. Research conducted in these labs is expected to foster start-ups and innovations that will make a positive and transformative impact on the industry and society.
Additionally, Sea Building and Sea Connect are set to catalyse long-term, fruitful collaborations between academia and industry by providing cutting-edge facilities, fostering cross-disciplinary interactions, and facilitating real-time innovation and knowledge exchange. Some collaborative initiatives with industry hosted here include the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme, National Cybersecurity R&D Laboratory and NUS Fintech Lab.
Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital (CCRH) will transform how we diagnose and treat cancer. It will bring together world-leading research and clinical excellence to change the lives of cancer patients across the East of England, the UK and beyond.
The Hospital was part of the government’s review of its New Hospitals Programme. In naming the project as one of the schemes that has advanced plans in place, including significant progress on our full business case, the Government confirmed the good news that we can prepare for construction to start in 2026. It remains on track to be built by 2029.
Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals and the University of Cambridge, will combine NHS clinical space with three new state-of-the-art research institutes that will support the ambitions set out in the government's new NHS ten-year plan.
Bringing together world-class NHS clinicians with cutting-edge University and industry-led research, the hospital will accelerate the early detection of cancer and prevention of illness, and lead the way in delivering bespoke, precision treatments that will radically improve patient outcomes.
Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “This is excellent news for the future of Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, which promises to have a huge impact on how we diagnose and treat cancer, not only in our region, but globally.
“Our teams are also working hard to secure much-needed philanthropic support to complement the funding committed by the NHS and the University. Generous donations will help realise our vision for this revolutionary, and much-needed, research hospital.”
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has announced that ambitious plans can proceed for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, which promises to change the story of cancer forever.
Our teams are also working hard to secure much-needed philanthropic support to complement the funding committed by the NHS and the University. Generous donations will help realise our vision for this revolutionary, and much-needed, research hospital
Researchers at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University found that these individuals also report experiencing lower quality healthcare than both autistic and non-autistic people whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth (cisgender).
The findings have important implications for the healthcare and support of autistic transgender/gender diverse (TGD) individuals. This is the first large-scale study on the experiences of autistic TGD people and the results are published today in Molecular Autism.
Previous research suggests that both autistic people and TGD people separately have poorer healthcare experiences and are more likely to be diagnosed with physical and mental health conditions than other people. In addition, a 2020 study of over 640,000 people, carried out by the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, found that TGD people are more likely to be autistic and have higher levels of autistic traits than other people. Several other studies now confirm this finding and show that autistic people are more likely to experience gender dysphoria than others. Despite these findings, there are no studies that consider risks of mental health conditions, physical health conditions, and healthcare quality among autistic TGD people.
In the largest study to date on this topic, the team at the Autism Research Centre used an anonymous, self-report survey to compare the experiences of 174 autistic TGD individuals, 1,094 autistic cisgender individuals, and 1,295 non-autistic cisgender individuals.
The survey assessed rates of mental health conditions and physical health conditions, as well as the quality of 51 different aspects of healthcare experiences. The healthcare experiences questions were wide-ranging and included questions about communication, anxiety, access and advocacy, system-level issues, and sensory experiences among others. They addressed several very basic aspects of healthcare, including asking participants to endorse statements such as ‘If I need to go to see a healthcare professional, I am able to get there’, ‘I am able to describe how bad my pain feels’, and ‘I usually understand what my healthcare professional means when they discuss my health’.
Both autistic TGD and autistic cisgender adults reported significantly poorer healthcare experiences across 50 out of 51 items compared with non-autistic cisgender people, confirming that autistic people appear to have poorer quality healthcare than non-autistic cisgender individuals, regardless of their own gender identity.
Compared to non-autistic cisgender individuals, autistic TGD people were three to 11 times more likely to report anxiety, shutdowns, and meltdowns related to common healthcare experiences.
For every 10 cisgender non-autistic adults who endorsed the following statements, on average, only two autistic cisgender adults and only one autistic TGD adult stated that they: (i) understood what their healthcare professional meant when discussing their health; (ii) knew what was expected of them when seeing a healthcare professional; or (iii) were able to describe how bad their pain felt.
Autistic TGD people and autistic cisgender people were more likely to report both long-term physical and mental health conditions that were formally diagnosed, suspected, or that had been recommended for assessment by clinicians. For every 10 non-autistic cisgender people who had at least one diagnosed physical health condition, there were 15 autistic cisgender people and 23 autistic TGD people. For every 10 non-autistic cisgender people who reported at least one diagnosed mental health condition, there were 50 autistic cisgender people and 109 autistic TGD people who reported the same.
Alarmingly, it is now well-established that autistic people and TGD people are each at a much higher risk of suicide and suicide-related behaviours than other people. In 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care specifically recognized autistic people as a priority group in their Suicide prevention strategy for England: 2023 to 2028. The new study found that, compared to people who are non-autistic and cisgender, autistic cisgender individuals were 4.6 times more likely and autistic TGD people were 5.8 times more likely to report self-harm.
Dr Elizabeth Weir, a postdoctoral scientist at the Autism Research Centre, and one of the lead researchers of the study, said: “These findings add to the growing body of evidence that many autistic people experience unacceptably poor mental health and are at a very high risk of suicide-related behaviours. We need to consider how other aspects of identity, including gender, influence these risks.”
These results emphasise the importance of considering intersectionality in clinical settings, including health risks for individuals who hold multiple minoritised identities. The researchers say clinicians should be aware of these risks and the unique barriers to healthcare that autistic TGD people may experience. The findings also underscore that people who are autistic and transgender/gender diverse experience particularly high rates of mental health conditions and risks of self-harm.
Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre and a member of the team, said: “We need to consider how to adapt healthcare systems and individual care to meet the needs of autistic transgender/gender diverse people. Policymakers, clinicians, and researchers should work collaboratively with autistic people to improve existing systems and reduce barriers to healthcare.”
Reference
Green, K.*, Weir, E.*, Wright, L.*, Allison, C., & Baron-Cohen, S. Autistic and transgender/gender diverse people’s experiences of health and healthcare. Molecular Autism; 21 Jan 2025; DOI: 10.1186/s13229-024-00634-0
Autistic transgender/gender diverse individuals are more likely to have long-term mental and physical health conditions, including alarmingly high rates of self-harm, new research from the University of Cambridge suggests.
These findings add to the growing body of evidence that many autistic people experience unacceptably poor mental health and are at a very high risk of suicide-related behaviours
Science diplomacy can transcend the geopolitical arena, building trust and bridging gaps between nations, emphasises Joël Mesot. And presents three partnerships in generative AI that highlight the power of cross-sector cooperation – for humanitarian and peacekeeping missions as well as trustworthy AI.
Penn Today spoke to Sarah Tomkein the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Wildlife Futures Program about the black squirrels regularly seen on College Green. They are black because of a genetic mutation in the melanin receptor protein, which regulates pigment.
A specialist in Roman social and cultural history, political theory and law, Champlin joined Princeton’s faculty in 1976 and transferred to emeritus status in 2016.
Now that we have new ‘miracle’ diet drugs, what’s the point of exercising?
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Anna Lamb
Harvard Staff Writer
6 min read
Experts say weight loss isn’t at top of list of health, longevity gains that come from activities like walking, hitting gym
New diet drugs are making it easier to lose weight. So does that mean we can stop exercising? Health experts say no. There is a long list of upsides to going for a walk or hitting the gym, and weight loss isn’t necessarily at the top.
“Exercise is good for everything from cognition and mental health benefits such as preventing neurocognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s disease to cardiovascular benefits like preventing mortality from cardiovascular disease, maintaining vascular function, and improving lung strength and lung function,” said Christina Dieli-Conwright, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“Exercising regularly can even benefit the gastrointestinal system, like gut motility, digestion and the gut microbiome. … Depression, anxiety, sleep, fatigue, pain — I can’t think of a body system that is not benefited by exercise,” she added.
But, while exercise can help in losing weight, it isn’t a magic bullet, she said.
“Historically speaking, the thought behind exercise and weight loss is a little bit erroneous. Exercise alone does not typically put an individual into enough of a caloric deficit to cause weight loss,” she said.
Why? For starters consider that exercise, on average, can burn from 200 to 700 calories an hour, while consuming that many calories can be done in minutes.
And most of us appear to be poor at keeping track of what we’re taking in vs. what we’re burning.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 73 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. At the same time, almost half of all adults met activity guidelines for aerobic physical activity during the period of a year, and nearly a quarter met guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity.
7 to 15Hours of exercise a week significantly lowers cancer risk, according to 2019 study
Medical experts say both exercise and maintaining a healthy weight are important components of promoting overall health and longevity.
“Because the effects of weight loss on diabetes control and risk of diabetes is stronger than for exercise, but for other things like heart disease and living longer — they look like they’re about equivalent,” said I-Min Lee, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Chan School and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
In 2019, Lee helped author a study on physical activity and cancer risk that showed that seven to 15 hours of exercise a week can significantly lower one’s risk of seven types of cancer. That benefit decreases with an overweight BMI, but still shows an improved risk for six cancers: colon, breast, kidney, myeloma, liver, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“Depression, anxiety, sleep, fatigue, pain — I can’t think of a body system that is not benefited by exercise.”
Christina Dieli-Conwright, T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Lee advises those who are looking to begin an exercise regimen to start small.
“That way you get a little bit of benefit,” she said, “and it’s also very encouraging, because if it’s an amount that’s doable, and you succeed, it might make you want to do more.”
And doing more is good for everyone, she said. A good strategy, according to Lee, is to try to add 10 minutes to your routine — whatever it may be. If you walk for 20 minutes a day, go for 30 until you meet or exceed the recommended 150 minutes of weekly exercise.
Edward Phillips, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at HMS, and founder and director of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, agrees.
“If I ask someone how easily they think they could add a bottle of water in the morning or in the afternoon to combat dehydration, they’re going to say, ‘That’s not so hard.’ If they start doing that, and they also add in a five-minute walk after lunch, which is really healthy, and also easy to achieve, then when I check in with them three weeks later, they go, ‘I’m drinking more water. I feel better. And by the way, the five-minute walk turned into a 10-minute walk.’”
Phillips is also host of the WBUR podcast “Food, We Need to Talk,” covering health and fitness. He said when patients don’t see changes on the scale, they need tangible reasons to keep working out — and there are apparent reasons.
“People need a good story in order to make changes that would result in meaningful health changes,” he said. “Exercise allows you to be more functional. You can get out of a chair more easily. You can sit in the chair more easily. … Or when a friend says, ‘Let’s go downhill skiing this weekend,’ and you’re like, ‘I haven’t done that in years,’ you say. ‘I could try it, because I’ve been exercising.’”
Dieli-Conwright said it helps to do anything a couple of times a week that gets you out of breath.
“You’re going to get more bang for your buck if you do both aerobic and resistance exercise, though,” she said. “The reason is that aerobic exercise is going to tax the cardiorespiratory system more than resistance or weightlifting. That type of exercise is fantastic for muscle strength. But with both you are going to target glucose metabolism, which is going to be important for managing hyper- and hypoglycemia, diabetes management, things like that.”
She adds that it’s also important to interrupt sitting time or sedentary behaviors.
“Once an hour, get up for two to three minutes even, and just stand up and down and squat or take a two-minute little walk, and go up and down the stairs a couple of times. That can actually help to also manage glucose, which leads, again, back into diabetes risk,” she said.
But Dieli-Conwright emphasizes that creating an exercise habit is key.
“We all know that obesity is incredibly bad. It leads to so many different other co-morbid conditions, specifically heart disease and diabetes. However, there’s so much data that’s overlooked that supports the paradigm that I generally call, and others call, being fit and fat,” she said, essentially being overweight, yet metabolically healthy.
The overwhelming majority of those in New York City who obtained a naloxone kit to counteract opioid overdose had a high need for the drug, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.
Planning and building Europe’s largest capacity geotechnical centrifuge took seven years. Now, after one and a half years of operation, its official inauguration is finally being celebrated at the Hönggerberg campus. And it’s no coincidence that this is happening in mid-January.
The crystal-clear images show light being emitted from these millimetre-sized pebbles within the belts that orbit 74 nearby stars of a wide variety of ages – from those that are just emerging to those in more mature systems like our own Solar System.
The REASONS (REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars) study, led by Trinity College Dublin and involving researchers from the University of Cambridge, is a milestone in the study of exocometary belts because its images and analyses reveal where the pebbles, and the exocomets, are located. They are typically tens to hundreds of astronomical units (the distance from Earth to the Sun) from their central star.
In these regions, it is so cold (-250 to -150 degrees Celsius) that most compounds are frozen as ice on the exocomets. What the researchers are therefore observing is where the ice reservoirs of planetary systems are located. REASONS is the first programme to unveil the structure of these belts for a large sample of 74 exoplanetary systems. The results are reported in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
This study used both the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile and the Submillimeter Array (SMA) in Hawai‘i to produce the images that have provided more information on populations of exocomets than ever before. Both telescope arrays observe electromagnetic radiation at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths.
“Exocomets are boulders of rock and ice, at least one kilometre in size, which smash together within these belts to produce the pebbles that we observe here with the ALMA and SMA arrays of telescopes,” said lead author Luca Matrà from Trinity College Dublin. “Exocometary belts are found in at least 20% of planetary systems, including our own Solar System.”
“The images reveal a remarkable diversity in the structure of belts,” said co-author Dr Sebastián Marino from the University of Exeter. “Some are narrow rings, as in the canonical picture of a ‘belt’ like our Solar System’s Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. But a larger number of them are wide, and probably better described as ‘disks’ rather than rings.”
Some systems have multiple rings/disks, some of which are eccentric, providing evidence that yet undetectable planets are present and their gravity affects the distribution of pebbles in these systems.
“The power of a large study like REASONS is in revealing population-wide properties and trends,” said Matrà.
For example, the study confirmed that the number of pebbles decreases for older planetary systems as belts run out of larger exocomets smashing together, but showed for the first time that this decrease in pebbles is faster if the belt is closer to the central star. It also indirectly showed – through the belts’ vertical thickness – that objects as large as 140 km across and even Moon-size objects are likely present in these belts.
“We have been studying exocometary belts for decades, but until now only a handful had been imaged,” said co-author Professor Mark Wyatt from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “This is the largest collection of such images and demonstrates that we already have the capabilities to probe the structures of the planetary systems orbiting a large fraction of the stars near to the Sun.”
“Arrays like the ALMA and SMA used in this work are extraordinary tools that are continuing to give us incredible new insights into the universe and its workings,” said co-author Dr David Wilner from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian “The REASONS survey required a large community effort and has an incredible legacy value, with multiple potential pathways for future investigation.”
Research led by the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, raises serious concerns about bias in the UK criminal justice system due to negative stereotyping of accents.
These stereotypes, the researchers argue, can affect all parts of the system from arrest to sentencing, and undermine not only suspects and defendants, but also the testimony of witnesses. The study is particularly concerned about accented speakers being incorrectly selected from voice identification parades.
The findings, published in Frontiers in Communication, suggest that despite progress in equality and diversity in some parts of British life, including ‘working-class’ and regional accents becoming more prominent on television and radio, harmful stereotypes remain.
“Our findings bring into sharp focus the disadvantage that speakers of some accents may still face in the criminal justice system,” said lead author, Alice Paver, from the University of Cambridge’s Phonetics Laboratory and Jesus College, Cambridge.
“Voices play a powerful role in the criminal justice system and police officers, lawyers and juries are all susceptible to judging voices based on stereotypes, whether they're aware of it or not. As things stand, listeners think some accents sound guiltier than others and we should all be concerned about that.”
The test
The researchers, from Cambridge and Nottingham Trent University, asked 180 participants (~50:50 gender split) from across the UK to listen to recordings of ten regionally-accented male voices: Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Newcastle and Standard Southern British English (SSBE), also referred to as RP.
Participants were then asked to rate the voices on 10 social traits – ‘Educated’, ‘Intelligent’, ‘Rich’, ‘Working class’, ‘Friendly’, ‘Honest’, ‘Kind’, ‘Trustworthy’, ‘Aggressive’ and ‘Confident’; as well as on 10 morally ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘ambiguous behaviours’, which included a range of crime types.
These behaviours included: ‘Return a lost wallet to its owner’, ‘Stand up for someone who is being harassed’, ‘Cheat on a romantic partner’, ‘Report a relative to the police for a minor offence’, ‘Drive dangerously’, ‘Physically assault someone’, ‘Shoplift’, ‘Touch someone sexually without consent’, ‘Vandalize a shop front.’
The study used a wider range of recorded accents, behaviours and criminal offences than previous research which has tended to focus on criminal behaviour in general or the binary of white versus blue-collar crime. This study included crimes which are not class stratified, such as a driving offence and a sexual offence, and is the first to identify links between listener perceptions of morality, criminality, and social traits.
To ensure their results would be valid in a criminal justice context, the researchers created voice samples in a similar way to how they are constructed for voice ID parades. The aim was to mimic, as closely as possible, how a juror or earwitness would experience them.
Findings: Status, class and regions
The results show that people with non-standard accents are more likely to be associated with criminal behaviour but that there is significant variation in perceptions between accents.
The RP-like accent was perceived as the least likely to behave in criminal ways, while the Liverpool and Bradford accents were the most likely.
Alice Paver said: “The strongest connection we found was between people's perceptions of class or status, negative traits such as aggression, and how they think someone is going to behave, particularly when it comes to crime. This is the first time that a concrete link between traits and behaviours has been made in the context of accent judgements.”
Unlike previous findings, the researchers did not observe a relationship between ‘solidarity traits’ (such as kindness and trustworthiness) and any behaviours. Status proved a much more important predictor of behaviours, re-enforcing the link between social class and expectations of behaviour in the UK.
However, non-English accents, in particular Belfast’s and Glasgow’s, were rated significantly less likely to behave in criminal ways than almost all other accents. They were also thought most likely to ‘stand up for someone being harassed’ (‘honourable behaviour’) and least likely to exhibit ‘morally bad’ behaviours.
Alice Paver said: “Our findings show that perceptions of speakers of regional accents and how status, social attractiveness and morality interact are much more complex than previously assumed. We need a much more nuanced understanding of how accents are evaluated when it comes to different crime types.”
Findings: Sexual offences
The London and Liverpool accents were rated most likely to touch someone sexually without consent, but they were very closely followed by the RP accent. Participants thought the RP accent was more likely to commit a sexual assault than any of the other offences tested.
“This finding simultaneously undermines certain traditional stereotypes about both higher status and working-class men,” Alice Paver said. “This may indicate shifting perceptions of the ‘type’ of man who can and does commit sexual offences.”
The Glasgow and Belfast speakers were thought the least likely to commit this sexual offence.
The study found that participants perceived this sexual offence as distinct from other criminal behaviours. Poor ratings for it clustered with those for non-criminal ‘morally bad’ behaviours, namely ‘being unfaithful to a romantic partner’ and ‘lying on a CV’.
Findings: Newcastle and Birmingham
Previous studies have found that the Newcastle accent rates highly for traits such as friendliness, but this study recorded less positive ratings for kindness, honesty, friendliness and trustworthiness.
By contrast, the Birmingham accent, which has rated poorly in previous research across these measures, performed better than Bradford, Bristol, Liverpool, London and Newcastle in this study.
“Although relatively stable over time, language attitudes can change,” Alice Paver said. “This might be the case for the Birmingham and Newcastle accents. But previous studies have often asked people what they think of an accent label whereas we played them an actual voice. That’s a very different stimulus so we’re not surprised people reacted differently.”
Bringing about change
The study contributes to the Improving Voice Identification Procedures project. Its team of researchers is currently drafting revised guidelines for voice identification parades aimed at police officers and legal professionals.
They support the use of pre-tests to screen for bias against foil or suspect voices to make sure that they don't stand out as sounding unduly guilty or untrustworthy.
“Jurors are not currently made aware of or warned against letting voice- or accent-based prejudice sway their decisions,” Paver said. “If we're asked to judge whether someone is guilty or not, and they've got a particular accent, we need to be sure we're not making that judgment because we think they sound like a bad guy.”
The researchers hope that future studies will examine even more offence types; further explore the relationships between perceptions of criminality and other, non-criminal, behaviours; and make use of a broader range of voices for each accent to tease apart the effect of individual voices and the strength of regional accents.
The research was carried out in collaboration with Professor Natalie Braber and Dr David Wright of Nottingham Trent University’s School of Arts and Humanities, and Dr Nikolas Pautz, of NTU's Dept. of Psychology.
Funding
This research was supported by the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council as part of the project Improving Voice Identification Procedures (IVIP), reference ES/S015965/1. Additional funding was provided by the Isaac Newton Trust.
People who speak with accents perceived as ‘working-class’ including those from Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford and London risk being stereotyped as more likely to have committed a crime, and becoming victims of injustice, a new study suggests.
Listeners think some accents sound guiltier than others and we should all be concerned about that
NUS graduates have once again soared to new heights, bringing immense pride to the university with their extraordinary achievements.
Faye Ng Yu Ci, an alumna of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine), has earned a coveted spot in the prestigious Schwarzman Scholars graduate fellowship programme. She will also fly the Singapore flag high as the only Singaporean joining the 10th cohort comprising 150 scholars representing 38 countries and 105 universities from around the world. These bright young leaders will attend a one-year fully-funded master’s degree programme in global affairs at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
Schwarzman Scholars are chosen through a competitive application process consisting of personal essays, a conversational phase, and finally, a board interview with CEOs, government leaders, university presidents, and non-profit executives, among others. These high achievers distinguished themselves through exemplary leadership, character and integrity, as well as academic aptitude and intellectual ability. They also embody empathy and intercultural competency, an entrepreneurial drive and spirit, alongside an open mind and unbridled curiosity toward the world.
Starting in August 2025, the scholars will engage in a graduate curriculum focused on leadership, global affairs, and China. They will learn from leading faculty from Tsinghua University as well as globally renowned universities, and attend lectures delivered by eminent senior leaders in business, global public policy, economics, and international affairs.
As part of the programme, the scholars can look forward to mentoring, internships, and experiential learning, as well as career development opportunities to help them excel in various fields upon graduation.
Newly-minted Schwarzman Scholar
Faye graduated from NUS Medicine in 2024 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. She was selected from a record-breaking pool of nearly 5,000 candidates worldwide to be a part of the Class of 2025-26 Schwarzman Scholars – this is the highest number of applications that Schwarzman Scholars had received in its 10-year history.
"Faye has never failed to delight me with her enterprising spirit and incisive worldview, as well as what she sets her mind on and commits to accomplishing. Her achievements in academic research, clinical innovation, and the medical humanities speak for her holistic excellence, and she continues to be an inspiration to her peers and juniors in NUS Medicine,” observed Professor Chong Yap Seng, Dean of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
He added, “I congratulate her on this opportunity to better understand the geopolitical factors driving our fast-changing world through Schwarzman Scholars and believe the programme will groom her well for future leadership roles in public healthcare as a clinician-innovator. She is a perfect fit for the programme’s global outlook and cross-disciplinary emphasis — I never doubted she would be selected by the committee.”
Mastering the balance: Doctor, innovator, poet, dancer and more
As an aspiring clinician-innovator, Faye hopes to use technology to transform healthcare, spearheading collaborations between physicians, engineers, and businesses. She believes in the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to augment healthcare practices, and is committed to developing clinical algorithms through evidence-based medicine. In addition, she aims to harness big data to deliver healthcare that is personal and personable, while creating solutions at scale at minimal cost.
Since graduating from NUS Medicine, Faye has started work as a house officer, completing her Internal Medicine as well as Obstetrics and Gynecology postings in the hospitals within Singapore’s public healthcare system. She is currently working as a house officer in the Orthopaedics department of a major tertiary hospital in Singapore. As a house officer, Faye oversees patients’ progress in the wards and attends to medical emergencies on-call, practicing her clinical decision-making and bedside procedural skills.
Beyond her role as a clinician, Faye is passionate about advancing healthcare innovation. She is currently a clinical fellow with the Duke-NUS Innovation Programme (D-HIP), which brings together multidisciplinary teams with backgrounds in medicine, engineering, and business to solve modern-day healthcare challenges. Together with her groupmates, Faye is working on a device to address the problem of rising myopia prevalence and progression in children, through implementing a novel peripheral blurring technology on smart devices to tackle the issue of increasing screen time.
“I envision a future in healthcare where treatment plans are optimised for the individual patient, and administrative workload is reduced to enable greater patient interaction,” reflected Faye. “Being a doctor is like being a firefighter – you put out fires one by one. Through innovation and enterprise, I can increase the extent and impact of my care.”
Despite her hectic day-to-day work, Faye carves out time to spend with her family and loved ones, write poetry and articles, and stay active by running and taking hikes on the weekends. Occasionally, she returns as an alumna to dance with NUS Dance Synergy – a dance CCA in NUS.
Learning with like-minded peers, forging lifelong friendships
Faye’s interest in the socioeconomic landscape and geopolitical development of China began during her pre-university days, when she was a bicultural studies scholar reading the subject “China Studies in Chinese” for her GCE A-levels. During the course of her studies, she was awarded both the Prime Minister’s Book Prize and the Lee Hsien Loong Award for Outstanding Bicultural Students.
Faye will be based in Beijing for a year for the Schwarzman Scholars programme. By situating herself at the heart of China’s socioeconomic and political development, she wants to better understand the intricacies of China’s society and systems, as well as keep her pulse on the latest biotech advancements and trends in the capital.
“Through my time at Schwarzman Scholars, I hope to attain an in-depth understanding of China’s healthcare system from within it, occupying front-row seats in its adoption of AI by plugging into Tsinghua University’s thriving innovation ecosystem,” she shared.
"I'm so pleased to see Faye Ng join us at Tsinghua University for the Schwarzman Scholars programme. This programme is highly competitive, and it only takes the very best students from around the world. Faye has shown a remarkable ability to adapt, innovate, lead and has the passion, energy and curiosity to do something different to make a positive difference,” commended Professor Wong Tien Yin, Chair Professor and Senior Vice-Chancellor, Tsinghua Medicine, and Vice Provost, Tsinghua University.
He opined, “She will no doubt have a great experience in Tsinghua and will have a first-hand experience in understanding China's healthcare system, and the challenges China faces. The network she makes, and the possible solutions she is involved in developing in China will be useful for NUS, Singapore's healthcare systems and Singaporean patients.”
“Leveraging on my bicultural and bilingual background, alongside my intuition for healthcare as a physician, I hope to ride the wave of AI and innovation in the second-largest economy in the world. Through the scholarships’ abundant opportunities, I endeavour to gain a more holistic and birds-eye view of healthcare, from a systems and policy-making level, as well as a regional and global perspective,” Faye explained.
Faye also looks forward to meeting and being inspired by peers from all over the world and all walks of life with a similar drive and passion for creating positive change, be it through innovation, policymaking, the arts or humanities.
“I hope to form memories and friendships at the college that will last for a lifetime,” Faye affirmed.
The MIT Global Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) Network has once again been ranked as the world’s top master’s program for supply chain and logistics management by Eduniversal’s 2024/2025 Best Masters Rankings. This recognition marks the eighth consecutive No. 1 ranking since 2016, reaffirming MIT’s unparalleled leadership in supply chain education, research, and practice.
Eduniversal evaluates more than 20,000 postgraduate programs globally each year, considering academic reputation, graduate employability, and student satisfaction.
The MIT SCALE Network’s sustained top ranking reflects its commitment to fostering international diversity; delivering hands-on, project-based learning; and success in developing a generation of supply chain leaders ready to tackle global supply chain challenges.
A growing global network with local impact
This year’s ranking coincides with the MIT SCALE Network’s expansion of its global footprint, highlighted by the recent announcement of the UK SCALE Centre at Loughborough University. The center, which will welcome its inaugural cohort in fall 2025, underscores MIT’s commitment to advancing supply chain innovation and creating transformative opportunities for students and researchers.
The UK SCALE Centre joins the network’s global community of centers in the United States, China, Spain, Colombia, and Luxembourg. Together, these centers deliver world-class education and practical solutions that address critical supply chain challenges across industries, empowering a global alumni base of more than 1,900 leaders representing over 50 different countries.
"The launch of the UK SCALE Centre represents a fantastic opportunity for Loughborough University to showcase our cutting-edge research and data-driven, forward-thinking approach to supporting the U.K. supply chain industry,” says Jan Godsell, dean of Loughborough Business School. “Through projects like the InterAct Network and our implementation of the Made Smarter Innovation 'Leading Digital Transformation' program, we’re offering businesses and industry professionals the essential training and leading insights into the future of the supply chain ecosystem, which I’m excited to build on with the creation of this new MSc in supply chain management."
Other MIT SCALE centers also emphasized the network’s transformative impact:
“The MIT SCALE Network provides NISCI students with the tools, expertise, and global connections to lead in today’s rapidly evolving supply chain environment,” says Jay Guo, director of the Ningbo China Institute for Supply Chain Innovation.
Susana Val, director of Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC), highlights the program’s reach and influence: “For the last 21 years, ZLC has educated over 5,000 logistics professionals from more than 90 nationalities. We are proud of this recognition and look forward to continuing our alliance with the MIT SCALE Network, upholding the rigor and quality that define our teaching.”
From Luxembourg, Benny Mantin, director of the Luxembourg Center for Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LCL), adds, “Our students greatly appreciate the LCL’s SCALE Network membership as it provides them with superb experience and ample opportunities to network and expand their scope.”
The global presence and collaborative approach of the MIT SCALE Network help define its mission: to deliver education and research that drive transformative impact in every corner of the world.
A legacy of leadership
This latest recognition from Eduniversal underscores the MIT SCALE Network’s leadership in supply chain education. For over two decades, its master’s programs have shaped graduates who tackle pressing challenges across industries and geographies.
"This recognition reflects the dedication of our faculty, researchers, and global partners to delivering excellence in supply chain education," says Yossi Sheffi, director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. “The MIT SCALE Network’s alumni are proof of the program’s impact, applying their skills to tackle challenges across every industry and continent.”
Maria Jesus Saenz, executive director of the MIT SCM Master’s Program, emphasizes the strength of the global alumni network: “The MIT SCALE Network doesn’t just prepare graduates — it connects them to a global community of supply chain leaders. This powerful ecosystem fosters collaboration and innovation that transcends borders, enabling our graduates to tackle the world’s most pressing supply chain challenges.”
Founded in 2003, the MIT SCALE Network connects world-class research centers across multiple continents, offering top-ranked master’s and executive education programs that combine academic rigor with real-world application. Graduates are among the most sought-after professionals in the global supply chain field.
The global presence and collaborative approach of the MIT SCALE Network help define its mission: to deliver education and research that drive transformative impact in every corner of the world.
Amid the benefits that algorithmic decision-making and artificial intelligence offer — including revolutionizing speed, efficiency, and predictive ability in a vast range of fields — Manish Raghavan is working to mitigate associated risks, while also seeking opportunities to apply the technologies to help with preexisting social concerns.
“I ultimately want my research to push towards better solutions to long-standing societal problems,” says Raghavan, the Drew Houston Career Development Professor who is a shared faculty member between the MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, as well as a principal investigator at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).
A good example of Raghavan’s intention can be found in his exploration of the use AI in hiring.
Raghavan says, “It’s hard to argue that hiring practices historically have been particularly good or worth preserving, and tools that learn from historical data inherit all of the biases and mistakes that humans have made in the past.”
Here, however, Raghavan cites a potential opportunity.
“It’s always been hard to measure discrimination,” he says, adding, “AI-driven systems are sometimes easier to observe and measure than humans, and one goal of my work is to understand how we might leverage this improved visibility to come up with new ways to figure out when systems are behaving badly.”
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area with parents who both have computer science degrees, Raghavan says he originally wanted to be a doctor. Just before starting college, though, his love of math and computing called him to follow his family example into computer science. After spending a summer as an undergraduate doing research at Cornell University with Jon Kleinberg, professor of computer science and information science, he decided he wanted to earn his PhD there, writing his thesis on “The Societal Impacts of Algorithmic Decision-Making.”
Raghavan won awards for his work, including a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program award, a Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship, and the Cornell University Department of Computer Science PhD Dissertation Award.
In 2022, he joined the MIT faculty.
Perhaps hearkening back to his early interest in medicine, Raghavan has done research on whether the determinations of a highly accurate algorithmic screening tool used in triage of patients with gastrointestinal bleeding, known as the Glasgow-Blatchford Score (GBS), are improved with complementary expert physician advice.
“The GBS is roughly as good as humans on average, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t individual patients, or small groups of patients, where the GBS is wrong and doctors are likely to be right,” he says. “Our hope is that we can identify these patients ahead of time so that doctors’ feedback is particularly valuable there.”
Raghavan has also worked on how online platforms affect their users, considering how social media algorithms observe the content a user chooses and then show them more of that same kind of content. The difficulty, Raghavan says, is that users may be choosing what they view in the same way they might grab bag of potato chips, which are of course delicious but not all that nutritious. The experience may be satisfying in the moment, but it can leave the user feeling slightly sick.
Raghavan and his colleagues have developed a model of how a user with conflicting desires — for immediate gratification versus a wish of longer-term satisfaction — interacts with a platform. The model demonstrates how a platform’s design can be changed to encourage a more wholesome experience. The model won the Exemplary Applied Modeling Track Paper Award at the 2022 Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Economics and Computation.
“Long-term satisfaction is ultimately important, even if all you care about is a company’s interests,” Raghavan says. “If we can start to build evidence that user and corporate interests are more aligned, my hope is that we can push for healthier platforms without needing to resolve conflicts of interest between users and platforms. Of course, this is idealistic. But my sense is that enough people at these companies believe there’s room to make everyone happier, and they just lack the conceptual and technical tools to make it happen.”
Regarding his process of coming up with ideas for such tools and concepts for how to best apply computational techniques, Raghavan says his best ideas come to him when he’s been thinking about a problem off and on for a time. He would advise his students, he says, to follow his example of putting a very difficult problem away for a day and then coming back to it.
“Things are often better the next day,” he says.
When he's not puzzling out a problem or teaching, Raghavan can often be found outdoors on a soccer field, as a coach of the Harvard Men’s Soccer Club, a position he cherishes.
“I can’t procrastinate if I know I’ll have to spend the evening at the field, and it gives me something to look forward to at the end of the day,” he says. “I try to have things in my schedule that seem at least as important to me as work to put those challenges and setbacks into context.”
As Raghavan considers how to apply computational technologies to best serve our world, he says he finds the most exciting thing going on his field is the idea that AI will open up new insights into “humans and human society.”
“I’m hoping,” he says, “that we can use it to better understand ourselves.”
“I ultimately want my research to push towards better solutions to long-standing societal problems,” says Manish Raghavan, the Drew Houston Career Development Professor in the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and a principal investigator at LIDS.
Literature of Care, a course offered every fall in the School of Arts Sciences, explores medical humanities and the role storytelling plays in patient care.
Photo illustration by Judy Blomquist/Harvard Staff
Christy DeSmith
Harvard Staff Writer
8 min read
Study says tighter land-use controls have hurt productivity and innovation among builders, fueling housing crisis
U.S. productivity soared in the second half of the 20th century, creating benefits for consumers in the form of lower prices across a wide range of goods. But one critical sector proved a glaring exception: housing.
Today the country faces a housing affordability crisis, with ownership out of reach for a growing set of Americans. The price of a new single-family home has more than doubled since 1960, due to a variety of commonly cited factors including labor and material costs. But a recent economics working paper highlights another reason for the rising cost of putting a roof over one’s head: the stifling impact of “not in my backyard,” or NIMBY, land-use policies on builders.
“If there’s one thing we’ve known since the time of Adam Smith, but even more so since the time of Henry Ford, it’s that mass production — repetition — makes things cheap,” said Edward Glaeser, a co-author of the research and the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics. “But land-use regulation stops us from building a mass-produced home and requires instead a very idiosyncratic home. It means every project will be micromanaged. Every project will be small. Every project will be a bespoke build to satisfy five different requirements from the community.”
The new research was inspired by a 2023 paper by University of Chicago economists Austan Goolsbee and Chad Syverson, who documented what they termed “the strange and awful path” of declining productivity in U.S. construction. The building sector, they found, had outpaced the rest of the U.S. economy throughout the 1950s and well into the ’60s. Then came a dramatic shift. Between 1970 and 2000, even as the overall economy continued to grow, productivity in the construction sector, measured in housing starts per worker, fell by 40 percent.
At one point during the post-WWII building boom, the biggest builders worked with land parcels averaging more than 5,000 acres, developing thousands of homes on each.
They had scale on their side: In housing construction, firms with 500 or more employees produce four times more units per employee than firms with fewer than 20 employees. Today, firms are much smaller than those of the past.
Innovation has fallen, too. Patenting levels for construction and manufacturing moved together for much of the 20th century. After 1970, patents per employee soared in manufacturing — but they declined in construction.
New homes now cost twice as much in real terms as they did in 1960, putting homeownership out of reach for a growing set of Americans.
The findings resonated with Leonardo D’Amico, a Ph.D. economics candidate in the Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences who arrived at Harvard from Italy in 2019. “America is extremely productive in so many industries, especially compared to Europe,” he said. “But housing construction was this glaring example of missing productivity.”
Glaeser and D’Amico partnered with three co-authors, including William R. Kerr, the Dimitri V. D’Arbeloff – MBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, to investigate whether the rise of NIMBYism had driven the sector’s divergence. They started in the early 1900s, seeking a broad view of innovation and productivity among U.S. builders.
The century of Census data the team collected showed a steep increase in housing productivity from 1935 to 1970. In fact, the researchers saw that the number of homes produced per construction worker during this period often grew faster than total manufacturing output per industrial worker — including the number of cars produced by auto workers. “This goes against the idea that there is something about the housing sector that makes it impossible to grow,” D’Amico emphasized.
Like Goolsbee and Syverson, D’Amico and colleagues found that construction productivity hit reverse circa 1970 — just as the volume of local and regional land-use regulations picked up. In contrast, the authors saw that productivity in auto manufacturing continued to climb, with cars today costing 60 percent less (when adjusted for inflation) than in 1960.
As land-use regulations climbed, housing construction productivity sank compared with auto manufacturing
Source: “Why has construction productivity stagnated? The role of land-use regulation”
To explain the role of regulation in high housing costs and falling construction productivity, the new paper presents a model in which the proliferation of land-use regulations served to limit the size of construction projects. Smaller projects, in turn, led to smaller firms with fewer incentives to invest in cost-saving innovations associated with mass production. Testing the model meant quantifying the size of housing developments over time. Drawing on historical real estate data from CoreLogic and other sources, the researchers found that the share of single-family housing yielded by large-scale building projects has indeed been in decline.
“Documenting the size of projects over time is something we’re particularly proud of in terms of empirical contributions,” said Glaeser, an urban economist who has studied housing for more than 25 years. “It enabled us to show the decline or even elimination of really big projects over time.”
The paper includes a section comparing the scale of current projects against that of Long Island’s famous Levittown development, home to more than 17,000 cookie-cutter houses built in the late ’40s and early ’50s.
Edward Glaeser.
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
Leonardo D’Amico.
“Entrepreneurs like William Levitt figured out ways to mass-produce housing on America’s suburban frontier,” Glaeser said. “They sent carpenters up and down the street; they sent plumbers up and down the street. It was all moving toward economies of scale, with Levitt moving into modular, prefabricated housing by the 1960s.”
Post-war builders developed thousands of single-family homes on land parcels that averaged more than 5,000 acres. Today, the researchers write, the share of housing built in large projects has fallen by more than one-third, while developments on more than 500 acres are “essentially nonexistent.”
The researchers also detail the productivity advantages enjoyed by large builders like Levitt. Using economic and business Census data, they show that construction firms with 500 or more employees produce four times as many housing units per employee than firms with fewer than 20 employees. Yet employment by large homebuilders started falling in 1973, with no comparable decline in manufacturing or the economy at large.
Firms proved smallest — and least productive — in areas most inclined toward NIMBYism, the researchers found. Homebuilders in these regions navigate rules covering everything from lot size and density to design as well as planning commissions, review boards, and sometimes even voter referendums. But a closer look at the construction sector’s patenting and R&D activity uncovered nationwide impacts.
Since the 1970s, construction patents have lagged other industries
Source: “Why has construction productivity stagnated? The role of land-use regulation”
“We see in the data that the construction industry was patenting and innovating as much as other industries before the 1970s,” said D’Amico, who is working with fellow Ph.D. candidate Victoria Angelova on a separate paper that investigates the connection between housing costs and fertility rates — underscoring how housing affordability can influence the most fundamental decision-making.
More than 150 years of patenting activity showed the construction industry lagging in the last three decades of the 20th century. “At first we thought maybe it’s because building suppliers were innovating; it’s just not the builders themselves,” D’Amico said. “But we looked at manufacturing firms that serve the construction industry and, remarkably, even their share of innovation has gone down compared to manufacturing firms overall.”
One upshot is what Glaeser characterized as “a massive intergenerational transfer” of housing wealth. He cited his 2017 paper with University of Pennsylvania finance and business economist Joseph Gyourko, who is also a co-author on the new paper. The pair showed that 35- to 44-year-olds in the 50th percentile of U.S. earners averaged nearly $56,000 of housing wealth in 1983, while the same demographic held just $6,000 by 2013. Compare that with median earners ages 65 to 74, who averaged more than $82,000 in 1983 and $100,000 in 2013.
$87,120
Average home equity for 45- to 54-year-olds at the 50th percentile of U.S. earners in 1983
$30,000
Average home equity for 45- to 54-year-olds at the 50th percentile of U.S. earners in 2013
Source: Survey of Consumer Finances
“For me, it harkens back to a model of economic growth and decline that was put forward by Mancur Olson in the 1980s,” said Glaeser, citing the economist/political scientist who described a historical pattern of stable societies generating powerful insiders who guard their own interests by effectively shutting out up-and-comers.
Glaeser was pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in the early 1990s when he first encountered Olson’s “The Rise and Decline of Nations” (1982). At the time, the book’s ideas struck him as apt descriptions of the country’s coastal housing markets. But today, Glaeser said, the problem is more widespread.
“Olson captured the unfortunate reality that insiders — or people who have already bought homes — have figured out how to basically stop any new homes from being created anywhere near them,” Glaeser said.
Take our research-based quiz for tips on improving recall when it matters most
Have you ever struggled to remember somebody’s name at a party or crammed for an exam only to blank during the test? In their 2023 book “Why We Forget and How to Remember Better,” brain scientists Andrew Budson and Elizabeth Kensinger, both Harvard alums, explain how memory works and offer research-based tips on optimizing your ability to recall. They helped us develop the following quiz so readers can test how much they really know about memory.
Flight ticket prices could rise by 50 percent if aviation is made climate-neutral. This is an estimate from a new study by researchers at ETH Zurich. It is based in particular on the use of synthetic fuels.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) has established the Oei Tiong Ham Transforming University Libraries Endowment Fund through a generous gift of US$1 million (approximately S$1.3 million) from Mr Oei’s grandson and spouse, Mr and Mrs Ronald Tanner. Proceeds from the endowment will be used to fund fellowships for the Transforming University Libraries’ Leadership and Innovation Programme (TULLIP) conducted by NUS Libraries, to build capacity amongst librarians from under-resourced institutions in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Honouring Oei Tiong Ham’s contributions to higher education
A prominent figure in Singapore’s history, Mr Oei Tiong Ham was known for building the Oei Tiong Ham Concern (OTHC), one of Southeast Asia’s earliest business conglomerates. The Concern continues to this present day, trading under Kian Gwan Thailand, which is managed by Mr Oei’s grandson, Mr Ronald Tanner.
Besides his reputation as a formidable businessman, Mr Oei was also known for his generous philanthropy. He was particularly interested in supporting education causes, notably giving a S$150,000 gift for the construction of a central hall in Raffles College, one of the predecessor institutions of NUS. In recognition of his generosity, the Oei Tiong Ham Hall at the then-University of Singapore was renamed after him. The building was gazetted as a national monument in 2009 and still stands today at the current NUS Bukit Timah Campus as the Oei Tiong Ham Building.
The establishment of the Oei Tiong Ham Transforming University Libraries Endowment Fund honours Mr Oei’s contributions to education in Singapore, and in recognition of his regional presence, seeks to benefit under-resourced academic libraries in Southeast Asia. Through the fellowships funded by proceeds from the endowment fund, librarians will be equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge with the goal of enhancing library services, promoting information literacy, and driving educational and research innovations in their respective academic communities.
“We are very pleased that NUS has decided to name this fund after our grandfather Mr Oei Tiong Ham,” said the Tanners. “It is a fitting tribute to a pioneering benefactor of many educational causes in Singapore and British Malaya. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the impact of his efforts in supporting education in the region has been nothing short of tremendous, and it is our privilege to continue the Oei family’s legacy of helping to uplift communities through investments in education. It is our hope that the fellowships will provide the impetus for librarians to build heritage collections for current and future generations.”
Advancing leadership and innovation in Southeast Asian university libraries
The inaugural NUS Libraries’ TULLIP took place from 6 to 10 January 2025, with a second run scheduled for July 2025. The first TULLIP run saw 30 librarians from Southeast Asia and beyond convening at NUS. Over five days, participants gained insights from a comprehensive overview of innovative library services and technologies, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to drive positive change and enhance user experiences in their respective library environments.
“I am particularly grateful for the generous support of Mr and Mrs Ronald Tanner,” said NUS University Librarian Associate Professor Natalie Pang. “Over half of our participants benefitted from the grants and financial assistance which enabled them to make the journey to Singapore to join us for this programme. The gift will allow us to sustain and bring about continued participation from under-resourced academic libraries in our region and beyond, contributing to their development and growth.”
The seeds for developing TULLIP were sown through NUS Libraries’ engagement with librarians in Southeast Asia. “Through interacting with our regional colleagues, we became aware of gaps in capacity and capabilities building in a diverse representation,” said Assoc Prof Pang. “This was especially so for library leaders from under-resourced institutions. These emerging leaders often lack the opportunity to develop emerging skills and knowledge to partner researchers, faculty and students at their universities. Beyond traditional roles, academic libraries need to connect their users with high quality scholarly content through innovative programming and facilities, and be stewards and catalysts of change.”
TULLIP participants will gain a practical understanding of key concepts, tools and resources essential for success in the dynamic fields of librarianship, information science and digital scholarship. Participants will engage in a series of sessions covering a wide range of topics, including reference and information discovery, special collections management, systematic review methodologies and innovative library services. Through a combination of evidence-based theoretical learning, hands-on workshops and real-world case studies, participants will develop the knowledge and skills needed to excel in their roles and make meaningful contributions to the evolving landscape of library and information science.
“It is our vision that TULLIP will become a recognised platform for early career librarians and library professionals to learn, network and partner with their university community to achieve research and education excellence,” said Assoc Prof Pang. “For us, this goes beyond just growing the field of academic librarianship. Academic librarians are essential to supporting the advancement of research and academia, as well as student life. We believe that supporting the development of librarians will amplify educational outcomes across the region. We couldn’t think of a better way to honour Mr Oei Tiong Ham’s legacy than with a programme that will potentially have profound impact on educational institutions and their communities across Southeast Asia.”
It was a whirlwind five weeks in the United States for second-year Computer Science undergraduate David Goh as he embarked on a fulfilling journey, living and learning valuable lessons on social entrepreneurship, sustainable development and leadership, while reflecting on how these lessons could be put into practice.
David was one of 50 young leaders selected from ASEAN for an academic fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) as part of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), and one of two Singaporeans selected for the Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Empowerment track. The prestigious YSEALI fellowship is supported by the US government and aims to promote leadership development and strengthen networks among emerging leaders in Southeast Asia.
Entrepreneurship and innovation for positive change
During the fellowship, participants were immersed in a comprehensive curriculum of workshops, lectures, and practical activities designed to equip them with the essential skills for driving positive change in their communities.
The programme, hosted by UT Austin and supported by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, brought participants through an introduction to key entrepreneurial skills, including team formation, financial structuring, and the art of storytelling – vital tools for success in the business world.
David’s time in the US saw him learning from the renowned Texas McCombs School of Business at UT Austin. As part of the programme, entrepreneurs from diverse industries shared their personal journeys and offered invaluable advice on effectively applying these entrepreneurial skills in real-world settings.
Additionally, David completed a comprehensive nine-week online module offered in collaboration with the University for Peace’s Centre for Executive Education (UPEACE). This segment of the programme centred on entrepreneurship, innovation and social change, with participants engaging in case studies and interactive modules that placed a strong emphasis on practical, real-world applications.
Hands-on learning for social impact
As part of the programme’s learning objectives, fellows had the opportunity to visit a variety of initiatives focused on social good. This included volunteering at the Houston Food Bank and Texas Food Bank, where participants packed food supplies to be distributed to those in need, gaining valuable insight into food security issues affecting the community.
Additionally, visits to the Austin Community Colleges and Community First! Village highlighted how these organisations intentionally created sustainable and impactful solutions for their communities. For instance, the Community First! Village assists individuals transitioning out of homelessness by creating personalised plans to afford housing and providing a supportive community to promote their well-being.
During their classes, speakers addressed key concepts such as microfinancing, business models, and funding strategies, providing practical tools for developing businesses that are both financially viable and socially sustainable.
Cultural and educational immersion
Besides taking in the iconic sights and landmarks of Texas, such as the Texas Capitol, visits to The Alamo, Space Center Houston, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science, provided participants with valuable insights into Texas' historical and scientific significance.
The last two weeks of the programme saw the fellows exploring the East Coast, where they visited major cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC, and toured renowned academic institutions such as Harvard University and Yale University. They also visited important cultural landmarks, including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Statue of Liberty, the US Capitol, and the White House.
These visits not only enriched the fellows' understanding of American history and culture but also offered them a broader perspective on the country's educational and civic foundations.
Inspiration and dedication through diversity
Building on the lessons and experiences gained both within and beyond the classroom during his trip, David also reflected on the stories and lessons shared by the other fellows hailing from 11 ASEAN countries.
Among them was Mr Augustus Bas from the Philippines who co-founded 01nnovations, a start-up committed to developing sustainable, innovative solutions through the use of rainwater to address energy challenges faced by floating villages in the region. Through his collaboration with local communities, Augustus’ entrepreneurial spirit has helped these communities harness rainwater for both water storage and energy generation, providing eco-friendly solutions that empower residents and enhance their quality of life.
“I was deeply moved by the diversity of stories and lessons shared by the fellows, all of which helped broaden my understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by each community,” said David.
“Their dedication to creating positive change and the passion they bring to their work really struck me; whether addressing environmental issues, social inequalities, or community development, the projects spearheaded by the fellows in their respective countries were driven by a deep commitment to their local communities,” David added.
This exchange of ideas and experiences not only deepened David’s appreciation for the rich diversity of Southeast Asia but also helped him understand what fuels the drive behind everyone’s work. For David, the programme was a reminder of the power of collaboration and the importance of connecting with like-minded individuals to create a lasting impact.
Investing in people
The experiences drawn from the academic fellowship resonated deeply with David in the context of his journey in NUS and the College of Alice & Peter Tan (CAPT), where he actively contributes to social innovation projects, and as the head of computing at Project Sa’Bai, a joint student initiative between NUS Medicine and NUS Computing that provides sustainable healthcare services and education to local communities in Cambodia.
Expressing his deep gratitude for his experiences in CAPT, David said: “The knowledge and insights gained from my courses at CAPT significantly enhanced my ability to engage with diverse communities. The academic foundation also provided me with a deeper understanding of the complexities of community engagement, which I could apply in real-world contexts.”
The opportunity to collaborate with like-minded individuals from various cultural backgrounds not only expanded David’s worldview but also reinforced his belief in the power of collective action.
Reflecting on the immense dedication shown by his peers during the fellowship, David recalled a key piece of wisdom he gleaned from one of his professors – “People are investing not in the idea, but in the people", underscoring the message that it is the passion, commitment, and vision embodied by the people behind any project that truly drives change.
The work has been commissioned by the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology after a review by the UK Chief Medical Officer in 2019 found the evidence base around the links to children’s mental health were insufficient to provide strong conclusions suitable to inform policy.
The project – led by a team at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with researchers at several leading UK universities – is aimed at improving policymakers’ understanding of the relationship between children’s wellbeing and smartphone use, including social media and messaging. It will help direct future government action in this area.
Project lead Dr Amy Orben from the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (MRC CBU) at the University of Cambridge said: “There is huge concern about the impact of smartphone use on children's health, but the evidence base remains fairly limited. While the government is under substantial time pressure to make decisions, these will undoubtedly be better if based on improved evidence.
“This is a complex and rapidly evolving issue, with both potential harms and benefits associated with smartphone use. Technology is changing by the day, and scientific evidence creation needs to evolve and innovate to keep up.
“Our focus will be on deepening our causal understanding of the effects of new technologies, particularly over short timescales, to ensure that decisions are informed, timely and evidence-based.”
Dr Orben will lead a Project Delivery Team, with Consortium Members from the universities of Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford and York and the London School of Economics. It will aim to identify which research methods and data sources will be most effective at identifying potential causal relationships between social media, smartphones, and the health and development of children and young people
Deputy project lead Dr Amrit Kaur Purba, also from the MRC CBU at Cambridge, said: “The impact of social media on young people is a pressing issue, and our project will ensure the research community is in a strong position to provide policymakers with the causal and high-quality insights they need. While we don’t expect this to be straightforward, our research will leverage diverse expertise from across the UK to deliver a comprehensive and informed response to make recommendations for how research in this area should be supported in future.”
The researchers will review and summarise existing research on the impact of smartphones and social media on children and young people’s mental health, wellbeing, physical health, lifestyle and health behaviours, and educational attainment. The review will recognise the diversity of perspectives that exist in this area and consider where further research could add valuable new insights to the evidence base.
They will assess the various methods and data available to understand the causal impacts, including recognising that online habits and emerging technologies are changing at a rapid pace, and considering how the experiences of vulnerable children and young people – for example, LGBTQ+ young people and those with special needs or mental health issues – can be captured in future research projects.
This will allow the team to recommend and outline how future research studies could deliver robust and causal evidence on the impact of smartphones and social media on child development factors in the next two to three years.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, said: "The online world offers immense opportunities for young people to connect and learn. Ensuring they can do so in an environment which puts their safety first is my priority and will guide this government’s action on online safety.
“That’s why we have launched new research, led by the University of Cambridge with support from other top UK universities, to better understand the complex relationship between technology and young people's wellbeing.
“This vital research will build a trusted evidence base for future action, helping us to protect and empower the next generation towards a safer and more positive digital future."
Cambridge researchers are leading the first phase of a new research project that will lay the groundwork for future studies into the impact on children of smartphone and social media use.
This is a complex and rapidly evolving issue, with both potential harms and benefits associated with smartphone use. Technology is changing by the day, and scientific evidence creation needs to evolve and innovate to keep up
Before COVID-19, major U.S. urban centers were enjoying a resurgence. Now decreased occupancy has downtown economies and municipal budgets feeling the pinch. Wharton faculty research suggests that how cities navigate the next few years could be crucial.
Karl K. Berggren, the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, has been named the new faculty head of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), effective Jan. 15.
“Karl’s exceptional interdisciplinary research combining electrical engineering, physics, and materials science, coupled with his experience working with industry and government organizations, makes him an ideal fit to head electrical engineering. I’m confident electrical engineering will continue to grow under his leadership,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, chief innovation and strategy officer, dean of engineering, and Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
“Karl has made an incredible impact as a researcher and educator over his two decades in EECS. Students and faculty colleagues praise his thoughtful approach to teaching, and the care with which he oversaw the teaching labs in his prior role as undergraduate lab officer for the department. He will undoubtedly be an excellent leader, bringing his passion for education and collaborative spirit to this new role,” adds Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Berggren joins the leadership of EECS, which jointly reports to the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the School of Engineering. The largest academic department at MIT, EECS was reorganized in 2019 as part of the formation of the college into three overlapping sub-units in electrical engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence and decision-making. The restructuring has enabled each of the three sub-units to concentrate on faculty recruitment, mentoring, promotion, academic programs, and community building in coordination with the others.
A member of the EECS faculty since 2003, Berggren has taught a range of subjects in the department, including Digital Communications, Circuits and Electronics, Fundamentals of Programming, Applied Quantum and Statistical Physics, Introduction to EECS via Interconnected Embedded Systems, Introduction to Quantum Systems Engineering, and Introduction to Nanofabrication. Before joining EECS, Berggren worked as a staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory for seven years. Berggren also maintains an active consulting practice and has experience working with industrial and government organizations.
Berggren’s current research focuses on superconductive circuits, electronic devices, single-photon detectors for quantum applications, and electron-optical systems. He heads the Quantum Nanostructures and Nanofabrication Group, which develops nanofabrication technology at the few-nanometer length scale. The group uses these technologies to push the envelope of what is possible with photonic and electrical devices, focusing on superconductive and free-electron devices.
Berggren has received numerous prestigious awards and honors throughout his career. Most recently, he was named an MIT MacVicar Fellow in 2024. Berggren is also a fellow of the AAAS, IEEE, and the Kavli Foundation, and a recipient of the 2015 Paul T. Forman Team Engineering Award from the Optical Society of America (now Optica). In 2016, he received a Bose Fellowship and was also a recipient of the EECS department’s Frank Quick Innovation Fellowship and the Burgess (’52) & Elizabeth Jamieson Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Berggren succeeds Joel Voldman, who has served as the inaugural electrical engineering faculty head since January 2020.
“Joel has been in leadership roles since 2018, when he was named associate department head of EECS. I am deeply grateful to him for his invaluable contributions to EECS since that time,” says Asu Ozdaglar, MathWorks Professor and head of EECS, who also serves as the deputy dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. “I look forward to working with Karl now and continuing along the amazing path we embarked on in 2019.”
Karl Berggren, the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering, has been named the new faculty head of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Shreya Mogulothu is naturally curious. As a high school student in New Jersey, she was interested in mathematics and theoretical computer science (TCS). So, when her curiosity compelled her to learn more, she turned to MIT Open Learning’s online resources and completed the Paradox and Infinity course on MITx Online.
“Coming from a math and TCS background, the idea of pushing against the limits of assumptions was really interesting,” says Mogulothu, now a junior at MIT. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to learn more about infinity?”
The class, taught by Agustín Rayo, professor of philosophy and the current dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and David Balcarras, a former instructor in philosophy and fellow in the Digital Learning Lab at Open Learning, explores the intersection of math and philosophy and guides learners through thinking about paradoxes and open-ended problems, as well as the boundaries of theorizing and the limits of standard mathematical tools.
“We talked about taking regular assumptions about numbers and objects and pushing them to extremes,” Mogulothu says. “For example, what contradictions arise when you talk about an infinite set of things, like the infinite hats paradox?”
The infinite hats paradox, also known as Bacon’s Puzzle, involves an infinite line of people, each wearing one of two colors of hats. The puzzle posits that each individual can see only the hat of the person in front of them and must guess the color of their own hat. The puzzle challenges students to identify if there is a strategy that can ensure the least number of incorrect answers and to consider how strategy may change if there is a finite number of people. Mogulothu was thrilled that a class like this was available to her even though she wasn’t yet affiliated with MIT.
“My MITx experience was one of the reasons I came to MIT,” she says. “I really liked the course, and I was happy it was shared with people like me, who didn’t even go to the school. I thought that a place that encouraged even people outside of campus to learn like that would be a pretty good place to study.”
Looking back at the course, Balcarras says, “Shreya may have been the most impressive student in our online community of approximately 3,900 learners and 100 verified learners. I cannot single out another student whose performance rivaled hers.”
Because of her excellent performance, Mogulothu was invited to submit her work to the 2021 MITx Philosophy Awards. She won. In fact, Balcarras remembers, both papers she wrote for the course would have won. They demonstrated, he says, “an unusually high degree of precision, formal acumen, and philosophical subtlety for a high school student.”
Completing the course and winning the award was rewarding, Mogulothu says. It motivated her to keep exploring new things as a high school student, and then as a new student enrolled at MIT.
She came to college thinking she would declare a major in math or computer science. But when she looked at the courses she was most interested in, she realized she should pursue a physics major.
She has enjoyed the courses in her major, especially class STS.042J/8.225J (Einstein, Oppenheimer, Feynman: Physics in the 20th Century), taught by David Kaiser, the Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and professor of physics. She took the course on campus, but it is also available on Open Learning’s MIT OpenCourseWare. As a student, she continues to use MIT Open Learning resources to check out courses and review syllabi as she plans her coursework.
In summer 2024, Mogulothu did research on gravitational wave detection at PIER, the partnership between research center DESY and the University of Hamburg, in Hamburg, Germany. She wants to pursue a PhD in physics to keep researching, expanding her mind, and indulging the curiosity that led her to MITx in the first place. She encourages all learners to feel comfortable and confident trying something entirely new.
“I went into the Paradox and Infinity course thinking, ‘yeah, math is cool, computer science is cool,’” she says. “But, actually taking the course and learning about things you don’t even expect to exist is really powerful. It increases your curiosity and is super rewarding to stick with something and realize how much you can learn and grow.”
MIT student Shreya Mogulothu took an MITx course in high school. That experience, she says, was one of the reasons she enrolled as an undergraduate at MIT.
Advisors are meant to guide students academically, supporting their research and career objectives. For MIT graduate students, the Committed to Caring program recognizes those who go above and beyond.
Professors Iain Stewart and Roberto Fernandez are two of the 2023-25 Committed to Caring cohort, supporting their students through self-doubt, developing a welcoming environment, and serving as a friend.
Iain Stewart: Supportive, equitable, and inclusive
Iain Stewart is the Otto and Jane Morningstar Professor of Science and former director of the Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP). His research interests center around nuclear and particle physics, where he develops and applies effective field theories to understand interactions between elementary particles and particularly strong interactions described by quantum chromodynamics.
Stewart shows faith in his students’ abilities even when they doubt themselves. According to his nominators, the field of physics, like many areas of intellectual pursuit, can attract a wide range of personalities, including those who are highly confident as well as those who may grapple with self-doubt. He explains concepts in a down-to-earth manner and does not make his students feel less than they are.
For his students, Stewart’s research group comes as a refreshing change. Stewart emphasizes that graduate school is for learning, and that one is not expected to know everything from the onset.
Stewart shows a great level of empathy and emotional support for his students. For example, one of the nominators recounted a story about preparing for their oral qualification exam. The student had temporarily suspended research, and another faculty member made a disparaging comment about the student’s grasp of their research. The student approached Stewart in distress.
"As your advisor,” Stewart reassured them, “I can tell you confidently that you know your research and you are doing well, and it’s totally OK to put it off for a while to prepare for the qual."
Stewart’s words gave the student a sense of relief and validation, reminding them that progress is a journey, not a race, and that taking time to prepare thoughtfully was both wise and necessary.
Always emphasizing positivity in his feedback, Stewart reminds advisees of their achievements and progress, helping them develop a more optimistic mindset. Stewart’s mentorship style recognizes individual student needs, a trait that his students find uncommon. His research group flourishes due to this approach, and a large number of his graduate and postdoc students have achieved great success.
During his six years as director, Stewart has made significant contributions to the CTP. He has improved the culture and demographics due to strong and inclusive leadership. In particular, a noteworthy number of women have joined the CTP.
In his own research group, a large number of international and female students have found a place, which is uncommon for groups in theoretical physics. Currently, three out of seven group members are female in a field where fewer than 10 percent are women.
Stewart’s nominators believe that given the number of women he has mentored in his career, he is single-handedly contributing to improving the diversity in his field. His nominators say he supports diverse backgrounds, and financially supports and encourages participation for marginalized groups.
Roberto Fernandez: Professor and friend
Roberto Fernandez is the William F. Pounds Professor of Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management as well as the co-director of the Economic Sociology PhD Program. His research focuses on organizations, social networks, and race and gender stratification. He has extensive experience doing field research in organizations, and he currently focuses on the organizational processes surrounding the hiring of new talent.
Fernandez describes himself as a “full-service professor.” He tries to attend to differing needs and circumstances of students and the situations they find themselves in, offering advice and consolation.
Fernandez is very understanding of his students, and is happy to speak to them about academic and personal problems alike. He acknowledges that each student comes from a different background with individual experience, and Fernandez attempts to accommodate each one in an ideal manner.
He advises in a way that respects a student’s personal life, but still expects a reasonable amount of produced work that motivates the student, allows for them to excel, and keeps them to a high standard.
Fernandez says, “It is just my sense of duty to pay forward how my mentors treated me. I feel like I would dishonor their work if I were not to pass it on.”
A nominator shared that Fernandez serves as both a professor and a friend. He has gone out of his way to check in and chat with them. They said that Fernandez is the only professor who has taken the time to truly get to know their story, and Fernandez speaks to students like an equal.
The nominator noted that many people at MIT enjoy a high level of privilege. Despite the differences in their circumstances, however, the nominator feels comfortable talking to Fernandez.
Happily, the professor continued to touch base with the nominator long after their class had finished, and he is the one person who really made them feel like MIT was their home. This experience stood out as unique for the nominator, and played a large role in their experience.
In addition to providing genuine connections, Fernandez advises incoming graduate students about the need for a mindset shift. Graduate school is not like undergrad. Being an excellent student is necessary, but it is not sufficient to succeed in a PhD program. Excellent undergraduate students are consumers of knowledge; on the other hand, excellent graduate students are producers of knowledge.
The nominator enthused, “[Fernandez] really went above and beyond, and this means a lot.”
Death, destruction — and trauma — of L.A. wildfires
Malibu home destroyed in the Palisades wildfire outside Los Angeles.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Alvin Powell
Harvard Staff Writer
8 min read
Psychiatric epidemiologist discusses mental health toll from displacement and loss, the path forward for victims
Lives have been lost and disrupted, and thousands of homes and businesses have been destroyed as wind-whipped wildfires continue to burn around Los Angeles a week after they began. Mental health professionals expect emotional and psychological wounds will endure long after the blazes have been extinguished.
The Gazette spoke with Karestan Koenen, an expert in psychological trauma at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who investigated the mental health impacts of the 2018 Paradise fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise, California, killed 85, and became the deadliest and costliest fire in state history. Koenen, a professor of psychiatric epidemiology, talked about what to expect in the days and weeks ahead.
In the Los Angeles fires, we have at least two dozen dead, more than 100,000 have been evacuated, more than 12,000 structures burned. That’s a lot of loss and upheaval. Are you expecting mental health impacts right away or more likely later?
We would expect mental health concerns to manifest right away, but the first thing is that everyone needs to be safe. Their basic needs have to be addressed. People lost homes but also places of employment, schools, churches, community structures, support systems, and different aspects of life. There’s a lot of research that shows that one of the things that predicts poor mental health outcomes after disasters is the disruptions in things like employment, housing, etc. So, one of the best things to prevent long-term mental health consequences is to address people’s basic needs for a safe place to live, for food, for work.
How much variability do you see in such a situation? I imagine there’s a different impact if you just had to evacuate versus your home burning down or you know a neighbor who died.
There’s a lot of variation in experience. One of the reasons the Paradise fire was so traumatic was because people had little warning. It is particularly traumatic when your life is threatened, and they were evacuating while fire was burning around them.
I’ve done a lot of interviews on trauma over the years and the person I did the Paradise interviews with, Dr. Roger Pitman, an expert on PTSD, said the only interviews where he saw as much trauma were in war, in combat veterans and civilian war survivors. It’s because of all the losses. When people lose their homes, it’s the loss of the home itself, but they also lose their clothing, stuffed animals, family photos, heirlooms, boxes of their kids’ newborn stuff. And pets. Losing a pet can have a really big impact. Pets often run away when there’s a fire, and their owners experience guilt that they were not able to save them.
Family members sift through the remains of a relative’s home in Altadena, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Is it different for firefighters versus people who are victims and being evacuated?
Yes. Firefighters and first responders are trained in how to deal with the situation. Being prepared, having rehearsed what to do will reduce the chance of having negative outcomes.
Firefighters and first responders can still experience trauma, especially if their lives are threatened, but they have a purpose. They’re doing something to help. One of the hardest things to handle in a disaster is the feeling of helplessness, that loss of control. If you’re evacuated, you don’t know where you’re going — maybe to temporary housing — and you don’t control when you can go back to your house. So, when we talk about trauma, we talk about losses and things that are out of your control, that are threatening and unpredictable. Fires are all of those things.
Are there some people who, under the same circumstances, are unaffected, and can we predict who that will be?
We can’t predict that very well, but there are things that make people more or less vulnerable. People with a history of mental disorders, depression, or physical health problems might be more vulnerable. People who don’t have good supports, don’t have stable employment, don’t have insurance, they would be more vulnerable, under more stress after the fires.
Then there’s the exposure itself, whether you saw your home burn or someone die versus being safely evacuated. Maybe bad things happened, but you didn’t witness them. There’s a lot of evidence that how kids feel will be influenced a lot by how their parents respond to what’s going on. Kids are vulnerable but can be buffered by their parents and other supports, like the school still being open, so they can still go even though they’ve been evacuated. That’s a better situation, because then they at least still have a normal school day.
So, if you’re a parent, you should try to kind of act as if things are under control, even if that’s not what you feel?
No, I’m not saying that. Rather, it’s an argument for parents to make sure they’re attending to the things they need, like when you’re on an airplane: Put on your own oxygen mask first, before you put on your kid’s oxygen mask. If parents can do things that help them feel better, it will trickle down. Supporting parents and caretakers is one of the best ways to support kids.
“There’s a lot of research that shows that one of the things that predicts poor mental health outcomes after disasters is the disruptions in things like employment, housing.”
Karestan Koenen
Is there an ideal time frame after we take care of basic needs that mental health assessments and care interventions should start?
After fires like this, a lot of people will show distress. That might look like being hypervigilant, on guard, being tense, feeling anxious, worrying, being reactive to things in the news about a fire, for example. They could be depressed, sad, have trouble sleeping, or trouble concentrating. It’d be normal to experience those things after what happened.
But many people heal on their own, even with pretty extreme trauma. A lot of people go through a natural recovery process, talking to friends, speaking with people in the community. In a few weeks to a month — after the fires are out and things are stable — people should be feeling better, their anxiety should be going down.
If it’s persisting or getting worse, that might be a time to get some help. Another thing to watch for is avoidance, isolating, or using substances to cope. Keep in mind too that the things you used to like to do, like exercising and going outside to enjoy nature — activities interrupted by the fires — there’s evidence that they help people’s mental health. So as soon as possible, take some time to do things you enjoyed.
How do you know when it’s time to seek professional help?
When the things I mentioned — anxiety, feeling sad most of the time, problems sleeping, problems concentrating — start interfering with things like work: You are back, but you can’t get your work done; you can’t concentrate. Also, if they’re interfering with relationships: You find yourself avoiding people you normally like spending time with or you’re losing your temper a lot more, in an extreme way. If you’re feeling bad, it’s not getting better, and it’s interfering with your life, that’s definitely time to get help.
Is there anything you learned from the Paradise experience that might be helpful in the aftermath of the fires in L.A.?
We already talked about the importance of attending to people’s basic needs — a safe place to live, food, etc. But there’s also the importance of rebuilding the community. In Paradise, the loss of a community as well as individual homes was what made it even worse for people because they lost their way of connecting with people. So, if there are ways to connect people, provide places to gather and connect, that’s important. We often focus on the basic needs, like food, shelter, clothing — which totally makes sense — but we also need to focus on the community connection.
So, if you belong to a church that burned down, maybe get people together somehow?
It should probably be others, leaders or relief organizations, who facilitate that. If people are overwhelmed, dealing with their own basic needs, they’re not going to have a lot of extra energy to organize things.
One thing with the L.A. fire is it seemed to affect people with different socioeconomic statuses, including superstars. My hope is that those with more resources will be able to help those with fewer. Negative mental health consequences of disasters, like the L.A. fires, are common but they can be mitigated and even prevented if the right supports are in place and the community comes together.
Where to get help
Koenen suggests the following resources for those affected by the wildfires:
The award recognizes Haslanger’s lifelong contributions to philosophy and philosophers. Haslanger, the Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies, says she is deeply honored by the recognition.
“So many philosophers I deeply respect have come before me as awardees, including Judith Jarvis Thomson, my former colleague and lifelong inspiration,” Haslanger says. “Judy and I both were deeply engaged in doing metaphysics with an eye toward the moral/political domain. Both of us were committed feminists in a time when it was not professionally easy. Both of us believed in the power of institutions, such as the APA and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), to sustain a flourishing intellectual community. Both of us have demanded that institutions we are part of abide by their values.”
Haslanger joined the MIT faculty in 1998.
Her research features explorations of the social construction of categories like gender, race, and the family; social explanation and social structure; and topics in feminist epistemology. She has also published in metaphysics and critical race theory. Broadly speaking, her work links issues of social justice with contemporary work in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind.
Her book, “Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique” (Oxford University Press, 2012), was awarded the Joseph B. Gittler prize for outstanding work in the philosophy of social science. She also co-authored “What is Race: Four Philosophical Views” (Oxford University Press, 2019). Her current book, “Doing Justice to the Social” (under contract with Oxford University Press), develops an account of social practices and structures, emphasizing their materiality, the role of ideology, and potential grounds for critique. She continues to document and ameliorate the underrepresentation of women and other minorities in philosophy.
Haslanger, a former president of the Eastern Division of the APA, singles out the collaborative nature of the field while also celebrating her peers’ recognition, noting her work is “inspired, nourished, and scaffolded by others.”
“Judy was a notable inspiration (and a clear example of how hard such work can be), but there are so many others who have been on this journey with me and kept me going, including feminist colleagues across the country and abroad, graduate students, staff members, and allies from many different disciplines and professions,” Haslanger says.
Awarded annually since 2007, the Quinn Prize honors the memory of Philip L. Quinn, a noted philosopher from the University of Notre Dame who served as president of the APA Central Division for many years. The prize carries a $2,500 award and an engraved plaque.
Kieran Setiya, the Peter de Florez Professor of Philosophy and head of the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, says Haslanger has played a “transformative role in philosophy.”
“Sally’s influence on the field has been vast. Bridging a deep divide, she has brought critical social theory into conversation with analytic philosophy, arguing for an account of social structures and practices that does justice to their materiality,” Setiya says. “This work earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, along with invitations to give lectures named after canonical philosophers past and present: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Hempel, Kant, Spinoza, and others.”
Setiya noted Haslanger’s substantial contributions to the field, including her role in founding the Philosophy in an Inclusive Key Summer Institute (PIKSI) in Boston, which for 10 years has brought diverse undergraduates to MIT to show them that graduate study in philosophy is a meaningful option for them and to mentor them as they apply to graduate school.
“As Sally’s colleague, I am in awe not just of her extraordinary philosophical and professional achievements, but of her integrity and the seemingly limitless energy she invests in her students, in the Philosophy Section, in MIT, in the profession, and in fighting for social justice in the world from which academia is inextricable,” Setiya adds.
“So many philosophers I deeply respect have come before me as awardees,” says MIT philosopher and Quinn Prize winner Sally Haslanger. “There are so many others who have been on this journey with me and kept me going.”
Three MIT students — Yutao Gong, Brandon Man, and Andrii Zahorodnii — have been awarded 2025 Schwarzman Scholarships and will join the program’s 10th cohort to pursue a master’s degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
The MIT students were selected from a pool of over 5,000 applicants. This year’s class of 150 scholars represents 38 countries and 105 universities from around the world.
The Schwarzman Scholars program aims to develop leadership skills and deepen understanding of China’s changing role in the world. The fully funded one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University emphasizes leadership, global affairs, and China. Scholars also gain exposure to China through mentoring, internships, and experiential learning.
MIT’s Schwarzman Scholar applicants receive guidance and mentorship from the distinguished fellowships team in Career Advising and Professional Development and the Presidential Committee on Distinguished Fellowships.
Yutao Gong will graduate this spring from the Leaders for Global Operations program at the MIT Sloan School of Management, earning a dual MBA and a MS degree in civil and environmental engineering with a focus on manufacturing and operations. Gong, who hails from Shanghai, China, has academic, work, and social engagement experiences in China, the United States, Jordan, and Denmark. She was previously a consultant at Boston Consulting Group working on manufacturing, agriculture, sustainability, and renewable energy-related projects, and spent two years in Chicago and one year in Greater China as a global ambassador. Gong graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with double majors in environmental science and statistics, where she organized the Duke China-U.S. Summit.
Brandon Man, from Canada and Hong Kong, is a master’s student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where he studies generative artificial intelligence (genAI) for engineering design. Previously, he graduated from Cornell University magna cum laude with honors in computer science. With a wealth of experience in robotics — from assistive robots to next-generation spacesuits for NASA to Tencent’s robot dog, Max — he is now a co-founder of Sequestor, a genAI-powered data aggregation platform that enables carbon credit investors to perform faster due diligence. His goal is to bridge the best practices of the Eastern and Western tech worlds.
Andrii Zahorodnii, from Ukraine, will graduate this spring with a bachelor of science and a master of engineering degree in computer science and cognitive sciences. An engineer as well as a neuroscientist, he has conducted research at MIT with Professor Guangyu Robert Yang’s MetaConscious Group and the Fiete Lab. Zahorodnii is passionate about using AI to uncover insights into human cognition, leading to more-informed, empathetic, and effective global decision-making and policy. Besides driving the exchange of ideas as a TEDxMIT organizer, he strives to empower and inspire future leaders internationally and in Ukraine through the Ukraine Leadership and Technology Academy he founded.
Aha moment in psych class clarifies childhood mystery
Niles Singer/Harvard Staff Photographer
Samantha Laine Perfas
Harvard Staff Writer
6 min read
Inspires Susan Kuo’s research probing role of genetics in schizophrenia, autism
A series focused on the personal side of Harvard research and teaching.
When Susan Kuo was growing up, a relative came to live with her and her immediate family in Vancouver, Canada. Previously warm and affectionate, the family member had become suspicious and withdrawn and struggled to communicate needs.
What Kuo didn’t know at the time, but realized later while taking psychology classes as an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia, was that some of the behaviors exhibited by her family member were signs of schizophrenia. Being able to label what she witnessed brought clarity to a confusing time in her life. Kuo resolved to bring that same clarity to others about neuropsychiatric disabilities — and how they can vary across people’s lifetimes.
“If we had been able to figure out more specific services earlier, that would’ve been really helpful in terms of getting my family member back on track,” said Kuo, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Genomic Medicine and Department of Psychiatry at Mass General studying autism and schizophrenia. She is also affiliated with the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute.
Kuo had always been drawn to medicine, and once exposed to psychology it cemented her professional path. While earning her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, she zeroed in on schizophrenia.
Uncovering developmental patterns
Kuo wanted to better understand genetic effects contributing to schizophrenia that may be associated with changes in brain and behavior throughout people’s lifetimes. Her relative, for example, showed signs of schizophrenia upon reaching young adulthood, which is in line with the typical onset age of 18 to 25 years.
She wondered whether there were notable patterns among relatives, compared to people without a family history of schizophrenia, that suggest genetic effects.
“First-degree relatives, siblings and such, share on average 50 percent of their genes in common” with a person with schizophrenia, explained Kuo’s Ph.D. adviser Michael Pogue-Geile, whose lab studies family genetics to pinpoint potential factors that might contribute to the onset of schizophrenia.
Working closely with Pogue-Geile, Kuo conducted a study that divided biological relatives of people with schizophrenia into three age groups: pre-20s, 20s, and post-20s. Kuo and Pogue-Geile discovered subtle differences in cognitive function and brain structure among relatives in their 20s who did not have schizophrenia diagnoses but carried more schizophrenia-associated genetic variants than the general population.
The findings suggest some genetic effects that may contribute to the onset of schizophrenia are more salient around this time of life. Pogue-Geile offered some possible explanations for why that may be: Some genes turn on and off during different times in a person’s lifespan (think puberty); also, people often experience significant change and stress as they enter adulthood.
“That was very innovative research that not really any other people had done in the field,” Pogue-Geile said.
Predicting intervention responses
Kuo continued working with people with schizophrenia during her clinical internship at UCLA Medical Center. Keith Nuechterlein, whose lab at UCLA is also a clinic for people experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia, said that Kuo’s “superb research skills” and talent for psychotherapy contributed significantly to the lab. The team published a paper that suggested childhood and teenage experiences before a first episode of schizophrenia predict how well certain interventions would work.
“If we can intervene successfully at the beginning of this illness, the hope is that we can change the trajectory.”
Keith Nuechterlein, director, UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior
While on average many young people adapt well to various roles and responsibilities before their first episode of schizophrenia, Kuo noticed that the average was hiding a wide range of experiences. People with schizophrenia generally follow one of three developmental trajectories from childhood through adolescence: Some maintain social ties and keep up schoolwork; others progressively show challenges leading up to the onset of their first episode of schizophrenia; and others struggle with social ties and schoolwork starting in childhood. Kuo’s work suggests those who fall in the last group showed the highest levels of improvement with cognitive training interventions.
“That’s actually encouraging; it helps us know how to target that kind of cognitive training,” Nuechterlein said. “If we can intervene successfully at the beginning of this illness, the hope is that we can change the trajectory.”
Planning clinical and educational resources
For Kuo, she’s noticed that genetics research to date has rarely captured how phenotypes, particularly those that impact quality of life, may shift over time for people with neuropsychiatric disabilities. She hopes to change that.
Now at the Mass General, where her research focuses on autism as well as schizophrenia, Kuo has another opportunity to study relationships between genetic variation and phenotypic variation throughout development.
Elise Robinson, an epidemiologist and geneticist who supervises Kuo’s research, discussed Kuo’s contribution to the lab.
“Heterogeneity in autism is massively underdiscussed, which has implications for clinical practice and family experience,” said Robinson, whose lab is based at Mass General Hospital’s Center for Genomic Medicine and Department of Psychiatry and at Broad Institute’s Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research.
“By understanding the genetic and phenotypic diversity, the hope is that we can better match different services to folks who could use them,” Kuo said. “What are the supports they could use down the line as you’re anticipating some of the challenges — or some of the strengths — they might develop?”
Since joining the Robinson lab, Kuo has been studying this variability among people with neuropsychiatric disabilities at scale, with an eye toward building clinical and educational resources. The team analyzed patterns of attaining early developmental milestones, such as walking and talking, in over 17,000 autistic children compared to over 4,000 siblings without an autism diagnosis. They found that while some autistic children reached these milestones on time, autistic children on average reached milestones up to 20 months later. Later milestones like speaking phrases had longer delays than earlier milestones like smiling.
Building on these findings, Kuo’s team is currently working on a suite of online, public resources designed for clinicians and families of autistic children to learn about the latest genetics research and navigate considerations surrounding clinical genetic testing.
As for Robinson, she continues to be impressed by Kuo’s drive.
“She’s incredibly diligent; she’s also invariably thoughtful and nonjudgmental and wonderful about mentoring people in our team,” Robinson said. “It’s a large part of why she’s such a natural leader, an obvious budding leader in our community.”
With a more efficient method for artificial pollination, farmers in the future could grow fruits and vegetables inside multilevel warehouses, boosting yields while mitigating some of agriculture’s harmful impacts on the environment.
To help make this idea a reality, MIT researchers are developing robotic insects that could someday swarm out of mechanical hives to rapidly perform precise pollination. However, even the best bug-sized robots are no match for natural pollinators like bees when it comes to endurance, speed, and maneuverability.
Now, inspired by the anatomy of these natural pollinators, the researchers have overhauled their design to produce tiny, aerial robots that are far more agile and durable than prior versions.
The new bots can hover for about 1,000 seconds, which is more than 100 times longer than previously demonstrated. The robotic insect, which weighs less than a paperclip, can fly significantly faster than similar bots while completing acrobatic maneuvers like double aerial flips.
The revamped robot is designed to boost flight precision and agility while minimizing the mechanical stress on its artificial wing flexures, which enables faster maneuvers, increased endurance, and a longer lifespan.
The new design also has enough free space that the robot could carry tiny batteries or sensors, which could enable it to fly on its own outside the lab.
“The amount of flight we demonstrated in this paper is probably longer than the entire amount of flight our field has been able to accumulate with these robotic insects. With the improved lifespan and precision of this robot, we are getting closer to some very exciting applications, like assisted pollination,” says Kevin Chen, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), head of the Soft and Micro Robotics Laboratory within the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), and the senior author of an open-access paper on the new design.
Chen is joined on the paper by co-lead authors Suhan Kim and Yi-Hsuan Hsiao, who are EECS graduate students; as well as EECS graduate student Zhijian Ren and summer visiting student Jiashu Huang. The research appears today in Science Robotics.
Boosting performance
Prior versions of the robotic insect were composed of four identical units, each with two wings, combined into a rectangular device about the size of a microcassette.
“But there is no insect that has eight wings. In our old design, the performance of each individual unit was always better than the assembled robot,” Chen says.
This performance drop was partly caused by the arrangement of the wings, which would blow air into each other when flapping, reducing the lift forces they could generate.
The new design chops the robot in half. Each of the four identical units now has one flapping wing pointing away from the robot’s center, stabilizing the wings and boosting their lift forces. With half as many wings, this design also frees up space so the robot could carry electronics.
In addition, the researchers created more complex transmissions that connect the wings to the actuators, or artificial muscles, that flap them. These durable transmissions, which required the design of longer wing hinges, reduce the mechanical strain that limited the endurance of past versions.
“Compared to the old robot, we can now generate control torque three times larger than before, which is why we can do very sophisticated and very accurate path-finding flights,” Chen says.
Yet even with these design innovations, there is still a gap between the best robotic insects and the real thing. For instance, a bee has only two wings, yet it can perform rapid and highly controlled motions.
“The wings of bees are finely controlled by a very sophisticated set of muscles. That level of fine-tuning is something that truly intrigues us, but we have not yet been able to replicate,” he says.
Less strain, more force
The motion of the robot’s wings is driven by artificial muscles. These tiny, soft actuators are made from layers of elastomer sandwiched between two very thin carbon nanotube electrodes and then rolled into a squishy cylinder. The actuators rapidly compress and elongate, generating mechanical force that flaps the wings.
In previous designs, when the actuator’s movements reach the extremely high frequencies needed for flight, the devices often start buckling. That reduces the power and efficiency of the robot. The new transmissions inhibit this bending-buckling motion, which reduces the strain on the artificial muscles and enables them to apply more force to flap the wings.
Another new design involves a long wing hinge that reduces torsional stress experienced during the flapping-wing motion. Fabricating the hinge, which is about 2 centimeters long but just 200 microns in diameter, was among their greatest challenges.
“If you have even a tiny alignment issue during the fabrication process, the wing hinge will be slanted instead of rectangular, which affects the wing kinematics,” Chen says.
After many attempts, the researchers perfected a multistep laser-cutting process that enabled them to precisely fabricate each wing hinge.
With all four units in place, the new robotic insect can hover for more than 1,000 seconds, which equates to almost 17 minutes, without showing any degradation of flight precision.
“When my student Nemo was performing that flight, he said it was the slowest 1,000 seconds he had spent in his entire life. The experiment was extremely nerve-racking,” Chen says.
The new robot also reached an average speed of 35 centimeters per second, the fastest flight researchers have reported, while performing body rolls and double flips. It can even precisely track a trajectory that spells M-I-T.
“At the end of the day, we’ve shown flight that is 100 times longer than anyone else in the field has been able to do, so this is an extremely exciting result,” he says.
From here, Chen and his students want to see how far they can push this new design, with the goal of achieving flight for longer than 10,000 seconds.
They also want to improve the precision of the robots so they could land and take off from the center of a flower. In the long run, the researchers hope to install tiny batteries and sensors onto the aerial robots so they could fly and navigate outside the lab.
“This new robot platform is a major result from our group and leads to many exciting directions. For example, incorporating sensors, batteries, and computing capabilities on this robot will be a central focus in the next three to five years,” Chen says.
This research is funded, in part, by the U.S. National Science Foundation and a Mathworks Fellowship.
Weighing less than a paperclip, the robotic insect can fly significantly faster than similar bots while completing acrobatic maneuvers like double aerial flips. It can even precisely track a trajectory that spells M-I-T.
Nearly 50 years ago, neuroscientists discovered cells within the brain’s hippocampus that store memories of specific locations. These cells also play an important role in storing memories of events, known as episodic memories. While the mechanism of how place cells encode spatial memory has been well-characterized, it has remained a puzzle how they encode episodic memories.
A new model developed by MIT researchers explains how those place cells can be recruited to form episodic memories, even when there’s no spatial component. According to this model, place cells, along with grid cells found in the entorhinal cortex, act as a scaffold that can be used to anchor memories as a linked series.
“This model is a first-draft model of the entorhinal-hippocampal episodic memory circuit. It’s a foundation to build on to understand the nature of episodic memory. That’s the thing I’m really excited about,” says Ila Fiete, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and the senior author of the new study.
The model accurately replicates several features of biological memory systems, including the large storage capacity, gradual degradation of older memories, and the ability of people who compete in memory competitions to store enormous amounts of information in “memory palaces.”
MIT Research Scientist Sarthak Chandra and Sugandha Sharma PhD ’24 are the lead authors of the study, which appears today in Nature. Rishidev Chaudhuri, an assistant professor at the University of California at Davis, is also an author of the paper.
An index of memories
To encode spatial memory, place cells in the hippocampus work closely with grid cells — a special type of neuron that fires at many different locations, arranged geometrically in a regular pattern of repeating triangles. Together, a population of grid cells forms a lattice of triangles representing a physical space.
In addition to helping us recall places where we’ve been, these hippocampal-entorhinal circuits also help us navigate new locations. From human patients, it’s known that these circuits are also critical for forming episodic memories, which might have a spatial component but mainly consist of events, such as how you celebrated your last birthday or what you had for lunch yesterday.
“The same hippocampal and entorhinal circuits are used not just for spatial memory, but also for general episodic memory,” Fiete says. “The question you can ask is what is the connection between spatial and episodic memory that makes them live in the same circuit?”
Two hypotheses have been proposed to account for this overlap in function. One is that the circuit is specialized to store spatial memories because those types of memories — remembering where food was located or where predators were seen — are important to survival. Under this hypothesis, this circuit encodes episodic memories as a byproduct of spatial memory.
An alternative hypothesis suggests that the circuit is specialized to store episodic memories, but also encodes spatial memory because location is one aspect of many episodic memories.
In this work, Fiete and her colleagues proposed a third option: that the peculiar tiling structure of grid cells and their interactions with hippocampus are equally important for both types of memory — episodic and spatial. To develop their new model, they built on computational models that her lab has been developing over the past decade, which mimic how grid cells encode spatial information.
“We reached the point where I felt like we understood on some level the mechanisms of the grid cell circuit, so it felt like the time to try to understand the interactions between the grid cells and the larger circuit that includes the hippocampus,” Fiete says.
In the new model, the researchers hypothesized that grid cells interacting with hippocampal cells can act as a scaffold for storing either spatial or episodic memory. Each activation pattern within the grid defines a “well,” and these wells are spaced out at regular intervals. The wells don’t store the content of a specific memory, but each one acts as a pointer to a specific memory, which is stored in the synapses between the hippocampus and the sensory cortex.
When the memory is triggered later from fragmentary pieces, grid and hippocampal cell interactions drive the circuit state into the nearest well, and the state at the bottom of the well connects to the appropriate part of the sensory cortex to fill in the details of the memory. The sensory cortex is much larger than the hippocampus and can store vast amounts of memory.
“Conceptually, we can think about the hippocampus as a pointer network. It’s like an index that can be pattern-completed from a partial input, and that index then points toward sensory cortex, where those inputs were experienced in the first place,” Fiete says. “The scaffold doesn’t contain the content, it only contains this index of abstract scaffold states.”
Furthermore, events that occur in sequence can be linked together: Each well in the grid cell-hippocampal network efficiently stores the information that is needed to activate the next well, allowing memories to be recalled in the right order.
Modeling memory cliffs and palaces
The researchers’ new model replicates several memory-related phenomena much more accurately than existing models that are based on Hopfield networks — a type of neural network that can store and recall patterns.
While Hopfield networks offer insight into how memories can be formed by strengthening connections between neurons, they don’t perfectly model how biological memory works. In Hopfield models, every memory is recalled in perfect detail until capacity is reached. At that point, no new memories can form, and worse, attempting to add more memories erases all prior ones. This “memory cliff” doesn’t accurately mimic what happens in the biological brain, which tends to gradually forget the details of older memories while new ones are continually added.
The new MIT model captures findings from decades of recordings of grid and hippocampal cells in rodents made as the animals explore and forage in various environments. It also helps to explain the underlying mechanisms for a memorization strategy known as a memory palace. One of the tasks in memory competitions is to memorize the shuffled sequence of cards in one or several card decks. They usually do this by assigning each card to a particular spot in a memory palace — a memory of a childhood home or other environment they know well. When they need to recall the cards, they mentally stroll through the house, visualizing each card in its spot as they go along. Counterintuitively, adding the memory burden of associating cards with locations makes recall stronger and more reliable.
The MIT team’s computational model was able to perform such tasks very well, suggesting that memory palaces take advantage of the memory circuit’s own strategy of associating inputs with a scaffold in the hippocampus, but one level down: Long-acquired memories reconstructed in the larger sensory cortex can now be pressed into service as a scaffold for new memories. This allows for the storage and recall of many more items in a sequence than would otherwise be possible.
The researchers now plan to build on their model to explore how episodic memories could become converted to cortical “semantic” memory, or the memory of facts dissociated from the specific context in which they were acquired (for example, Paris is the capital of France), how episodes are defined, and how brain-like memory models could be integrated into modern machine learning.
The research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation under the Robust Intelligence program, the ARO-MURI award, the Simons Foundation, and the K. Lisa Yang ICoN Center.
A new model developed by MIT researchers explains how those place cells can be recruited to form episodic memories, even when there’s no spatial component.
Alumni donations drive progress in Economics Department
The site of the Economics Department’s future home, Pritzker Hall.
Photo by Grace DuVal
5 min read
Gifts support professorships, spaces in future Pritzker Hall
Alumni from classes spanning 40 years have stepped forward to support Harvard’s vision for a new era of economics education and research. Gifts from Joseph T. Tsai ’98; Jeffrey T. Tsai ’01, S.M. ’04; Jason T. Tsai ’05; Alexander Slusky ’89, M.B.A. ’92, and Danna Slusky; and Don Smith ’66 will bolster the department’s future home, Pritzker Hall, and establish two new professorships.
“The collective generosity of these alumni is powering a transformative vision for the future of economics research at Harvard, shaping the next generation of scholars and policymakers,” said Hopi Hoekstra, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “We are deeply grateful for their support, which is advancing the creation of an innovative new building and endowed professorships, firmly establishing the critical intellectual role Harvard’s economics program will play in developing the future of the field.”
For more than 100 years, the Economics Department in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has produced scholarship and policy ideas aimed at the world’s most pressing problems, including recessions, gender and racial inequality, climate change, and global poverty. Revered for its top undergraduate and graduate programs, the department educates more than 500 undergraduate concentrators and nearly 200 graduate students every year. Economics faculty have earned countless accolades including multiple MacArthur Awards, Clark Medals, and Nobel Prizes, including the Nobel awarded in 2023 to Claudia Goldin, Lee and Ezpeleta Professor of Arts and Sciences and Henry Lee Professor of Economics.
New spaces for new kinds of work
The new support will help to build the future home for the Economics Department, which began with an impactful gift from Penny Pritzker ’81 and Bryan Traubert. Pritzker Hall will bring research and teaching together under one roof, in a space designed for interaction and collaboration.
“Our hope is that the new building will be a machine for interactions that will connect students and faculty and generate ideas that change the world,” says Ed Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics. “Pritzker Hall has been designed to pull in hopeful undergraduates — to make economics as exciting and inclusive as possible — to educate them to lead and do cutting-edge research that will inform policymaking everywhere. The spaces are both beautiful and functional, designed so that knowledge will flow freely and that the ‘aha’ moments that have happened in the Harvard Economics Department will continue for decades.”
The three Tsai brothers made their gift to name the event and teaching space in honor of their father, Hong-Tu Tsai, chairman of Cathay Financial Holdings. The Tsai Family Event Area and Terrace will be a high-profile venue for convening faculty, visiting scholars, community members, and civic and world leaders for scholarly and public audiences.
“We wanted to be part of Harvard’s new vision for economics,” said Joe Tsai. Members of the Tsai family have been avid supporters of Harvard College for decades, including through a notable gift to the Center for Government and International Studies in 1996 and the named Tsai Auditorium. “We were inspired by the approach being taken to the development of Pritzker Hall, which will draw scholars together in a highly interactive space and nourish the intellectual immersion at the foundation of the Harvard undergraduate experience. Our father helped make Harvard possible for us, and we’d like to help others have the same transformational opportunities that we did.”
Investing in talent and fresh perspectives
Two separate gifts, one from the Slusky family and another from Smith, will support new professorships in important fields of study, ensuring the department can meet the needs of a rapidly evolving research landscape. The Slusky Family Professorship of Economics and Markets Fund will be awarded to an eminent scholar of economics who studies real-world applications.
“Economics faculty gave me a great foundation of knowledge that I’ve benefited from ever since,” says Alexander Slusky, reflecting on his opportunity to attend Harvard six years after emigrating from the former Soviet Union. He established the professorship in part due to the mentoring he received as an undergraduate by department luminaries including N. Gregory Mankiw, Martin Feldstein, and Richard Caves.
“The Harvard Economics Department is a critical part of educating future leaders of America,” said Slusky, who is founding partner of Vector Capital. “I want to help it grow this community.”
Smith also feels deep gratitude for his ties to the department and the mentoring he received from faculty member John Kenneth Galbraith. Smith has been passionate about environmental economics ever since his days as a Harvard student and as a longtime entrepreneur focused on developing clean energy. His gift will establish the Donald M. Smith Professorship Fund, to be awarded to a pioneering scholar who works in climate change, natural resources, or energy economics.
“I wanted to help Harvard find the best scholar in environmental economics,” said Smith, CEO and chief technology officer for EnviroBeef, a company dedicated to providing environmentally friendly beef. “It’s so wonderful for me very late in my professional life to be doing something that’s meaningful to Harvard.”
A group of immune proteins called the inflammasome can help prevent blood stem cells from becoming malignant by removing certain receptors from their surfaces and blocking cancer gene activity, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.
The nominating committee brings together 13 alumni with varied backgrounds and includes three current or recent Overseers who have direct experience with the workings and needs of the board. The committee invites and receives suggestions about possible candidates from across the alumni community and reviews information on hundreds of prospective candidates as part of extensive deliberations throughout the fall term.
“The process of considering this year’s candidates for Overseer and HAA elected director has again revealed the extraordinary depth and diversity of talents and accomplishments across our alumni community,” said Robert N. Shapiro ’72, J.D. ’78, chair of the nominating committee, former Overseer, and past president of both the Harvard Alumni Association and the Harvard Law School Association. “These candidates exemplify a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives that will benefit the university. They share a devotion to Harvard as a beacon of academic excellence and a belief in its boundless potential to serve the wider world.”
The committee seeks to develop a set of Overseer candidates that takes account of the board’s present composition and the University’s future needs. The committee considers experience and accomplishment in an academic or professional domain important to the University; interest in and concern for higher education and for Harvard University as a whole; commitment to the overall quality and continual improvement of Harvard’s programs of education and research; willingness to invest the time and energy necessary for effective service; understanding of complex organizations, and leadership and consensus-building skills.
“I’m grateful to my committee colleagues for their thoughtfulness and insights in identifying this outstanding group of candidates,” Shapiro said. “And all of us are grateful to the candidates themselves for their willingness to invest their time and care in the Harvard community and its reach far beyond campus.”
Overseer candidates
Lanhee J. Chen ’99, magna cum laude, A.M. ’04, J.D. ’07, cum laude, Ph.D. ’09
David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies, Hoover Institution, and Director of Domestic Policy Studies, Public Policy Program, Stanford University; Partner, Brunswick Group Mountain View, California
Mark A. Edwards ’82, cum laude
Co-founder and CEO, Upstream USA; founder and former executive director, Opportunity Nation Brookline, Massachusetts
Mary Louise Kelly ’93, magna cum laude
M.Phil. ’95, University of Cambridge; journalist and broadcaster, co-host of “All Things Considered,” NPR Washington, D.C.
Nathaniel Owen Keohane, Ph.D. ’01
B.A. ’93, Yale University; president, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions New York, New York
Valerie Montgomery Rice, M.D. ’87
B.S. ’83, Georgia Institute of Technology; president and CEO, Morehouse School of Medicine Atlanta, Georgia
Michael Rosenblatt, M.D. ’73, magna cum laude
B.A. ’69, summa cum laude, Columbia University; advisory partner, Ascenta Capital; senior adviser, Bain Capital Life Sciences and Flagship Pioneering; former executive vice president and chief medical officer, Merck & Co.; former dean, Tufts University School of Medicine Newton, Massachusetts
Anjali Sud, M.B.A. ’11
B.S. ’05, University of Pennsylvania; CEO, Tubi; former CEO, Vimeo New York, New York
Courtney B. Vance ’82
M.F.A. ’86, Yale University; actor, producer, writer; president and chair, SAG-AFTRA Foundation La Cañada Flintridge, California
HAA elected director candidates
Daniel H. Ahn ’90, magna cum laude, M.B.A. ’97
Managing partner, Clearvision Ventures
Burlingame, California
Allison Lee Pillinger Choi ’06
Author
Bedford, New York
Theresa J. Chung ’98, magna cum laude, J.D. ’02
Administrative judge, U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board
Dallas, Texas
Colin J. Kegler ’97
Senior software engineer, HealthEdge Inc.
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Victoria “Vicky” Wai Ka Leung ’91, cum laude
M.B.A. ’98, New York University; managing director and consultant, EC M&A London, England
Nicholas J. Melvoin ’08
M.A. ’10, Loyola Marymount University; J.D. ’14, New York University; elected board member, Los Angeles Unified School District
Los Angeles, California
Pavlos P. Photiades ’88, magna cum laude
CEO, Photos Photiades Group
Nicosia, Cyprus
Angela M. Ruggiero ’02, cum laude, M.B.A. ’14
M.Ed. ’10, University of Minnesota; co-founder and chair, Sports Innovation Lab
Weston, Massachusetts
Sanjay Seth, M.P.A. ’19, M.U.P. ’19
B.A. ’12, Goldsmiths, University of London; former chief of staff and senior adviser for climate and equity, U.S. EPA New England
East Boston, Massachusetts
Candidates for Overseer may also be nominated by petition, by obtaining a required number of signatures from eligible voters. The deadline to submit petitions for the 2025 Overseers election is Jan. 30. Find more information on the nomination and election process here.
The election begins April 1. Completed ballots will be accepted until 5 p.m. on May 14. Harvard degree holders can vote online or by paper ballot for five anticipated vacancies on the Board of Overseers and for six openings among the HAA elected directors.
All Harvard degree holders as of Jan. 1, except for officers of instruction and government at Harvard and members of the Harvard Corporation, are eligible to vote for Overseer candidates. All Harvard degree holders as of Jan. 1 may vote for HAA elected directors.
The Board of Overseers is one of Harvard’s two governing boards, along with the President and Fellows, also known as the Corporation. Formally established in 1642, the board plays an integral role in the governance of the University, complementing the Corporation’s work as Harvard’s principal fiduciary board. As a central part of its work, the Board of Overseers directs the visitation process, the primary means for periodic external assessment of Harvard’s Schools and departments. Through its array of standing committees, and the roughly 50 visiting committees that report to them, the board probes the quality of Harvard’s programs and assures that the University remains true to its charter as a place of learning. More generally, drawing on its members’ diverse experience and expertise, the board provides counsel to the University’s leadership on priorities, plans, and strategic initiatives. The board also has the power of consent to certain actions, such as the election of Corporation members. The current membership of the board is listed here.
The HAA board, including its elected directors, is an advisory board that aims to foster a sense of community, engagement, and University citizenship among Harvard alumni around the world. The work focuses on developing volunteer leadership and increasing and deepening alumni engagement through an array of programs that support alumni communities worldwide. In recent years, the board’s priorities have included strengthening outreach to recent graduates and graduate school alumni and continuing to build and promote inclusive communities.
Professor Andrew Markham is co-author of a new study showing that leopards can be identified by their roars, opening the door to more work on how this vulnerable species communicates, and furthering conservation efforts.
Launched on 19 December 2013, Gaia’s fuel tank is now approaching empty – it uses about a dozen grams of cold gas per day to keep it spinning with pinpoint precision. But this is far from the end of the mission. Technology tests are scheduled for the weeks ahead before Gaia is moved to its ‘retirement’ orbit, and two massive data releases are tabled for around 2026 and the end of this decade, respectively.
“Today marks the end of science observations and we are celebrating this incredible mission that has exceeded all our expectations, lasting for almost twice its originally foreseen lifetime,” said ESA Director of Science Carole Mundell.
“The treasure trove of data collected by Gaia has given us unique insights into the origin and evolution of our Milky Way galaxy, and has also transformed astrophysics and Solar System science in ways that we are yet to fully appreciate. Gaia built on unique European excellence in astrometry and will leave a long-lasting legacy for future generations.”
“Today marks the last day of science data collection from Gaia, these observations to form part of the final data release,” said Dr Nicholas Walton from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, lead of the UK Gaia Project team and ESA Gaia Science Team member. “Our Gaia team in the UK is now working hard on the incredibly complex data analysis for the upcoming Gaia data releases. These will enable a wealth of new discovery, adding to the science from one of the world’s most productive science discovery machines.”
Gaia delivers best Milky Way map
Gaia has been charting the positions, distances, movements, brightness changes, composition and numerous other characteristics of stars by monitoring them with its three instruments many times throughout the mission.
This has enabled Gaia to deliver on its primary goal of building the largest, most precise map of the Milky Way, showing us our home galaxy like no other mission has done before.
Gaia’s repeated measurements of stellar distances, motions and characteristics are key to performing ‘galactic archeology’ on our Milky Way, revealing missing links in our galaxy’s complex history to help us learn more about our origins. From detecting ‘ghosts’ of other galaxies and multiple streams of ancient stars that merged with the Milky Way in its early history, to finding evidence for an ongoing collision with the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy today, Gaia is rewriting the Milky Way’s history and making predictions about its future.
Warning! More ground-breaking science ahead
The Gaia scientific and engineering teams are already working on the preparations for Gaia Data Release 4 (DR4), expected in 2026.
“This is the Gaia release the community has been waiting for, and it’s exciting to think this only covers half of the collected data,” said Antonella Vallenari, Deputy Chair of DPAC based at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Astronomical Observatory of Padua, Italy. “Even though the mission has now stopped collecting data, it will be business as usual for us for many years to come as we make these incredible datasets ready for use.”
“Over the next months we will continue to downlink every last drop of data from Gaia, and at the same time the processing teams will ramp up their preparations for the fifth and final major data release at the end of this decade, covering the full 10.5 years of mission data,” said Rocio Guerra, Gaia Science Operations Team Leader based at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid in Spain.
Gaia’s retirement plan
While today marks the end of science observations, a short period of technology testing now begins. The tests have the potential to further improve the Gaia calibrations, learn more about the behaviour of certain technology after ten years in space, and even aid the design of future space missions.
After several weeks of testing, Gaia will leave its current orbit around Lagrange point 2, 1.5 million km from the Earth in the direction away from the Sun, to be put into its final heliocentric orbit, far away from Earth’s sphere of influence. The spacecraft will be passivated on 27 March 2025, to avoid any harm or interference with other spacecraft.
Wave farewell to Gaia
During the technology tests Gaia’s orientation will be changed, meaning it will temporarily become several magnitudes brighter, making observations through small telescopes a lot easier (it won’t be visible to the naked eye). A guide to locating Gaia has been set up here, and amateur astronomers are invited to share their observations.
“Gaia will treat us with this final gift as we bid farewell, shining among the stars ahead of its well-earned retirement,” said Uwe Lammers, Gaia Mission Manager.
“It’s a moment to celebrate this transformative mission and thank all of the teams for more than a decade of hard work operating Gaia, planning its observations, and ensuring its precious data are returned smoothly to Earth.”
The European Space Agency’s Milky Way-mapper Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other objects over the last decade to revolutionise the view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighbourhood.
An architecture PhD student at ETH Zurich has developed a simple solution for building concrete floors in a more climate-friendly way. Significant amounts of concrete and steel can be saved thanks to a lightweight, robust and reusable formwork design.
A biologist, a neuroscientist, a materials scientist and a physicist have each been awarded one of the prestigious grants of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
NUS Presidential Young Professor Kenji Kawaguchi, from the Department of Computer Science at NUS School of Computing (NUS Computing), has won the Best Paper Award at the prestigious NeurIPS 2024 conference. Held from 10 to 15 December 2024, the event featured global experts in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, with the Best Paper Award being a hallmark of excellence for highly impactful papers from leading researchers who are making exceptional contributions to the field of Machine Learning.
Prof Kawaguchi’s paper titled “Stochastic Taylor Derivative Estimator: Efficient Amortization for Arbitrary Differential Operators” (STDE) co-authored with Dr Min Lin (Head of Research at the Sea AI Lab), Mr Zekun Shi (PhD student at NUS Computing), and Mr Zheyuan Hu (PhD student at NUS Computing) addresses a critical challenge in AI and computational mathematics — efficient computation of derivatives for complex systems. The team’s innovative STDE introduces a scalable, efficient, and highly parallisable method to solve high-dimensional problems, significantly reducing computational demand while improving accuracy. In a demonstration of its prowess, the team solved a million-dimensional problem in just eight minutes on a single GPU, a task that would have taken traditional methods weeks.
Prof Kawaguchi and his team’s work on STDE holds vast potential for real-world applications, including simulating entire galaxies, engineering smarter devices, advancing renewable energy, transforming healthcare, revolutionising finance, and accelerating drug discovery.
This accolade marks a proud and significant milestone for NUS Computing, highlighting the School’s leadership in driving impactful and innovative advancements in AI research.
Quantum computing promises to solve complex problems exponentially faster than a classical computer, by using the principles of quantum mechanics to encode and manipulate information in quantum bits (qubits).
Qubits are the building blocks of a quantum computer. One challenge to scaling, however, is that qubits are highly sensitive to background noise and control imperfections, which introduce errors into the quantum operations and ultimately limit the complexity and duration of a quantum algorithm. To improve the situation, MIT researchers and researchers worldwide have continually focused on improving qubit performance.
In new work, using a superconducting qubit called fluxonium, MIT researchers in the Department of Physics, the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) developed two new control techniques to achieve a world-record single-qubit fidelity of 99.998 percent. This result complements then-MIT researcher Leon Ding’s demonstration last year of a 99.92 percent two-qubit gate fidelity.
The paper’s senior authors are David Rower PhD ’24, a recent physics postdoc in MIT’s Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group and now a research scientist at the Google Quantum AI laboratory; Leon Ding PhD ’23 from EQuS, now leading the Calibration team at Atlantic Quantum; and William D. Oliver, the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of EECS and professor of physics, leader of EQuS, director of the Center for Quantum Engineering, and RLE associate director. The paper recently appeared in the journal PRX Quantum.
Decoherence and counter-rotating errors
A major challenge with quantum computation is decoherence, a process by which qubits lose their quantum information. For platforms such as superconducting qubits, decoherence stands in the way of realizing higher-fidelity quantum gates.
Quantum computers need to achieve high gate fidelities in order to implement sustained computation through protocols like quantum error correction. The higher the gate fidelity, the easier it is to realize practical quantum computing.
MIT researchers are developing techniques to make quantum gates, the basic operations of a quantum computer, as fast as possible in order to reduce the impact of decoherence. However, as gates get faster, another type of error, arising from counter-rotating dynamics, can be introduced because of the way qubits are controlled using electromagnetic waves.
Single-qubit gates are usually implemented with a resonant pulse, which induces Rabi oscillations between the qubit states. When the pulses are too fast, however, “Rabi gates” are not so consistent, due to unwanted errors from counter-rotating effects. The faster the gate, the more the counter-rotating error is manifest. For low-frequency qubits such as fluxonium, counter-rotating errors limit the fidelity of fast gates.
“Getting rid of these errors was a fun challenge for us,” says Rower. “Initially, Leon had the idea to utilize circularly polarized microwave drives, analogous to circularly polarized light, but realized by controlling the relative phase of charge and flux drives of a superconducting qubit. Such a circularly polarized drive would ideally be immune to counter-rotating errors.”
While Ding’s idea worked immediately, the fidelities achieved with circularly polarized drives were not as high as expected from coherence measurements.
“Eventually, we stumbled on a beautifully simple idea,” says Rower. “If we applied pulses at exactly the right times, we should be able to make counter-rotating errors consistent from pulse-to-pulse. This would make the counter-rotating errors correctable. Even better, they would be automatically accounted for with our usual Rabi gate calibrations!”
They called this idea “commensurate pulses,” since the pulses needed to be applied at times commensurate with intervals determined by the qubit frequency through its inverse, the time period. Commensurate pulses are defined simply by timing constraints and can be applied to a single linear qubit drive. In contrast, circularly polarized microwaves require two drives and some extra calibration.
“I had much fun developing the commensurate technique,” says Rower. “It was simple, we understood why it worked so well, and it should be portable to any qubit suffering from counter-rotating errors!”
“This project makes it clear that counter-rotating errors can be dealt with easily. This is a wonderful thing for low-frequency qubits such as fluxonium, which are looking more and more promising for quantum computing.”
Fluxonium’s promise
Fluxonium is a type of superconducting qubit made up of a capacitor and Josephson junction; unlike transmon qubits, however, fluxonium also includes a large “superinductor,” which by design helps protect the qubit from environmental noise. This results in performing logical operations, or gates, with greater accuracy.
Despite having higher coherence, however, fluxonium has a lower qubit frequency that is generally associated with proportionally longer gates.
“Here, we’ve demonstrated a gate that is among the fastest and highest-fidelity across all superconducting qubits,” says Ding. “Our experiments really show that fluxonium is a qubit that supports both interesting physical explorations and also absolutely delivers in terms of engineering performance.”
With further research, they hope to reveal new limitations and yield even faster and higher-fidelity gates.
“Counter-rotating dynamics have been understudied in the context of superconducting quantum computing because of how well the rotating-wave approximation holds in common scenarios,” says Ding. “Our paper shows how to precisely calibrate fast, low-frequency gates where the rotating-wave approximation does not hold.”
Physics and engineering team up
“This is a wonderful example of the type of work we like to do in EQuS, because it leverages fundamental concepts in both physics and electrical engineering to achieve a better outcome,” says Oliver. “It builds on our earlier work with non-adiabatic qubit control, applies it to a new qubit — fluxonium — and makes a beautiful connection with counter-rotating dynamics.”
The science and engineering teams enabled the high fidelity in two ways. First, the team demonstrated “commensurate” (synchronous) non-adiabatic control, which goes beyond the standard “rotating wave approximation” of standard Rabi approaches. This leverages ideas that won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for ultrafast “attosecond” pulses of light.
Secondly, they demonstrated it using an analog to circularly polarized light. Rather than a physical electromagnetic field with a rotating polarization vector in real x-y space, they realized a synthetic version of circularly polarized light using the qubit’s x-y space, which in this case corresponds to its magnetic flux and electric charge.
The combination of a new take on an existing qubit design (fluxonium) and the application of advanced control methods applied to an understanding of the underlying physics enabled this result.
Platform-independent and requiring no additional calibration overhead, this work establishes straightforward strategies for mitigating counter-rotating effects from strong drives in circuit quantum electrodynamics and other platforms, which the researchers expect to be helpful in the effort to realize high-fidelity control for fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Adds Oliver, “With the recent announcement of Google’s Willow quantum chip that demonstrated quantum error correction beyond threshold for the first time, this is a timely result, as we have pushed performance even higher. Higher-performant qubits will lead to lower overhead requirements for implementing error correction.”
This research was funded, in part, by the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
In an artist’s impression of a recent MIT experiment, a central sphere represents a qubit, which is irradiated by two control signals: charge (blue) and flux (purple). These control signals are designed such that their combination creates a circularly-polarized microwave that is immune to counter-rotating effects. The signals are made of a repeating waveform, representing the similarity of control pulses resulting from the authors’ commensurate driving technique.
Quantum computing promises to solve complex problems exponentially faster than a classical computer, by using the principles of quantum mechanics to encode and manipulate information in quantum bits (qubits).
Qubits are the building blocks of a quantum computer. One challenge to scaling, however, is that qubits are highly sensitive to background noise and control imperfections, which introduce errors into the quantum operations and ultimately limit the complexity and duration of a quantum algorithm. To improve the situation, MIT researchers and researchers worldwide have continually focused on improving qubit performance.
In new work, using a superconducting qubit called fluxonium, MIT researchers in the Department of Physics, the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) developed two new control techniques to achieve a world-record single-qubit fidelity of 99.998 percent. This result complements then-MIT researcher Leon Ding’s demonstration last year of a 99.92 percent two-qubit gate fidelity.
The paper’s senior authors are David Rower PhD ’24, a recent physics postdoc in MIT’s Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group and now a research scientist at the Google Quantum AI laboratory; Leon Ding PhD ’23 from EQuS, now leading the Calibration team at Atlantic Quantum; and William D. Oliver, the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of EECS and professor of physics, leader of EQuS, director of the Center for Quantum Engineering, and RLE associate director. The paper recently appeared in the journal PRX Quantum.
Decoherence and counter-rotating errors
A major challenge with quantum computation is decoherence, a process by which qubits lose their quantum information. For platforms such as superconducting qubits, decoherence stands in the way of realizing higher-fidelity quantum gates.
Quantum computers need to achieve high gate fidelities in order to implement sustained computation through protocols like quantum error correction. The higher the gate fidelity, the easier it is to realize practical quantum computing.
MIT researchers are developing techniques to make quantum gates, the basic operations of a quantum computer, as fast as possible in order to reduce the impact of decoherence. However, as gates get faster, another type of error, arising from counter-rotating dynamics, can be introduced because of the way qubits are controlled using electromagnetic waves.
Single-qubit gates are usually implemented with a resonant pulse, which induces Rabi oscillations between the qubit states. When the pulses are too fast, however, “Rabi gates” are not so consistent, due to unwanted errors from counter-rotating effects. The faster the gate, the more the counter-rotating error is manifest. For low-frequency qubits such as fluxonium, counter-rotating errors limit the fidelity of fast gates.
“Getting rid of these errors was a fun challenge for us,” says Rower. “Initially, Leon had the idea to utilize circularly polarized microwave drives, analogous to circularly polarized light, but realized by controlling the relative phase of charge and flux drives of a superconducting qubit. Such a circularly polarized drive would ideally be immune to counter-rotating errors.”
While Ding’s idea worked immediately, the fidelities achieved with circularly polarized drives were not as high as expected from coherence measurements.
“Eventually, we stumbled on a beautifully simple idea,” says Rower. “If we applied pulses at exactly the right times, we should be able to make counter-rotating errors consistent from pulse-to-pulse. This would make the counter-rotating errors correctable. Even better, they would be automatically accounted for with our usual Rabi gate calibrations!”
They called this idea “commensurate pulses,” since the pulses needed to be applied at times commensurate with intervals determined by the qubit frequency through its inverse, the time period. Commensurate pulses are defined simply by timing constraints and can be applied to a single linear qubit drive. In contrast, circularly polarized microwaves require two drives and some extra calibration.
“I had much fun developing the commensurate technique,” says Rower. “It was simple, we understood why it worked so well, and it should be portable to any qubit suffering from counter-rotating errors!”
“This project makes it clear that counter-rotating errors can be dealt with easily. This is a wonderful thing for low-frequency qubits such as fluxonium, which are looking more and more promising for quantum computing.”
Fluxonium’s promise
Fluxonium is a type of superconducting qubit made up of a capacitor and Josephson junction; unlike transmon qubits, however, fluxonium also includes a large “superinductor,” which by design helps protect the qubit from environmental noise. This results in performing logical operations, or gates, with greater accuracy.
Despite having higher coherence, however, fluxonium has a lower qubit frequency that is generally associated with proportionally longer gates.
“Here, we’ve demonstrated a gate that is among the fastest and highest-fidelity across all superconducting qubits,” says Ding. “Our experiments really show that fluxonium is a qubit that supports both interesting physical explorations and also absolutely delivers in terms of engineering performance.”
With further research, they hope to reveal new limitations and yield even faster and higher-fidelity gates.
“Counter-rotating dynamics have been understudied in the context of superconducting quantum computing because of how well the rotating-wave approximation holds in common scenarios,” says Ding. “Our paper shows how to precisely calibrate fast, low-frequency gates where the rotating-wave approximation does not hold.”
Physics and engineering team up
“This is a wonderful example of the type of work we like to do in EQuS, because it leverages fundamental concepts in both physics and electrical engineering to achieve a better outcome,” says Oliver. “It builds on our earlier work with non-adiabatic qubit control, applies it to a new qubit — fluxonium — and makes a beautiful connection with counter-rotating dynamics.”
The science and engineering teams enabled the high fidelity in two ways. First, the team demonstrated “commensurate” (synchronous) non-adiabatic control, which goes beyond the standard “rotating wave approximation” of standard Rabi approaches. This leverages ideas that won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for ultrafast “attosecond” pulses of light.
Secondly, they demonstrated it using an analog to circularly polarized light. Rather than a physical electromagnetic field with a rotating polarization vector in real x-y space, they realized a synthetic version of circularly polarized light using the qubit’s x-y space, which in this case corresponds to its magnetic flux and electric charge.
The combination of a new take on an existing qubit design (fluxonium) and the application of advanced control methods applied to an understanding of the underlying physics enabled this result.
Platform-independent and requiring no additional calibration overhead, this work establishes straightforward strategies for mitigating counter-rotating effects from strong drives in circuit quantum electrodynamics and other platforms, which the researchers expect to be helpful in the effort to realize high-fidelity control for fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Adds Oliver, “With the recent announcement of Google’s Willow quantum chip that demonstrated quantum error correction beyond threshold for the first time, this is a timely result, as we have pushed performance even higher. Higher-performant qubits will lead to lower overhead requirements for implementing error correction.”
This research was funded, in part, by the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
In an artist’s impression of a recent MIT experiment, a central sphere represents a qubit, which is irradiated by two control signals: charge (blue) and flux (purple). These control signals are designed such that their combination creates a circularly-polarized microwave that is immune to counter-rotating effects. The signals are made of a repeating waveform, representing the similarity of control pulses resulting from the authors’ commensurate driving technique.
Angelina Wu has been taking Japanese classes at MIT since arriving as a first-year student.
“I have had such a wonderful experience learning the language, getting to know my classmates, and interacting with the Japanese community at MIT,” says Wu, now a senior majoring in computer science and engineering.
“It’s been an integral part of my MIT experience, supplementing my other technical skills and also giving me opportunities to meet many people outside my major that I likely wouldn’t have had otherwise. As a result, I feel like I get to understand a much broader, more complete version of MIT.”
Now, Wu is sharing her experience and giving back as a Global Languages Student Ambassador. At a recent Global Languages preregistration fair, Wu spoke with other students interested in pursuing Japanese studies.
“I could not be happier to help promote such an experience to curious students and the greater MIT community,” Wu says.
Global Language Student Ambassadors is a group of students who lead outreach efforts to help increase visibility for the program.
In addition to disseminating information and promotional materials to the MIT undergraduate community, student ambassadors are asked to organize and host informal gatherings for Global Languages students around themes related to language and cultural exploration to build community and provide opportunities for learning and fun outside of the classroom.
Global Languages director Per Urlaub isn’t surprised that the Student Ambassadors program is popular with both students and the MIT community.
“The Global Languages program brings people together,” he says. “Providing a caring learning environment and creating a sense of belonging are central to our mission.”
What’s also central to the Global Languages’ mission is centering students’ work and creating spaces in which language learning can help create connections across academic areas. Students who study languages may improve their understanding of the cultural facets that underlie communication across cultures and open new worlds.
“An engaging community that fosters a deep sense of belonging doesn’t just happen automatically,” Urlaub notes. “A stronger community elevates our students’ proficiency gains, and also makes language learning more meaningful and fun.”
Each student ambassador serves for a single academic year in their area of language focus. They work closely with MIT’s academic administrators to plan, communicate, and stage events.
“I love exploring the richness of the Arabic language, especially how it connects to my culture and heritage,” says Heba Hussein, a student ambassador studying Arabic and majoring in electrical science and engineering. “I believe that having a strong grasp of languages and cultural awareness will help me work effectively in diverse teams.”
Student ambassadors, alongside other language learners, discover how other languages, cultures, and countries can guide their communications with others while shaping how they understand the world.
“My Spanish courses at MIT have been a highlight of my college experience thus far — the opportunity to connect on a deeper level with other cultures and force myself out of my comfort zone in conversations is important to me,” says Katie Kempff, another student ambassador who is majoring in climate system science and engineering and Spanish.
“As a heritage speaker, learning Chinese has been a way for me to connect with my culture and my roots,” adds Zixuan Liu, a double major in biological engineering and biology, and a Chinese student ambassador, who says that as a heritage speaker, learning Chinese has been a way for her to connect with her culture and her roots.
“I would highly recommend diving into languages and culture at MIT, where the support and the community really enhances the experience,” Liu says.
Senior Angelina Wu speaks with students at a Global Languages preregistration fair. Wu, a computer science and engineering major, also studies Japanese and serves as a Global Languages Student Ambassador.
Privacy and cybersecurity law expert examines national security, First Amendment issues as popular video website faces legal deadline
Christina Pazzanese
Harvard Staff Writer
6 min read
The clock appears to be winding down on TikTok’s future in the U.S. Beijing-based ByteDance, the firm behind the popular video-sharing website in the U.S., has until Sunday to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or close.
In a law passed last year, Congress cited national security concerns in barring internet service providers and firms from hosting or offering apps controlled by foreign governments hostile to the U.S. Lawmakers say China could manipulate personalized video feeds to influence U.S. public opinion, and they note the website also gathers massive amounts of user data in the process.
ByteDance claims the law infringes on its First Amendment rights as well as those of users.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case, TikTok v. Garland, and is expected to rule soon.
The Gazette spoke with Timothy Edgar, J.D. ’97, a privacy and cybersecurity law expert who teaches at Harvard Law School and Brown University. Edgar’s position is that the law limits the First Amendment rights of ByteDance and TikTok users in the U.S. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What question is the Supreme Court considering?
The court is being asked to consider whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is constitutional, whether it infringes on either the First Amendment rights of TikTok in TikTok v. Garland or the American video creators who use the platform in Firebaugh v. Garland.
The first question they’re going to have to decide is if TikTok has any First Amendment rights here. And then, if it does, does the government have a compelling interest that is narrowly tailored to its concerns, which is the test under the First Amendment for restrictions on speech.
My own view is that they do have First Amendment rights. Perhaps much more importantly, the 170 million Americans who are users of the platform and over 1 million creators obviously have First Amendment rights, so even if TikTok itself loses on that issue, the Supreme Court will still have to decide the First Amendment issue.
The second step is: Does the government’s argument satisfy the standard of strict scrutiny, which is the very demanding standard that the Supreme Court has set out for restrictions on free speech. In my opinion, it doesn’t.
“The main reason I side with TikTok in this case is that even if the risks are real, there are better alternatives than shutting down a whole platform.”
Timothy Edgar, privacy and cybersecurity law expert
Proponents of the law say it doesn’t ban TikTok or put national security above free speech. Can you talk more about the government’s position?
They’re disputing that it’s a ban by saying, “No, this is just an ownership regulation.” And in the area of broadcast regulations around TV stations, radio stations, and so forth, there’s precedent for restrictions or limits on foreign ownership of those media platforms.
The argument against that is that those cases have to do with a different era in media, dealing with the government having to make choices about which companies get the rare privilege of having a broadcast license, which is inherently limited because of spectrum scarcity.
The internet is not like that. There is no limit on how many websites or platforms can exist. It’s up to the public to decide whether to go to a website or not. And so the case is much closer to magazines or books, where the standard is very protective: The American people have the right to read whatever magazines or books they want. If the U.S. government thinks they’re foreign propaganda, as they did during the Cold War, that didn’t affect the rights of the companies to publish or the public to read them.
Foreign ownership restrictions might work in the context of broadcast licenses, but they shouldn’t work in the context of the internet for the same reason that they shouldn’t work in the context of publishing.
The second claim is: “It’s just an ownership restriction; it’s not a restriction on speech.” In the real world it is a restriction on speech because divestiture is not legally or practically or financially possible for TikTok because the Chinese government restricts the ability of foreign companies to acquire sensitive technology.
Chinese leaders believe the TikTok recommendation engine is valuable intellectual property that they will not permit to be exported. That means TikTok cannot find another owner and so, its only choice is to shut down.
What were some of the stronger arguments the U.S. government made?
The U.S. government does have some important arguments on its side. Maybe you can distinguish those broadcast-era cases, but they’re still there. Ultimately, the law is an ownership restriction rather than a ban, and there’s some history of ownership regulations being upheld by the Supreme Court.
I think they have strong national security arguments about the risk of U.S. user data being obtained by Chinese intelligence and about the risk of the Chinese government pressuring this social media platform to change its algorithm in order to serve Chinese government propaganda goals.
Those are both strong arguments. It’s reasonable for the Supreme Court to defer to the executive and the legislative branch on whether that’s a real risk.
The main reason I side with TikTok in this case is that even if the risks are real, there are better alternatives than shutting down a whole platform. I think it’s a terrible message for the U.S. to be sending to the rest of the world, to erect a great firewall when it comes to one of the world’s leading social media platforms. And it’s a very bad message for internet freedom and for our role in standing for internet freedom.
During oral arguments, the justices did not sound very receptive to TikTok’s argument. How likely is TikTok to prevail?
If I’m a betting man, I’m going to bet on the government winning this case. But that said, it’s always a mistake to listen to the arguments and the questions and assume that’s how it’s coming out. All the questions I heard were perfectly legitimate questions I might have asked counsel if I were trying to probe the weaknesses in a position I was considering adopting. The Supreme Court could end up surprising us and at least enjoining this law to have it go through a more regular process of judicial review.
Back in the old days — the really old days — the task of designing materials was laborious. Investigators, over the course of 1,000-plus years, tried to make gold by combining things like lead, mercury, and sulfur, mixed in what they hoped would be just the right proportions. Even famous scientists like Tycho Brahe, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton tried their hands at the fruitless endeavor we call alchemy.
Materials science has, of course, come a long way. For the past 150 years, researchers have had the benefit of the periodic table of elements to draw upon, which tells them that different elements have different properties, and one can’t magically transform into another. Moreover, in the past decade or so, machine learning tools have considerably boosted our capacity to determine the structure and physical properties of various molecules and substances. New research by a group led by Ju Li — the Tokyo Electric Power Company Professor of Nuclear Engineering at MIT and professor of materials science and engineering — offers the promise of a major leap in capabilities that can facilitate materials design. The results of their investigation are reported in a December 2024 issue of Nature Computational Science.
At present, most of the machine-learning models that are used to characterize molecular systems are based on density functional theory (DFT), which offers a quantum mechanical approach to determining the total energy of a molecule or crystal by looking at the electron density distribution — which is, basically, the average number of electrons located in a unit volume around each given point in space near the molecule. (Walter Kohn, who co-invented this theory 60 years ago, received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for it in 1998.) While the method has been very successful, it has some drawbacks, according to Li: “First, the accuracy is not uniformly great. And, second, it only tells you one thing: the lowest total energy of the molecular system.”
“Couples therapy” to the rescue
His team is now relying on a different computational chemistry technique, also derived from quantum mechanics, known as coupled-cluster theory, or CCSD(T). “This is the gold standard of quantum chemistry,” Li comments. The results of CCSD(T) calculations are much more accurate than what you get from DFT calculations, and they can be as trustworthy as those currently obtainable from experiments. The problem is that carrying out these calculations on a computer is very slow, he says, “and the scaling is bad: If you double the number of electrons in the system, the computations become 100 times more expensive.” For that reason, CCSD(T) calculations have normally been limited to molecules with a small number of atoms — on the order of about 10. Anything much beyond that would simply take too long.
That’s where machine learning comes in. CCSD(T) calculations are first performed on conventional computers, and the results are then used to train a neural network with a novel architecture specially devised by Li and his colleagues. After training, the neural network can perform these same calculations much faster by taking advantage of approximation techniques. What’s more, their neural network model can extract much more information about a molecule than just its energy. “In previous work, people have used multiple different models to assess different properties,” says Hao Tang, an MIT PhD student in materials science and engineering. “Here we use just one model to evaluate all of these properties, which is why we call it a ‘multi-task’ approach.”
The “Multi-task Electronic Hamiltonian network,” or MEHnet, sheds light on a number of electronic properties, such as the dipole and quadrupole moments, electronic polarizability, and the optical excitation gap — the amount of energy needed to take an electron from the ground state to the lowest excited state. “The excitation gap affects the optical properties of materials,” Tang explains, “because it determines the frequency of light that can be absorbed by a molecule.” Another advantage of their CCSD-trained model is that it can reveal properties of not only ground states, but also excited states. The model can also predict the infrared absorption spectrum of a molecule related to its vibrational properties, where the vibrations of atoms within a molecule are coupled to each other, leading to various collective behaviors.
The strength of their approach owes a lot to the network architecture. Drawing on the work of MIT Assistant Professor Tess Smidt, the team is utilizing a so-called E(3)-equivariant graph neural network, says Tang, “in which the nodes represent atoms and the edges that connect the nodes represent the bonds between atoms. We also use customized algorithms that incorporate physics principles — related to how people calculate molecular properties in quantum mechanics — directly into our model.”
Testing, 1, 2 3
When tested on its analysis of known hydrocarbon molecules, the model of Li et al. outperformed DFT counterparts and closely matched experimental results taken from the published literature.
Qiang Zhu — a materials discovery specialist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (who was not part of this study) — is impressed by what’s been accomplished so far. “Their method enables effective training with a small dataset, while achieving superior accuracy and computational efficiency compared to existing models,” he says. “This is exciting work that illustrates the powerful synergy between computational chemistry and deep learning, offering fresh ideas for developing more accurate and scalable electronic structure methods.”
The MIT-based group applied their model first to small, nonmetallic elements — hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine, from which organic compounds can be made — and has since moved on to examining heavier elements: silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, and even platinum. After being trained on small molecules, the model can be generalized to bigger and bigger molecules. “Previously, most calculations were limited to analyzing hundreds of atoms with DFT and just tens of atoms with CCSD(T) calculations,” Li says. “Now we’re talking about handling thousands of atoms and, eventually, perhaps tens of thousands.”
For now, the researchers are still evaluating known molecules, but the model can be used to characterize molecules that haven’t been seen before, as well as to predict the properties of hypothetical materials that consist of different kinds of molecules. “The idea is to use our theoretical tools to pick out promising candidates, which satisfy a particular set of criteria, before suggesting them to an experimentalist to check out,” Tang says.
It’s all about the apps
Looking ahead, Zhu is optimistic about the possible applications. “This approach holds the potential for high-throughput molecular screening,” he says. “That’s a task where achieving chemical accuracy can be essential for identifying novel molecules and materials with desirable properties.”
Once they demonstrate the ability to analyze large molecules with perhaps tens of thousands of atoms, Li says, “we should be able to invent new polymers or materials” that might be used in drug design or in semiconductor devices. The examination of heavier transition metal elements could lead to the advent of new materials for batteries — presently an area of acute need.
The future, as Li sees it, is wide open. “It’s no longer about just one area,” he says. “Our ambition, ultimately, is to cover the whole periodic table with CCSD(T)-level accuracy, but at lower computational cost than DFT. This should enable us to solve a wide range of problems in chemistry, biology, and materials science. It’s hard to know, at present, just how wide that range might be.”
This work was supported by the Honda Research Institute. Hao Tang acknowledges support from the Mathworks Engineering Fellowship. The calculations in this work were performed, in part, on the Matlantis high-speed universal atomistic simulator, the Texas Advanced Computing Center, the MIT SuperCloud, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing.
A multi-task machine learning approach was developed to predict the electronic properties of molecules, as demonstrated in the computational workflow illustrated here.
Back in the old days — the really old days — the task of designing materials was laborious. Investigators, over the course of 1,000-plus years, tried to make gold by combining things like lead, mercury, and sulfur, mixed in what they hoped would be just the right proportions. Even famous scientists like Tycho Brahe, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton tried their hands at the fruitless endeavor we call alchemy.
Materials science has, of course, come a long way. For the past 150 years, researchers have had the benefit of the periodic table of elements to draw upon, which tells them that different elements have different properties, and one can’t magically transform into another. Moreover, in the past decade or so, machine learning tools have considerably boosted our capacity to determine the structure and physical properties of various molecules and substances. New research by a group led by Ju Li — the Tokyo Electric Power Company Professor of Nuclear Engineering at MIT and professor of materials science and engineering — offers the promise of a major leap in capabilities that can facilitate materials design. The results of their investigation are reported in a December 2024 issue of Nature Computational Science.
At present, most of the machine-learning models that are used to characterize molecular systems are based on density functional theory (DFT), which offers a quantum mechanical approach to determining the total energy of a molecule or crystal by looking at the electron density distribution — which is, basically, the average number of electrons located in a unit volume around each given point in space near the molecule. (Walter Kohn, who co-invented this theory 60 years ago, received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for it in 1998.) While the method has been very successful, it has some drawbacks, according to Li: “First, the accuracy is not uniformly great. And, second, it only tells you one thing: the lowest total energy of the molecular system.”
“Couples therapy” to the rescue
His team is now relying on a different computational chemistry technique, also derived from quantum mechanics, known as coupled-cluster theory, or CCSD(T). “This is the gold standard of quantum chemistry,” Li comments. The results of CCSD(T) calculations are much more accurate than what you get from DFT calculations, and they can be as trustworthy as those currently obtainable from experiments. The problem is that carrying out these calculations on a computer is very slow, he says, “and the scaling is bad: If you double the number of electrons in the system, the computations become 100 times more expensive.” For that reason, CCSD(T) calculations have normally been limited to molecules with a small number of atoms — on the order of about 10. Anything much beyond that would simply take too long.
That’s where machine learning comes in. CCSD(T) calculations are first performed on conventional computers, and the results are then used to train a neural network with a novel architecture specially devised by Li and his colleagues. After training, the neural network can perform these same calculations much faster by taking advantage of approximation techniques. What’s more, their neural network model can extract much more information about a molecule than just its energy. “In previous work, people have used multiple different models to assess different properties,” says Hao Tang, an MIT PhD student in materials science and engineering. “Here we use just one model to evaluate all of these properties, which is why we call it a ‘multi-task’ approach.”
The “Multi-task Electronic Hamiltonian network,” or MEHnet, sheds light on a number of electronic properties, such as the dipole and quadrupole moments, electronic polarizability, and the optical excitation gap — the amount of energy needed to take an electron from the ground state to the lowest excited state. “The excitation gap affects the optical properties of materials,” Tang explains, “because it determines the frequency of light that can be absorbed by a molecule.” Another advantage of their CCSD-trained model is that it can reveal properties of not only ground states, but also excited states. The model can also predict the infrared absorption spectrum of a molecule related to its vibrational properties, where the vibrations of atoms within a molecule are coupled to each other, leading to various collective behaviors.
The strength of their approach owes a lot to the network architecture. Drawing on the work of MIT Assistant Professor Tess Smidt, the team is utilizing a so-called E(3)-equivariant graph neural network, says Tang, “in which the nodes represent atoms and the edges that connect the nodes represent the bonds between atoms. We also use customized algorithms that incorporate physics principles — related to how people calculate molecular properties in quantum mechanics — directly into our model.”
Testing, 1, 2 3
When tested on its analysis of known hydrocarbon molecules, the model of Li et al. outperformed DFT counterparts and closely matched experimental results taken from the published literature.
Qiang Zhu — a materials discovery specialist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (who was not part of this study) — is impressed by what’s been accomplished so far. “Their method enables effective training with a small dataset, while achieving superior accuracy and computational efficiency compared to existing models,” he says. “This is exciting work that illustrates the powerful synergy between computational chemistry and deep learning, offering fresh ideas for developing more accurate and scalable electronic structure methods.”
The MIT-based group applied their model first to small, nonmetallic elements — hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine, from which organic compounds can be made — and has since moved on to examining heavier elements: silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, and even platinum. After being trained on small molecules, the model can be generalized to bigger and bigger molecules. “Previously, most calculations were limited to analyzing hundreds of atoms with DFT and just tens of atoms with CCSD(T) calculations,” Li says. “Now we’re talking about handling thousands of atoms and, eventually, perhaps tens of thousands.”
For now, the researchers are still evaluating known molecules, but the model can be used to characterize molecules that haven’t been seen before, as well as to predict the properties of hypothetical materials that consist of different kinds of molecules. “The idea is to use our theoretical tools to pick out promising candidates, which satisfy a particular set of criteria, before suggesting them to an experimentalist to check out,” Tang says.
It’s all about the apps
Looking ahead, Zhu is optimistic about the possible applications. “This approach holds the potential for high-throughput molecular screening,” he says. “That’s a task where achieving chemical accuracy can be essential for identifying novel molecules and materials with desirable properties.”
Once they demonstrate the ability to analyze large molecules with perhaps tens of thousands of atoms, Li says, “we should be able to invent new polymers or materials” that might be used in drug design or in semiconductor devices. The examination of heavier transition metal elements could lead to the advent of new materials for batteries — presently an area of acute need.
The future, as Li sees it, is wide open. “It’s no longer about just one area,” he says. “Our ambition, ultimately, is to cover the whole periodic table with CCSD(T)-level accuracy, but at lower computational cost than DFT. This should enable us to solve a wide range of problems in chemistry, biology, and materials science. It’s hard to know, at present, just how wide that range might be.”
This work was supported by the Honda Research Institute. Hao Tang acknowledges support from the Mathworks Engineering Fellowship. The calculations in this work were performed, in part, on the Matlantis high-speed universal atomistic simulator, the Texas Advanced Computing Center, the MIT SuperCloud, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing.
A multi-task machine learning approach was developed to predict the electronic properties of molecules, as demonstrated in the computational workflow illustrated here.
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the oldest theatrical organization in the U.S., annually presents the Man and Woman of the Year Awards to performers who have made lasting and impressive contributions to the world of entertainment. The Man of the Year award was established in 1967, with past recipients including Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Reynolds, and last year’s recipient Barry Keoghan, the 57th Man of the Year.
The Man of the Year festivities will take place on Jan. 31, when The Hasty Pudding Theatricals hosts a celebratory roast for Hamm at 6 p.m. and presents him with his Pudding Pot at Farkas Hall, the Pudding’s historic home in the heart of Harvard Square since 1888. A press conference will follow the roast at 6:20 p.m. Afterward, Hamm will attend a preview of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 176th production “101 Damnations.”
“Let’s hope our roast doesn’t give him any heart palpitations — he’s had enough drama with that,” said Producer Willow Woodward. “But with his work ethic, we’re confident he’ll take on our stage with as much grit as Texas oil fields. He’s the perfect man to strike gold and earn his Pudding Pot this January.”
“We are beyond excited to honor Jon Hamm as our 2025 Man of the Year,” said President Cathy Stanton. “Of course, to claim his Pudding Pot, he’ll have to prove he’s the real Jon Hamm — we’ve seen how good he is at keeping an identity under wraps!”
Hamm’s nuanced portrayal of the high-powered advertising executive Don Draper on AMC’s award-winning drama series “Mad Men” firmly established him as one of Hollywood’s most talented and versatile actors. He earned numerous accolades for his performance, including an Emmy Award in 2015 for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, Golden Globe Awards in 2016, Television Critics Association Awards in 2011 and 2015, a Critic’s Choice Television Award in 2011, as well as multiple Screen Actors Guild nominations.
Currently, Hamm can be seen in the Paramount drama series “Landman.” Hamm appears opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Demi Moore in the modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of West Texas oil rigs. The series broke records when it debuted as the most-watched original show in Paramount+ history during its first four weeks.
Next, Hamm will star in the upcoming Apple TV+ series, “Your Friends and Neighbors.” The series will premiere on Apple TV+ in April. Additionally, Hamm will lead the live-action television series adaptation of the psychological thriller podcast “American Hostage,” in which he also starred. Hamm will reprise his role from the audio series that tells the true story of a radio reporter who is thrust into a life-or-death situation when a hostage taker demands to be interviewed on his show. Hamm starred in the fifth season of FX’s critically acclaimed anthology series “Fargo,” which premiered in November 2023. Hamm received an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his outstanding performance as the villainous Sheriff Roy Tillman and the show received a 2024 Critic’s Choice Award nomination in the category of Best Limited Series. Hamm could also be seen in season three of Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show,” where he received an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Hamm received his bachelor of arts in English at the University of Missouri-Columbia and currently resides in Los Angeles.
When sound waves reach the inner ear, neurons there pick up the vibrations and alert the brain. Encoded in their signals is a wealth of information that enables us to follow conversations, recognize familiar voices, appreciate music, and quickly locate a ringing phone or crying baby.
Neurons send signals by emitting spikes — brief changes in voltage that propagate along nerve fibers, also known as action potentials. Remarkably, auditory neurons can fire hundreds of spikes per second, and time their spikes with exquisite precision to match the oscillations of incoming sound waves.
With powerful new models of human hearing, scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research have determined that this precise timing is vital for some of the most important ways we make sense of auditory information, including recognizing voices and localizing sounds.
The open-access findings, reported Dec. 4 in the journal Nature Communications, show how machine learning can help neuroscientists understand how the brain uses auditory information in the real world. MIT professor and McGovern investigator Josh McDermott, who led the research, explains that his team’s models better-equip researchers to study the consequences of different types of hearing impairment and devise more effective interventions.
Science of sound
The nervous system’s auditory signals are timed so precisely, researchers have long suspected that timing is important to our perception of sound. Sound waves oscillate at rates that determine their pitch: Low-pitched sounds travel in slow waves, whereas high-pitched sound waves oscillate more frequently. The auditory nerve that relays information from sound-detecting hair cells in the ear to the brain generates electrical spikes that correspond to the frequency of these oscillations. “The action potentials in an auditory nerve get fired at very particular points in time relative to the peaks in the stimulus waveform,” explains McDermott, who is also associate head of the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
This relationship, known as phase-locking, requires neurons to time their spikes with sub-millisecond precision. But scientists haven’t really known how informative these temporal patterns are to the brain. Beyond being scientifically intriguing, McDermott says, the question has important clinical implications: “If you want to design a prosthesis that provides electrical signals to the brain to reproduce the function of the ear, it’s arguably pretty important to know what kinds of information in the normal ear actually matter,” he says.
This has been difficult to study experimentally; animal models can’t offer much insight into how the human brain extracts structure in language or music, and the auditory nerve is inaccessible for study in humans. So McDermott and graduate student Mark Saddler PhD ’24 turned to artificial neural networks.
Artificial hearing
Neuroscientists have long used computational models to explore how sensory information might be decoded by the brain, but until recent advances in computing power and machine learning methods, these models were limited to simulating simple tasks. “One of the problems with these prior models is that they’re often way too good,” says Saddler, who is now at the Technical University of Denmark. For example, a computational model tasked with identifying the higher pitch in a pair of simple tones is likely to perform better than people who are asked to do the same thing. “This is not the kind of task that we do every day in hearing,” Saddler points out. “The brain is not optimized to solve this very artificial task.” This mismatch limited the insights that could be drawn from this prior generation of models.
To better understand the brain, Saddler and McDermott wanted to challenge a hearing model to do things that people use their hearing for in the real world, like recognizing words and voices. That meant developing an artificial neural network to simulate the parts of the brain that receive input from the ear. The network was given input from some 32,000 simulated sound-detecting sensory neurons and then optimized for various real-world tasks.
The researchers showed that their model replicated human hearing well — better than any previous model of auditory behavior, McDermott says. In one test, the artificial neural network was asked to recognize words and voices within dozens of types of background noise, from the hum of an airplane cabin to enthusiastic applause. Under every condition, the model performed very similarly to humans.
When the team degraded the timing of the spikes in the simulated ear, however, their model could no longer match humans’ ability to recognize voices or identify the locations of sounds. For example, while McDermott’s team had previously shown that people use pitch to help them identify people’s voices, the model revealed that that this ability is lost without precisely timed signals. “You need quite precise spike timing in order to both account for human behavior and to perform well on the task,” Saddler says. That suggests that the brain uses precisely timed auditory signals because they aid these practical aspects of hearing.
The team’s findings demonstrate how artificial neural networks can help neuroscientists understand how the information extracted by the ear influences our perception of the world, both when hearing is intact and when it is impaired. “The ability to link patterns of firing in the auditory nerve with behavior opens a lot of doors,” McDermott says.
“Now that we have these models that link neural responses in the ear to auditory behavior, we can ask, ‘If we simulate different types of hearing loss, what effect is that going to have on our auditory abilities?’” McDermott says. “That will help us better diagnose hearing loss, and we think there are also extensions of that to help us design better hearing aids or cochlear implants.” For example, he says, “The cochlear implant is limited in various ways — it can do some things and not others. What’s the best way to set up that cochlear implant to enable you to mediate behaviors? You can, in principle, use the models to tell you that.”
When sound waves reach the inner ear, neurons there pick up the vibrations and alert the brain. Encoded in their signals is a wealth of information that enables us to follow conversations, recognize familiar voices, appreciate music, and quickly locate a ringing phone or crying baby.
Neurons send signals by emitting spikes — brief changes in voltage that propagate along nerve fibers, also known as action potentials. Remarkably, auditory neurons can fire hundreds of spikes per second, and time their spikes with exquisite precision to match the oscillations of incoming sound waves.
With powerful new models of human hearing, scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research have determined that this precise timing is vital for some of the most important ways we make sense of auditory information, including recognizing voices and localizing sounds.
The open-access findings, reported Dec. 4 in the journal Nature Communications, show how machine learning can help neuroscientists understand how the brain uses auditory information in the real world. MIT professor and McGovern investigator Josh McDermott, who led the research, explains that his team’s models better-equip researchers to study the consequences of different types of hearing impairment and devise more effective interventions.
Science of sound
The nervous system’s auditory signals are timed so precisely, researchers have long suspected that timing is important to our perception of sound. Sound waves oscillate at rates that determine their pitch: Low-pitched sounds travel in slow waves, whereas high-pitched sound waves oscillate more frequently. The auditory nerve that relays information from sound-detecting hair cells in the ear to the brain generates electrical spikes that correspond to the frequency of these oscillations. “The action potentials in an auditory nerve get fired at very particular points in time relative to the peaks in the stimulus waveform,” explains McDermott, who is also associate head of the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
This relationship, known as phase-locking, requires neurons to time their spikes with sub-millisecond precision. But scientists haven’t really known how informative these temporal patterns are to the brain. Beyond being scientifically intriguing, McDermott says, the question has important clinical implications: “If you want to design a prosthesis that provides electrical signals to the brain to reproduce the function of the ear, it’s arguably pretty important to know what kinds of information in the normal ear actually matter,” he says.
This has been difficult to study experimentally; animal models can’t offer much insight into how the human brain extracts structure in language or music, and the auditory nerve is inaccessible for study in humans. So McDermott and graduate student Mark Saddler PhD ’24 turned to artificial neural networks.
Artificial hearing
Neuroscientists have long used computational models to explore how sensory information might be decoded by the brain, but until recent advances in computing power and machine learning methods, these models were limited to simulating simple tasks. “One of the problems with these prior models is that they’re often way too good,” says Saddler, who is now at the Technical University of Denmark. For example, a computational model tasked with identifying the higher pitch in a pair of simple tones is likely to perform better than people who are asked to do the same thing. “This is not the kind of task that we do every day in hearing,” Saddler points out. “The brain is not optimized to solve this very artificial task.” This mismatch limited the insights that could be drawn from this prior generation of models.
To better understand the brain, Saddler and McDermott wanted to challenge a hearing model to do things that people use their hearing for in the real world, like recognizing words and voices. That meant developing an artificial neural network to simulate the parts of the brain that receive input from the ear. The network was given input from some 32,000 simulated sound-detecting sensory neurons and then optimized for various real-world tasks.
The researchers showed that their model replicated human hearing well — better than any previous model of auditory behavior, McDermott says. In one test, the artificial neural network was asked to recognize words and voices within dozens of types of background noise, from the hum of an airplane cabin to enthusiastic applause. Under every condition, the model performed very similarly to humans.
When the team degraded the timing of the spikes in the simulated ear, however, their model could no longer match humans’ ability to recognize voices or identify the locations of sounds. For example, while McDermott’s team had previously shown that people use pitch to help them identify people’s voices, the model revealed that that this ability is lost without precisely timed signals. “You need quite precise spike timing in order to both account for human behavior and to perform well on the task,” Saddler says. That suggests that the brain uses precisely timed auditory signals because they aid these practical aspects of hearing.
The team’s findings demonstrate how artificial neural networks can help neuroscientists understand how the information extracted by the ear influences our perception of the world, both when hearing is intact and when it is impaired. “The ability to link patterns of firing in the auditory nerve with behavior opens a lot of doors,” McDermott says.
“Now that we have these models that link neural responses in the ear to auditory behavior, we can ask, ‘If we simulate different types of hearing loss, what effect is that going to have on our auditory abilities?’” McDermott says. “That will help us better diagnose hearing loss, and we think there are also extensions of that to help us design better hearing aids or cochlear implants.” For example, he says, “The cochlear implant is limited in various ways — it can do some things and not others. What’s the best way to set up that cochlear implant to enable you to mediate behaviors? You can, in principle, use the models to tell you that.”
Should we be panicked about bird flu? William Hanage says not yet.
But he warns that there is real cause for concern, CDC should take much closer look
Alvin Powell
Harvard Staff Writer
8 min read
The nation’s first human death due to the bird flu occurred this month, the latest development in a global outbreak that, while mostly limited to birds and mammals such as minks, polar bears, cows, and domestic cats — has also sickened 67 Americans and has public health officials watching closely for signs that a human pandemic is in the offing.
There’s been more news of bird flu lately, including mounting poultry outbreaks and the first report of the death of a person in the U.S. The CDC’s assessment is that risk remains low. What’s your take? Is it time for the public to sit up and take notice?
I think it’s past time, but the recent death in Louisiana is not, in and of itself, reason to be more concerned. Bird flu deaths are rare events, but sooner or later we would expect one to occur.
It happened to a person who was relatively elderly and is reported to have had other underlying conditions, which is not to dismiss it in any way. They contracted it from birds in their backyard — I believe they kept chickens who likely were infected by wild birds.
Although this shows that we should be concerned about bird flu, it does not mean that there is necessarily a greater risk of it starting to transmit among humans, which would be really worrying.
“We will certainly see another flu pandemic. That’s not an ‘if’; it’s a ‘when.’”
One common characteristic in the outbreak in California dairy workers and the death in Louisiana seems to be “close contact.” Why is that important?
These viruses are not particularly good at infecting humans. It’s thought that’s because they don’t stick to the receptors in the upper part of the respiratory tract. Instead, they stick to receptors buried in the lower lung or in other tissues, like the conjunctiva in the eye.
That is one of the reasons we think we have been seeing conjunctivitis as a feature of infections in dairy workers. It’s easy to see how somebody exposed to infected milk — there’s a huge amount of virus in that milk — could splash a droplet into their eye or inadvertently touch their face, and the virus could gain access to them that way.
But for enough virus to get into the lower lung where these receptors are takes quite a lot of close contact.
California has recalled some raw milk products in which the virus has been detected. Does the pasteurization process kill the virus?
The pasteurization process renders the virus unviable. It can be detected in rare cases with very sensitive methods. But there’s a big difference between that and it being able to infect someone.
How concerning are reports that there may be many asymptomatic or mild cases among humans?
Mild cases, if they lead to transmission, are really important. Even if severe outcomes are rare, if a lot of people get infected then the severe cases will pile up.
The big question is whether infected farmworkers have transmitted to other people. If so, it hasn’t happened a lot because we would have detected more symptomatic cases. But blood tests could show if contacts of known cases show signs of having been exposed to the virus.
Hasn’t the CDC looked at that?
The CDC has done studies of farmworkers for evidence of having been exposed, but not of their contacts. That’s crucial.
“A key thing that we’ve not seen in the case of H5N1 and cattle are superspreading events.”
What worries you most?
We will certainly see another flu pandemic. That’s not an “if”; it’s a “when.” We cannot say how severe it will be, but we can say that it has the potential to be bad. We don’t talk enough about how we would detect it early and what we would do when it happens.
It won’t necessarily come from H5N1 in cattle. Most people I know think that probability is pretty low. But they also think that the probability is increased with more exposures among humans and opportunities for the virus to adapt to mammalian cells.
One serious potential concern is H5N1 outbreaks in swine, because if a pig gets infected with two different flu viruses, what comes out can be a mixture of the two, capable of transmitting among humans.
Are we doing enough with bird flu right now?
No. I would like to see more thorough investigation of the potential for transmission. I would like to see more careful surveillance of the adapting virus. I would like to understand more about the nature of the infections in the people we’ve identified them in.
The infection of the person who passed in Louisiana was reported to have mutations that indicated it was adapting to humans. Those mutations were not present in the birds from which the infection was obtained, suggesting the virus adapted in that person.
If the infection was relatively long-term, it recalls variants of COVID that almost certainly result from long-term infections in cases among people with difficulty mounting an effective immune response. Long-term infections with bird flu might be capable of doing something similar.
When they say, as in the Louisiana case, that there are “concerning” variations better adapted to infect humans, are they talking about respiratory spread?
They’re not talking about transmission. They’re talking about an adaptation to replicate effectively in human cells once the infection has started.
One of the tensions in the evolution of infectious diseases is that adapting to survive well inside you is not the same as adapting well to transmit to another person. Often there’s a tradeoff.
If you have enough cases, though, the chances of a mutation that eases transmission don’t need to be very high for the virus to spread. The difference between H5N1 and COVID is that there were literally millions of infections in COVID, while there have been very few human infections with H5N1.
That’s an important point. It takes a lot of tries for a mutation to hit on something that makes it dangerous, from a pandemic standpoint, but that’s not what we’re seeing.
Agreed. But what we are seeing is a generalist virus, and that’s a concern. Generalists that are capable of causing short transmission chains in a new species — like cattle or humans — have the opportunity to adapt to infect that species more effectively. That’s what we think happened at the very early stage of COVID. It probably caused a number of short transmission chains — superspreading events — and gained the ability to transmit effectively.
A key thing that we’ve not seen in the case of H5N1 and cattle are superspreading events. The transmission events to humans have been rare and required close contact. A superspreading event can, even if rare, lead to a lot of descending transmission chains, which take a while to burn out and provide opportunities for adaptation. Most introductions go extinct. But the ones that don’t eventually make up for it.
You mentioned there will be another flu pandemic. Have any of the previous pandemics been H5N1?
None, but what is concerning is that when virologists look at H5N1 and at the disease it causes in people unlucky enough to get sick, it awakens unpleasant thoughts of H1N1 in 1918-1919.
You said the public should sit up and take notice of bird flu. What does that mean?
If you come across a dead bird or if you keep chickens and they die, don’t touch them. And if you consume raw milk, be conscious that there is a risk in doing so.
Early on in COVID, I said, “Don’t panic; do prepare.” There is no reason at present to panic about H5N1. But there is reason to be aware of the outbreak.
What would ring my alarm bells would be any evidence of transmission among humans of the cattle adapted strain, or indeed of any flu virus to which there is not a large amount of immunity in the population.
We have vaccines, and I think it’s a good idea to vaccinate farmworkers and others who might be exposed. That would mean fewer infections that will be more likely to clear quickly and provide fewer opportunities for the virus to get a toehold in humans.
Feryal Clark MP was welcomed to the University’s DAWN supercomputer facility, located on the University’s West Cambridge Innovation District, by Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor John Aston, and Dr Paul Calleja, Director of Research Computing Services at the University.
Together they toured the DAWN supercomputer and met with representatives from academia and industry partners who have ambitious plans for AI and supercomputing in Cambridge. The visit comes as the Government opens a UK-wide call for early access to the new AI Research Resource service, of which DAWN is part of.
Now up and running in its state-of-the-art Data Centre in Cambridge, DAWN is currently the most powerful AI supercomputer in the UK, with more than a thousand top-end Intel graphics processing units (GPUs) operating inside its server stacks. The supercomputer’s bespoke innovations in hardware and software result from a long-term co-design partnership between the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab, directed by Dr Paul Calleja, and global tech leaders Intel and Dell Technologies, with support from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), StackHPC and UK Research & Innovation.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, also welcomed the Minister to the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, where they were able to learn about the impact of DAWN and AI on patients, with a demonstration of the advances in healthcare.
Feryal Clark MP later toured the University’s latest brain imaging scanner and heard from leading University researchers who are utilising DAWN supercomputing capabilities and AI to improve patient outcomes, and develop new and innovative treatments.
The Minister moved on to meet with Professor Zoe Kourtzi, whose team are working on improving the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, for which AI can help develop tools by combining diverse data sources that provider a richer picture of a patient’s brain health. Professor James Brenton also presented on his work developing a comprehensive clinical decision-making support platform that integrates and refines cancer patient data from multiple sources into a single, much more manageable tool. Feryal Clark MP further heard from researcher Bill McGough, who is working on a project to develop an AI tool to detect renal cancers in non-contrast and low-dose CT, to enable kidney screening in the UK.
The University of Cambridge is home to world-leading researchers in AI, to students enthusiastic about the potential of AI, and to an innovation ecosystem that is successfully translating this research into innovative new start-ups and creating jobs. The University’s flagship AI@Cam is harnessing the University's interdisciplinary research to drive a new wave of AI innovation that delivers public value.
The Minister for AI and Digital Government, Feryal Clark MP, visited the University of Cambridge on the day the Government announced their new AI Action Plan.
Left to right: Nicola Ayton, Deputy Chief Executive of Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH), Feryal Clark MP, Minister for AI and Digital Government, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Professor Deborah Prentice
Researchers from ETH Zurich and ZHAW Winterthur are simulating in a new study how the future Swiss power system could be structured to withstand a drastic fall in gas and electricity imports. By doing so, they aim to contribute to the discussion surrounding Switzerland’s supply security.
Braving the persistent rain and cool weather brought on by the weekend’s monsoon surge, participants of the NUS Business School’s Bizad Charity Run pounded the pavement around the NUS Kent Ridge campus on 11 Jan 2025 to raise close to S$300,000 for financially disadvantaged business students and beneficiaries beyond the NUS community.
The 15th edition of the annual flagship event attracted sign-ups from more than 800 NUS students, faculty, and alumni to run a 5km fun run route or a 10km competitive course that took them deeper into the campus. The race was flagged off by Mr Eric Chua, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Ministry of Social and Family Development.
Jointly organised by the NUS Business School Alumni Association and NUS Bizad Club, the run has raised more than S$3 million over the years to support more than 600 students through the Bursary and numerous other beneficiaries through partnerships with local charities. Proceeds from this year’s run will go towards the NUS Business School Alumni (NUSBSA) Bursary, Student Experience Fund, and Youth Guidance Outreach Services (YGOS) beneficiaries.
Among the participants this year was a regular with close ties to the cause. Mr Yeo Keng Joon (MBA 1985) planted the seed for the NUSBSA Bursary with an initial donation of S$25,000 to commemorate his son’s wedding in 2006 and has participated in every edition of the Bizad Charity Run since it began in 2010.
He rallied his friends to join the cause, starting a movement among the Business School’s alumni to give back to their alma mater. Today, the NUSBSA Bursary receives enough funding to support 53 students annually.
Recalling his own humble beginnings was what motivated him to help the next generation of needy students, Mr Yeo said.
"Every year, we conduct interviews and inevitably, a few students will break down spontaneously when we ask them, what makes you apply for this bursary?” he shared. “A few of them, when they share their family background, it’s very emotional for them.”
Beneficiaries of the NUSBSA Bursary include Mr Andrew Lee, an alumnus from the Class of 2021, who was able to participate in a student exchange programme in the US with the financial support.
The experience was enriching as it allowed him to interact with students from other countries, broadening his perspective and understanding of global affairs. “The help I received has reminded me that no contribution is too small, and I hope to give it forward to the next generation,” said Mr Lee.
Being able to support students and the community in such a direct and tangible way makes the Bizad Charity Run an especially fulfilling project to work on, said members of the organising committee.
When Nakanishi Shoi, a second-year Business Administration (BBA) student, had the opportunity to meet the chairman of YGOS, which was eventually selected as this year’s partner charity, he was moved by their mission of supporting youth at risk by befriending them and providing mentorship and guidance to help them stay on the right track.
“I felt that (their work) is really complementary to ours – supporting university students and these younger teens with more outlets for growth outside of school,” said Shoi, who led the event’s sponsorships and marketing and communications teams as the vice project director for external partners.
Sponsorships and fundraising director Esha Kejriwal, a Year 2 BBA student, agreed: “Working with YGOS means BCR’s impact extends beyond just giving bursaries to NUS students; it helps those who may not have the same opportunities, so they can still shine regardless.”
“Recognising the privilege that I have – not just as an NUS student but as someone with the opportunity to pursue an education – and knowing that those that I’m trying to make an impact for would cherish such opportunities inspires me to press on,” Esha added.
The 2025 Bizad Charity Run is the first event in a year-long series of celebrations to commemorate the NUS Business School’s 60th anniversary. From its humble beginnings as the Department of Business Administration with four staff and 24 students, the School has grown into Asia’s leading business school with more than 280 faculty members, over 3,000 students, and a global alumni family of more than 47,000.
“NUS Business School has created a legacy that spans six decades of nurturing business leaders and contributing to Singapore’s development,” said Distinguished Professor Andrew Rose, Dean of NUS Business School. “Today, we remain committed to grow in step with the nation, providing excellent learning and growth opportunities, and shaping a sustainable future for everyone.”
Members of the public can visit this link to donate to the ongoing fundraising drive until 31 May 2025.
MIT physicists and colleagues have for the first time measured the geometry, or shape, of electrons in solids at the quantum level. Scientists have long known how to measure the energies and velocities of electrons in crystalline materials, but until now, those systems’ quantum geometry could only be inferred theoretically, or sometimes not at all.
The work, reported in the Nov. 25 issue of Nature Physics, “opens new avenues for understanding and manipulating the quantum properties of materials,” says Riccardo Comin, MIT’s Class of 1947 Career Development Associate Professor of Physics and leader of the work.
“We’ve essentially developed a blueprint for obtaining some completely new information that couldn’t be obtained before,” says Comin, who is also affiliated with MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory and the Research Laboratory of Electronics.
The work could be applied to “any kind of quantum material, not just the one we worked with,” says Mingu Kang PhD ’23, first author of the Nature Physics paper who conducted the work as an MIT graduate student and who is now a Kavli Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University’s Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics.
In the weird world of quantum physics, an electron can be described as both a point in space and a wave-like shape. At the heart of the current work is a fundamental object known as a wave function that describes the latter. “You can think of it like a surface in a three-dimensional space,” says Comin.
There are different types of wave functions, ranging from the simple to the complex. Think of a ball. That is analogous to a simple, or trivial, wave function. Now picture a Mobius strip, the kind of structure explored by M.C. Escher in his art. That’s analogous to a complex, or nontrivial, wave function. And the quantum world is filled with materials composed of the latter.
But until now, the quantum geometry of wave functions could only be inferred theoretically, or sometimes not at all. And the property is becoming more and more important as physicists find more and more quantum materials with potential applications in everything from quantum computers to advanced electronic and magnetic devices.
The MIT team solved the problem using a technique called angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, or ARPES. Comin, Kang, and some of the same colleagues had used the technique in other research. For example, in 2022 they reported discovering the “secret sauce” behind exotic properties of a new quantum material known as a kagome metal. That work, too, appeared in Nature Physics. In the current work, the team adapted ARPES to measure the quantum geometry of a kagome metal.
Close collaborations
Kang stresses that the new ability to measure the quantum geometry of materials “comes from the close cooperation between theorists and experimentalists.”
The Covid-19 pandemic, too, had an impact. Kang, who is from South Korea, was based in that country during the pandemic. “That facilitated a collaboration with theorists in South Korea,” says Kang, an experimentalist.
The pandemic also led to an unusual opportunity for Comin. He traveled to Italy to help run the ARPES experiments at the Italian Light Source Elettra, a national laboratory. The lab was closed during the pandemic, but was starting to reopen when Comin arrived. He found himself alone, however, when Kang tested positive for Covid and couldn’t join him. So he inadvertently ran the experiments himself with the support of local scientists. “As a professor, I lead projects, but students and postdocs actually carry out the work. So this is basically the last study where I actually contributed to the experiments themselves,” he says with a smile.
In addition to Kang and Comin, additional authors of the Nature Physics paper are Sunje Kim of Seoul National University (Kim is a co-first author with Kang); Paul M. Neves, a graduate student in the MIT Department of Physics; Linda Ye of Stanford University; Junseo Jung of Seoul National University; Denny Puntel of the University of Trieste; Federico Mazzola of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; Shiang Fang of Google DeepMind; Chris Jozwiak, Aaron Bostwick, and Eli Rotenberg of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Jun Fuji and Ivana Vobornik of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Jae-Hoon Park of Max Planck POSTECH/Korea Research Initiative and Pohang University of Science and Technology; Joseph G. Checkelsky, associate professor of physics at MIT; and Bohm-Jung Yang of Seoul National University, who co-led the research project with Comin.
This work was funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation, the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the Heising-Simons Physics Research Fellow Program, the Tsinghua Education Foundation, the NFFA-MUR Italy Progetti Internazionali facility, the Samsung Foundation of Culture, and the Kavli Institute at Cornell.
MIT physicists and colleagues have for the first time measured the geometry, or shape, of electrons in solids at the quantum level. Scientists have long known how to measure the energies and velocities of electrons in crystalline materials, but until now, those systems’ quantum geometry could only be inferred theoretically, or sometimes not at all.
The work, reported in the Nov. 25 issue of Nature Physics, “opens new avenues for understanding and manipulating the quantum properties of materials,” says Riccardo Comin, MIT’s Class of 1947 Career Development Associate Professor of Physics and leader of the work.
“We’ve essentially developed a blueprint for obtaining some completely new information that couldn’t be obtained before,” says Comin, who is also affiliated with MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory and the Research Laboratory of Electronics.
The work could be applied to “any kind of quantum material, not just the one we worked with,” says Mingu Kang PhD ’23, first author of the Nature Physics paper who conducted the work as an MIT graduate student and who is now a Kavli Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University’s Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics.
In the weird world of quantum physics, an electron can be described as both a point in space and a wave-like shape. At the heart of the current work is a fundamental object known as a wave function that describes the latter. “You can think of it like a surface in a three-dimensional space,” says Comin.
There are different types of wave functions, ranging from the simple to the complex. Think of a ball. That is analogous to a simple, or trivial, wave function. Now picture a Mobius strip, the kind of structure explored by M.C. Escher in his art. That’s analogous to a complex, or nontrivial, wave function. And the quantum world is filled with materials composed of the latter.
But until now, the quantum geometry of wave functions could only be inferred theoretically, or sometimes not at all. And the property is becoming more and more important as physicists find more and more quantum materials with potential applications in everything from quantum computers to advanced electronic and magnetic devices.
The MIT team solved the problem using a technique called angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, or ARPES. Comin, Kang, and some of the same colleagues had used the technique in other research. For example, in 2022 they reported discovering the “secret sauce” behind exotic properties of a new quantum material known as a kagome metal. That work, too, appeared in Nature Physics. In the current work, the team adapted ARPES to measure the quantum geometry of a kagome metal.
Close collaborations
Kang stresses that the new ability to measure the quantum geometry of materials “comes from the close cooperation between theorists and experimentalists.”
The Covid-19 pandemic, too, had an impact. Kang, who is from South Korea, was based in that country during the pandemic. “That facilitated a collaboration with theorists in South Korea,” says Kang, an experimentalist.
The pandemic also led to an unusual opportunity for Comin. He traveled to Italy to help run the ARPES experiments at the Italian Light Source Elettra, a national laboratory. The lab was closed during the pandemic, but was starting to reopen when Comin arrived. He found himself alone, however, when Kang tested positive for Covid and couldn’t join him. So he inadvertently ran the experiments himself with the support of local scientists. “As a professor, I lead projects, but students and postdocs actually carry out the work. So this is basically the last study where I actually contributed to the experiments themselves,” he says with a smile.
In addition to Kang and Comin, additional authors of the Nature Physics paper are Sunje Kim of Seoul National University (Kim is a co-first author with Kang); Paul M. Neves, a graduate student in the MIT Department of Physics; Linda Ye of Stanford University; Junseo Jung of Seoul National University; Denny Puntel of the University of Trieste; Federico Mazzola of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; Shiang Fang of Google DeepMind; Chris Jozwiak, Aaron Bostwick, and Eli Rotenberg of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Jun Fuji and Ivana Vobornik of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; Jae-Hoon Park of Max Planck POSTECH/Korea Research Initiative and Pohang University of Science and Technology; Joseph G. Checkelsky, associate professor of physics at MIT; and Bohm-Jung Yang of Seoul National University, who co-led the research project with Comin.
This work was funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation, the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the Heising-Simons Physics Research Fellow Program, the Tsinghua Education Foundation, the NFFA-MUR Italy Progetti Internazionali facility, the Samsung Foundation of Culture, and the Kavli Institute at Cornell.
Vijay Gadepally, a senior staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, leads a number of projects at the Lincoln Laboratory Supercomputing Center (LLSC) to make computing platforms, and the artificial intelligence systems that run on them, more efficient. Here, Gadepally discusses the increasing use of generative AI in everyday tools, its hidden environmental impact, and some of the ways that Lincoln Laboratory and the greater AI community can reduce emissions for a greener future.
Q: What trends are you seeing in terms of how generative AI is being used in computing?
A: Generative AI uses machine learning (ML) to create new content, like images and text, based on data that is inputted into the ML system. At the LLSC we design and build some of the largest academic computing platforms in the world, and over the past few years we've seen an explosion in the number of projects that need access to high-performance computing for generative AI. We're also seeing how generative AI is changing all sorts of fields and domains — for example, ChatGPT is already influencing the classroom and the workplace faster than regulations can seem to keep up.
We can imagine all sorts of uses for generative AI within the next decade or so, like powering highly capable virtual assistants, developing new drugs and materials, and even improving our understanding of basic science. We can't predict everything that generative AI will be used for, but I can certainly say that with more and more complex algorithms, their compute, energy, and climate impact will continue to grow very quickly.
Q: What strategies is the LLSC using to mitigate this climate impact?
A: We're always looking for ways to make computing more efficient, as doing so helps our data center make the most of its resources and allows our scientific colleagues to push their fields forward in as efficient a manner as possible.
As one example, we've been reducing the amount of power our hardware consumes by making simple changes, similar to dimming or turning off lights when you leave a room. In one experiment, we reduced the energy consumption of a group of graphics processing units by 20 percent to 30 percent, with minimal impact on their performance, by enforcing a power cap. This technique also lowered the hardware operating temperatures, making the GPUs easier to cool and longer lasting.
Another strategy is changing our behavior to be more climate-aware. At home, some of us might choose to use renewable energy sources or intelligent scheduling. We are using similar techniques at the LLSC — such as training AI models when temperatures are cooler, or when local grid energy demand is low.
We also realized that a lot of the energy spent on computing is often wasted, like how a water leak increases your bill but without any benefits to your home. We developed some new techniques that allow us to monitor computing workloads as they are running and then terminate those that are unlikely to yield good results. Surprisingly, in a number of cases we found that the majority of computations could be terminated early without compromising the end result.
Q: What's an example of a project you've done that reduces the energy output of a generative AI program?
A: We recently built a climate-aware computer vision tool. Computer vision is a domain that's focused on applying AI to images; so, differentiating between cats and dogs in an image, correctly labeling objects within an image, or looking for components of interest within an image.
In our tool, we included real-time carbon telemetry, which produces information about how much carbon is being emitted by our local grid as a model is running. Depending on this information, our system will automatically switch to a more energy-efficient version of the model, which typically has fewer parameters, in times of high carbon intensity, or a much higher-fidelity version of the model in times of low carbon intensity.
By doing this, we saw a nearly 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions over a one- to two-day period. We recently extended this idea to other generative AI tasks such as text summarization and found the same results. Interestingly, the performance sometimes improved after using our technique!
Q: What can we do as consumers of generative AI to help mitigate its climate impact?
A: As consumers, we can ask our AI providers to offer greater transparency. For example, on Google Flights, I can see a variety of options that indicate a specific flight's carbon footprint. We should be getting similar kinds of measurements from generative AI tools so that we can make a conscious decision on which product or platform to use based on our priorities.
We can also make an effort to be more educated on generative AI emissions in general. Many of us are familiar with vehicle emissions, and it can help to talk about generative AI emissions in comparative terms. People may be surprised to know, for example, that one image-generation task is roughly equivalent to driving four miles in a gas car, or that it takes the same amount of energy to charge an electric car as it does to generate about 1,500 text summarizations.
There are many cases where customers would be happy to make a trade-off if they knew the trade-off's impact.
Q: What do you see for the future?
A: Mitigating the climate impact of generative AI is one of those problems that people all over the world are working on, and with a similar goal. We're doing a lot of work here at Lincoln Laboratory, but its only scratching at the surface. In the long term, data centers, AI developers, and energy grids will need to work together to provide "energy audits" to uncover other unique ways that we can improve computing efficiencies. We need more partnerships and more collaboration in order to forge ahead.
If you're interested in learning more, or collaborating with Lincoln Laboratory on these efforts, please contact Vijay Gadepally.
Vijay Gadepally, a senior staff member in the Lincoln Laboratory Supercomputing Center, discusses steps the research community can take to help mitigate the environmental impact of generative AI.
Sakib Jamal ‘19 was recently chosen for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, in part for his book, The Young VC's Handbook, a tactical guide for newcomers to venture capital.
Martin Karplus, pioneering figure in theoretical chemistry, dies at 94
Nobel Prize winner helped transform understanding of molecular systems
Yahya Chaudhry
Harvard Correspondent
5 min read
A giant in the field of theoretical chemistry, Martin Karplus was renowned for transforming our understanding of molecular systems, his groundbreaking work in computational modeling, and his contributions to molecular dynamics simulations. He will also be warmly remembered for his mentorship and his devotion to advancing theoretical chemistry research and education across the world.
“Karplus made theoretical chemistry a legitimate field of chemistry,” said Eugene Shakhnovich, a former postdoc in Karplus’ lab who is now the Roy G. Gordon Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. “His work showed that by doing computational work, without experiments, one can gain great insights and help experimentalists not only understand but also predict outcomes.”
Karplus, the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and a foreign member of the Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Royal Society of London. He received many honors and awards over his long career, including the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Karplus passed away Dec. 29 in Cambridge at the age of 94.
Interview with Nobel Prize winner Martin Karplus as part of the Experience series.
Born into a Jewish family on March 15, 1930, in Vienna, Karplus’ childhood was interrupted by the rise of the Nazi regime, which forced his family to flee following the Anschluss in 1938. Their refugee journey took them through Switzerland and France before they reached the U.S.
Settling in Greater Boston, Karplus pursued his undergraduate degree at Harvard, graduating in 1951. He earned his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology in 1953 under the supervision of Linus Pauling, one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology. Pauling, who received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1954, recognized Karplus’ talent and potential, describing him as “my most brilliant student.”
Upon earning his doctorate, Karplus completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Oxford before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where his research on molecular structure led to the formulation of the widely taught “Karplus equation,” a fundamental principle relating molecular structure to nuclear magnetic resonance data. He moved to Columbia University in 1960, working on chemical reaction dynamics with early digital computers to break new ground.
Karplus addresses the media after winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2013.
Harvard file photo
In 1966, Karplus returned to Harvard as a tenured professor, a position he held for more than five decades. Here, he applied the fundamental laws of physics and chemistry to proteins and macromolecules, envisioning methods to understand life processes.
“Martin was a great unifier of physics, chemistry, and biology, showcasing his broad impact across multiple scientific disciplines,” said James Anderson, Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and a longtime colleague. “History will clarify the fact that he was the backbone of quantum mechanics during its flowering years, from an analysis of the hydrogen atom all the way to the formation of molecules, molecular structures, and the way in which molecules change their structure during a chemical reaction.”
“Martin was a great unifier of physics, chemistry, and biology.”
James Anderson, Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry
Karplus made seminal contributions in the field of molecular dynamics, where he developed simulations that allowed researchers to visualize and predict the motion of molecules in complex systems. In 1983, Karplus and his co-authors developed the widely used software program Chemistry at HARvard Macromolecular Mechanics to simulate biological interactions across a wide range of scenarios. Karplus’ innovations transformed the study of chemical reactions and protein folding.
Having long dreamed of working in France, Karplus joined the faculty at the University in Strasbourg, splitting his time between there and Cambridge. In 2013, Karplus, alongside Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel, was awarded the Nobel Prize for “the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems.”
In addition to his vital research, Karplus was a dedicated educator who sought to teach chemistry to students at different levels across higher education. His textbook “Atoms and Molecules” has been a mainstay in undergraduate physical chemistry courses for years. He also fostered a robust and international network of scholars who studied in his lab, providing both professional and personal support. Shakhnovich, who was born and trained in the Soviet Union, recalled Karplus’ warm reception when he came to the U.S. in 1990.
“Martin was first person I saw in the United States, because he was kind enough to come to the airport to pick up me and my family,” Shakhnovich said. “His support at the very beginning of my career in this country was absolutely crucial and instrumental.”
Said Anderson of Karplus’ global influence: “His postdocs, graduate, and undergraduate students are found on the faculty of virtually every major university in the United States and Europe. That’s a legacy that speaks for itself, reflecting his profound impact in academia worldwide.”
Dan Kahne, Higgins Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, recalled Karplus’ pioneering research as pivotal.
“He was way ahead of his time, anticipating the importance of the biological tools he was developing to address protein dynamics and folding long before anyone else did,” Kahne said.
Karplus is survived by his wife, Marci; son, Mischa; daughters Reba and Tammy; and granddaughter, Rachel.
An international team of researchers has examined the environmental, social, economic and legal aspects of wind energy. In this interview, Russell McKenna, an expert in energy system analysis, explains where he sees the greatest need for action to further develop wind energy.
One supermassive black hole has kept astronomers glued to their scopes for the last several years. First came a surprise disappearance, and now, a precarious spinning act.
The black hole in question is 1ES 1927+654, which is about as massive as a million suns and sits in a galaxy that is 270 million light-years away. In 2018, astronomers at MIT and elsewhere observed that the black hole’s corona — a cloud of whirling, white-hot plasma — suddenly disappeared, before reassembling months later. The brief though dramatic shut-off was a first in black hole astronomy.
Members of the MIT team have now caught the same black hole exhibiting more unprecedented behavior.
The astronomers have detected flashes of X-rays coming from the black hole at a steadily increasing clip. Over a period of two years, the flashes, at millihertz frequencies, increased from every 18 minutes to every seven minutes. This dramatic speed-up in X-rays has not been seen from a black hole until now.
The researchers explored a number of scenarios for what might explain the flashes. They believe the most likely culprit is a spinning white dwarf — an extremely compact core of a dead star that is orbiting around the black hole and getting precariously closer to its event horizon, the boundary beyond which nothing can escape the black hole’s gravitational pull. If this is the case, the white dwarf must be pulling off an impressive balancing act, as it could be coming right up to the black hole’s edge without actually falling in.
“This would be the closest thing we know of around any black hole,” says Megan Masterson, a graduate student in physics at MIT, who co-led the discovery. “This tells us that objects like white dwarfs may be able to live very close to an event horizon for a relatively extended period of time.”
The researchers present their findings today at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
If a white dwarf is at the root of the black hole’s mysterious flashing, it would also give off gravitational waves, in a range that would be detectable by next-generation observatories such as the European Space Agency's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).
“These new detectors are designed to detect oscillations on the scale of minutes, so this black hole system is in that sweet spot,” says co-author Erin Kara, associate professor of physics at MIT.
The study’s other co-authors include MIT Kavli members Christos Panagiotou, Joheen Chakraborty, Kevin Burdge, Riccardo Arcodia, Ronald Remillard, and Jingyi Wang, along with collaborators from multiple other institutions.
Nothing normal
Kara and Masterson were part of the team that observed 1ES 1927+654 in 2018, as the black hole’s corona went dark, then slowly rebuilt itself over time. For a while, the newly reformed corona — a cloud of highly energetic plasma and X-rays — was the brightest X-ray-emitting object in the sky.
“It was still extremely bright, though it wasn’t doing anything new for a couple years and was kind of gurgling along. But we felt we had to keep monitoring it because it was so beautiful,” Kara says. “Then we noticed something that has never really been seen before.”
In 2022, the team looked through observations of the black hole taken by the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton, a space-based observatory that detects and measures X-ray emissions from black holes, neutron stars, galactic clusters, and other extreme cosmic sources. They noticed that X-rays from the black hole appeared to pulse with increasing frequency. Such “quasi-periodic oscillations” have only been observed in a handful of other supermassive black holes, where X-ray flashes appear with regular frequency.
In the case of 1ES 1927+654, the flickering seemed to steadily ramp up, from every 18 minutes to every seven minutes over the span of two years.
“We’ve never seen this dramatic variability in the rate at which it’s flashing,” Masterson says. “This looked absolutely nothing like a normal supermassive black hole.”
The fact that the flashing was detected in the X-ray band points to the strong possibility that the source is somewhere very close to the black hole. The innermost regions of a black hole are extremely high-energy environments, where X-rays are produced by fast-moving, hot plasma. X-rays are less likely to be seen at farther distances, where gas can circle more slowly in an accretion disk. The cooler environment of the disk can emit optical and ultraviolet light, but rarely gives off X-rays.
“Seeing something in the X-rays is already telling you you’re pretty close to the black hole,” Kara says. “When you see variability on the timescale of minutes, that’s close to the event horizon, and the first thing your mind goes to is circular motion, and whether something could be orbiting around the black hole.”
X-ray kick-up
Whatever was producing the X-ray flashes was doing so at an extremely close distance from the black hole, which the researchers estimate to be within a few million miles of the event horizon.
Masterson and Kara explored models for various astrophysical phenomena that could explain the X-ray patterns that they observed, including a possibility relating to the black hole’s corona.
“One idea is that this corona is oscillating, maybe blobbing back and forth, and if it starts to shrink, those oscillations get faster as the scales get smaller,” Masterson says. “But we’re in the very early stages of understanding coronal oscillations.”
Another promising scenario, and one that scientists have a better grasp on in terms of the physics involved, has to do with a daredevil of a white dwarf. According to their modeling, the researchers estimate the white dwarf could have been about one-tenth the mass of the sun. In contrast, the supermassive black hole itself is on the order of 1 million solar masses.
When any object gets this close to a supermassive black hole, gravitational waves are expected to be emitted, dragging the object closer to the black hole. As it circles closer, the white dwarf moves at a faster rate, which can explain the increasing frequency of X-ray oscillations that the team observed.
The white dwarf is practically at the precipice of no return and is estimated to be just a few million miles from the event horizon. However, the researchers predict that the star will not fall in. While the black hole’s gravity may pull the white dwarf inward, the star is also shedding part of its outer layer into the black hole. This shedding acts as a small kick-back, such that the white dwarf — an incredibly compact object itself — can resist crossing the black hole’s boundary.
“Because white dwarfs are small and compact, they’re very difficult to shred apart, so they can be very close to a black hole,” Kara says. “If this scenario is correct, this white dwarf is right at the turn around point, and we may see it get further away.”
The team plans to continue observing the system, with existing and future telescopes, to better understand the extreme physics at work in a black hole’s innermost environments. They are particularly excited to study the system once the space-based gravitational-wave detector LISA launches — currently planned for the mid 2030s — as the gravitational waves that the system should give off will be in a sweet spot that LISA can clearly detect.
“The one thing I’ve learned with this source is to never stop looking at it because it will probably teach us something new,” Masterson says. “The next step is just to keep our eyes open.”
In this artist’s rendering, a stream of matter trails a white dwarf orbiting within the innermost accretion disk surrounding 1ES 1927’s supermassive black hole.
Beneficial gut microbes and the body work together to fine-tune fat metabolism and cholesterol levels, according to a new preclinical study by investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell’s Ithaca campus.
Many people around the globe are living in energy poverty, meaning they spend at least 8 percent of their annual household income on energy. Addressing this problem is not simple, but an experiment by MIT researchers shows that giving people better data about their energy use, plus some coaching on the subject, can lead them to substantially reduce their consumption and costs.
The experiment, based in Amsterdam, resulted in households cutting their energy expenses in half, on aggregate — a savings big enough to move three-quarters of them out of energy poverty.
“Our energy coaching project as a whole showed a 75 percent success rate at alleviating energy poverty,” says Joseph Llewellyn, a researcher with MIT’s Senseable City Lab and co-author of a newly published paper detailing the experiment’s results.
“Energy poverty afflicts families all over the world. With empirical evidence on which policies work, governments could focus their efforts more effectively,” says Fábio Duarte, associate director of MIT’s Senseable City Lab, and another co-author of the paper.
The authors are Llewellyn, who is also a researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm; Titus Venverloo, a research fellow at the MIT Senseable City Lab and AMS; Fábio Duarte, who is also a principal researcher MIT’s Senseable City Lab; Carlo Ratti, director of the Senseable City Lab; and Cecilia Katzeff, Fredrik Johansson, and Daniel Pargmanof the KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
The researchers developed the study after engaging with city officials in Amsterdam. In the Netherlands, about 550,000 households, or 7 percent of the population, are considered to be in energy poverty; in the European Union, that figure is about 50 million. In the U.S., separate research has shown that about three in 10 households report trouble paying energy bills.
To conduct the experiment, the researchers ran two versions of an energy coaching intervention. In one version, 67 households received one report on their energy usage, along with coaching about how to increase energy efficiency. In the other version, 50 households received those things as well as a smart device giving them real-time updates on their energy consumption. (All households also received some modest energy-savings improvements at the outset, such as additional insulation.)
Across the two groups, homes typically reduced monthly consumption of electricity by 33 percent and gas by 42 percent. They lowered their bills by 53 percent, on aggregate, and the percentage of income they spent on energy dropped from 10.1 percent to 5.3 percent.
What were these households doing differently? Some of the biggest behavioral changes included things such as only heating rooms that were in use and unplugging devices not being used. Both of those changes save energy, but their benefits were not always understood by residents before they received energy coaching.
“The range of energy literacy was quite wide from one home to the next,” Llewellyn says. “And when I went somewhere as an energy coach, it was never to moralize about energy use. I never said, ‘Oh, you’re using way too much.’ It was always working on it with the households, depending on what people need for their homes.”
Intriguingly, the homes receiving the small devices that displayed real-time energy data only tended to use them for three or four weeks following a coaching visit. After that, people seemed to lose interest in very frequent monitoring of their energy use. And yet, a few weeks of consulting the devices tended to be long enough to get people to change their habits in a lasting way.
“Our research shows that smart devices need to be accompanied by a close understanding of what drives families to change their behaviors,” Venverloo says.
As the researchers acknowledge, working with consumers to reduce their energy consumption is just one way to help people escape energy poverty. Other “structural” factors that can help include lower energy prices and more energy-efficient buildings.
On the latter note, the current paper has given rise to a new experiment Llewellyn is developing with Amsterdam officials, to examine the benefits of retrofitting residental buildings to lower energy costs. In that case, local policymakers are trying to work out how to fund the retrofitting in such a way that landlords do not simply pass those costs on to tenants.
“We don’t want a household to save money on their energy bills if it also means the rent increases, because then we’ve just displaced expenses from one item to another,” Llewellyn says.
Households can also invest in products like better insulation themselves, for windows or heating components, although for low-income households, finding the money to pay for such things may not be trivial. That is especially the case, Llewellyn suggests, because energy costs can seem “invisible,” and a lower priority, than feeding and clothing a family.
“It’s a big upfront cost for a household that does not have 100 Euros to spend,” Llewellyn says. Compared to paying for other necessities, he notes, “Energy is often the thing that tends to fall last on their list. Energy is always going to be this invisible thing that hides behind the walls, and it’s not easy to change that.”
Giving people better data about their energy use, plus some coaching, can help them substantially reduce their consumption and costs, according to a study by MIT researchers in Amsterdam.
NUS, Northern Trust and UOB are proud to announce a groundbreaking collaboration to launch a first-in-market initiative aimed at tokenising green bond credentials. NUS is the first university in Singapore to implement blockchain technology for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting.
This initiative, a key milestone in green finance innovation, will leverage blockchain technology to enhance transparency, data integrity, and investor confidence in sustainable investment practices.
Based on the market best practice, issuers of green bonds provide regular updates to investors regarding the use of funds. On their part, investors may require such data for their own sustainability reporting obligations and to assess their progress towards their ESG goals.
Under the initiative, Northern Trust will utilise its cutting-edge Matrix Zenith digital assets platform to mint and hold a green bond reporting token. The token will hold the environmental impact reporting data from NUS’ third green bond, issued in 2023. UOB, as the lead arranger of the bond issuance, will solicit and provide crucial feedback on how the tokenised data can enhance investors’ sustainability reporting practices.
The tokenisation process will focus on ensuring data integrity, providing investors with confidence that the environmental impact reporting data is secure, immutable, and reliable for their own sustainability reporting obligations. Investors of the bond will receive the same complete set of information which will remain unchanged even as the bond changes hands. This initiative marks a significant step toward aligning green finance practices with global transparency and regulatory standards.
The tokenisation of NUS’ green bond credentials is part of Project Guardian, a global collaboration between policymakers and key industry players, led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to enhance liquidity and efficiency of financial markets through asset tokenisation. It falls under the fixed income workstream of Project Guardian, which focuses on demonstrating the benefits of tokenising bonds and other fixed income securities.
Collaborative expertise
Mr Tan Kian Woo, Senior Vice President and Chief Finance Officer at NUS, said: “We are proud to be leading this first-in-market green bond reporting tokenisation initiative in partnership with Northern Trust and UOB. This project is a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to advancing green finance innovation. By creating a token that enhances the integrity and transparency of our environmental data, we aim to provide greater confidence to investors, helping them meet their sustainability reporting goals. This is only the beginning, as we continue to push boundaries in sustainable financial practices.”
Mr Koh Yan Leng, Vice President (Campus Infrastructure) at NUS, said: “In our pursuit of driving campus decarbonisation, we are equally committed to reporting the sustainability performance of our green buildings in a transparent, timely and reliable manner. Through this project, investors and stakeholders will get access to prompt updates to support their sustainability reporting needs. It also reflects NUS’ ongoing efforts to optimise energy use and reduce carbon emissions across our campuses.”
Mr Justin Chapman, Global Head of Digital Assets and Financial Markets at Northern Trust, said: “This initiative is a testament to the transformative potential of blockchain technology in green finance. By leveraging our Matrix Zenith platform, we are ensuring the integrity and transparency of green bond reporting data, addressing critical needs for investors while paving the way for a more sustainable financial ecosystem.”
Mr Edmund Leong, Head of Group Investment Banking at UOB, said: “At UOB, we are committed to driving sustainable finance solutions that meet the evolving needs of our clients. By participating in this data tokenisation initiative, we aim to provide real-world feedback on the usability of tokenised data, ensuring that it meets the standards required for transparent and reliable sustainability reporting.”
Driving green finance innovation
The green bond reporting token is the first step in NUS’ broader strategy to explore how blockchain technology can enhance green finance practices through a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Northern Trust in November 2024. The collaboration will focus on fostering cutting-edge research and developing actionable solutions to address the challenges of ESG finance.
As part of its commitment to lead green finance innovation, NUS will continue to explore opportunities for leveraging tokenisation to improve transparency, accountability, and impact in the sustainable finance sector.
The Health District @ Queenstown (HD@QT) has officially opened its first community engagement hub at Block 40 Margaret Drive, further advancing its mission to build a healthier, more inclusive community. This hub, situated in the heart of Queenstown, serves as a collaborative space to empower residents to lead healthy and purposeful lives throughout their life journey.
Mr Eric Chua, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and the Ministry of Social and Family Development, and Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC (Queenstown), opened the community engagement hub today, welcoming its first visitors from Queenstown.
Professor John Eu-Li Wong, Co-Chair of the HD@QT Steering Committee, highlighted the significant role of this new connection point in fostering resident engagement to promote purposeful and sustainable longevity. “The community engagement hub is part of our commitment to support residents and build communities. By bringing the initiatives of the Health District @ Queenstown closer to residents, we aim to co-develop programmes which improve physical, mental and social well-being – the pre-requisites for healthy longevity. We hope to develop several hubs across Queenstown once we learn how this one benefits residents,” he said. Prof Wong is also the Executive Director of the National University of Singapore (NUS) Centre for Population Health and Senior Advisor of the National University Health System.
HD@QT is a multi-stakeholder, whole-of-society endeavour spearheaded by NUS, the National University Health System and the Housing & Development Board, to increase healthy longevity, enable purposeful longevity, promote intergenerational bonding, and support a community of all ages.
Collaborative innovation for healthy, purposeful longevity
The name of the new space, “Come4TeaLah!”, was also announced at the opening. Inspired by the space’s location at Block 40 (“4Tea”), the friendly, community-centric name was the winning entry in a naming competition where close to 70 residents proposed names for the space.
Nestled between the park connector and the Food Hub at 40 Margaret Drive, the new community space is located within an area with high resident footfall. Its welcoming vibrant neon colours and semi-open concept was the collaborative brainchild of the NUS Centre for Population Health, Department of Architecture at the College of Design and Engineering in NUS, Housing & Development Board, ARC Studio Architecture + Urbanism, and Moderna Homes, created through focus group discussions with residents. Funding for the development of this hub was made possible through the support of the Widjaja family.
“We see Come4TeaLah! as a social catalyst. The presence of this colourful little icon has the potential to form a node around which community life can flourish,” commented Ms Belinda Huang, Director and Co-founder of ARC Studio Architecture + Urbanism.
The community engagement hub will serve as a dedicated space for:
Learning: Information about the programmes under the HD@QT will be shared through activities hosted here, aimed at inspiring healthier lifestyles.
Interaction: A welcoming venue for people of all ages to connect and build meaningful relationships. Residents, researchers, and community stakeholders will exchange ideas and collaborate.
Co-creation: Residents will co-develop programmes that promote healthy longevity, intergenerational bonding, and social inclusion.
Besides hosting workshops, events, and consultation sessions, Come4TeaLah!, which will be managed by members of the HD@QT team together with volunteers, will pilot innovative programmes that, if successful, can be expanded and introduced to other estates.
Elaborating on the potential of this vibrant community space, Mr Khoo Peng Beng, Director and Co-founder of ARC Studio Architecture + Urbanism, said, “It would be amazing to get the architecture and art communities involved in designing events that promote health and well-being. We could have collaborative workshops, public art installations, and even do some research on how design impacts our health. Imagine creating a whole ecosystem around the Come4TeaLah! that supports our physical and emotional well-being – it's a very exciting idea!”
A shared commitment to a healthier future
Associate Professor Emi Kiyota, Deputy Executive Director of the NUS Centre for Population Health, highlighted the important role of community partnerships. “This community engagement hub symbolises a shared vision of inclusion and collaboration. It is a space where residents, stakeholders, and researchers can come together to co-create solutions tailored to Queenstown’s unique needs. We are excited to see this initiative bring people of all generations closer, fostering connections and a sense of purpose.”
Queenstown resident 71-year-old Stephen Teo looks forward to joining the activities at Come4TeaLah!. “I’m eager to be part of the Health District @ Queenstown initiative because I believe in the power of community. Volunteering allows me to connect with others and play a small part in improving the well-being of those around me. I feel myself opening up, and it brings me great joy to give back to society. Together, we can create a stronger, healthier community, and I’m excited to contribute to that mission."
Strengthening Singapore's preparedness for a successful ageing society
According to a recent study by NUS and Columbia University, Singapore ranks 10th in the world and first in Asia in its readiness to address the challenges and leverage the opportunities of an ageing population as measured by the Global Ageing Society Index.
The new community engagement hub is a key component of HD@QT’s comprehensive suite of initiatives which, as a whole, is designed to optimise adaptation to societal ageing. HD@QT’s initiatives focus on the Global Ageing Society Index’s five domains central to a successfully ageing society, namely well-being, productivity and engagement, equity, cohesion and security.
Penn faculty reflect on the legacy of the former president, who led America almost a half-century ago and whose post-presidency was defined by humanitarian work and service.
On the first day of your vacation in a new city, your explorations expose you to innumerable individual places. While the memories of these spots (like a beautiful garden on a quiet side street) feel immediately indelible, it might be days before you have enough intuition about the neighborhood to direct a newer tourist to that same site and then maybe to the café you discovered nearby. A new study of mice by MIT neuroscientists at The Picower Insitute for Learning and Memory provides new evidence for how the brain forms cohesive cognitive maps of whole spaces and highlights the critical importance of sleep for the process.
Scientists have known for decades that the brain devotes neurons in a region called the hippocampus to remembering specific locations. So-called “place cells” reliably activate when an animal is at the location the neuron is tuned to remember. But more useful than having markers of specific spaces is having a mental model of how they all relate in a continuous overall geography. Though such “cognitive maps” were formally theorized in 1948, neuroscientists have remained unsure of how the brain constructs them. The new study in the December edition of Cell Reports finds that the capability may depend upon subtle but meaningful changes over days in the activity of cells that are only weakly attuned to individual locations, but that increase the robustness and refinement of the hippocampus’s encoding of the whole space. With sleep, the study’s analyses indicate, these “weakly spatial” cells increasingly enrich neural network activity in the hippocampus to link together these places into a cognitive map.
“On Day 1, the brain doesn’t represent the space very well,” says lead author Wei Guo, a research scientist in the lab of senior author Matthew Wilson, the Sherman Fairchild Professor in The Picower Institute and MIT’s departments of Biology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences. “Neurons represent individual locations, but together they don’t form a map. But on Day 5 they form a map. If you want a map, you need all these neurons to work together in a coordinated ensemble.”
Mice mapping mazes
To conduct the study, Guo and Wilson, along with labmates Jie “Jack” Zhang and Jonathan Newman, introduced mice to simple mazes of varying shapes and let them explore them freely for about 30 minutes a day for several days. Importantly, the mice were not directed to learn anything specific through the offer of any rewards. They just wandered. Previous studies have shown that mice naturally demonstrate “latent learning” of spaces from this kind of unrewarded experience after several days.
To understand how latent learning takes hold, Guo and his colleagues visually monitored hundreds of neurons in the CA1 area of the hippocampus by engineering cells to flash when a buildup of calcium ions made them electrically active. They not only recorded the neurons’ flashes when the mice were actively exploring, but also while they were sleeping. Wilson’s lab has shown that animals “replay” their previous journeys during sleep, essentially refining their memories by dreaming about their experiences.
Analysis of the recordings showed that the activity of the place cells developed immediately and remained strong and unchanged over several days of exploration. But this activity alone wouldn’t explain how latent learning or a cognitive map evolves over several days. So unlike in many other studies where scientists focus solely on the strong and clear activity of place cells, Guo extended his analysis to the more subtle and mysterious activity of cells that were not so strongly spatially tuned.
Using an emerging technique called “manifold learning” he was able to discern that many of the “weakly spatial” cells gradually correlated their activity not with locations, but with activity patterns among other neurons in the network. As this was happening, Guo’s analyses showed, the network encoded a cognitive map of the maze that increasingly resembled the literal, physical space.
“Although not responding to specific locations like strongly spatial cells, weakly spatial cells specialize in responding to ‘‘mental locations,’’ i.e., specific ensemble firing patterns of other cells,” the study authors wrote. “If a weakly spatial cell’s mental field encompasses two subsets of strongly spatial cells that encode distinct locations, this weakly spatial cell can serve as a bridge between these locations.”
In other words, the activity of the weakly spatial cells likely stitches together the individual locations represented by the place cells into a mental map.
The need for sleep
Studies by Wilson’s lab and many others have shown that memories are consolidated, refined, and processed by neural activity, such as replay, that occurs during sleep and rest. Guo and Wilson’s team therefore sought to test whether sleep was necessary for the contribution of weakly spatial cells to latent learning of cognitive maps.
To do this they let some mice explore a new maze twice during the same day with a three-hour siesta in between. Some of the mice were allowed to sleep but some were not. The ones that did showed a significant refinement of their mental map, but the ones that weren’t allowed to sleep showed no such improvement. Not only did the network encoding of the map improve, but also measures of the tuning of individual cells during showed that sleep helped cells become better attuned both to places and to patterns of network activity, so-called “mental places” or “fields.”
Mental map meaning
The “cognitive maps” the mice encoded over several days were not literal, precise maps of the mazes, Guo notes. Instead they were more like schematics. Their value is that they provide the brain with a topology that can be explored mentally, without having to be in the physical space. For instance, once you’ve formed your cognitive map of the neighborhood around your hotel, you can plan the next morning’s excursion (e.g., you could imagine grabbing a croissant at the bakery you observed a few blocks west and then picture eating it on one of those benches you noticed in the park along the river).
Indeed, Wilson hypothesized that the weakly spatial cells’ activity may be overlaying salient non-spatial information that brings additional meaning to the maps (i.e., the idea of a bakery is not spatial, even if it’s closely linked to a specific location). The study, however, included no landmarks within the mazes and did not test any specific behaviors among the mice. But now that the study has identified that weakly spatial cells contribute meaningfully to mapping, Wilson said future studies can investigate what kind of information they may be incorporating into the animals’ sense of their environments. We seem to intuitively regard the spaces we inhabit as more than just sets of discrete locations.
“In this study we focused on animals behaving naturally and demonstrated that during freely exploratory behavior and subsequent sleep, in the absence of reinforcement, substantial neural plastic changes at the ensemble level still occur,” the authors concluded. “This form of implicit and unsupervised learning constitutes a crucial facet of human learning and intelligence, warranting further in-depth investigations.”
The Freedom Together Foundation, The Picower Institute, and the National Institutes of Health funded the study.
Researchers sought to discern how a cognitive map of a sideways T-shaped maze coalesced in the minds of mice. An edited panel from a figure in the study shows how neural representations of the cognitive map evolved over five sessions. Each dot is a point in time and each color corresponds to a location in the actual maze (see smaller T's). Over time, the cognitive map better resembles the actual maze geometry.
On the first day of your vacation in a new city, your explorations expose you to innumerable individual places. While the memories of these spots (like a beautiful garden on a quiet side street) feel immediately indelible, it might be days before you have enough intuition about the neighborhood to direct a newer tourist to that same site and then maybe to the café you discovered nearby. A new study of mice by MIT neuroscientists at The Picower Insitute for Learning and Memory provides new evidence for how the brain forms cohesive cognitive maps of whole spaces and highlights the critical importance of sleep for the process.
Scientists have known for decades that the brain devotes neurons in a region called the hippocampus to remembering specific locations. So-called “place cells” reliably activate when an animal is at the location the neuron is tuned to remember. But more useful than having markers of specific spaces is having a mental model of how they all relate in a continuous overall geography. Though such “cognitive maps” were formally theorized in 1948, neuroscientists have remained unsure of how the brain constructs them. The new study in the December edition of Cell Reports finds that the capability may depend upon subtle but meaningful changes over days in the activity of cells that are only weakly attuned to individual locations, but that increase the robustness and refinement of the hippocampus’s encoding of the whole space. With sleep, the study’s analyses indicate, these “weakly spatial” cells increasingly enrich neural network activity in the hippocampus to link together these places into a cognitive map.
“On Day 1, the brain doesn’t represent the space very well,” says lead author Wei Guo, a research scientist in the lab of senior author Matthew Wilson, the Sherman Fairchild Professor in The Picower Institute and MIT’s departments of Biology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences. “Neurons represent individual locations, but together they don’t form a map. But on Day 5 they form a map. If you want a map, you need all these neurons to work together in a coordinated ensemble.”
Mice mapping mazes
To conduct the study, Guo and Wilson, along with labmates Jie “Jack” Zhang and Jonathan Newman, introduced mice to simple mazes of varying shapes and let them explore them freely for about 30 minutes a day for several days. Importantly, the mice were not directed to learn anything specific through the offer of any rewards. They just wandered. Previous studies have shown that mice naturally demonstrate “latent learning” of spaces from this kind of unrewarded experience after several days.
To understand how latent learning takes hold, Guo and his colleagues visually monitored hundreds of neurons in the CA1 area of the hippocampus by engineering cells to flash when a buildup of calcium ions made them electrically active. They not only recorded the neurons’ flashes when the mice were actively exploring, but also while they were sleeping. Wilson’s lab has shown that animals “replay” their previous journeys during sleep, essentially refining their memories by dreaming about their experiences.
Analysis of the recordings showed that the activity of the place cells developed immediately and remained strong and unchanged over several days of exploration. But this activity alone wouldn’t explain how latent learning or a cognitive map evolves over several days. So unlike in many other studies where scientists focus solely on the strong and clear activity of place cells, Guo extended his analysis to the more subtle and mysterious activity of cells that were not so strongly spatially tuned.
Using an emerging technique called “manifold learning” he was able to discern that many of the “weakly spatial” cells gradually correlated their activity not with locations, but with activity patterns among other neurons in the network. As this was happening, Guo’s analyses showed, the network encoded a cognitive map of the maze that increasingly resembled the literal, physical space.
“Although not responding to specific locations like strongly spatial cells, weakly spatial cells specialize in responding to ‘‘mental locations,’’ i.e., specific ensemble firing patterns of other cells,” the study authors wrote. “If a weakly spatial cell’s mental field encompasses two subsets of strongly spatial cells that encode distinct locations, this weakly spatial cell can serve as a bridge between these locations.”
In other words, the activity of the weakly spatial cells likely stitches together the individual locations represented by the place cells into a mental map.
The need for sleep
Studies by Wilson’s lab and many others have shown that memories are consolidated, refined, and processed by neural activity, such as replay, that occurs during sleep and rest. Guo and Wilson’s team therefore sought to test whether sleep was necessary for the contribution of weakly spatial cells to latent learning of cognitive maps.
To do this they let some mice explore a new maze twice during the same day with a three-hour siesta in between. Some of the mice were allowed to sleep but some were not. The ones that did showed a significant refinement of their mental map, but the ones that weren’t allowed to sleep showed no such improvement. Not only did the network encoding of the map improve, but also measures of the tuning of individual cells during showed that sleep helped cells become better attuned both to places and to patterns of network activity, so-called “mental places” or “fields.”
Mental map meaning
The “cognitive maps” the mice encoded over several days were not literal, precise maps of the mazes, Guo notes. Instead they were more like schematics. Their value is that they provide the brain with a topology that can be explored mentally, without having to be in the physical space. For instance, once you’ve formed your cognitive map of the neighborhood around your hotel, you can plan the next morning’s excursion (e.g., you could imagine grabbing a croissant at the bakery you observed a few blocks west and then picture eating it on one of those benches you noticed in the park along the river).
Indeed, Wilson hypothesized that the weakly spatial cells’ activity may be overlaying salient non-spatial information that brings additional meaning to the maps (i.e., the idea of a bakery is not spatial, even if it’s closely linked to a specific location). The study, however, included no landmarks within the mazes and did not test any specific behaviors among the mice. But now that the study has identified that weakly spatial cells contribute meaningfully to mapping, Wilson said future studies can investigate what kind of information they may be incorporating into the animals’ sense of their environments. We seem to intuitively regard the spaces we inhabit as more than just sets of discrete locations.
“In this study we focused on animals behaving naturally and demonstrated that during freely exploratory behavior and subsequent sleep, in the absence of reinforcement, substantial neural plastic changes at the ensemble level still occur,” the authors concluded. “This form of implicit and unsupervised learning constitutes a crucial facet of human learning and intelligence, warranting further in-depth investigations.”
The Freedom Together Foundation, The Picower Institute, and the National Institutes of Health funded the study.
Researchers sought to discern how a cognitive map of a sideways T-shaped maze coalesced in the minds of mice. An edited panel from a figure in the study shows how neural representations of the cognitive map evolved over five sessions. Each dot is a point in time and each color corresponds to a location in the actual maze (see smaller T's). Over time, the cognitive map better resembles the actual maze geometry.
Does the United States have a “moral responsibility” for providing aid to poor nations — which have a significantly smaller carbon footprint and face catastrophic climate events at a much higher rate than wealthy countries?
A study published Dec. 11 in Climatic Change explores U.S. public opinion on global climate policies considering our nation’s historic role as a leading contributor of carbon emissions. The randomized, experimental survey specifically investigates American attitudes toward such a moral responsibility.
The work was led by MIT Professor Evan Lieberman, the Total Chair on Contemporary African Politics and director of the MIT Center for International Studies, and Volha Charnysh, the Ford Career Development Associate Professor of Political Science, and was co-authored with MIT political science PhD student Jared Kalow and University of Pennsylvania postdoc Erin Walk PhD ’24. Here, Lieberman describes the team's research and insights, and offers recommendations that could result in more effective climate advocacy.
Q: What are the key findings — and any surprises — of your recent work on climate attitudes among the U.S. population?
A: A big question at the COP29 Climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan was: Who will pay the trillions of dollars needed to help lower-income countries adapt to climate change? During past meetings, global leaders have come to an increasing consensus that the wealthiest countries should pay, but there has been little follow-through on commitments. In countries like the United States, popular opinion about such policies can weigh heavily on politicians' minds, as citizens focus on their own challenges at home.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda is one of many who views such transfers as a matter of moral responsibility, explaining that many rich countries see climate finance as “a random act of charity ... not recognizing that they have a moral obligation to provide funding, especially the historical emitters and even those who currently have large emissions.”
In our study, we set out to measure American attitudes towards climate-related foreign aid, and explicitly to test the impact of this particular moral responsibility narrative. We did this on an experimental basis, so subjects were randomly assigned to receive different messages.
One message emphasized what we call a “climate justice” frame, and it argued that Americans should contribute to helping poor countries because of the United States’ disproportionate role in the emissions of greenhouse gasses that have led to global warming. That message had a positive impact on the extent to which citizens supported the use of foreign aid for climate adaptation in poor countries. However, when we looked at who was actually moved by the message, we found that the effect was larger and statistically significant only among Democrats, but not among Republicans.
We were surprised that a message emphasizing solidarity, the idea that “we are all in this together,” had no overall effect on citizen attitudes, Democrats or Republicans.
Q: What are your recommendations toward addressing the attitudes on global climate policies within the U.S.?
A: First, given limited budgets and attention for communications campaigns, our research certainly suggests that emphasizing a bit of blaming and shaming is more powerful than more diffuse messages of shared responsibility.
But our research also emphasized how critically important it is to find new ways to communicate with Republicans about climate change and about foreign aid. Republicans were overwhelmingly less supportive of climate aid and yet even from that low baseline, a message that moved Democrats had a much more mixed reception among Republicans. Researchers and those working on the front lines of climate communications need to do more to better understand Republican perspectives. Younger Republicans, for example, might be more movable on key climate policies.
Q: With an incoming Trump administration, what are some of the specific hurdles and/or opportunities we face in garnering U.S. public support for international climate negotiations?
A: Not only did Trump demonstrate his disdain for international action on climate change by withdrawing from the Paris agreement during his first term in office, but he has indicated his intention to double down on such strategies in his second term. And the idea that he would support assistance for the world’s poorest countries harmed by climate change? This seems unlikely. Because we find Republican public opinion so firmly in line with these perspectives, frankly, it is hard to be optimistic.
Those Americans concerned with the effects of climate change may need to look to state-level, non-government, corporate, and more global organizations to support climate justice efforts.
Q: Are there any other takeaways you’d like to share?
A: Those working in the climate change area may need to rethink how we talk and message about the challenges the world faces. Right now, almost anything that sounds like “climate change” is likely to be rejected by Republican leaders and large segments of American society. Our approach of experimenting with different types of messages is a relatively low-cost strategy for identifying more promising strategies, targeted at Americans and at citizens in other wealthy countries.
But our study, in line with other work, also demonstrates that partisanship — identifying as a Republican or Democrat — is by far the strongest predictor of attitudes toward climate aid. While climate justice messaging can move attitudes slightly, the effects are still modest relative to the contributions of party identification itself. Just as Republican party elites were once persuaded to take leadership in the global fight against HIV and AIDS, a similar challenge lies ahead for climate aid.
An MIT team recently published a study on public sentiment regarding climate policy. The co-authors are (left to right) Professor Evan Lieberman, Associate Professor Volha Charnysh, PhD student Jared Kalow, and Erin Walk PhD ’24. “Our research suggests that emphasizing a bit of blaming and shaming is more powerful than more diffuse messages of shared responsibility,” Lieberman explains.
Does the United States have a “moral responsibility” for providing aid to poor nations — which have a significantly smaller carbon footprint and face catastrophic climate events at a much higher rate than wealthy countries?
A study published Dec. 11 in Climatic Change explores U.S. public opinion on global climate policies considering our nation’s historic role as a leading contributor of carbon emissions. The randomized, experimental survey specifically investigates American attitudes toward such a moral responsibility.
The work was led by MIT Professor Evan Lieberman, the Total Chair on Contemporary African Politics and director of the MIT Center for International Studies, and Volha Charnysh, the Ford Career Development Associate Professor of Political Science, and was co-authored with MIT political science PhD student Jared Kalow and University of Pennsylvania postdoc Erin Walk PhD ’24. Here, Lieberman describes the team's research and insights, and offers recommendations that could result in more effective climate advocacy.
Q: What are the key findings — and any surprises — of your recent work on climate attitudes among the U.S. population?
A: A big question at the COP29 Climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan was: Who will pay the trillions of dollars needed to help lower-income countries adapt to climate change? During past meetings, global leaders have come to an increasing consensus that the wealthiest countries should pay, but there has been little follow-through on commitments. In countries like the United States, popular opinion about such policies can weigh heavily on politicians' minds, as citizens focus on their own challenges at home.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda is one of many who views such transfers as a matter of moral responsibility, explaining that many rich countries see climate finance as “a random act of charity ... not recognizing that they have a moral obligation to provide funding, especially the historical emitters and even those who currently have large emissions.”
In our study, we set out to measure American attitudes towards climate-related foreign aid, and explicitly to test the impact of this particular moral responsibility narrative. We did this on an experimental basis, so subjects were randomly assigned to receive different messages.
One message emphasized what we call a “climate justice” frame, and it argued that Americans should contribute to helping poor countries because of the United States’ disproportionate role in the emissions of greenhouse gasses that have led to global warming. That message had a positive impact on the extent to which citizens supported the use of foreign aid for climate adaptation in poor countries. However, when we looked at who was actually moved by the message, we found that the effect was larger and statistically significant only among Democrats, but not among Republicans.
We were surprised that a message emphasizing solidarity, the idea that “we are all in this together,” had no overall effect on citizen attitudes, Democrats or Republicans.
Q: What are your recommendations toward addressing the attitudes on global climate policies within the U.S.?
A: First, given limited budgets and attention for communications campaigns, our research certainly suggests that emphasizing a bit of blaming and shaming is more powerful than more diffuse messages of shared responsibility.
But our research also emphasized how critically important it is to find new ways to communicate with Republicans about climate change and about foreign aid. Republicans were overwhelmingly less supportive of climate aid and yet even from that low baseline, a message that moved Democrats had a much more mixed reception among Republicans. Researchers and those working on the front lines of climate communications need to do more to better understand Republican perspectives. Younger Republicans, for example, might be more movable on key climate policies.
Q: With an incoming Trump administration, what are some of the specific hurdles and/or opportunities we face in garnering U.S. public support for international climate negotiations?
A: Not only did Trump demonstrate his disdain for international action on climate change by withdrawing from the Paris agreement during his first term in office, but he has indicated his intention to double down on such strategies in his second term. And the idea that he would support assistance for the world’s poorest countries harmed by climate change? This seems unlikely. Because we find Republican public opinion so firmly in line with these perspectives, frankly, it is hard to be optimistic.
Those Americans concerned with the effects of climate change may need to look to state-level, non-government, corporate, and more global organizations to support climate justice efforts.
Q: Are there any other takeaways you’d like to share?
A: Those working in the climate change area may need to rethink how we talk and message about the challenges the world faces. Right now, almost anything that sounds like “climate change” is likely to be rejected by Republican leaders and large segments of American society. Our approach of experimenting with different types of messages is a relatively low-cost strategy for identifying more promising strategies, targeted at Americans and at citizens in other wealthy countries.
But our study, in line with other work, also demonstrates that partisanship — identifying as a Republican or Democrat — is by far the strongest predictor of attitudes toward climate aid. While climate justice messaging can move attitudes slightly, the effects are still modest relative to the contributions of party identification itself. Just as Republican party elites were once persuaded to take leadership in the global fight against HIV and AIDS, a similar challenge lies ahead for climate aid.
An MIT team recently published a study on public sentiment regarding climate policy. The co-authors are (left to right) Professor Evan Lieberman, Associate Professor Volha Charnysh, PhD student Jared Kalow, and Erin Walk PhD ’24. “Our research suggests that emphasizing a bit of blaming and shaming is more powerful than more diffuse messages of shared responsibility,” Lieberman explains.
Dr. Jim Castellanos, Ph.D. ’18, M.D. ’20, an instructor in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been selected as a 2024 Hanna H. Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The group of bacteria called Enterobacteriaceae, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella, E.coli and others, is present at low levels as part of a healthy human gut microbiome. But at high levels - caused for example by increased inflammation in the body, or by eating contaminated food - these bugs can cause illness and disease. In extreme cases, too much Enterobacteriaceae in the gut can be life-threatening.
Researchers have used computational approaches including AI to analyse the gut microbiome composition of over 12,000 people across 45 countries from their stool samples. They found that a person’s microbiome ‘signature’ can predict whether a person’s gut is likely to be colonised by Enterobacteriaceae. The results are consistent across different states of health and geographic locations.
The researchers identified 135 gut microbe species that are commonly found in the absence of Enterobacteriaceae, likely protecting against infection.
Notable amongst the protective gut species are a group of bacteria called Faecalibacterium, which produce beneficial compounds called short-chain fatty acids by breaking down fibre in the foods we eat. This seems to protect against infection by a range of disease-causing Enterobacteriaceae bugs.
The researchers suggest that eating more fibre in our diet will support the growth of good bacteria - and crowd out the bad ones to significantly reduce the risk of illness.
In contrast, taking probiotics - which don’t directly change the environment in the gut - is less likely to affect the likelihood of Enterobacteriaceae infection.
“Our results suggest that what we eat is potentially very important in controlling the likelihood of infection with a range of bacteria, including E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, because this changes our gut environment to make it more hostile to invaders,” said Dr Alexandre Almeida, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and senior author of the paper.
He added: “By eating fibre in foods like vegetables, beans and whole grains, we can provide the raw material for our gut bacteria to produce short chain fatty acids - compounds that can protect us from these pathogenic bugs.”
Klebsiella pneumonia can cause pneumonia, meningitis and other infections. The alarming global rise in antibiotic resistance to this bacterial pathogen has led scientists to look for new ways of keeping it, and other similar infectious bacteria, under control.
“With higher rates of antibiotic resistance there are fewer treatment options available to us. The best approach now is to prevent infections occurring in the first place, and we can do this by reducing the opportunities for these disease-causing bacteria to thrive in our gut,” said Almeida.
A new understanding of gut microbe interactions
Earlier research to understand interactions between the different bacteria in our gut has used mouse models. But some of these new results are at odds with previous findings.
The new study revealed that 172 species of gut microbe can coexist with disease-causing Enterobacteriaceae bugs. Many of these species are functionally similar to the bugs: they need the same nutrients to survive. Previously it was thought that competition for resources would stop the disease-causing bacteria from getting established in the gut.
This has important implications for treatment: taking probiotics that compete for the same nutrients with the bad bacteria to try and starve them out isn’t going to work. The researchers say that it will be more beneficial to change the environment in the gut, for instance through diet, to reduce the risk of infection with Enterobacteriaceae.
“This study highlights the importance of studying pathogens not as isolated entities, but in the context of their surrounding gut microbiome,” said Dr Qi Yin, a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and first author of the report.
The research was funded by the Medical Research Council.
A new study has found that the composition of your gut microbiome helps predict how likely you are to succumb to potentially life-threatening infection with Klebsiella pneumoniae, E.coli and other bugs - and it may be altered by changing your diet.
Our results suggest that what we eat is potentially very important in controlling the likelihood of infection with a range of bacteria.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a climate-friendly covering for walls and ceilings that temporarily stores moisture, creating a comfortable environment in heavily used indoor spaces. The covering components are made of mineral waste materials and are produced by means of 3D printing.
Awed as a young child by the majesty of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, civil engineer and MIT Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) Fellow Zane Schemmer has retained his fascination with bridges: what they look like, why they work, and how they’re designed and built.
He weighed the choice between architecture and engineering when heading off to college, but, motivated by the why and how of structural engineering, selected the latter. Now he incorporates design as an iterative process in the writing of algorithms that perfectly balance the forces involved in discrete portions of a structure to create an overall design that optimizes function, minimizes carbon footprint, and still produces a manufacturable result.
While this may sound like an obvious goal in structural design, it’s not. It’s new. It’s a more holistic way of looking at the design process that can optimize even down to the materials, angles, and number of elements in the nodes or joints that connect the larger components of a building, bridge, tower, etc.
According to Schemmer, there hasn’t been much progress on optimizing structural design to minimize embodied carbon, and the work that exists often results in designs that are “too complex to be built in real life,” he says. The embodied carbon of a structure is the total carbon dioxide emissions of its life cycle: from the extraction or manufacture of its materials to their transport and use and through the demolition of the structure and disposal of the materials. Schemmer, who works with Josephine V. Carstensen, the Gilbert W. Winslow Career Development Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, is focusing on the portion of that cycle that runs through construction.
In September, at the IASS 2024 symposium "Redefining the Art of Structural Design in Zurich," Schemmer and Carstensen presented their work on Discrete Topology Optimization algorithms that are able to minimize the embodied carbon in a bridge or other structure by up to 20 percent. This comes through materials selection that considers not only a material’s appearance and its ability to get the job done, but also the ease of procurement, its proximity to the building site, and the carbon embodied in its manufacture and transport.
“The real novelty of our algorithm is its ability to consider multiple materials in a highly constrained solution space to produce manufacturable designs with a user-specified force flow,” Schemmer says. “Real-life problems are complex and often have many constraints associated with them. In traditional formulations, it can be difficult to have a long list of complicated constraints. Our goal is to incorporate these constraints to make it easier to take our designs out of the computer and create them in real life.”
Take, for instance, a steel tower, which could be a “super lightweight, efficient design solution,” Schemmer explains. Because steel is so strong, you don’t need as much of it compared to concrete or timber to build a big building. But steel is also very carbon-intensive to produce and transport. Shipping it across the country or especially from a different continent can sharply increase its embodied carbon price tag. Schemmer’s topology optimization will replace some of the steel with timber elements or decrease the amount of steel in other elements to create a hybrid structure that will function effectively and minimize the carbon footprint. “This is why using the same steel in two different parts of the world can lead to two different optimized designs,” he explains.
Schemmer, who grew up in the mountains of Utah, earned a BS and MS in civil and environmental engineering from University of California at Berkeley, where his graduate work focused on seismic design. He describes that education as providing a “very traditional, super-strong engineering background that tackled some of the toughest engineering problems,” along with knowledge of structural engineering’s traditions and current methods.
But at MIT, he says, a lot of the work he sees “looks at removing the constraints of current societal conventions of doing things, and asks how could we do things if it was in a more ideal form; what are we looking at then? Which I think is really cool,” he says. “But I think sometimes too, there’s a jump between the most-perfect version of something and where we are now, that there needs to be a bridge between those two. And I feel like my education helps me see that bridge.”
The bridge he’s referring to is the topology optimization algorithms that make good designs better in terms of decreased global warming potential.
“That’s where the optimization algorithm comes in,” Schemmer says. “In contrast to a standard structure designed in the past, the algorithm can take the same design space and come up with a much more efficient material usage that still meets all the structural requirements, be up to code, and have everything we want from a safety standpoint.”
That’s also where the MAD Design Fellowship comes in. The program provides yearlong fellowships with full financial support to graduate students from all across the Institute who network with each other, with the MAD faculty, and with outside speakers who use design in new ways in a surprising variety of fields. This helps the fellows gain a better understanding of how to use iterative design in their own work.
“Usually people think of their own work like, ‘Oh, I had this background. I’ve been looking at this one way for a very long time.’ And when you look at it from an outside perspective, I think it opens your mind to be like, ‘Oh my God. I never would have thought about doing this that way. Maybe I should try that.’ And then we can move to new ideas, new inspiration for better work,” Schemmer says.
He chose civil and structural engineering over architecture some seven years ago, but says that “100 years ago, I don’t think architecture and structural engineering were two separate professions. I think there was an understanding of how things looked and how things worked, and it was merged together. Maybe from an efficiency standpoint, it’s better to have things done separately. But I think there’s something to be said for having knowledge about how the whole system works, potentially more intermingling between the free-form architectural design and the mathematical design of a civil engineer. Merging it back together, I think, has a lot of benefits.”
Which brings us back to the Golden Gate Bridge, Schemmer’s longtime favorite. You can still hear that excited 3-year-old in his voice when he talks about it.
“It’s so iconic,” he says. “It’s connecting these two spits of land that just rise straight up out of the ocean. There’s this fog that comes in and out a lot of days. It's a really magical place, from the size of the cable strands and everything. It’s just, ‘Wow.’ People built this over 100 years ago, before the existence of a lot of the computational tools that we have now. So, all the math, everything in the design, was all done by hand and from the mind. Nothing was computerized, which I think is crazy to think about.”
As Schemmer continues work on his doctoral degree at MIT, the MAD fellowship will expose him to many more awe-inspiring ideas in other fields, leading him to incorporate some of these in some way with his engineering knowledge to design better ways of building bridges and other structures.
Before coming to MIT, 2024 MAD Design Fellow Zane Schemmer, who grew up in the mountains of Utah, earned a BS and MS in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, where his graduate work focused on seismic design.
Awed as a young child by the majesty of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, civil engineer and MIT Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) Fellow Zane Schemmer has retained his fascination with bridges: what they look like, why they work, and how they’re designed and built.
He weighed the choice between architecture and engineering when heading off to college, but, motivated by the why and how of structural engineering, selected the latter. Now he incorporates design as an iterative process in the writing of algorithms that perfectly balance the forces involved in discrete portions of a structure to create an overall design that optimizes function, minimizes carbon footprint, and still produces a manufacturable result.
While this may sound like an obvious goal in structural design, it’s not. It’s new. It’s a more holistic way of looking at the design process that can optimize even down to the materials, angles, and number of elements in the nodes or joints that connect the larger components of a building, bridge, tower, etc.
According to Schemmer, there hasn’t been much progress on optimizing structural design to minimize embodied carbon, and the work that exists often results in designs that are “too complex to be built in real life,” he says. The embodied carbon of a structure is the total carbon dioxide emissions of its life cycle: from the extraction or manufacture of its materials to their transport and use and through the demolition of the structure and disposal of the materials. Schemmer, who works with Josephine V. Carstensen, the Gilbert W. Winslow Career Development Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, is focusing on the portion of that cycle that runs through construction.
In September, at the IASS 2024 symposium "Redefining the Art of Structural Design in Zurich," Schemmer and Carstensen presented their work on Discrete Topology Optimization algorithms that are able to minimize the embodied carbon in a bridge or other structure by up to 20 percent. This comes through materials selection that considers not only a material’s appearance and its ability to get the job done, but also the ease of procurement, its proximity to the building site, and the carbon embodied in its manufacture and transport.
“The real novelty of our algorithm is its ability to consider multiple materials in a highly constrained solution space to produce manufacturable designs with a user-specified force flow,” Schemmer says. “Real-life problems are complex and often have many constraints associated with them. In traditional formulations, it can be difficult to have a long list of complicated constraints. Our goal is to incorporate these constraints to make it easier to take our designs out of the computer and create them in real life.”
Take, for instance, a steel tower, which could be a “super lightweight, efficient design solution,” Schemmer explains. Because steel is so strong, you don’t need as much of it compared to concrete or timber to build a big building. But steel is also very carbon-intensive to produce and transport. Shipping it across the country or especially from a different continent can sharply increase its embodied carbon price tag. Schemmer’s topology optimization will replace some of the steel with timber elements or decrease the amount of steel in other elements to create a hybrid structure that will function effectively and minimize the carbon footprint. “This is why using the same steel in two different parts of the world can lead to two different optimized designs,” he explains.
Schemmer, who grew up in the mountains of Utah, earned a BS and MS in civil and environmental engineering from University of California at Berkeley, where his graduate work focused on seismic design. He describes that education as providing a “very traditional, super-strong engineering background that tackled some of the toughest engineering problems,” along with knowledge of structural engineering’s traditions and current methods.
But at MIT, he says, a lot of the work he sees “looks at removing the constraints of current societal conventions of doing things, and asks how could we do things if it was in a more ideal form; what are we looking at then? Which I think is really cool,” he says. “But I think sometimes too, there’s a jump between the most-perfect version of something and where we are now, that there needs to be a bridge between those two. And I feel like my education helps me see that bridge.”
The bridge he’s referring to is the topology optimization algorithms that make good designs better in terms of decreased global warming potential.
“That’s where the optimization algorithm comes in,” Schemmer says. “In contrast to a standard structure designed in the past, the algorithm can take the same design space and come up with a much more efficient material usage that still meets all the structural requirements, be up to code, and have everything we want from a safety standpoint.”
That’s also where the MAD Design Fellowship comes in. The program provides yearlong fellowships with full financial support to graduate students from all across the Institute who network with each other, with the MAD faculty, and with outside speakers who use design in new ways in a surprising variety of fields. This helps the fellows gain a better understanding of how to use iterative design in their own work.
“Usually people think of their own work like, ‘Oh, I had this background. I’ve been looking at this one way for a very long time.’ And when you look at it from an outside perspective, I think it opens your mind to be like, ‘Oh my God. I never would have thought about doing this that way. Maybe I should try that.’ And then we can move to new ideas, new inspiration for better work,” Schemmer says.
He chose civil and structural engineering over architecture some seven years ago, but says that “100 years ago, I don’t think architecture and structural engineering were two separate professions. I think there was an understanding of how things looked and how things worked, and it was merged together. Maybe from an efficiency standpoint, it’s better to have things done separately. But I think there’s something to be said for having knowledge about how the whole system works, potentially more intermingling between the free-form architectural design and the mathematical design of a civil engineer. Merging it back together, I think, has a lot of benefits.”
Which brings us back to the Golden Gate Bridge, Schemmer’s longtime favorite. You can still hear that excited 3-year-old in his voice when he talks about it.
“It’s so iconic,” he says. “It’s connecting these two spits of land that just rise straight up out of the ocean. There’s this fog that comes in and out a lot of days. It's a really magical place, from the size of the cable strands and everything. It’s just, ‘Wow.’ People built this over 100 years ago, before the existence of a lot of the computational tools that we have now. So, all the math, everything in the design, was all done by hand and from the mind. Nothing was computerized, which I think is crazy to think about.”
As Schemmer continues work on his doctoral degree at MIT, the MAD fellowship will expose him to many more awe-inspiring ideas in other fields, leading him to incorporate some of these in some way with his engineering knowledge to design better ways of building bridges and other structures.
Before coming to MIT, 2024 MAD Design Fellow Zane Schemmer, who grew up in the mountains of Utah, earned a BS and MS in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, where his graduate work focused on seismic design.
In 2018, when Inc. Magazinenamed Boston one of the country’s top places to start a business, it highlighted one significant reason: Boston is an innovation hub for products and services catering toward the aging population. The “longevity economy” represents a massive chunk of economic opportunity: As of 2020, the over-50 market contributed $45 trillion to global GDP, or 34 percent of the total, according to AARP and Economist Impact.
What makes Boston such a good place to do business in aging? One important factor, according to the Inc. story, was MIT — specifically, MIT’s AgeLab, a research organization devoted to creating a high quality of life for the world’s growing aging population.
Inspired by that claim, AgeLab Director Joseph Coughlin, AgeLab science writer and researcher Luke Yoquinto, and The Boston Globe organized a yearlong series of articles to explore what makes Boston such a fertile ground for businesses in the longevity economy — and what might make its soil even richer. The series, titled “The Longevity Hub,” had a big goal in mind: describing what would be necessary to transform Boston into the “Silicon Valley of aging.”
The articles from the Globe series stand as a primer on key issues related to the wants, needs, and economic capabilities of older people, not just in Boston but for any community with an aging population. Importantly, creating a business and research environment conducive to innovation on behalf of older users and customers would create the opportunity to serve national and global aging markets far larger than just Boston or New England.
But that project with the Globe raised a new question for the MIT AgeLab: What communities, Boston aside, were ahead of the curve in their support of aging innovation? More likely than Boston standing as the world’s lone longevity hub, there were doubtless many international communities that could be identified using similar terms. But where were they? And what makes them successful?
Now The MIT Press has published “Longevity Hubs: Regional Innovation for Global Aging,” an edited volume that collects the original articles from The Boston Globe series, as well as a set of new essays. In addition to AgeLab researchers Coughlin, Yoquinto, and Lisa D’Ambrosio, this work includes essays by members of the MIT community including Li-Huei Tsai, director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory; the author team of Rafi Segal (associate professor of architecture and urbanism) and Marisa Moràn Jahn (senior researcher at MIT Future Urban Collectives); as well as Elise Selinger, MIT’s director of residential renewal and renovation.
In addition to these Boston Globe articles, the book also includes a new collection of essays from an international set of contributors. These new essays highlight sites around the world that have developed a reputation for innovation in the longevity economy.
The innovative activity described throughout the book may exemplify a phenomenon called clustering: when businesses within a given sector emerge or congregate close to one another geographically. On its face, industrial or innovation clustering is something that ought not to happen, since, when businesses get physically close to one another, rent and congestion costs increase — incentivizing their dispersal. For clustering to occur, then, additional mechanisms must be at play, outweighing these natural costs. One possible explanation, many researchers have theorized, is that clusters tend to occur where useful, tacit knowledge flows among organizations.
In the case of longevity hubs, the editors hypothesize that two sorts of tacit knowledge are being shared. First is the simple awareness that the older market is worth serving. Second is insight into how best to meet its needs — a trickier proposition than many would-be elder-market conquerors realize. An earlier book by Coughlin, “The Longevity Economy” (PublicAffairs, 2017), discusses a long history of failed attempts by companies to design products and services for older adults. Speaking to the longevity economy is not easy, but these international longevity hubs represent successful, ongoing efforts to address the needs of older consumers.
The book’s opening chapters on the Greater Boston longevity hub encompass a swathe of sectors including biotech, health care, housing, transportation, and financial services. “Although life insurance is perhaps the clearest example of a financial services industry whose interests align with consumer longevity, it is far from the only one,” writes Brooks Tingle, president and CEO of John Hancock, in his entry. “Financial companies — especially those in Boston's increasingly longevity-aware business community — should dare to think big and join the effort to build a better old age.”
The book’s other contributions range far beyond Boston. They highlight, for example, Louisville, Kentucky, which is “the country’s largest hot spot for businesses specializing in aging care,” writes contributor and Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, in a chapter describing the city’s mix of massive health-care companies and smaller, nimbler startups. In Newcastle, in the U.K., a thriving biomedical industry laid the groundwork for a burst of innovation around the idea of aging as an economic opportunity, with initial funding from the public sector and academic research giving way to business development in the city. In Brazil’s São Paulo, meanwhile, in the absence of public funding from the national government, a grassroots network of academics, companies, and other institutions called Envelhecimento 2.0 is the main driver of aging innovation in the country.
“We are seeing a Cambrian explosion of efforts to provide a high quality of life for the world’s booming aging population,” says Coughlin. “And that explosion includes not just startups and companies, but also different regional economic approaches to taking the longevity dividend of living longer, and transforming it into an opportunity for everyone to live longer, better.”
By 2034, for the first time in history, older adults will outnumber children in the United States. That demographic shift represents an enormous societal challenge, and a grand economic opportunity. Greater Boston stands as a premier global longevity hub, but, as Coughlin and Yoquinto’s volume illustrates, there are potential competitors — and collaborators — popping up left and right. If and when innovation clusters befitting the title of “the Silicon Valley of longevity” do arise, it remains to be seen where they will appear first.
The international longevity hubs described in a new collection of essays edited by Luke Yoquinto (left) and Joe Coughlin represent successful, ongoing efforts to address the needs of older consumers.
The 12th piece in Penn Today’s Side Gigs for Good series highlights staff who mentor and empower Latino professionals, lead Girl Scout troops, donate hand-knitted items to people in need, and connect Philadelphia children with music opportunities.
People with diabetes who were taking GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs had significantly lower rates of hospital readmission, wound reopening and hematoma after surgery, according to new study.
The letter highlights the role that the Greater Cambridge region – which generates over £50bn of turnover per year for the UK – can play in driving national economic growth. The signatories set out the ambitions and opportunities which the region offers, and a sense of unity of purpose.
Open New Year Letter 2025
If science were a country then Cambridge would likely be its capital, and if discovery were a global competition the city and region would regularly be winning for Britain. That’s because Greater Cambridge is where innovation makes history and where the future comes first.
The ‘can-do’ spirit and ingenuity is hardwired, running from Newton’s law of gravity, through the rules of football codified here 175 years ago, the discovery of the structure of DNA, the medical and technological breakthroughs of IVF and microprocessor design. All of them discoveries that have changed how we think and how we live. The number of Nobel Prizes awarded to members of the University of Cambridge for significant advances recently reached an extraordinary 125. We believe that innovation not only makes history – it also makes a better world.
So, we are rightly proud of our city, its region and its people - past and present. But as we enter a new year the question before us is how we can collectively do more for the country now and in the future. Our future success must seek to include everyone, be shareable and sustainable.
Britain is at a critical fork in the road. There are important choices for the summer Spending Review which will help chart the course we take as a country for years to come. The tough economic environment puts a premium on investing in growth sectors for the long term and prioritising delivery, working together as never before.
We know that the Greater Cambridge region can be the beating heart of this national renewal. It is home to world-class clusters in strategically valuable emerging sectors including AI, Genomics, Life Sciences, Cybersecurity, Advanced Therapies and Semiconductor Design. It is home to two Universities where world leading research sits at the heart of this innovation community. It is incubating the technologies and unicorns of the future with an economy that generates over £50bn of turnover per year and is a net contributor of around £1bn to the Treasury annually.
The success of the Cambridge economy has a direct positive impact across the country, creating jobs elsewhere in priority sectors and supporting the emergence of other innovation clusters. We know we need to move faster together to help support the UK economy even more which is why Innovate Cambridge has brought people together to accelerate the pace of innovation across sectors and the wider ecosystem, working with the NHS as a key partner to develop the life sciences strategy
But if we are to maximise the potential benefits of those future Cambridge innovations - the ‘software’ breakthroughs - it will mean investing in the ‘hardware’ of the city. Lack of investment in housing, water and transport needs has meant we have not been able to maximise growth for Cambridge, the region and Britain.
We trust that the new Government recognises that any change cannot simply be done to the City and South Cambridgeshire but must be done with us in partnership, and we welcome the reappointment of Peter Freeman to the Cambridge Growth Company. The Government have renewed their commitment to Greater Cambridge which is why today we are renewing our commitment to Britain. As business and elected leaders across the city and region, we know that we must always balance long term strategic planning with delivery in the short term so we are facing into this important moment with a collective mindset - ‘Cambridge Can 2030’ - with three core priorities; purpose, partnership and pace. All united in endeavour by the power of possibility.
First, we are aligned on our collective purpose and what we believe Greater Cambridge can do for Britain, what it will require from all of us and what we need as a city and region to make it happen. To invest in homes with a new Development Corporation, to build new hospitals, to find creative ways to unlock lab and clinical space, to accelerate East West Rail and develop better transport links across the city and region and to build new reservoirs to fix the water crisis. And it must first and foremost be about people - their jobs, skills and community as well as their cultural, sport and leisure opportunities. New houses do not necessarily equate to good homes. What fits around them is equally important. Invest here and, in return, you will find an aligned and committed leadership group who will help drive delivery and make change happen.
We know progress depends on working with others right across the country. To that end we are excited by our developing partnerships with Manchester. City leaders have met at a senior level in recent months to map the future - with Mayors Andy Burnham and Dr Nik Johnson and the two Combined Authorities working closely together. We all believe there is a real opportunity to be seized through this regional first and are always looking to learn from others.
It is encouraging that increasing numbers of entrepreneurs and institutions are signing up to the Cambridge Pledge - committing a percentage of their future wealth to drive transformative change through social impact investment in the community. This is another example of how Cambridge does development differently and is an exemplar of inclusive change.
And finally pace. We have got to move at speed as there is not a moment to waste. Britain is in a global race for talent and ideas. The competition and the offer from international centres of innovation is growing, and it is increasingly being felt by firms in Cambridge.
Our past success has been hard earned and should give confidence that Greater Cambridge can be a beacon for Britain in the future. Backing Cambridge means backing regional job creation right across the country. and creating the path for the £10 billion life science and tech companies of the future. It is not a gamble. It can happen. Equally it can’t be taken for granted.
So it is time to embrace the possibility of now. Whilst no one is underestimating the challenges ahead of us we fervently believe we need to face into them with realism about what it will take to succeed but also with optimism and ambition about what we can deliver and the prize to be seized.
Britain’s best days can lie ahead. Our potential as a country is huge because the ingenuity, talents and spirit of its people are limitless. We have a shining past and the next chapter can be brighter still - and Cambridge can and will help write it.
Ahead of the Spending Review, an open letter to government from leaders across Cambridge, including the University’s Vice-Chancellor, sets out the clear case for renewed support for a region with a proven track record and which stands ready to deliver economic growth.
On the Pic du Midi in the Pyrenees, ETH Zurich researchers have analysed particulate matter, clouds and rainwater for traces of arsenic. Using newly developed measurement methods, they have elucidated the transport pathways of the environmental toxin in the atmosphere.
Whether you’re describing the sound of your faulty car engine or meowing like your neighbor’s cat, imitating sounds with your voice can be a helpful way to relay a concept when words don’t do the trick.
Vocal imitation is the sonic equivalent of doodling a quick picture to communicate something you saw — except that instead of using a pencil to illustrate an image, you use your vocal tract to express a sound. This might seem difficult, but it’s something we all do intuitively: To experience it for yourself, try using your voice to mirror the sound of an ambulance siren, a crow, or a bell being struck.
Inspired by the cognitive science of how we communicate, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers have developed an AI system that can produce human-like vocal imitations with no training, and without ever having "heard" a human vocal impression before.
To achieve this, the researchers engineered their system to produce and interpret sounds much like we do. They started by building a model of the human vocal tract that simulates how vibrations from the voice box are shaped by the throat, tongue, and lips. Then, they used a cognitively-inspired AI algorithm to control this vocal tract model and make it produce imitations, taking into consideration the context-specific ways that humans choose to communicate sound.
The model can effectively take many sounds from the world and generate a human-like imitation of them — including noises like leaves rustling, a snake’s hiss, and an approaching ambulance siren. Their model can also be run in reverse to guess real-world sounds from human vocal imitations, similar to how some computer vision systems can retrieve high-quality images based on sketches. For instance, the model can correctly distinguish the sound of a human imitating a cat’s “meow” versus its “hiss.”
In the future, this model could potentially lead to more intuitive “imitation-based” interfaces for sound designers, more human-like AI characters in virtual reality, and even methods to help students learn new languages.
The co-lead authors — MIT CSAIL PhD students Kartik Chandra SM ’23 and Karima Ma, and undergraduate researcher Matthew Caren — note that computer graphics researchers have long recognized that realism is rarely the ultimate goal of visual expression. For example, an abstract painting or a child’s crayon doodle can be just as expressive as a photograph.
“Over the past few decades, advances in sketching algorithms have led to new tools for artists, advances in AI and computer vision, and even a deeper understanding of human cognition,” notes Chandra. “In the same way that a sketch is an abstract, non-photorealistic representation of an image, our method captures the abstract, non-phono-realistic ways humans express the sounds they hear. This teaches us about the process of auditory abstraction.”
The art of imitation, in three parts
The team developed three increasingly nuanced versions of the model to compare to human vocal imitations. First, they created a baseline model that simply aimed to generate imitations that were as similar to real-world sounds as possible — but this model didn’t match human behavior very well.
The researchers then designed a second “communicative” model. According to Caren, this model considers what’s distinctive about a sound to a listener. For instance, you’d likely imitate the sound of a motorboat by mimicking the rumble of its engine, since that’s its most distinctive auditory feature, even if it’s not the loudest aspect of the sound (compared to, say, the water splashing). This second model created imitations that were better than the baseline, but the team wanted to improve it even more.
To take their method a step further, the researchers added a final layer of reasoning to the model. “Vocal imitations can sound different based on the amount of effort you put into them. It costs time and energy to produce sounds that are perfectly accurate,” says Chandra. The researchers’ full model accounts for this by trying to avoid utterances that are very rapid, loud, or high- or low-pitched, which people are less likely to use in a conversation. The result: more human-like imitations that closely match many of the decisions that humans make when imitating the same sounds.
After building this model, the team conducted a behavioral experiment to see whether the AI- or human-generated vocal imitations were perceived as better by human judges. Notably, participants in the experiment favored the AI model 25 percent of the time in general, and as much as 75 percent for an imitation of a motorboat and 50 percent for an imitation of a gunshot.
Toward more expressive sound technology
Passionate about technology for music and art, Caren envisions that this model could help artists better communicate sounds to computational systems and assist filmmakers and other content creators with generating AI sounds that are more nuanced to a specific context. It could also enable a musician to rapidly search a sound database by imitating a noise that is difficult to describe in, say, a text prompt.
In the meantime, Caren, Chandra, and Ma are looking at the implications of their model in other domains, including the development of language, how infants learn to talk, and even imitation behaviors in birds like parrots and songbirds.
The team still has work to do with the current iteration of their model: It struggles with some consonants, like “z,” which led to inaccurate impressions of some sounds, like bees buzzing. They also can’t yet replicate how humans imitate speech, music, or sounds that are imitated differently across different languages, like a heartbeat.
Stanford University linguistics professor Robert Hawkins says that language is full of onomatopoeia and words that mimic but don’t fully replicate the things they describe, like the “meow” sound that very inexactly approximates the sound that cats make. “The processes that get us from the sound of a real cat to a word like ‘meow’ reveal a lot about the intricate interplay between physiology, social reasoning, and communication in the evolution of language,” says Hawkins, who wasn’t involved in the CSAIL research. “This model presents an exciting step toward formalizing and testing theories of those processes, demonstrating that both physical constraints from the human vocal tract and social pressures from communication are needed to explain the distribution of vocal imitations.”
Caren, Chandra, and Ma wrote the paper with two other CSAIL affiliates: Jonathan Ragan-Kelley, MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science associate professor, and Joshua Tenenbaum, MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences professor and Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines member. Their work was supported, in part, by the Hertz Foundation and the National Science Foundation. It was presented at SIGGRAPH Asia in early December.
A new model can take many sounds from the world and generate a human-like imitation of them, like a snake’s hiss and an approaching ambulance siren. The system can also be run in reverse to guess real-world sounds from human vocal imitations.
Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have recently achieved a significant breakthrough in the development of next-generation carbon-based quantum materials, opening new horizons for advancements in quantum electronics.
The innovation involves a novel type of graphene nanoribbon (GNR), named Janus GNR (JGNR). The material has a unique zigzag edge, with a special ferromagnetic edge state located on one of the edges. This unique design enables the realisation of one-dimensional ferromagnetic spin chain, which could have important applications in quantum electronics and quantum computing.
The research was led by Associate Professor Lu Jiong and his team from the NUS Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with international partners.
Graphene nanoribbons, which are narrow strips of nanoscale honeycomb carbon structures, exhibit remarkable magnetic properties due to the behaviour of unpaired electrons in the atoms' π-orbitals. Through atomically precise engineering of their edge structures into a zigzag arrangement, a one-dimensional spin-polarised channel can be constructed. This feature offers immense potential for applications in spintronic devices or serving as next-generation multi-qubit systems which are the fundamental building blocks of quantum computing.
Janus, the ancient Roman god of beginnings and endings, is often depicted as having two faces pointing in opposite directions representing the past and the future. The term “Janus” has been applied in materials science to describe materials that have different properties on opposite sides. JGNR has a novel structure with only one edge of the ribbon having a zigzag form, making it the world’s first one-dimensional ferromagnetic carbon chain. This design is achieved by employing a Z-shaped precursor design which introduces a periodic array of hexagon carbon rings on one of the zigzag edges, breaking the structural and spin symmetry of the ribbon.
Assoc Prof Lu said, “Magnetic graphene nanoribbons - narrow strips of graphene formed by fused benzene rings - offers tremendous potential for quantum technologies due to their long spin coherence times and the potential to operate at room temperature. Creating a one-dimensional single zigzag edge in such systems is a daunting yet essential task for realising the bottom-up assembly of multiple spin qubits for quantum technologies.”
The significant achievement is a result of close collaboration among synthetic chemists, materials scientists, and theoretical physicists, including Professor Steven G Louie from UC Berkeley in the United States, Professor Hiroshi Sakaguchi from Kyoto University in Japan and other contributing authors.
The research breakthrough was published in the scientific journal Nature on 9 January 2025.
Creating the Janus graphene nanoribbons
To produce the JGNR, the researchers initially designed and synthesised a series of special ‘Z-shape’ molecular precursors via conventional in-solution chemistry. These precursors were then used for subsequent on-surface synthesis, which is a new type of solid-phase chemical reaction performed in an ultra-clean environment. This approach allowed the researchers to precisely control the shape and structure of the graphene nanoribbons at the atomic level.
The ‘Z-shape’ design allows for the asymmetric fabrication by independently modifying one of the two branches, thereby creating a desired ‘defective’ edge, while maintaining the other zigzag edge unchanged. Moreover, adjusting the length of the modified branch enables the modulation of the width of the JGNRs. Characterisation via state-of-art scanning probe microscopy/spectroscopy and first-principles density functional theory confirms the successful fabrication of JGNRs with ferromagnetic ground state exclusively localised along the single zigzag edge.
“The rational design and on-surface synthesis of a novel class of JGNR represent a conceptual and experimental breakthrough for realising one-dimensional ferromagnetic chain. Creating such JGNRs not only expands the possibilities for precise engineering of exotic quantum magnetism and enables the assembly of robust spin arrays as new-generation qubits. Furthermore, it enables the fabrication of one-dimensional spin-polarised transport channels with tunable bandgaps, which could advance carbon-based spintronics at the one-dimensional limit,” added Assoc Prof Lu.
In a joint class within the School of Social Policy Practice and the Annenberg School for Communication, PIK professor Desmond Upton Patton invites students to dream big in Journey to Joy: Designing a Happier Life.
If there’s a through line in Sydney Dolan’s pursuits, it’s a fervent belief in being a good steward — both in space and on Earth.
As a doctoral student in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), Dolan is developing a model that aims to mitigate satellite collisions. They see space as a public good, a resource for everyone. “There’s a real concern that you could be potentially desecrating a whole orbit if enough collisions were to happen,” they say. “We have to be very thoughtful about trying maintain people’s access, to be able to use space for all the different applications that it has today.”
Here on the Blue Planet, Dolan is passionate about building community and ensuring that students in the department have what they need to succeed. To that end, they have been deeply invested in mentoring other students; leading and participating in affinity groups for women and the LGBTQ+ community; and creating communications resources to help students navigate grad school.
Launching into new territories
Dolan’s interest in aerospace began as a high school student in Centerville, Virginia. A close friend asked them to go to a model rocket club meeting because she didn’t want to go alone. “I ended up going with her and really liking it, and it ended up becoming more of my thing than her kind of thing!” they say with a laugh. Building rockets and launching them in rural Virginia gave Dolan formative, hands-on experience in aerospace engineering and convinced them to pursue the field in college.
They attended Purdue University, lured by the beautiful aerospace building and the school’s stature as a leading producer of astronauts. While they’re grateful for the education they received at Purdue, the dearth of other women in the department was glaring.
That gender imbalance motivated Dolan to launch Purdue Women in Aerospace, to facilitate connections and work on changing the department’s culture. The group worked to make study spaces more welcoming to women and planned the inaugural Amelia Earhart Summit to celebrate women’s contributions to the field. Several hundred students, alumni, and others gathered for a full day of inspiring speakers, academic and industry panels, and networking opportunities.
During their junior year, Dolan was accepted into the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program, which places students with a commercial space company and pairs them with a career mentor. They interned at Nanoracks over the summer, developing a small cubesat payload that went on the International Space Station. Through the internship they met an MIT AeroAstro PhD alumna, Natalya Bailey ’14. Since Dolan was leaning toward going to graduate school, Bailey provided valuable advice about where to consider applying and what goes into an application package — as well as a plug for MIT.
Although they applied to other schools, MIT stood out. “At the time, I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to be more in systems engineering or if I wanted to specialize more in guidance, navigation, controls, and autonomy. And I really like that the program at MIT has strength in both of those areas,” Dolan explains, adding that few schools have both specialties. That way, they would always have the option to switch from one to the other if their interests changed.
Being a good space actor
That option would come in handy. For their master’s degree, they conducted two research projects in systems engineering. In their first year, they joined the Engineering Systems Laboratory, comparing lunar and Martian mission architectures to identify which technologies could be successfully deployed both on the moon and Mars to, as Dolan says, “get our bang for the buck.” Next, they worked on the Media Lab’s TESSERAE project, which aims to create tiles that can autonomously self-assemble to form science labs, zero-gravity habitats, and other applications in space. Dolan worked on the controls for the tiles and the feasibility of using computer vision for them.
Ultimately, Dolan decided to switch their focus to autonomy for their PhD, with a focus on satellite traffic applications. They joined the DINaMo Research Group, working with Hamsa Balakrishnan, associate dean of the School of Engineering and the William Leonhard (1940) Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Managing space traffic has become increasingly complex. As the cost to get to space decreases and new launch providers like SpaceX have spun up, the number of satellites has grown over the last few decades — as well as the risk of collisions. Traveling at approximately 17,000 miles per hour, satellites can cause catastrophic damage and create debris that, in turn, poses an additional hazard. The European Space Agency has estimated that there are roughly 11,500 satellites in orbit (2,500 of which are not active) and over 35,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 centimeters. Last February, there was a near-collision — missing by only 33 feet — between a NASAsatellite and a non-operational Russian spy satellite.
Despite these risks, there’s no centralized governing body monitoring satellite maneuvers, and many operators are reluctant to share their satellite’s exact location, although they will provide limited information, Dolan says. Their doctoral thesis aims to address these issues through a model that enables satellites to independently make decisions on maneuvers to avoid collisions, using information they glean from nearby satellites. Dolan’s approach is interdisciplinary, using reinforcement learning, game theory, and optimal control to abstract a graph representation of the space environment.
Dolan sees the model as a potential tool that could provide decentralized oversight and inform policy: “I’m largely just all in favor of being a good space actor, thinking of space as a protected resource, just like the national parks. And here’s a mathematical tool we can use to really validate that this sort of information would be helpful.”
Finding a natural fit
Now wrapping up their fifth year, Dolan has been deeply involved in the MIT AeroAstro community since arriving in 2019. They have served as a peer mediator in the dREFS program (Department Resources for Easing Friction and Stress); mentored other women students; and served as co-president of the Graduate Women in Aerospace Engineering group. As a communication fellow in the AeroAstro Communications Lab, Dolan has created and offered workshops, coaching, and other resources to help students with journal articles, fellowship applications, posters, resumes, and other forms of science communications. “I just believe so firmly that all people should have the same resources to succeed in grad school,” Dolan says. “MIT does a really great job providing a lot of resources, but sometimes it can be daunting to figure out what they are and who to ask.”
In 2020, they helped found an LGBTQ+ affinity group called QuASAR (Queer Advocacy Space in AeroAstro). Unlike most MIT clubs, QuASAR is open to everyone in the department — undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff. Members gather several times a year for social events, and QuASAR has hosted academic and industry panels to better reflect the variety of identities in the aerospace field.
In their spare time Dolan loves ultrarunning — that is, running distances greater than a marathon. To date, they’ve run 50-kilometer and 50-mile races, and recently, a whopping 120 miles in a backyard ultramarathon (“basically, run ’til you drop,” Dolan says). It’s a great antidote to stress, and, curiously, they’ve noticed there are a lot of PhD students in ultrarunning. “I was talking with my advisor about it one time and she’s like, ‘Sydney, you’re crazy, why on Earth would you do anything like that?’ She said this respectfully! And I’m like, ‘Yeah, why would I ever want to do a task that has an ambiguous end date and that requires a lot of work and discipline?’” Dolan says, grinning.
Their hard work and discipline will pay off as they prepare to complete their MIT journey. After wrapping up their degree program, Dolan hopes to land a faculty position at a college or university. Being a professor feels like a natural fit, they say, combining their fascination with aerospace engineering with their passion for teaching and mentoring. As to where they will end up, Dolan waxes philosophical: “I’m throwing a lot of darts at the wall, and we’ll see … it’s with the universe now.”
“I'm largely just all in favor of being a good space actor, thinking of space as a protected resource, just like the national parks,” says graduate student Sydney Dolan, seen here holding a 3D-printed model of a satellite.
Researchers in MIT Professor Stefanie Mueller’s group have spent much of the last decade developing a variety of computing techniques aimed at reimagining how products and systems are designed. Much in the way that platforms like Instagram allow users to modify 2-D photographs with filters, Mueller imagines a world where we can do the same thing for a wide array of physical objects.
In a new open-access paper, her team at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has demonstrated a novel printing technique along these lines — which they call “Thermochromorph” — that produces images that can change colors when heated up.
Led by first author and MIT electrical engineering and computer science doctoral student Ticha Melody Sethapakdi SM '22, the researchers say that they could imagine their method being applied in ways that are both artistic and functional, like a coffee-cup that warns if the liquid is too hot, or packaging for medicines or perishable foods that could indicate if the product has been stored at a safe temperature.
So-called “thermochromic” materials that visually change with temperature are not new — you can see examples with consumer beverages like Coke and Coors Light that reveal “ready to drink” labeling when refrigerated. But such instances in product marketing have traditionally been limited to a single color. By using inks with complementary characteristics — with one set that goes from clear to colored, and another from colored to clear — Sethapakdi says that she and her colleagues are “finally taking advantage of full-color process printing, which opens up a lot of possibilities for designing with thermochromic materials.”
The researchers worked with several visual artists to teach them to use Thermochromorph, and then solicited feedback and brainstorming about new narrative concepts and techniques unlocked by the tool, like color-changing postcards that could tell sequential stories in more compact, dynamic ways. One participant even plans to use Thermochromorph to make an educational science kit aimed at teaching students about sea creatures that change color.
The team developed their method to be applied specifically to “relief printing,” an early form of printmaking that involves carving a design into a block of material, applying ink or pigment to it, and then transferring the image onto paper or another surface.
Sethapakdi says that, compared to techniques like screen printing, relief printing is “more lightweight” and can be done with less setup and fewer materials, enabling a faster, lower-stakes iteration process. Artists that include the likes of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí have used a range of related approaches in their work, such as woodcut and linocut printing.
“Our key contribution is applying these new materials to a traditional artistic process, and exploring how artists might be able to use it as part of their practice,” says Sethapakdi, lead author on a related paper that was recently presented at SIGGRAPH Asia in Tokyo.
The color-changing component also need not come from an active external heating or cooling source like, say, a fridge or a hot plate; using thermochromic inks with lower activation temperatures can allow for more subtle thermal changes brought about by human touch. Sethapakdi says she could even imagine applying this new process to create interactive surfaces or dynamic analog “interfaces” that visually change in response to touch.
Thermochromorph combines digital and analog processes in the form of, on the one hand, CMYK imaging and laser cutting, and, on the other, manual printmaking and thermochromic inks. Fabrication involves four core steps:
Block preparation: Solid hardwood blocks are used for Thermochromorph. The blocks are laser cut and engraved with the desired design, and then rinsed with water to remove any leftover particles.
Inking the block: First, a thin layer of ink is spread evenly onto a plate using a rubber brayer. Then, the ink is transferred from the brayer to the woodblock.
Registration: A registration jig is used to position the woodblock to ensure the different ink layers are aligned correctly. The printing surface, such as paper, is then placed on top of the block and secured.
Printing the images: A printing press is used to apply even pressure across the printing surface and transfer the ink from the block to the surface. The hot image is printed first, followed by the cold image. (If necessary, additional ink can be applied to specific areas of the block to touch up the print.)
The three prints the team used to demonstrate their technique were a set of frames from a Batman comic, a label depicting a fish and its underlying skeleton, and an image of a male subject both in profile and viewed from the front. (For the latter, as the temperature changes, the viewpoint gradually shifts, giving the effect of motion.)
It’s worth noting that Thermochromorph does have some potential limitations related to image resolution and print quality. Specifically, image resolution is constrained by the smallest dot size that the team’s laser cutter can engrave. Techniques like screen printing would offset this, but with the additional drawback of needing more time and materials. In terms of print quality, the pigments are not entirely invisible in their ‘clear’ states, which means that the clarity of the transitions depends on how thickly the ink layers were applied during printmaking. While this issue is intrinsic to the properties of the pigments, Sethapakdi says that for future iterations the team plans to explore different image-processing techniques to modify the overlay of halftone patterns for the hot and cold images, which may help to reduce these visual artifacts.
Sethapakdi and Mueller co-authored the new paper alongside Juliana Covarrubias ’24, MIT graduate student in media arts and sciences Paris Myers, University of California at Berkeley PhD student Tianyu Yu, and Adobe Research Scientist Mackenzie Leake.
MIT graduate student researchers Paris Myers (left) and Ticha Sethapakdi watch as a drawing of a human face turns its head to the right. Thermochromorph combines CMYK imaging, laser cutting, manual printmaking, and thermochromic inks to transform images.
Yari Golden-Castaño first learned about the moon, planets, and space while her grandmother in Mexico, Barbarita, taught her how to read from an encyclopedia. Golden-Castaño had already earned the nickname “little astronaut” among her family because of an astronaut onesie that her mother dressed her in. By third grade, she had read a book stating that one needed to be a teacher, a doctor, or an engineer in order to become an astronaut.
“Something was put in my head as a little kid, and I actually wanted it,” says Golden-Castaño. “I didn’t think I could be a doctor, and I didn’t want to be a teacher. I liked to build things and felt like physics and math came easy to me, so I decided I would become an engineer.”
A dream deferred
Although STEM-oriented, Golden-Castaño didn't experience STEM in a hands-on way until eighth grade, when she was selected for the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program. She grew up in a part of Southern California where funding for STEM activities was scarce. Through the GATE program for advanced science students, she saw concepts learned in the classroom come to life.
“Not everyone understands how things work just by reading a textbook. Personally, I need a visualization. Had I not been selected for this program, I wouldn’t have known that I could be doing these hands-on activities,” she says.
For Golden-Castaño, the GATE program was difficult not because of the STEM concepts covered, but because of the English language barrier. By high school, she was better able to express herself and was excelling in all of her Advanced Placement classes. Yet, when she asked one of her teachers how to become an astronaut, he laughed in her face. “Are you high? What are you taking? You'll never be an engineer or astronaut as a girl,” the teacher said. Other teachers shared his sentiment, pushing Golden-Castaño to attend a liberal arts college and suggesting that she study Spanish — in case she changed her mind.
“His response made me feel stupid,” Golden-Castaño says. “In that moment, I decided I would stop telling people that I wanted to be an astronaut one day. I would just go to engineering school and focus on getting my degree. I never once thought about getting out of engineering.”
Mission to Mars
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in engineering science from Smith College in 2010, Golden-Castaño joined MIT Lincoln Laboratory as a data analyst in a group developing air traffic control systems. At the laboratory, she was surrounded by like-minded individuals who shared her aspiration to journey to space.
“Shortly after I arrived, I heard that NASA had put out a call for astronaut applications, and many of my colleagues were applying,” Golden-Castaño says. “That gave me hope and inspired me to open back up about my dream.”
In 2013, when the Mars One mission to establish the first human colony on the Red Planet was announced, Golden-Castaño jumped at the chance to obtain a one-way ticket there. By 2015, the 200,000 initial applicants had been whittled down to 100: 50 men and 50 women. On the short list of women was Golden-Castaño’s name. (The Mars 100 were eventually supposed to be down-selected to 24 finalists, but the company backing the mission declared bankruptcy in 2019.)
The supportive laboratory community and excitement surrounding the prospect of venturing to Mars formed the perfect combination for Golden-Castaño to share her passion for space. She started giving talks at schools across Boston, and even in Mexico, about her dream to become an astronaut and her path into engineering.
“Having the Mars tag gave me a wider platform to reach out,” Golden-Castaño says. “I now had something to share with students. When I saw their reaction — wow, you’re one of us, you’re a girl, and you didn't stop chasing your dreams when someone told you that you weren’t capable — I realized that I had their attention and should do something more than just talk.”
Golden-Castaño had engaged in some educational outreach while serving as vice president of Smith College’s Society of Women Engineers (SWE) during her senior year. She ran a four-workshop version of SWE’s annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. Though the event went well, she thought that would be her first and last encounter with educational outreach.
“I was really shy. I didn’t want to stand in front of anyone, let alone have them rely on me for information,” Golden-Castaño explains.
Upon joining the laboratory, she instead became involved in community outreach, including volunteering at a Boston food pantry, cleaning up the Charles River, and helping local farms prepare their soil for farming. But now that she was a face of the Mars One mission, she felt compelled to get back into educational outreach and tell her story.
Golden-Castaño volunteered at an Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day event run by laboratory colleague Damaris Toepel. Within a few years, Golden-Castaño took over running the event and began noticing that the fifth through eighth grade girls were bored with the content and complaining that they had already done these sorts of workshops.
“Their feedback made me realize that these are girls who have access and opportunity; they are the daughters of our engineers, and attend schools where teachers can afford materials for hands-on demos,” Golden-Castaño says.
Poised for blastoff
Disheartened by this realization and remembering her own limited opportunities as a student, Golden-Castaño in May 2017 created a spinoff of this event called Girls Space Day Adventure. With other volunteers, she assembled eight hands-on space-related demonstrations to bring to MIT in collaboration with women in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. To recruit participants, they contacted schools in the Greater Boston area, aiming to reach underserved students (targeting but not limiting to girls) who could easily travel to MIT campus via subway. A coed turnout of around 60 students rotated through the demonstrations. However, recreating that event proved difficult because many of the volunteers subsequently left the laboratory. Small-scale versions of Girls Space Day Adventure have since run onsite and at nearby schools, as the demonstrations were formatted to be presented independently.
In parallel, Golden-Castaño began an external eight-week program for second and third graders, called “Mission to Mars.” Each week focuses on a different aspect of what it takes to go to Mars, such as living under the planet’s gravity, designing a suitable habitat, and growing vegetables that can flourish in Martian soil. On the last day, the students don an astronaut suit and navigate an obstacle course as they communicate with their “ground control” partner via walkie-talkie.
Supporting Golden-Castaño as these outreach efforts took off was her now-husband, R. Daniel, whom she met through Mars One. He helped her build many of the demonstrations, even before he started working as a contractor in the laboratory’s Laser Communications Group.
After hosting Girls Space Day Adventure and Mission to Mars, Golden-Castaño had an idea to make outreach more self-sustaining over the long term by having demonstrations ready for volunteers to deploy at different schools. From that idea, the Girls’ Innovation Research Laboratory (G.I.R.L.) was born at Lincoln Laboratory in 2019. The program sought to create standalone hands-on workshops on diverse STEM topics, encourage disadvantaged girls to take part (though events are coed), and support women or any laboratory staff members willing to volunteer as STEM role models.
“The goals of G.I.R.L. are to inspire girls to innovate technologies that serve our communities and empower them with the skills, knowledge, resources, and confidence to pursue STEM. For me, another goal is to give women the confidence to volunteer and learn a topic that they may be unfamiliar with, and then go teach it,” says Golden-Castaño, who had to step outside her own comfort zone to do just that.
A vast space
Since its inception, G.I.R.L. has hosted about 50 workshops and reached more than 300 students. Staff from the laboratory's Communications and Community Outreach Office have established relationships with several Greater Boston area schools; organizations including Brookview House, Girls Inc., Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and House of Hope; and events such as Science on State Street and the Christa McAuliffe Center STEM Week Open House. G.I.R.L. provides the resources and materials volunteers need for their demonstrations.
“We have a reservoir of smart women at the lab, and they have knowledge that can be shared. Volunteers can propose demonstrations on topics of their choosing and independently take them to schools or organizations. We now have a full 'menu' of demonstrations that we can run at any time. Having kids access these hands-on activities that I didn't get to experience outside of the GATE program is inspiring.”
Workshops have spanned diverse fields, including programming, mechanical and electrical engineering, robotics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, optics, forensics, planetary science, and chemistry. One workshop, on Scratch programming with a Makey Makey Board (controller board), teaches students how to assemble a circuit and program a musical instrument to play when they touch keys on the board. In an artificial intelligence-themed workshop, students play an AI-or-not guessing game and sort items such as candies to mimic how a decision-tree algorithm works. A workshop covering cybersecurity and internet safety teaches students to see the risks of putting personal information online, decrypt messages, physically pick locks, and understand internet protocols. In a workshop on the basics of light, students assemble light-emitting diode (LED) color-mixing crystals and then use light-diffraction glasses to observe how light splits into different colors at various angles.
More recently, G.I.R.L. launched a workshop on chemical reactions, in which students make their own color reactions and learn about chemiluminescence. The latest workshop focused on mechanics, with students assembling a mechanical arm out of cardboard by tracing a hand template and using string to move the fingers through a mechanism similar to a puppeteer controlling a marionette’s limbs. Students also attached a strip of LED onto the back of the arm; Golden-Castaño wrote code to make the light change color depending on which finger is curled.
For Golden-Castaño, one of the most fulfilling parts of G.I.R.L. is capturing the attention of students, especially those who initially seem disinterested.
“I’ve arrived in many classrooms where the kids are being disrespectful and talking over us,” Golden-Castaño says. “Then, we start the demo, and even the loudest kid is now attentive and asking relevant questions. Watching them engage with the program is rewarding.”
To keep this momentum going, all G.I.R.L. workshops send students home with follow-up links or materials providing additional learning resources. The volunteers also share their academic and career journeys so that students can envision a path forward.
“One important lesson I’ve learned is that kids don’t want to hear you've known from the beginning what you want to be when you grow up and everything has worked out for you,” Golden-Castaño says. “For many students, G.I.R.L. represents their first hands-on experience with STEM or the first time they are hearing they can do STEM. So, I’m always honest with them. I tell them that I didn't have straight As, and it’s not too late for them to start today.”
Besides the lack of exposure to STEM, some G.I.R.L. participants face a language barrier, which Golden-Castaño knows all too well. Fluent in conversational Spanish but lacking a technical vocabulary in that language, she has been trying on the fly to translate lessons delivered in English into Spanish. Earlier this year, she prepared ahead of time a presentation in Spanish for a chemistry workshop.
To infinity and beyond
Five years in, the G.I.R.L. program is still going strong, having withstood the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, which necessitated running the workshops virtually and shipping materials like pre-made kits to classrooms.
“We have a system that works overall,” she says. “But we’re at a point where I'd like to see another burst of participation from a new set of volunteers coming up with new demonstrations.”
Noting the diverse work ongoing at the laboratory across its R&D areas, Golden-Castaño has several future workshop topics in mind: smart fabrics, biochemistry for threat identification, underwater laser communication, rapid prototyping, technology solutions for climate change, and safety with AI. The possibilities are endless.
Golden-Castaño, in collaboration with the group that led the Girls Space Day Adventure on MIT campus, also has an app idea for matching volunteers to classrooms in a more automated, targeted way. The app would feature profiles of volunteers — stating their STEM background, demonstrations they lead, and scheduling availability — that teachers could scroll through to determine who complements their classroom curriculum. For example, a teacher of an environmental science class may request the volunteer leading a weather station workshop.
“G.I.R.L. has been a really good journey. Thank you to everyone who made it all possible. I’m grateful to have the support of the many volunteers, instructors, my group leaders, and the Outreach Office,” says Golden-Castaño, now part of the laboratory’s Systems Engineering Group, where she focuses on the assembly, integration, and testing of laser communication systems.
While keeping an eye out for the next opportunity to pursue her dream of becoming an astronaut, Golden-Castaño considers her work at the laboratory as foundational for future space exploration: “I’m working on technology that could enable future human missions to space.”
Yari Golden-Castaño displays a mechanical arm made out of cardboard — the product of a hands-on activity for a recent G.I.R.L. workshop hosted at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
The size and spin of black holes can reveal important information about how and where they formed, according to new research. The study tests the idea that many of the black holes observed by astronomers have merged multiple times within densely populated environments containing millions of stars.
The team, involving researchers from the University of Cambridge, examined the public catalogue of 69 gravitational wave events involving binary black holes detected by The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo Observatory for clues about these successive mergers, which they believe create black holes with distinctive spin patterns.
They discovered that a black hole’s spin changes when it reaches a certain mass, suggesting it may have been produced through a series of multiple previous mergers.
Their study, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, shows how spin measurements can reveal the formation history of a black hole and offers a step forward in understanding the diverse origins of these astrophysical phenomena.
“As we observe more black hole mergers with gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and Virgo, it becomes ever clearer that black holes exhibit diverse masses and spins, suggesting they may have formed in different ways,” said lead author Dr Fabio Antonini from Cardiff University. “However, identifying which of these formation scenarios is most common has been challenging.”
The team pinpointed a clear mass threshold in the gravitational waves data where black hole spins consistently change.
They say this pattern aligns with existing models which assume black holes are produced through repeat collisions in clusters, rather than other environments where spin distributions are different.
This result supports a robust and relatively model-independent signature for identifying these kinds of black holes, something that has been challenging to confirm until now, according to the team.
“Our study gives us a powerful, data-driven way to identify the origins of a black hole’s formation history, showing that the way it spins is a strong indicator of it belonging to a group of high-mass black holes, which form in densely populated star clusters where small black holes repeatedly collide and merge with one another,” said co-author Dr Isobel Romero-Shaw, from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.
Their study will now help astrophysicists further refine computer models which simulate the formation of black holes, helping to shape how future gravitational wave detections are interpreted.
“Collaborating with other researchers and using advanced statistical methods will help to confirm and expand our findings, especially as we move toward next-generation detectors,” said co-author Dr Thomas Callister from the University of Chicago. “The Einstein Telescope, for example, could detect even more massive black holes and provide unprecedented insights into their origins.”
Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand was conferred the Honorary Doctor of Letters by NUS on 8 January 2025 in recognition of her significant contributions to Thailand and the international community, as well as her integral role in strengthening ties between Singapore and Thailand through her support of various Singapore initiatives in education.
Princess Sirindhorn was presented with the honorary degree during a conferment ceremony presided over by NUS Chancellor Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of the Republic of Singapore, held at the Istana.
The Honorary Degree is the University’s highest form of recognition for outstanding individuals who have rendered distinguished service and made a significant impact on Singapore and the world.
In his speech at the conferment ceremony, NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye commended Princess Sirindhorn for embodying the spirit of scholarship through her wide-ranging academic pursuits, her contributions to advancing education around the world, as well as her unwavering dedication to development and humanitarian efforts with various Thai and international organisations.
“Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn is an accomplished academic, a polyglot, an educator, a royal with a heart for the Thai people, and a cherished friend to Singapore,” said Prof Tan. “We are deeply inspired by her exceptional talents, unwavering dedication to serving underprivileged communities, and her commitment to creating meaningful impact.”
An academically accomplished royal
Presenting the citation for Princess Sirindhorn’s conferment, Professor Simon Chesterman, NUS Vice Provost (Educational Innovation) and Dean of NUS College, paid tribute to her distinguished career marked by multiple degrees, including a Bachelor of Arts in History, a Master of Arts in Oriental Epigraphy, a Master of Arts in Pali and Sanskrit, and a Doctor of Education in Development Education. She has also been awarded Honorary Doctorates from esteemed institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and Peking University.
Princess Sirindhorn began her academic career teaching history at the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy in 1980, later serving as Director of the Department of History until her retirement in 2015. She has delivered lectures on topics such as Thai history, sustainable development, arts and humanities, education and sciences, and various developmental issues.
Prof Chesterman also highlighted Princess Sirindhorn’s “strong sense of intellectual curiosity”. Along with her extensive knowledge of botany and photography, Princess Sirindhorn has studied Pali, Sanskrit, Latin, and Khmer and speaks Thai, English, French, German, Latin and Mandarin. In addition, she has translated several Chinese literary works into Thai.
An unwavering dedication to service
Princess Sirindhorn is a patron of many philanthropic organisations and foundations that advance development, education, cultural preservation and humanitarian causes. They include the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Foundation she established and the Chaipattana Foundation founded by her father, the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, where she oversees development projects in areas such as agriculture, water and natural resource management, social development and cultural conservation. She has also served as Executive Vice President of the Thai Red Cross Society since 1977.
“Her Royal Highness’ contributions have been recognised internationally. Her Royal Highness has received multiple awards and acknowledgements from countries around the world and international organisations, including the United Nations,” Prof Chesterman noted.
These include her appointments as Special Ambassador of the World Food Programme for School Feeding, in recognition of her expertise in nutrition and commitment to humanitarian work, and as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Empowerment of Minority Children through Education and through the Preservation of their Intangible Cultural Heritage, for her work in promoting the welfare of minority youth and children in remote areas.
An advocate for bilateral cooperation
In Singapore, Princess Sirindhorn has advocated for various initiatives related to science, technology and education.
“Her Royal Highness has also played an instrumental role in strengthening Singapore and Thailand’s strong and enduring friendship,” Prof Chesterman said, noting her support of the National Research Foundation’s Global Young Scientists Summit, which has broadened and deepened the bonds between young scientists of both countries. The Princess has frequently graced the summit’s opening ceremonies, including this year’s iteration, which was held a day earlier.
Her visit to NorthLight School in Singapore in 2013 led to an educational and cultural exchange programme between the school and the Chaipattana Foundation that continues today through reciprocal visits, alongside friendship and learning opportunities, for students of both countries.
In 2012, she was the inaugural recipient of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies’ Distinguished Honorary Fellow Award.
In her speech accepting the Honorary Doctor of Letters, Princess Sirindhorn said, “Receiving this honorary degree from NUS is a testament to the shared values, especially on education and development, between Thailand and Singapore. These values have contributed to strengthening the bonds in our two nations, especially when Thailand and Singapore celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year.”
“This significant milestone is not only a reminder of deep ties of friendship, but also offers an opportunity to reflect on our achievements and to envision new avenues for collaboration, especially in education, culture, research and innovation,” she added.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) today conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters on Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of the Kingdom of Thailand, in recognition of her remarkable contributions within Thailand and internationally, which have positively impacted the lives of many and brought significant benefits to Thailand and the global community. Princess Sirindhorn was the driving force behind several initiatives to bring the people of Singapore and Thailand, in particular our youths, together.
The Honorary Degree is the University’s highest form of recognition for outstanding individuals who have rendered distinguished service and made significant impact, both locally and globally. A conferment ceremony, presided over by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of the Republic of Singapore and NUS Chancellor, was held at the Istana this afternoon.
NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye said, “NUS is honoured to confer the Honorary Doctor of Letters on Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. She is an accomplished academic, a polyglot, an educator, a royal with a heart for the Thai people, and a cherished friend to Singapore. Her Royal Highness has lent her generous support to initiatives that seek to uplift, empower, and inspire young people through education, as well as many other meaningful causes including agricultural development, cultural conservation, disaster relief, and the right to food. We are deeply inspired by her exceptional talents, unwavering dedication to serving underprivileged communities, and her commitment to creating meaningful impact.”
A distinguished academic and dedicated lifelong learner
Princess Sirindhorn has a strong aptitude for learning, holding several degrees – Bachelor of Arts in History, Master of Arts in Oriental Epigraphy, Master of Arts in Pali and Sanskrit, and a Doctorate in Education. She has a natural talent for languages, having studied languages such as Pali, Sanskrit, and Khmer, and is fluent in multiple languages, including Thai, English, French, German, Latin, and Mandarin. She has also translated several Chinese literary works into Thai.
Princess Sirindhorn started her academic career teaching history at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy (CRMA) in 1980. A passionate educator, she has taught courses in Thai studies, Thai history and Southeast Asian history, East Asian history, and contemporary world history. When CRMA established the Department of History in 1987, she became the Director of the Department, a role she held until her retirement in 2015. She has also delivered lectures on a diverse range of other topics, including on defence and military, sustainable development, arts and humanities, education and sciences, and various developmental issues.
A firm believer that knowledge acquisition fuels curiosity and sharpens minds, Princess Sirindhorn continues to exhibit intellectual curiosity in her pursuit of lifelong learning. She continues to deepen her knowledge in a broad range of subjects such as computing, cartography, meteorology, survey and photogrammetry, remote sensing and geographic information system and nutrition.
Princess Sirindhorn has received numerous Honorary Doctorates from prestigious educational institutions worldwide, including Johns Hopkins University and Peking University.
Notable contributions to Thailand and the international community
Princess Sirindhorn is highly respected for her role in advancing education, cultural preservation, and humanitarian efforts, both in Thailand and internationally. She is the patron of several foundations aimed at uplifting Thai society, including the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Foundation and the Chaipattana Foundation. She is also the Executive Vice President of the Thai Red Cross Society.
Princess Sirindhorn has been honoured with numerous awards and recognitions from countries around the world and esteemed UN organisations. In 2004, she was a Special Ambassador of the United Nations World Food Programme for School Feeding. In 2005, she was a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Empowerment of Minority Children through Education and through the Preservation of their Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Please refer to the Annexe for more information about Princess Sirindhorn’s achievements and contributions.
A cherished friend of Singapore
Princess Sirindhorn has been personally involved in Singapore’s efforts to promote research and development in science and technology and special education.
She has consistently supported the Global Young Scientists Summit (GYSS), personally nominating young Thai scientists to attend the event and regularly participating in the GYSS, many of which have been held at NUS. She was also an Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Distinguished Honorary Fellow in Singapore in 2012.
Following Princess Sirindhorn’s visit to NorthLight School in Singapore in 2013, NorthLight School and Chaipattana Foundation established the Chaipattana Foundation–Republic of Singapore Short-term Cultural and Educational Exchange Programme, which has helped strengthen ties between Thai and Singaporean students.
Past recipients
Past recipients of the NUS Honorary Doctor of Letters include Professor Wang Gungwu (2022), Professor Klaus Schwab (2017), Mr Ban Ki-Moon (2016), the late Mr S R Nathan (2012), and Dr Li Lanqing (2006).
Almost one year into their new role as director of the LGBT Center, Eric Anglero looks to support students and community with robust programming and a place where “you can just be.”
Nuclear has changed. Will the U.S. change with it?
The first two nuclear reactors built in the U.S. in decades opened recently, alongside older reactors, at the Vogtle plant in Waynesboro, Georgia.
Mike Stewart/AP Photo
Christina Pazzanese
Harvard Staff Writer
7 min read
Citing safety improvements and rising demand, analyst expects revival of energy with a checkered history
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Daniel Poneman served as CEO of Centrus Energy, a supplier of nuclear fuel, from 2015 through 2023.
Fueled by artificial intelligence, cloud service providers, and ambitious new climate regulations, U.S. demand for carbon-free electricity is on the rise. In response, analysts and lawmakers are taking a fresh look at a controversial energy source: nuclear power.
Two new reactors in Georgia are the first in consecutive years in the U.S. since 1990. In June, Congress overwhelmingly passed the ADVANCE Act, a bipartisan bill that boosts the number of reactors coming on line. Late last year, tech giants Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all pledged to invest in small reactors to help meet their future energy needs.
In this edited conversation with the Gazette, Daniel Poneman, a senior fellow at the Belfer Center, discusses the growing momentum behind nuclear power plants. Poneman served as deputy secretary of energy and chief operating officer at the U.S. Department of Energy from 2009 to 2014. From 2015 through 2023 he was CEO of Centrus Energy, a supplier of nuclear fuel to power plants around the world.
Is nuclear power making a comeback?
I believe the answer is yes, because we have new factors present and they’re all converging to add momentum to nuclear. For a long time, a lot of people have been worried about climate change and reducing carbon emissions. The only source of clean power that’s been proven to work — day or night, season in, season out, in any geographic location, and successfully operating at large scale — that’s nuclear. It’s just shy of 20 percent of our total electricity production and nearly half of our carbon-free electricity.
On top of that is this vertiginous increase in electricity demand that’s driven by 1) the AI revolution and 2) the effort to decarbonize not only power generation, which is about one-quarter of total emissions, but also transportation and industrial processes. If you have electric vehicles and you get the power for the vehicles from coal plants, you haven’t solved the emissions problem.
The last factor is the hyper scalers, which have the wherewithal and frankly the balance sheets to support these very substantial investments in nuclear. So, you have all of those market-driven factors and strong recognition by the government of the importance of nuclear. I don’t think there’s any issue that has broader or deeper bipartisan support than this one. All of these things are converging to add new momentum to American nuclear energy.
Historically, opposition to nuclear power has been linked to safety and environmental concerns —including waste— and on the business side, to high costs and low profits. What’s different — is today’s nuclear power safer, cleaner, more cost-effective?
In terms of security, when people were concerned after 9/11, changes were undertaken. And obviously, a lot of lessons were drawn after Fukushima. There has been a continuous set of improvements over the years.
When you ask what’s different: There is a whole new generation called advanced reactors. One of the problems over the years is that large reactors got larger and larger, and each one became a bespoke project. There were too many change orders within a single reactor project, and that just kills you on budget.
One thing is to go to factory-built, small reactors that can be standardized, punched out like a cookie cutter, the same design over and over. The more of these things you punch out, the cheaper it gets, and the more practice you have installing them, the cheaper it gets. If you do things like that, you can improve on safety and budget.
The waste issue depends on the specific reactor technology. Some advanced reactors are based on existing Gen III designs, so their waste would be the same but with smaller quantities because the reactors are smaller. Gen IV reactors use fast neutrons, which allow a more efficient use of fuel and therefore a reduction of total volumes. Some Gen IV reactors can burn used fuel that has already been irradiated, which would have the effect of both burning out some of the minor actinides and turning what is now considered “waste” into a source of more energy. At the end of the day, all nuclear waste, whether from current generation or advanced reactors, will need to be disposed in deep geologic formations; this is a safe process with well-known technology.
“I don’t think there’s any issue that has broader or deeper bipartisan support than this one.”
The Biden administration late last year announced several new U.S. nuclear benchmarks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Are those goals realistic?
They’re ambitious, but I think they’re necessary if we’re going to reach our targets. At the Belfer Center, I’m working on a project on how to get 200 gigawatts of new nuclear built in the United States by 2050. A bunch of things have to happen right for that to be achievable. But I have great confidence that when there’s something that’s truly important, and people in the United States put their minds to it, we can do great things. But it’s going to take smart government policies. We’re going to have to have lean and effective regulations. We’ve got to figure out a way to spread the cost and risk sufficiently, so you induce people to act sooner rather than later.
Government loan guarantees that reduce the cost of capital can both defray first-mover risks and also give confidence to the private sector to co-invest. If we concentrate our efforts, we have a chance to restore U.S. global leadership.
What factors will determine whether those goals are reached or derailed?
Government is going to have to be there in terms of smart tax policy, in terms of providing things like cost-overrun insurance. The government also can be an important source of demand, especially for small and micro reactors that have potential applications such as supporting micro grids for things that can’t afford to go dark — military bases, things of that character. If there’s a cyber threat from an enemy or from some natural event, I would recommend the government buy a bunch of these small reactors to help them get over that first-of-a-kind challenge that is so hard to overcome for private entrepreneurs who can’t wait decades for an adequate return on investment. Private capital can then take the confidence that comes from having strong co-investment and commitments from the federal side.
You’re going to have to have the engineering, procurement, and construction contractors who got rusty over the last few decades get back into the game and execute well. And we’re going to have to have the talent pool grow and training programs at the university level, but also in the trades and organized labor. Many thousands and, ultimately, hundreds of thousands of jobs are needed.
You’re going to need well-trained people in the supply chain manufacturing these very precise components and parts. It’s going to take a group effort. And to maintain the social license to do this, we have to bring all of civil society along with us. So far, in recent years, you see a lot of very positive movement in that direction.
Elaine Jutamulia ’24 took a sip of coffee with a few drops of anise extract. It was her second try.
“What do you think?” asked Omar Orozco, standing at a lab table in MIT’s Breakerspace, surrounded by filters, brewing pots, and other coffee paraphernalia.
“I think when I first tried it, it was still pretty bitter,” Jutamulia said thoughtfully. “But I think now that it’s steeped for a little bit — it took out some of the bitterness.”
Jutamulia and current MIT senior Orozco were part of class 3.000 (Coffee Matters: Using the Breakerspace to Make the Perfect Cup), a new MIT course that debuted in spring 2024. The class combines lectures on chemistry and the science of coffee with hands-on experimentation and group projects. Their project explored how additives such as anise, salt, and chili oil influence coffee extraction — the process of dissolving flavor compounds from ground coffee into water — to improve taste and correct common brewing errors.
Alongside tasting, they used an infrared spectrometer to identify the chemical compounds in their coffee samples that contribute to flavor. Does anise make bitter coffee smoother? Could chili oil balance the taste?
“Generally speaking, if we could make a recommendation, that’s what we’re trying to find,” Orozco said.
A three-unit “discovery class” designed to help first-year students explore majors, 3.000 was widely popular, enrolling more than 50 students. Its success was driven by the beverage at its core and the class’s hands-on approach, which pushes students to ask and answer questions they might not have otherwise.
For aeronautics and astronautics majors Gabi McDonald and McKenzie Dinesen, coffee was the draw, but the class encouraged them to experiment and think in new ways. “It’s easy to drop people like us in, who love coffee, and, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s this class where we can go make coffee half the time and try all different kinds of things?’” McDonald says.
Percolating knowledge
The class pairs weekly lectures on topics such as coffee chemistry, the anatomy and composition of a coffee bean, the effects of roasting, and the brewing process with tasting sessions — students sample coffee brewed from different beans, roasts, and grinds. In the MIT Breakerspace, a new space on campus conceived and managed by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), students use equipment such as a digital optical microscope to examine ground coffee particles and a scanning electron microscope, which shoots beams of electrons at samples to reveal cross-sections of beans in stunning detail.
Once students learn to operate instruments for guided tasks, they form groups and design their own projects.
“The driver for those projects is some question they have about coffee raised by one of the lectures or the tasting sessions, or just something they’ve always wanted to know,” says DMSE Professor Jeffrey Grossman, who designed and teaches the class. “Then they’ll use one or more of these pieces of equipment to shed some light on it.”
Grossman traces the origins of the class to his initial vision for the Breakerspace, a laboratory for materials analysis and lounge for MIT undergraduates. Opened in November 2023, the space gives students hands-on experience with materials science and engineering, an interdisciplinary field combining chemistry, physics, and engineering to probe the composition and structure of materials.
“The world is made of stuff, and these are the tools to understand that stuff and bring it to life,” says Grossman. So he envisioned a class that would give students an “exploratory, inspiring nudge.”
“Then the question wasn’t the pedagogy, it was, ‘What’s the hook?’ In materials science, there are a lot of directions you could go, but if you have one that inspires people because they know it and maybe like it already, then that’s exciting.”
Cup of ambition
That hook, of course, was coffee, the second-most-consumed beverage after water. It captured students’ imagination and motivated them to push boundaries.
Orozco brought a fair amount of coffee knowledge to the class. In 2023, he taught in Mexico through the MISTI Global Teaching Labs program, where he toured several coffee farms and acquired a deeper knowledge of the beverage. He learned, for example, that black coffee, contrary to general American opinion, isn’t naturally bitter; bitterness arises from certain compounds that develop during the roasting process.
“If you properly brew it with the right beans, it actually tastes good,” says Orozco, a humanities and engineering major. A year later, in 3.000, he expanded his understanding of making a good brew, particularly through the group project with Jutamulia and other students to fix bad coffee.
The group prepared a control sample of “perfectly brewed” coffee — based on taste, coffee-to-water ratio, and other standards covered in class — alongside coffee that was under-extracted and over-extracted. Under-extracted coffee, made with water that isn’t hot enough or brewed for too short a time, tastes sharp or sour. Over-extracted coffee, brewed with too much coffee or for too long, tastes bitter.
Those coffee samples got additives and were analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, measuring how coffee absorbed infrared light to identify flavor-related compounds. Jutamulia examined FTIR readings taken from a sample with lime juice to see how the citric acid influenced its chemical profile.
“Can we find any correlation between what we saw and the existing known measurements of citric acid?” asks Jutamulia, who studied computation and cognition at MIT, graduating last May.
Another group dove into coffee storage, questioning why conventional wisdom advises against freezing.
“We just wondered why that’s the case,” says electrical engineering and computer science major Noah Wiley, a coffee enthusiast with his own espresso machine.
The team compared methods like freezing brewed coffee, frozen coffee grounds, and whole beans ground after freezing, evaluating their impact on flavor and chemical composition.
“Then we’re going to see which ones taste good,” says Wiley. The team used a class coffee review sheet to record attributes like acidity, bitterness, sweetness, and overall flavor, pairing the results with FTIR analysis to determine how storage affected taste.
Wiley acknowledged that “good” is subjective. “Sometimes there’s a group consensus. I think people like fuller coffee, not watery,” he says.
Other student projects compared caffeine levels in different coffee types, analyzed the effect of microwaving coffee on its chemical composition and flavor, and investigated the differences between authentic and counterfeit coffee beans.
“We gave the students some papers to look at in case they were interested,” says Justin Lavallee, Breakerspace manager and co-teacher of the class. “But mostly we told them to focus on something they wanted to learn more about.”
Drip, drip, drip
Beyond answering specific questions about coffee, both students and teachers gained deeper insights into the beverage.
“Coffee is a complicated material. There are thousands of molecules in the beans, which change as you roast and extract them,” says Grossman. “The number of ways you can engineer this collection of molecules — it’s profound, ranging from where and how the coffee’s grown to how the cherries are then treated to get the beans to how the beans are roasted and ground to the brewing method you use.”
Dinesen learned firsthand, discovering, for example, that darker roasts have less caffeine than lighter roasts, puncturing a common misconception. “You can vary coffee so much — just with the roast of the bean, the size of the ground,” she says. “It’s so easily manipulatable, if that's a word.”
In addition to learning about the science and chemistry behind coffee, Dinesen and McDonald gained new brewing techniques, like using a pour-over cone. The pair even incorporated coffee making and testing into their study routine, brewing coffee while tackling problem sets for another class.
“I would put my pour-over cone in my backpack with a Ziploc bag full of grounds, and we would go to the Student Center and pull out the cone, a filter, and the coffee grounds,” McDonald says. “And then we would make pour-overs while doing a P-set. We tested different amounts of water, too. It was fun.”
Tony Chen, a materials science and engineering major, reflected on the 3.000’s title — “Using the Breakerspace to Make the Perfect Cup” — and whether making a perfect cup is possible. “I don’t think there’s one perfect cup because each person has their own preferences. I don't think I’ve gotten to mine yet,” he says.
Enthusiasm for coffee’s complexity and the discovery process was exactly what Grossman hoped to inspire in his students. “The best part for me was also just seeing them developing their own sense of curiosity,” he says.
He recalled a moment early in the class when students, after being given a demo of the optical microscope, saw the surface texture of a magnified coffee bean, the mottled shades of color, and the honeycomb-like pattern of tiny irregular cells.
“They’re like, ‘Wait a second. What if we add hot water to the grounds while it’s under the microscope? Would we see the extraction?’ So, they got hot water and some ground coffee beans, and lo and behold, it looked different. They could see the extraction right there,” Grossman says. “It’s like they have an idea that’s inspired by the learning, and they go and try it. I saw that happen many, many times throughout the semester.”
The class 3.000 (Coffee Matters: Using the Breakerspace to Make the Perfect Cup) combines lectures on chemistry and coffee science with hands-on experiments and group projects. Seniors Gabi McDonald and McKenzie Dinesen and second-year Riley Davis studied how water temperature during coffee extraction — the process of dissolving flavor compounds from ground coffee into water — affects flavor and chemical composition.
A recent study from the McGovern Institute for Brain Research shows how interests can modulate language processing in children’s brains and paves the way for personalized brain research.
The paper, which appears in Imaging Neuroscience, was conducted in the lab of MIT professor and McGovern Institute investigator John Gabrieli, and led by senior author Anila D’Mello, a recent McGovern postdoc who is now an assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas at Dallas.
“Traditional studies give subjects identical stimuli to avoid confounding the results,” says Gabrieli, who is the Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. “However, our research tailored stimuli to each child’s interest, eliciting stronger — and more consistent — activity patterns in the brain’s language regions across individuals.”
Funded by the Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research in MIT’s Yang Tan Collective, this work unveils a new paradigm that challenges current methods and shows how personalization can be a powerful strategy in neuroscience. The paper’s co-first authors are Halie Olson, a postdoc at the McGovern Institute, and Kristina Johnson PhD '21, an assistant professor at Northeastern University and former doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab. “Our research integrates participants’ lived experiences into the study design,” says Johnson. “This approach not only enhances the validity of our findings, but also captures the diversity of individual perspectives, often overlooked in traditional research.”
Taking interest into account
When it comes to language, our interests are like operators behind the switchboard. They guide what we talk about and who we talk to. Research suggests that interests are also potent motivators and can help improve language skills. For instance, children score higher on reading tests when the material covers topics that are interesting to them.
But neuroscience has shied away from using personal interests to study the brain, especially in the realm of language. This is mainly because interests, which vary between people, could throw a wrench into experimental control — a core principle that drives scientists to limit factors that can muddle the results.
Gabrieli, D’Mello, Olson, and Johnson ventured into this unexplored territory. The team wondered if tailoring language stimuli to children’s interests might lead to higher responses in language regions of the brain. “Our study is unique in its approach to control the kind of brain activity our experiments yield, rather than control the stimuli we give subjects,” says D’Mello. “This stands in stark contrast to most neuroimaging studies that control the stimuli but might introduce differences in each subject’s level of interest in the material.”
In their recent study, the authors recruited a cohort of 20 children to investigate how personal interests affected the way the brain processes language. Caregivers described their child’s interests to the researchers, spanning baseball, train lines, “Minecraft,” and musicals. During the study, children listened to audio stories tuned to their unique interests. They were also presented with audio stories about nature (this was not an interest among the children) for comparison. To capture brain activity patterns, the team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures changes in blood flow caused by underlying neural activity.
New insights into the brain
“We found that, when children listened to stories about topics they were really interested in, they showed stronger neural responses in language areas than when they listened to generic stories that weren’t tailored to their interests,” says Olson. “Not only does this tell us how interests affect the brain, but it also shows that personalizing our experimental stimuli can have a profound impact on neuroimaging results.”
The researchers noticed a particularly striking result. “Even though the children listened to completely different stories, their brain activation patterns were moreoverlapping with their peers when they listened to idiosyncratic stories compared to when they listened to the same generic stories about nature,” says D’Mello. This, she notes, points to how interests can boost both the magnitude and consistency of signals in language regions across subjects without changing how these areas communicate with each other.
Gabrieli noted another finding: “In addition to the stronger engagement of language regions for content of interest, there was also stronger activation in brain regions associated with reward and also with self-reflection.” Personal interests are individually relevant and can be rewarding, potentially driving higher activation in these regions during personalized stories.
These personalized paradigms might be particularly well-suited to studies of the brain in unique or neurodivergent populations. Indeed, the team is already applying these methods to study language in the brains of autistic children.
This study breaks new ground in neuroscience and serves as a prototype for future work that personalizes research to unearth further knowledge of the brain. In doing so, scientists can compile a more complete understanding of the type of information that is processed by specific brain circuits and more fully grasp complex functions such as language.
A recent study from the McGovern Institute for Brain Research shows how interests can modulate language processing in children’s brains and paves the way for personalized brain research.
The paper, which appears in Imaging Neuroscience, was conducted in the lab of MIT professor and McGovern Institute investigator John Gabrieli, and led by senior author Anila D’Mello, a recent McGovern postdoc who is now an assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas at Dallas.
“Traditional studies give subjects identical stimuli to avoid confounding the results,” says Gabrieli, who is the Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. “However, our research tailored stimuli to each child’s interest, eliciting stronger — and more consistent — activity patterns in the brain’s language regions across individuals.”
Funded by the Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research in MIT’s Yang Tan Collective, this work unveils a new paradigm that challenges current methods and shows how personalization can be a powerful strategy in neuroscience. The paper’s co-first authors are Halie Olson, a postdoc at the McGovern Institute, and Kristina Johnson PhD '21, an assistant professor at Northeastern University and former doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab. “Our research integrates participants’ lived experiences into the study design,” says Johnson. “This approach not only enhances the validity of our findings, but also captures the diversity of individual perspectives, often overlooked in traditional research.”
Taking interest into account
When it comes to language, our interests are like operators behind the switchboard. They guide what we talk about and who we talk to. Research suggests that interests are also potent motivators and can help improve language skills. For instance, children score higher on reading tests when the material covers topics that are interesting to them.
But neuroscience has shied away from using personal interests to study the brain, especially in the realm of language. This is mainly because interests, which vary between people, could throw a wrench into experimental control — a core principle that drives scientists to limit factors that can muddle the results.
Gabrieli, D’Mello, Olson, and Johnson ventured into this unexplored territory. The team wondered if tailoring language stimuli to children’s interests might lead to higher responses in language regions of the brain. “Our study is unique in its approach to control the kind of brain activity our experiments yield, rather than control the stimuli we give subjects,” says D’Mello. “This stands in stark contrast to most neuroimaging studies that control the stimuli but might introduce differences in each subject’s level of interest in the material.”
In their recent study, the authors recruited a cohort of 20 children to investigate how personal interests affected the way the brain processes language. Caregivers described their child’s interests to the researchers, spanning baseball, train lines, “Minecraft,” and musicals. During the study, children listened to audio stories tuned to their unique interests. They were also presented with audio stories about nature (this was not an interest among the children) for comparison. To capture brain activity patterns, the team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures changes in blood flow caused by underlying neural activity.
New insights into the brain
“We found that, when children listened to stories about topics they were really interested in, they showed stronger neural responses in language areas than when they listened to generic stories that weren’t tailored to their interests,” says Olson. “Not only does this tell us how interests affect the brain, but it also shows that personalizing our experimental stimuli can have a profound impact on neuroimaging results.”
The researchers noticed a particularly striking result. “Even though the children listened to completely different stories, their brain activation patterns were moreoverlapping with their peers when they listened to idiosyncratic stories compared to when they listened to the same generic stories about nature,” says D’Mello. This, she notes, points to how interests can boost both the magnitude and consistency of signals in language regions across subjects without changing how these areas communicate with each other.
Gabrieli noted another finding: “In addition to the stronger engagement of language regions for content of interest, there was also stronger activation in brain regions associated with reward and also with self-reflection.” Personal interests are individually relevant and can be rewarding, potentially driving higher activation in these regions during personalized stories.
These personalized paradigms might be particularly well-suited to studies of the brain in unique or neurodivergent populations. Indeed, the team is already applying these methods to study language in the brains of autistic children.
This study breaks new ground in neuroscience and serves as a prototype for future work that personalizes research to unearth further knowledge of the brain. In doing so, scientists can compile a more complete understanding of the type of information that is processed by specific brain circuits and more fully grasp complex functions such as language.
Joseph F. DeCarolis, administrator for the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), has one overarching piece of advice for anyone poring over long-term energy projections.
“Whatever you do, don’t start believing the numbers,” DeCarolis said at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) Fall Colloquium. “There’s a tendency when you sit in front of the computer and you’re watching the model spit out numbers at you … that you’ll really start to believe those numbers with high precision. Don’t fall for it. Always remain skeptical.”
This event was part of MITEI’s new speaker series, MITEI Presents: Advancing the Energy Transition, which connects the MIT community with the energy experts and leaders who are working on scientific, technological, and policy solutions that are urgently needed to accelerate the energy transition.
The point of DeCarolis’s talk, titled “Stay humble and prepare for surprises: Lessons for the energy transition,” was not that energy models are unimportant. On the contrary, DeCarolis said, energy models give stakeholders a framework that allows them to consider present-day decisions in the context of potential future scenarios. However, he repeatedly stressed the importance of accounting for uncertainty, and not treating these projections as “crystal balls.”
“We can use models to help inform decision strategies,” DeCarolis said. “We know there’s a bunch of future uncertainty. We don’t know what's going to happen, but we can incorporate that uncertainty into our model and help come up with a path forward.”
Dialogue, not forecasts
EIA is the statistical and analytic agency within the U.S. Department of Energy, with a mission to collect, analyze, and disseminate independent and impartial energy information to help stakeholders make better-informed decisions. Although EIA analyzes the impacts of energy policies, the agency does not make or advise on policy itself. DeCarolis, who was previously professor and University Faculty Scholar in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University, noted that EIA does not need to seek approval from anyone else in the federal government before publishing its data and reports. “That independence is very important to us, because it means that we can focus on doing our work and providing the best information we possibly can,” he said.
Among the many reports produced by EIA is the agency’s Annual Energy Outlook (AEO), which projects U.S. energy production, consumption, and prices. Every other year, the agency also produces the AEO Retrospective, which shows the relationship between past projections and actual energy indicators.
“The first question you might ask is, ‘Should we use these models to produce a forecast?’” DeCarolis said. “The answer for me to that question is: No, we should not do that. When models are used to produce forecasts, the results are generally pretty dismal.”
DeCarolis pointed to wildly inaccurate past projections about the proliferation of nuclear energy in the United States as an example of the problems inherent in forecasting. However, he noted, there are “still lots of really valuable uses” for energy models. Rather than using them to predict future energy consumption and prices, DeCarolis said, stakeholders should use models to inform their own thinking.
“[Models] can simply be an aid in helping us think and hypothesize about the future of energy,” DeCarolis said. “They can help us create a dialogue among different stakeholders on complex issues. If we’re thinking about something like the energy transition, and we want to start a dialogue, there has to be some basis for that dialogue. If you have a systematic representation of the energy system that you can advance into the future, we can start to have a debate about the model and what it means. We can also identify key sources of uncertainty and knowledge gaps.”
Modeling uncertainty
The key to working with energy models is not to try to eliminate uncertainty, DeCarolis said, but rather to account for it. One way to better understand uncertainty, he noted, is to look at past projections, and consider how they ended up differing from real-world results. DeCarolis pointed to two “surprises” over the past several decades: the exponential growth of shale oil and natural gas production (which had the impact of limiting coal’s share of the energy market and therefore reducing carbon emissions), as well as the rapid rise in wind and solar energy. In both cases, market conditions changed far more quickly than energy modelers anticipated, leading to inaccurate projections.
“For all those reasons, we ended up with [projected] CO2 [carbon dioxide] emissions that were quite high compared to actual,” DeCarolis said. “We’re a statistical agency, so we’re really looking carefully at the data, but it can take some time to identify the signal through the noise.”
Although EIA does not produce forecasts in the AEO, people have sometimes interpreted the reference case in the agency’s reports as predictions. In an effort to illustrate the unpredictability of future outcomes in the 2023 edition of the AEO, the agency added “cones of uncertainty” to its projection of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, with ranges of outcomes based on the difference between past projections and actual results. One cone captures 50 percent of historical projection errors, while another represents 95 percent of historical errors.
“They capture whatever bias there is in our projections,” DeCarolis said of the uncertainty cones. “It’s being captured because we’re comparing actual [emissions] to projections. The weakness of this, though, is: who’s to say that those historical projection errors apply to the future? We don’t know that, but I still think that there’s something useful to be learned from this exercise.”
The future of energy modeling
Looking ahead, DeCarolis said, there is a “laundry list of things that keep me up at night as a modeler.” These include the impacts of climate change; how those impacts will affect demand for renewable energy; how quickly industry and government will overcome obstacles to building out clean energy infrastructure and supply chains; technological innovation; and increased energy demand from data centers running compute-intensive workloads.
“What about enhanced geothermal? Fusion? Space-based solar power?” DeCarolis asked. “Should those be in the model? What sorts of technology breakthroughs are we missing? And then, of course, there are the unknown unknowns — the things that I can’t conceive of to put on this list, but are probably going to happen.”
In addition to capturing the fullest range of outcomes, DeCarolis said, EIA wants to be flexible, nimble, transparent, and accessible — creating reports that can easily incorporate new model features and produce timely analyses. To that end, the agency has undertaken two new initiatives. First, the 2025 AEO will use a revamped version of the National Energy Modeling System that includes modules for hydrogen production and pricing, carbon management, and hydrocarbon supply. Second, an effort called Project BlueSky is aiming to develop the agency’s next-generation energy system model, which DeCarolis said will be modular and open source.
DeCarolis noted that the energy system is both highly complex and rapidly evolving, and he warned that “mental shortcuts” and the fear of being wrong can lead modelers to ignore possible future developments. “We have to remain humble and intellectually honest about what we know,” DeCarolis said. “That way, we can provide decision-makers with an honest assessment of what we think could happen in the future.”
Joseph DeCarolis, administrator for the U.S. Energy Information Administration, speaks on the role of modeling in the energy transition at the MIT Energy Initiative Fall Colloquium.
Researchers at MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) have shown that using decision-making software and dynamic monitoring of weather and energy use can significantly improve resiliency in the face of weather-related outages, and can also help to efficiently integrate renewable energy sources into the grid.
The researchers point out that the system they suggest might have prevented or at least lessened the kind of widespread power outage that Puerto Rico experienced last week by providing analysis to guide rerouting of power through different lines and thus limit the spread of the outage.
The computer platform, which the researchers describe as DyMonDS, for Dynamic Monitoring and Decision Systems, can be used to enhance the existing operating and planning practices used in the electric industry. The platform supports interactive information exchange and decision-making between the grid operators and grid-edge users — all the distributed power sources, storage systems and software that contribute to the grid. It also supports optimization of available resources and controllable grid equipment as system conditions vary. It further lends itself to implementing cooperative decision-making by different utility- and non-utility-owned electric power grid users, including portfolios of mixed resources, users, and storage. Operating and planning the interactions of the end-to-end high-voltage transmission grid with local distribution grids and microgrids represents another major potential use of this platform.
This general approach was illustrated using a set of publicly-available data on both meteorology and details of electricity production and distribution in Puerto Rico. An extended AC Optimal Power Flow software developed by SmartGridz Inc. is used for system-level optimization of controllable equipment. This provides real-time guidance for deciding how much power, and through which transmission lines, should be channeled by adjusting plant dispatch and voltage-related set points, and in extreme cases, where to reduce or cut power in order to maintain physically-implementable service for as many customers as possible. The team found that the use of such a system can help to ensure that the greatest number of critical services maintain power even during a hurricane, and at the same time can lead to a substantial decrease in the need for construction of new power plants thanks to more efficient use of existing resources.
The findings are described in a paper in the journal Foundations and Trends in Electric Energy Systems, by MIT LIDS researchers Marija Ilic and Laurentiu Anton, along with recent alumna Ramapathi Jaddivada.
“Using this software,” Ilic says, they show that “even during bad weather, if you predict equipment failures, and by using that information exchange, you can localize the effect of equipment failures and still serve a lot of customers, 50 percent of customers, when otherwise things would black out.”
Anton says that “the way many grids today are operated is sub-optimal.” As a result, “we showed how much better they could do even under normal conditions, without any failures, by utilizing this software.” The savings resulting from this optimization, under everyday conditions, could be in the tens of percents, they say.
The way utility systems plan currently, Ilic says, “usually the standard is that they have to build enough capacity and operate in real time so that if one large piece of equipment fails, like a large generator or transmission line, you still serve customers in an uninterrupted way. That’s what’s called N-minus-1.” Under this policy, if one major component of the system fails, they should be able to maintain service for at least 30 minutes. That system allows utilities to plan for how much reserve generating capacity they need to have on hand. That’s expensive, Ilic points out, because it means maintaining this reserve capacity all the time, even under normal operating conditions when it’s not needed.
In addition, “right now there are no criteria for what I call N-minus-K,” she says. If bad weather causes five pieces of equipment to fail at once, “there is no software to help utilities decide what to schedule” in terms of keeping the most customers, and the most important services such as hospitals and emergency services, provided with power. They showed that even with 50 percent of the infrastructure out of commission, it would still be possible to keep power flowing to a large proportion of customers.
Their work on analyzing the power situation in Puerto Rico started after the island had been devastated by hurricanes Irma and Maria. Most of the electric generation capacity is in the south, yet the largest loads are in San Juan, in the north, and Mayaguez in the west. When transmission lines get knocked down, a lot of rerouting of power needs to happen quickly.
With the new systems, “the software finds the optimal adjustments for set points,” for example, changing voltages can allow for power to be redirected through less-congested lines, or can be increased to lessen power losses, Anton says.
The software also helps in the long-term planning for the grid. As many fossil-fuel power plants are scheduled to be decommissioned soon in Puerto Rico, as they are in many other places, planning for how to replace that power without having to resort to greenhouse gas-emitting sources is a key to achieving carbon-reduction goals. And by analyzing usage patterns, the software can guide the placement of new renewable power sources where they can most efficiently provide power where and when it’s needed.
As plants are retired or as components are affected by weather, “We wanted to ensure the dispatchability of power when the load changes,” Anton says, “but also when crucial components are lost, to ensure the robustness at each step of the retirement schedule.”
One thing they found was that “if you look at how much generating capacity exists, it’s more than the peak load, even after you retire a few fossil plants,” Ilic says. “But it’s hard to deliver.” Strategic planning of new distribution lines could make a big difference.
Jaddivada, director of innovation at SmartGridz, says that “we evaluated different possible architectures in Puerto Rico, and we showed the ability of this software to ensure uninterrupted electricity service. This is the most important challenge utilities have today. They have to go through a computationally tedious process to make sure the grid functions for any possible outage in the system. And that can be done in a much more efficient way through the software that the company developed.”
The project was a collaborative effort between the MIT LIDS researchers and others at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with overall help of SmartGridz software.
Researchers at MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) have shown that using decision-making software and dynamic monitoring of weather and energy use can significantly improve resiliency in the face of weather-related outages, and can also help to efficiently integrate renewable energy sources into the grid.
The researchers point out that the system they suggest might have prevented or at least lessened the kind of widespread power outage that Puerto Rico experienced last week by providing analysis to guide rerouting of power through different lines and thus limit the spread of the outage.
The computer platform, which the researchers describe as DyMonDS, for Dynamic Monitoring and Decision Systems, can be used to enhance the existing operating and planning practices used in the electric industry. The platform supports interactive information exchange and decision-making between the grid operators and grid-edge users — all the distributed power sources, storage systems and software that contribute to the grid. It also supports optimization of available resources and controllable grid equipment as system conditions vary. It further lends itself to implementing cooperative decision-making by different utility- and non-utility-owned electric power grid users, including portfolios of mixed resources, users, and storage. Operating and planning the interactions of the end-to-end high-voltage transmission grid with local distribution grids and microgrids represents another major potential use of this platform.
This general approach was illustrated using a set of publicly-available data on both meteorology and details of electricity production and distribution in Puerto Rico. An extended AC Optimal Power Flow software developed by SmartGridz Inc. is used for system-level optimization of controllable equipment. This provides real-time guidance for deciding how much power, and through which transmission lines, should be channeled by adjusting plant dispatch and voltage-related set points, and in extreme cases, where to reduce or cut power in order to maintain physically-implementable service for as many customers as possible. The team found that the use of such a system can help to ensure that the greatest number of critical services maintain power even during a hurricane, and at the same time can lead to a substantial decrease in the need for construction of new power plants thanks to more efficient use of existing resources.
The findings are described in a paper in the journal Foundations and Trends in Electric Energy Systems, by MIT LIDS researchers Marija Ilic and Laurentiu Anton, along with recent alumna Ramapathi Jaddivada.
“Using this software,” Ilic says, they show that “even during bad weather, if you predict equipment failures, and by using that information exchange, you can localize the effect of equipment failures and still serve a lot of customers, 50 percent of customers, when otherwise things would black out.”
Anton says that “the way many grids today are operated is sub-optimal.” As a result, “we showed how much better they could do even under normal conditions, without any failures, by utilizing this software.” The savings resulting from this optimization, under everyday conditions, could be in the tens of percents, they say.
The way utility systems plan currently, Ilic says, “usually the standard is that they have to build enough capacity and operate in real time so that if one large piece of equipment fails, like a large generator or transmission line, you still serve customers in an uninterrupted way. That’s what’s called N-minus-1.” Under this policy, if one major component of the system fails, they should be able to maintain service for at least 30 minutes. That system allows utilities to plan for how much reserve generating capacity they need to have on hand. That’s expensive, Ilic points out, because it means maintaining this reserve capacity all the time, even under normal operating conditions when it’s not needed.
In addition, “right now there are no criteria for what I call N-minus-K,” she says. If bad weather causes five pieces of equipment to fail at once, “there is no software to help utilities decide what to schedule” in terms of keeping the most customers, and the most important services such as hospitals and emergency services, provided with power. They showed that even with 50 percent of the infrastructure out of commission, it would still be possible to keep power flowing to a large proportion of customers.
Their work on analyzing the power situation in Puerto Rico started after the island had been devastated by hurricanes Irma and Maria. Most of the electric generation capacity is in the south, yet the largest loads are in San Juan, in the north, and Mayaguez in the west. When transmission lines get knocked down, a lot of rerouting of power needs to happen quickly.
With the new systems, “the software finds the optimal adjustments for set points,” for example, changing voltages can allow for power to be redirected through less-congested lines, or can be increased to lessen power losses, Anton says.
The software also helps in the long-term planning for the grid. As many fossil-fuel power plants are scheduled to be decommissioned soon in Puerto Rico, as they are in many other places, planning for how to replace that power without having to resort to greenhouse gas-emitting sources is a key to achieving carbon-reduction goals. And by analyzing usage patterns, the software can guide the placement of new renewable power sources where they can most efficiently provide power where and when it’s needed.
As plants are retired or as components are affected by weather, “We wanted to ensure the dispatchability of power when the load changes,” Anton says, “but also when crucial components are lost, to ensure the robustness at each step of the retirement schedule.”
One thing they found was that “if you look at how much generating capacity exists, it’s more than the peak load, even after you retire a few fossil plants,” Ilic says. “But it’s hard to deliver.” Strategic planning of new distribution lines could make a big difference.
Jaddivada, director of innovation at SmartGridz, says that “we evaluated different possible architectures in Puerto Rico, and we showed the ability of this software to ensure uninterrupted electricity service. This is the most important challenge utilities have today. They have to go through a computationally tedious process to make sure the grid functions for any possible outage in the system. And that can be done in a much more efficient way through the software that the company developed.”
The project was a collaborative effort between the MIT LIDS researchers and others at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with overall help of SmartGridz software.
Princeton molecular biologist Bonnie Bassler, emeritus professors Larry Martin Bartels and Ingrid Daubechies, and undergraduate alumni John Dabiri and Cynthia Dwork received the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest scientific honor.
Weill Cornell Medicine has received a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve equitable access to care, quality of life and survival outcomes for young people with all stages of breast cancer.
A new machine learning informed strategy could support public health leaders to design better disease surveillance during a disease outbreak, a new study has found.
While male brains tended to be greater in volume than female brains, when adjusted for total brain volume, female infants on average had significantly more grey matter, while male infants on average had significantly more white matter in their brains.
Grey matter is made up of neuron cell bodies and dendrites and is responsible for processing and interpreting information, such as sensation, perception, learning, speech, and cognition. White matter is made up of axons, which are long nerve fibres that connect neurons together from different parts of the brain.
Yumnah Khan, a PhD student at the Autism Research Centre, who led the study, said: “Our study settles an age-old question of whether male and female brains differ at birth. We know there are differences in the brains of older children and adults, but our findings show that they are already present in the earliest days of life.
“Because these sex differences are evident so soon after birth, they might in part reflect biological sex differences during prenatal brain development, which then interact with environmental experiences over time to shape further sex differences in the brain.”
One problem that has plagued past research in this area is sample size. The Cambridge team tackled this by analysing data from the Developing Human Connectome Project, where infants receive an MRI brain scan soon after birth. Having over 500 newborn babies in the study means that, statistically, the sample is ideal for detecting sex differences if they are present.
A second problem is whether any observed sex differences could be due to other factors, such as differences in body size. The Cambridge team found that, on average, male infants had significantly larger brain volumes than did females, and this was true even after sex differences in birth weight were taken into account.
After taking this difference in total brain volume into account, at a regional level, females on average showed larger volumes in grey matter areas related to memory and emotional regulation, while males on average had larger volumes in grey matter areas involved in sensory processing and motor control.
The findings of the study, the largest to date to investigate this question, are published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences.
Dr Alex Tsompanidis who supervised the study, said: “This is the largest such study to date, and we took additional factors into account, such as birth weight, to ensure that these differences are specific to the brain and not due to general size differences between the sexes.
“To understand why males and females show differences in their relative grey and white matter volume, we are now studying the conditions of the prenatal environment, using population birth records, as well as in vitro cellular models of the developing brain. This will help us compare the progression of male and female pregnancies and determine if specific biological factors, such as hormones or the placenta, contribute to the differences we see in the brain.”
The researchers stress that the differences between males and females are average differences.
Dr Carrie Allison, Deputy Director of the Autism Research Centre, said: “The differences we see do not apply to all males or all females, but are only seen when you compare groups of males and females together. There is a lot a variation within, and a lot of overlap between, each group.”
Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre, added: “These differences do not imply the brains of males and females are better or worse. It’s just one example of neurodiversity. This research may be helpful in understanding other kinds of neurodiversity, such as the brain in children who are later diagnosed as autistic, since this is diagnosed more often in males.”
The research was funded by Cambridge University Development and Research, Trinity College, Cambridge, the Cambridge Trust, and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.
Sex differences in brain structure are present from birth, research from the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge has shown.
We know there are differences in the brains of older children and adults, but our findings show that they are already present in the earliest days of life
Geophysicists at ETH Zurich are using models of the lower mantle to identify areas where earthquake waves behave differently than previously assumed. This indicates the presence of zones of rocks that are colder, or have a different composition, than the surrounding rocks. This finding challenges our current understanding of the Earth's plate tectonics – and presents the researchers with a major mystery.
The Southeast Asia Friendship Initiative (SFI) at NUS takes students from various hostels on learning journeys to the neighbouring region to explore the real-life applications of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through a combination of classroom learning, first-hand experiences and international engagement, students are exposed to varying contexts of sustainability practices, fostering practical understanding and innovative solutions to global challenges.
Helix House: Vietnam’s progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals
Led by Dr Hoang Truong Giang, Helix House Resident Fellow and Senior Lecturer at NUS Department of Chemistry, 19 Helix House students embarked on a 10-day trip to Hanoi and Sapa in December 2024, where they explored Vietnam’s cultural and industrial contributions towards meeting the United Nations SDGs.
In addition to popular locations such as Bat Trang Ceramic Village (Hanoi), Fansipan (Sapa), and Cat Cat Village (Sapa), the participants also had the opportunity to visit less conventional facilities such as the Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant, one of the largest dams in Southeast Asia. During the trip, they also attended lectures at Vietnam National University where subject experts provided insights into Vietnam's SDG progress.
A visit to Ta Giang Phin Primary School, located in the highland areas of Sapa, also left indelible memories for the participants, as they witnessed and reflected on the applications of one of the SDGs in this rural part of Vietnam – quality education. The team also made contributions to the school, such as essential stationery items, and chocolates which brought many smiles to the children’s faces. Additionally, Helix House made a monetary donation to the Mountainous Underprivileged Children Fund (Com Co Thit), which will go towards supporting the school meal programme in mountainous areas.
Ryan Choong, a second-year undergraduate from the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, found his experience at Ta Giang Phin Primary School deeply inspiring, prompting him to introspective reflection. He discovered that some of the primary school students walk several kilometres on foot through muddy, uneven terrain just to attend classes. Despite these hardships, the students displayed remarkable energy and active participation in their lessons. Inspired by their resilience and positivity, Ryan reflected on his approach to learning, resolving to adopt a more positive mindset and not let minor inconveniences hinder his educational journey.
Through cultural experiences, industrial visits, and engagement with local communities, the students shared that the trip left a lasting impact on their perspectives and deepened their understanding of sustainability, education, and resilience.
Kent Ridge Hall: Entrepreneurship in diverse markets
Another group of 30 students from Kent Ridge Hall participated in a 10-day SFI trip to Bangkok and Khao Yai, Thailand, in December 2024. This trip was led by Ms Claire Cheong, Resident Fellow at Kent Ridge Hall and Head of International and Impact-focused Programmes at NUS Enterprise Academy. Conducted in collaboration with Chulalongkorn University, the blend of educational start-up and pitching workshops, cultural explorations, and experiential learning focused on merging diverse perspectives on entrepreneurship in the region, while visits to established startups provided valuable real-world context to entrepreneurial theories.
A cornerstone of the SFI trip was an emphasis on collaborative learning, where students from NUS and Chulalongkorn University worked together in two key workshops designed to deepen students' entrepreneurial skills, namely, a "Startup 101 Workshop" led by Ms Nattinee Dora Sae-Ho, CEO and Founder of Thrive Venture Builder, and a "Pitching Workshop" on the art of presentation that was conducted by Paul Meyers, Founder of Asia Founder Coaching. Through these workshops, participants tackled real-world challenges by crafting business solutions that were not only innovative but also responsive to the nuanced needs of diverse markets. The trip culminated in a Demo Day, where the participants combined their newly gleaned knowledge and experiences to pitch business ideas with a focus on SDGs to a panel.
Another component of the SFI trip involved deep cultural immersion, where students had the hands-on opportunity to engage with the rich traditions of Thailand, such as a Thai dessert-making session, learning traditional Thai dance, and a visit to the iconic Wat Arun in Bangkok.
The programme also included extensive field trips in the Khao Yai district, where students learned about sustainable practices and how eco-tourism has manifested in the region. They interacted and interviewed the locals where they learnt about their problems and struggles. After which, they came up with ideas and solutions to help tackle these real-world problems.
A visit to the Sai Sook Wildlife Learning Center and an eye-opening perusal of its popsicle offerings, inspired by local wildlife, offered the students valuable insights into the synergies between wildlife conservation and entrepreneurship.
For Jorja Poon, a second-year undergraduate from NUS Business, the visit to Sai Sook Wildlife Learning Center at Khao Yai was particularly impactful.
“We got to learn about the journey of the founder, Mr Somchai Rattanakorn, how he and his girlfriend started this venture because of their passion for wildlife and ice-creams. He shared with us on the struggles he faced and how he is planning to overcome them, and how he plans to expand his business,” Jorja shared.
“It was a very eye-opening experience to interact directly with an entrepreneur and get a first-hand experience on how they run their business,” she added.
Used in everything from soda cans and foil wrap to circuit boards and rocket boosters, aluminum is the second-most-produced metal in the world after steel. By the end of this decade, demand is projected to drive up aluminum production by 40 percent worldwide. This steep rise will magnify aluminum’s environmental impacts, including any pollutants that are released with its manufacturing waste.
MIT engineers have developed a new nanofiltration process to curb the hazardous waste generated from aluminum production. Nanofiltration could potentially be used to process the waste from an aluminum plant and retrieve any aluminum ions that would otherwise have escaped in the effluent stream. The captured aluminum could then be upcycled and added to the bulk of the produced aluminum, increasing yield while simultaneously reducing waste.
The researchers demonstrated the membrane’s performance in lab-scale experiments using a novel membrane to filter various solutions that were similar in content to the waste streams produced by aluminum plants. They found that the membrane selectively captured more than 99 percent of aluminum ions in these solutions.
If scaled up and implemented in existing production facilities, the membrane technology could reduce the amount of wasted aluminum and improve the environmental quality of the waste that plants generate.
“This membrane technology not only cuts down on hazardous waste but also enables a circular economy for aluminum by reducing the need for new mining,” says John Lienhard, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Water in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) at MIT. “This offers a promising solution to address environmental concerns while meeting the growing demand for aluminum.”
Lienhard and his colleagues report their results in a study appearing today in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. The study’s co-authors include MIT mechanical engineering undergraduates Trent Lee and Vinn Nguyen, and Zi Hao Foo SM ’21, PhD ’24, who is a postdoc at the University of California at Berkeley.
A recycling niche
Lienhard’s group at MIT develops membrane and filtration technologies for desalinating seawater and remediating various sources of wastewater. In looking for new areas to apply their work, the team found an unexplored opportunity in aluminum and, in particular, the wastewater generated from the metal’s production.
As part of aluminum’s production, metal-rich ore, called bauxite, is first mined from open pits, then put through a series of chemical reactions to separate the aluminum from the rest of the mined rock. These reactions ultimately produce aluminum oxide, in a powdery form called alumina. Much of this alumina is then shipped to refineries, where the powder is poured into electrolysis vats containing a molten mineral called cryolite. When a strong electric current is applied, cryolite breaks alumina’s chemical bonds, separating aluminum and oxygen atoms. The pure aluminum then settles in liquid form to the bottom of the vat, where it can be collected and cast into various forms.
Cryolite electrolyte acts as a solvent, facilitating the separation of alumina during the molten salt electrolysis process. Over time, the cryolite accumulates impurities such as sodium, lithium, and potassium ions — gradually reducing its effectiveness in dissolving alumina. At a certain point, the concentration of these impurities reaches a critical level, at which the electrolyte must be replaced with fresh cryolite to main process efficiency. The spent cryolite, a viscous sludge containing residual aluminum ions and impurities, is then transported away for disposal.
“We learned that for a traditional aluminum plant, something like 2,800 tons of aluminum are wasted per year,” says lead author Trent Lee, who carried out the new work as part of the MITEI Energy UROP program. “We were looking at ways that the industry can be more efficient, and we found cryolite waste hadn’t been well-researched in terms of recycling some of its waste products.”
A charged kick
In their new work, the researchers aimed to develop a membrane process to filter cryolite waste and recover aluminum ions that inevitably make it into the waste stream. Specifically, the team looked to capture aluminum while letting through all other ions, especially sodium, which builds up significantly in the cryolite over time.
The team reasoned that if they could selectively capture aluminum from cryolite waste, the aluminum could be poured back into the electrolysis vat without adding excessive sodium that would further slow the electrolysis process.
The researchers’ new design is an adaptation of membranes used in conventional water treatment plants. These membranes are typically made from a thin sheet of polymer material that is perforated by tiny, nanometer-scale pores, the size of which is tuned to let through specific ions and molecules.
The surface of conventional membranes carries a natural, negative charge. As a result, the membranes repel any ions that carry the same negative charge, while they attract positively charged ions to flow through.
In collaboration with the Japanese membrane company Nitto Denko, the MIT team sought to examine the efficacy of commercially available membranes that could filter through most positively charged ions in cryolite wastewater while repelling and capturing aluminum ions. However, aluminum ions also carry a positive charge, of +3, where sodium and the other cations carry a lesser positive charge of +1.
Motivated by the group’s recent work investigating membranes for recovering lithium from salt lakes and spent batteries, the team tested a novel Nitto Denko membrane with a thin, positively charged coating covering the membrane. The coating’s charge is just positive enough to strongly repel and retain aluminum while allowing less positively charged ions to flow through.
“The aluminum is the most positively charged of the ions, so most of it is kicked away from the membrane,” Foo explains.
The team tested the membrane’s performance by passing through solutions with various balances of ions, similar to what can be found in cryolite waste. They observed that the membrane consistently captured 99.5 percent of aluminum ions while allowing through sodium and the other cations. They also varied the pH of the solutions, and found the membrane maintained its performance even after sitting in highly acidic solution for several weeks.
“A lot of this cryolite waste stream comes at different levels of acidity,” Foo says. “And we found the membrane works really well, even within the harsh conditions that we would expect.”
The new experimental membrane is about the size of a playing card. To treat cryolite waste in an industrial-scale aluminum production plant, the researchers envision a scaled-up version of the membrane, similar to what is used in many desalination plants, where a long membrane is rolled up in a spiral configuration, through which water flows.
“This paper shows the viability of membranes for innovations in circular economies,” Lee says. “This membrane provides the dual benefit of upcycling aluminum while reducing hazardous waste.”
The researchers demonstrated the membrane’s performance in lab-scale experiments, pictured, using a novel membrane to filter various solutions that were similar in content to the waste streams produced by aluminum plants.
Loren R. Graham, professor emeritus of the history of science who served on the MIT faculty for nearly three decades, died on Dec. 15, 2024, at the age of 91.
Graham received a BS in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1955, the same year his classmate, acquaintance, and future NASA astronaut and moon walker Neil Armstrong graduated with a BS in aeronautical engineering. Graham went on to earn a PhD in history in 1964 from Columbia University, where he taught from 1965 until 1978.
In 1978, Graham joined the MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) as a professor of the history of science. His specialty during his tenure with the program was in the history of science in Russia and the Soviet Union in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. His work focused on Soviet and Marxist philosophy of science and science politics.
Much of Graham’s career spanned the Cold War. He participated in one of the first academic exchange programs between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1960 to 1961 and marched in the Moscow May Day Parade just weeks after Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. In 1965, he received a Fulbright Award to do research in the Soviet Union.
Graham wrote extensively on the influence of social context in science and the study of contemporary science and technology in Russia. He also experimented in writing a nonfiction mystery, “Death in the Lighthouse” (2013),and making documentary films. His publications include “Science, Philosophy and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union” (1987), “Science and the Soviet Social Order” (1990), “Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Short History” (1993), “The Ghost of the Executed Engineer” (1993); “A Face in the Rock” (1995); and “What Have We Learned About Science and Technology from the Russian Experience?” (1998).
His publication “Science, Philosophy and Science in the Soviet Union” was nominated for the National Book Award in 1987. He received the George Sarton Medal from the History of Science Society in 1996 and the Follo Award of the Michigan Historical Society in 2000 for his contributions to Michigan history.
Many former colleagues recall the impact he had at MIT. In 1988, with fellow faculty member Merritt Roe Smith, professor emeritus of history, he played a leading role in establishing the graduate program in the history and social study of science and technology that is now known as HASTS. This interdisciplinary graduate Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society has become one of the most selective graduate programs at MIT.
“Loren was an intellectual innovator and role model for teaching and advising,” says Sherry Turkle, MIT professor of sociology. “And he was a wonderful colleague. … He experimented. He had fun. He cared about writing and about finding joy in work.”
Graham served on the STS faculty until his retirement in 2006.
Throughout his life, Graham was a member of many foundations and honorary societies, including the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Russian Academy of Natural Science.
He was also a member on several boards of trustees, including George Soros' International Science Foundation, which supported Russian scientists after the collapse of the Soviet Union. For many years he served on the board of trustees of the European University at St. Petersburg, remaining an active member on its development board until 2024. After donating thousands of books from his own library to the university, a special collection was established in his name.
In 2012, Graham was awarded a medal by the Russian Academy of Sciences at a ceremony in Moscow for his contributions to the history of science. “His own life as a scholar covered a great deal of important history,” says David Mindell, MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics and the Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing.
Graham is survived by his wife, Patricia Graham, and daughter, Meg Peterson.
Gender-affirming care rare among U.S. youth, study says
Fewer than 1 in 1,000 received hormones or puberty blockers
Maya Brownstein
Harvard Chan Communications
3 min read
Puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones are rarely prescribed to U.S. transgender and gender diverse (TGD) adolescents, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and FOLX Health.
The study was published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.
“The politicization of gender-affirming care for transgender youth has been driven by a narrative that millions of children are using hormones and that this type of care is too freely given. Our findings reveal that is not the case,” said lead author Landon Hughes, Yerby Fellow in Harvard Chan School’s Department of Epidemiology and postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Chan School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute’s LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence.
A 2024 study led by researchers at Harvard Chan School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute documented the rarity of gender-affirming surgeries among adolescents. But little is known about hormone use among transgender and gender-diverse adolescents. The researchers analyzed private insurance claims data from 2018 to 2022, representing more than 5.1 million young patients ages 8 to 17. They identified transgender or gender-diverse patients based on a gender-related diagnosis and then checked if they received puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones. They then calculated the rate of adolescents who are TGD and receiving this care per 100,000 privately insured adolescents according to age and sex assigned at birth.
The study found that less than 0.1 percent of minors with private insurance are TGD and received puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormone treatment. No TGD patients under age 12 were prescribed gender-affirming hormones. Use of puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones was more common among TGD adolescents assigned female sex at birth than those assigned male sex at birth.
The researchers noted that higher rates of puberty blocker and hormone prescriptions for TGD patients assigned female sex at birth aligned with an earlier onset of puberty for people who are female vs. male sex assigned at birth.
“Our study found that, overall, very few TGD youth access gender-affirming care, which was surprisingly low given that over 3 percent of high school youth identify as transgender,” said senior author Jae Corman, head of analytics and research at FOLX Health. “Among those that do, the timing of care aligns with the standards outlined by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.”
The researchers also noted that the study likely reflects the highest rates of puberty blocker and hormone use by adolescents, given the study used private insurance data, likely reflecting greater access to gender-affirming care. Lower rates would be expected among the uninsured, Medicaid recipients, and those with less comprehensive private insurance.
Isa Berzansky, research analyst at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and Brittany Charlton, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and founding director of the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence, were co-authors.
When a new species is introduced into an ecosystem, it may succeed in establishing itself, or it may fail to gain a foothold and die out. Physicists at MIT have now devised a formula that can predict which of those outcomes is most likely.
The researchers created their formula based on analysis of hundreds of different scenarios that they modeled using populations of soil bacteria grown in their laboratory. They now plan to test their formula in larger-scale ecosystems, including forests. This approach could also be helpful in predicting whether probiotics or fecal microbiota treatments (FMT) would successfully combat infections of the human GI tract.
“People eat a lot of probiotics, but many of them can never invade our gut microbiome at all, because if you introduce it, it does not necessarily mean that it can grow and colonize and benefit your health,” says Jiliang Hu SM ’19, PhD ’24, the lead author of the study.
MIT professor of physics Jeff Gore is the senior author of the paper, which appears today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. Matthieu Barbier, a researcher at the Plant Health Institute Montpellier, and Guy Bunin, a professor of physics at Technion, are also authors of the paper.
Population fluctuations
Gore’s lab specializes in using microbes to analyze interspecies interactions in a controlled way, in hopes of learning more about how natural ecosystems behave. In previous work, the team has used bacterial populations to demonstrate how changing the environment in which the microbes live affects the stability of the communities they form.
In this study, the researchers wanted to study what determines whether an invasion by a new species will succeed or fail. In natural communities, ecologists have hypothesized that the more diverse an ecosystem is, the more it will resist an invasion, because most of the ecological niches will already be occupied and few resources are left for an invader.
However, in both natural and experimental systems, scientists have observed that this is not consistently true: While some highly diverse populations are resistant to invasion, other highly diverse populations are more likely to be invaded.
To explore why both of those outcomes can occur, the researchers set up more than 400 communities of soil bacteria, which were all native to the soil around MIT. The researchers established communities of 12 to 20 species of bacteria, and six days later, they added one randomly chosen species as the invader. On the 12th day of the experiment, they sequenced the genomes of all the bacteria to determine if the invader had established itself in the ecosystem.
In each community, the researchers also varied the nutrient levels in the culture medium on which the bacteria were grown. When nutrient levels were high, the microbes displayed strong interactions, characterized by heightened competition for food and other resources, or mutual inhibition through mechanisms such as pH-mediated cross-toxin effects. Some of these populations formed stable states in which the fraction of each microbe did not vary much over time, while others formed communities in which most of the species fluctuated in number.
The researchers found that these fluctuations were the most important factor in the outcome of the invasion. Communities that had more fluctuations tended to be more diverse, but they were also more likely to be invaded successfully.
“The fluctuation is not driven by changes in the environment, but it is internal fluctuation driven by the species interaction. And what we found is that the fluctuating communities are more readily invaded and also more diverse than the stable ones,” Hu says.
In some of the populations where the invader established itself, the other species remained, but in smaller numbers. In other populations, some of the resident species were outcompeted and disappeared completely. This displacement tended to happen more often in ecosystems when there were stronger competitive interactions between species.
In ecosystems that had more stable, less diverse populations, with stronger interactions between species, invasions were more likely to fail.
Regardless of whether the community was stable or fluctuating, the researchers found that the fraction of the original species that survived in the community before invasion predicts the probability of invasion success. This “survival fraction” could be estimated in natural communities by taking the ratio of the diversity within a local community (measured by the number of species in that area) to the regional diversity (number of species found in the entire region).
“It would be exciting to study whether the local and regional diversity could be used to predict susceptibility to invasion in natural communities,” Gore says.
Predicting success
The researchers also found that under certain circumstances, the order in which species arrived in the ecosystem played a role in whether an invasion was successful. When the interactions between species were strong, the chances of a species becoming successfully incorporated went down when that species was introduced after other species have already become established.
When the interactions are weak, this “priority effect” disappears and the same stable equilibrium is reached no matter what order the microbes arrived in.
“Under a strong interaction regime, we found the invader has some disadvantage because it arrived later. This is of interest in ecology because people have always found that in some cases the order in which species arrived matters a lot, while in the other cases it doesn't matter,” Hu says.
The researchers now plan to try to replicate their findings in ecosystems for which species diversity data is available, including the human gut microbiome. Their formula could allow them to predict the success of probiotic treatment, in which beneficial bacteria are consumed orally, or FMT, an experimental treatment for severe infections such as C. difficile, in which beneficial bacteria from a donor’s stool are transplanted into a patient’s colon.
“Invasions can be harmful or can be good depending on the context,” Hu says. “In some cases, like probiotics, or FMT to treat C. difficile infection, we want the healthy species to invade successfully. Also for soil protection, people introduce probiotics or beneficial species to the soil. In that case people also want the invaders to succeed.”
The research was funded by the Schmidt Polymath Award and the Sloan Foundation.
The new formula can be used to predict what happens when a new species is introduced into an ecosystem — whether it will establish itself in the community or fail to gain a foothold and die out.
Earth-observation satellites deliver data for a wealth of applications – from monitoring climate change and documenting war crimes to planning disaster relief and assessing snow depth. ETH researchers are also big beneficiaries.
Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a non-invasive method to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy while reducing its harmful side effects.
By applying brief, localised pulses of magnetic fields, the team demonstrated a significant increase in the uptake of doxorubicin (DOX), a widely used chemotherapy drug, into breast cancer cells, with minimal impact on healthy tissues. This selective uptake enables more precise targeting of cancer cells, potentially improving treatment outcomes and reducing the adverse effects often associated with chemotherapy.
The study, led by Associate Professor Alfredo Franco-Obregón, Principal Investigator at the Institute for Health Innovation & Technology (iHealthtech) at NUS and faculty member of the Department of Surgery at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine), is the first to systematically show how pulsed magnetic fields enhance DOX uptake in cancer cells. The team also showed that this approach could suppress tumours at lower drug doses.
The team’s research was published in the journal Cancers on 18 November 2024. It builds on earlier work from 2022, which first revealed that certain cancer cells are more vulnerable to magnetic field therapy.
Targeted therapy for better chemotherapy outcomes and fewer side effects
DOX is a commonly used chemotherapy drug for breast cancer. It works by binding to DNA components and disrupting cell replication and respiration, which then kills off cancer cells. Despite its efficacy, it is a non-selective drug, which means it can also damage healthy tissues, leading to side effects ranging from mild to severe, including cardiomyopathy and muscle atrophy.
To address these challenges, the NUS researchers developed a novel approach that uses brief pulses of magnetic fields to selectively increase DOX uptake into breast cancer cells. Their study revealed the role of a calcium ion channel known as TRPC1, which is often found in aggressive cancers, including breast cancer. Magnetic field exposure activates TRPC1, enhancing its ability to facilitate the entry of DOX into cancer cells.
The researchers conducted experiments comparing the effects of the magnetic field therapy on human breast cancer cells and healthy muscle cells. They found that breast cancer cells took in significantly more DOX when exposed to magnetic pulses, while normal tissues were not targeted as much. A 10-minute magnetic field exposure reduced the drug concentration needed for similar amount of cancer killing by half, particularly at low doses of the drug.
In contrast, healthy muscle cells did not show an increase in cell death in response to the combination of DOX and magnetic pulses indicating greater protection for non-cancerous tissues.
The team also demonstrated that reducing TRPC1 expression or blocking its activity eliminated this effect, which confirms the crucial role of TRPC1 channels in the process. “Importantly, when we increased the amount of TRPC1, we observed an increase in DOX uptake — this means that TRPC1 can be used as a viable therapeutic target for aggressive cancers,” said Mr Viresh Krishnan Sukumar, the paper’s first author and a PhD candidate at NUS Centre for Cancer Research (N2CR) under NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
“What’s promising is that this mechanism works strongest at low drug concentrations, enabling us to target cancer cells more effectively while reducing the burden of chemotherapy on healthy tissues,” Assoc Prof Franco-Obregón added.
With breast cancer remaining the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide, the need for novel treatment strategies is urgent. “The majority of women who undergo chemotherapy experience side effects from treatment, and in some cases, doses of chemotherapy need to be reduced, or in severe cases, stopped prematurely,” said research team member Assistant Professor Joline Lim, Principal Investigator at N2CR and Senior Consultant, Department of Haematology-Oncology, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore. “Moreover, prolonged exposure to high-dose chemotherapy can also lead to drug resistance. This targeted approach represents an excellent opportunity to potentially improve treatment outcomes while preserving patients’ quality of life.”
Advancing the frontier of precision oncology
The team’s magnetic-assisted approach addresses one of the biggest challenges of chemotherapy, namely its toxic effects on healthy tissues. By selectively enhancing drug uptake into cancer cells, this method has the potential to drastically reduce the systemic side effects often experienced by breast cancer patients. This not only improves treatment outcomes and quality of life, but also encourages earlier treatment for those hesitant about treatment side effects. The study also underscores the role of biomarkers, such as elevated TRPC1 expression, in transforming cancer care by enabling precision-driven treatment options.
Future work will focus on translating these findings into clinical practice by localising magnetic field exposure specifically to tumours in patients. This would further validate the potential to reduce systemic DOX doses while maximising localised drug delivery in cancer cells.
“Our approach will be patented and form the foundation for a startup specialising in breast cancer treatment. We are currently in discussions with potential investors in Southeast Asia and the United States to translate this technology from bench to bedside,” shared Assoc Prof Franco-Obregón.
One of the hardest-working organisms in the ocean is the tiny, emerald-tinged Prochlorococcus marinus. These single-celled “picoplankton,” which are smaller than a human red blood cell, can be found in staggering numbers throughout the ocean’s surface waters, making Prochlorococcus the most abundant photosynthesizing organism on the planet. (Collectively, Prochlorococcus fix as much carbon as all the crops on land.) Scientists continue to find new ways that the little green microbe is involved in the ocean’s cycling and storage of carbon.
Now, MIT scientists have discovered a new ocean-regulating ability in the small but mighty microbes: cross-feeding of DNA building blocks. In a study appearing today in Science Advances, the team reports that Prochlorococcus shed these extra compounds into their surroundings, where they are then “cross-fed,” or taken up by other ocean organisms, either as nutrients, energy, or for regulating metabolism. Prochlorococcus’ rejects, then, are other microbes’ resources.
What’s more, this cross-feeding occurs on a regular cycle: Prochlorococcus tend to shed their molecular baggage at night, when enterprising microbes quickly consume the cast-offs. For a microbe called SAR11, the most abundant bacteria in the ocean, the researchers found that the nighttime snack acts as a relaxant of sorts, forcing the bacteria to slow down their metabolism and effectively recharge for the next day.
Through this cross-feeding interaction, Prochlorococcus could be helping many microbial communities to grow sustainably, simply by giving away what it doesn’t need. And they’re doing so in a way that could set the daily rhythms of microbes around the world.
“The relationship between the two most abundant groups of microbes in ocean ecosystems has intrigued oceanographers for years,” says co-author and MIT Institute Professor Sallie “Penny” Chisholm, who played a role in the discovery of Prochlorococcus in 1986. “Now we have a glimpse of the finely tuned choreography that contributes to their growth and stability across vast regions of the oceans.”
Given that Prochlorococcus and SAR11 suffuse the surface oceans, the team suspects that the exchange of molecules from one to the other could amount to one of the major cross-feeding relationships in the ocean, making it an important regulator of the ocean carbon cycle.
“By looking at the details and diversity of cross-feeding processes, we can start to unearth important forces that are shaping the carbon cycle,” says the study’s lead author, Rogier Braakman, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).
Other MIT co-authors include Brandon Satinsky, Tyler O’Keefe, Shane Hogle, Jamie Becker, Robert Li, Keven Dooley, and Aldo Arellano, along with Krista Longnecker, Melissa Soule, and Elizabeth Kujawinski of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Spotting castaways
Cross-feeding occurs throughout the microbial world, though the process has mainly been studied in close-knit communities. In the human gut, for instance, microbes are in close proximity and can easily exchange and benefit from shared resources.
By comparison, Prochlorococcus are free-floating microbes that are regularly tossed and mixed through the ocean’s surface layers. While scientists assume that the plankton are involved in some amount of cross-feeding, exactly how this occurs, and who would benefit, have historically been challenging to probe; any stuff that Prochlorococcus cast away would have vanishingly low concentrations,and be exceedingly difficult to measure.
But in work published in 2023, Braakman teamed up with scientists at WHOI, who pioneered ways to measure small organic compounds in seawater. In the lab, they grew various strains of Prochlorococcus under different conditions and characterized what the microbes released. They found that among the major “exudants,” or released molecules, were purines and pyridines, which are molecular building blocks of DNA. The molecules also happen to be nitrogen-rich — a fact that puzzled the team. Prochlorococcus are mainly found in ocean regions that are low in nitrogen, so it was assumed they’d want to retain any and all nitrogen-containing compounds they can. Why, then, were they instead throwing such compounds away?
Global symphony
In their new study, the researchers took a deep dive into the details of Prochlorococcus’ cross-feeding and how it influences various types of ocean microbes.
They set out to study how Prochlorococcus use purine and pyridine in the first place, before expelling the compounds into their surroundings. They compared published genomes of the microbes, looking for genes that encode purine and pyridine metabolism. Tracing the genes forward through the genomes, the team found that once the compounds are produced, they are used to make DNA and replicate the microbes’ genome. Any leftover purine and pyridine is recycled and used again, though a fraction of the stuff is ultimately released into the environment. Prochlorococcus appear to make the most of the compounds, then cast off what they can’t.
The team also looked to gene expression data and found that genes involved in recycling purine and pyrimidine peak several hours after the recognized peak in genome replication that occurs at dusk. The question then was: What could be benefiting from this nightly shedding?
For this, the team looked at the genomes of more than 300 heterotrophic microbes — organisms that consume organic carbon rather than making it themselves through photosynthesis. They suspected that such carbon-feeders could be likely consumers of Prochlorococcus’ organic rejects. They found most of the heterotrophs contained genes that take up either purine or pyridine, or in some cases, both, suggesting microbes have evolved along different paths in terms of how they cross-feed.
The group zeroed in on one purine-preferring microbe, SAR11, as it is the most abundant heterotrophic microbe in the ocean. When they then compared the genes across different strains of SAR11, they found that various types use purines for different purposes, from simply taking them up and using them intact to breaking them down for their energy, carbon, or nitrogen. What could explain the diversity in how the microbes were using Prochlorococcus’ cast-offs?
It turns out the local environment plays a big role. Braakman and his collaborators performed a metagenome analysis in which they compared the collectively sequenced genomes of all microbes in over 600 seawater samples from around the world, focusing on SAR11 bacteria. Metagenome sequences were collected alongside measurements of various environmental conditions and geographic locations in which they are found. This analysis showed that the bacteria gobble up purine for its nitrogen when the nitrogen in seawater is low, and for its carbon or energy when nitrogen is in surplus — revealing the selective pressures shaping these communities in different ocean regimes.
“The work here suggests that microbes in the ocean have developed relationships that advance their growth potential in ways we don’t expect,” says co-author Kujawinski.
Finally, the team carried out a simple experiment in the lab, to see if they could directly observe a mechanism by which purine acts on SAR11. They grew the bacteria in cultures, exposed them to various concentrations of purine, and unexpectedly found it causes them to slow down their normal metabolic activities and even growth. However, when the researchers put these same cells under environmentally stressful conditions, they continued growing strong and healthy cells, as if the metabolic pausing by purines helped prime them for growth, thereby avoiding the effects of the stress.
“When you think about the ocean, where you see this daily pulse of purines being released by Prochlorococcus, this provides a daily inhibition signal that could be causing a pause in SAR11 metabolism, so that the next day when the sun comes out, they are primed and ready,” Braakman says. “So we think Prochlorococcus is acting as a conductor in the daily symphony of ocean metabolism, and cross-feeding is creating a global synchronization among all these microbial cells.”
This work was supported, in part, by the Simons Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
Prochlorococcus tend to shed their molecular baggage at night. For a microbe called SAR11, the researchers found that the nighttime snack acts as a relaxant of sorts.
The hormone estrogen regulates binge drinking in females, causing them to “pregame” – consume large quantities of alcohol in the first 30 minutes after it’s offered, according to a preclinical study led by scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine.
“How do we produce batteries at the cost that is suitable for mass adoption globally, and how do you do this to electrify the planet?” Clare Grey asked an audience of over 450 combined in-person and virtual attendees at the sixth annual Dresselhaus Lecture, organized by MIT.nano on Nov. 18. “The biggest challenge is, how do you make batteries to allow more renewables on the grid.”
These questions emphasized one of Grey’s key messages in her presentation: The future of batteries aligns with global climate efforts. She addressed sustainability issues with lithium mining and stressed the importance of increasing the variety of minerals that can be used in batteries. But the talk primarily focused on advanced imaging techniques to produce insights into the behaviors of materials that will guide the development of new technology. “We need to come up with new chemistries and new materials that are both more sustainable and safer,” she said, as well as think about other issues like secondhand use, which requires batteries to be made to last longer.
Better understanding will produce better batteries
“Batteries have really transformed the way we live,” Grey said. “In order to improve batteries, we need to understand how they work, we need to understand how they operate, and we need to understand how they degrade.”
Grey, a Royal Society Research Professor and the Geoffrey Moorhouse-Gibson Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge University, introduced new optical methods for studying batteries while they are operating, visualizing reactions down to the nanoscale. “It is much easier to study an operating device in-situ,” she said. “When you take batteries apart, sometimes there are processes that don’t survive disassembling.”
Grey presented work coming out of her research group that uses in-situ metrologies to better understand different dynamics and transformational phenomena of various materials. For example, in-situ nuclear magnetic resonance can identify issues with wrapping lithium with silicon (it does not form a passivating layer) and demonstrate why anodes cannot be replaced with sodium (it is the wrong size molecule). Grey discussed the value of being able to use in-situ metrology to look at higher energy density materials that are more sustainable such as lithium sulfur or lithium air batteries.
The lecture connected local structure to mechanisms and how materials intercalate. Grey spoke about using interferometric scattering (iSCAT) microscopy, typically used by biologists, to follow how ions are pulled in and out of materials. Sharing iSCAT images of graphite, she gave a shout out to the late Institute Professor and lecture namesake Mildred Dresselhaus when discussing nucleation, the process by which atoms come together to form new structures that is important for considering new, more sustainable materials for batteries.
“Millie, in her solid-state physics class for undergrads, nicely explained what’s going on here,” Grey explained. “There is a dramatic change in the conductivity as you go from diluted state to the dense state. The conductivity goes up. With this information, you can explore nucleation.”
Designing for the future
“How do we design for fast charging?” Grey asked, discussing gradient spectroscopy to visualize different materials. “We need to find a material that operates at a high enough voltage to avoid lithium plating and has high lithium mobility.”
“To return to the theme of graphite and Millie Dresselhaus,” said Grey, “I’ve been trying to really understand what is the nature of the passivating layer that grows on both graphite and lithium metal. Can we enhance this layer?” In the question-and-answer session that followed, Grey spoke about the pros and cons of incorporating nitrogen in the anode.
After the lecture, Grey was joined by Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Ceramics in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, for a fireside chat. The conversation touched on political and academic attitudes toward climate change in the United Kingdom, and audience members applauded Grey’s development of imaging methods that allow researchers to look at the temperature dependent response of battery materials.
This was the sixth Dresselhaus Lecture, named in honor of MIT Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus, known to many as the "Queen of Carbon Science.” “It’s truly wonderful to be here to celebrate the life and the science of Millie Dresselhaus,” said Grey. “She was a very strong advocate for women in science. I’m honored to be here to give a lecture in honor of her.”
Dame Clare Grey, Royal Society research professor and the Geoffrey Moorhouse-Gibson Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge University, delivered the 2024 Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lecturer on Nov. 18.
Researchers from the UK and China drew this conclusion after studying proteins from blood samples taken from over 42,000 adults recruited to the UK Biobank. Their findings are published today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
Social relationships play an important role in our wellbeing. Evidence increasingly demonstrates that both social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health and an early death. Despite this evidence, however, the underlying mechanisms through which social relationships impact health remain elusive.
One way to explore biological mechanisms is to look at proteins circulating in the blood. Proteins are molecules produced by our genes and are essential for helping our bodies function properly. They can also serve as useful drug targets, allowing researchers to develop new treatments to tackle diseases.
A team led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Fudan University, China, examined the ‘proteomes’ – the suite of proteins – in blood samples donated by over 42,000 adults aged 40-69 years who are taking part in the UK Biobank. This allowed them to see which proteins were present in higher levels among people who were socially isolated or lonely, and how these proteins were connected to poorer health.
The team calculated social isolation and loneliness scores for individuals. Social isolation is an objective measure based on, for example, whether someone lives alone, how frequently they have contact with others socially, and whether they take part in social activities. Loneliness, on the other hand, is a subjective measure based on whether an individual feels lonely.
When they analysed the proteomes and adjusted for factors such as age, sex and socioeconomic background, the team found 175 proteins associated with social isolation and 26 proteins associated with loneliness (though there was substantial overlap, with approximately 85% of the proteins associated with loneliness being shared with social isolation). Many of these proteins are produced in response to inflammation, viral infection and as part of our immune responses, as well as having been linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and early death.
The team then used a statistical technique known as Mendelian randomization to explore the causal relationship between social isolation and loneliness on the one hand, and proteins on the other. Using this approach, they identified five proteins whose abundance was caused by loneliness.
Dr Chun Shen from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge and the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, said: “We know that social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health, but we’ve never understood why. Our work has highlighted a number of proteins that appear to play a key role in this relationship, with levels of some proteins in particular increasing as a direct consequence of loneliness.
Professor Jianfeng Feng from the University of Warwick said: "There are more than 100,000 proteins and many of their variants in the human body. AI and high throughput proteomics can help us pinpoint some key proteins in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis in many human diseases and revolutionise the traditional view of human health.
"The proteins we’ve identified give us clues to the biology underpinning poor health among people who are socially isolated or lonely, highlighting why social relationships play such an important part in keeping us healthy.”
One of the proteins produced in higher levels as a result of loneliness was ADM. Previous studies have shown that this protein plays a role in responding to stress and in regulating stress hormones and social hormones such as oxytocin – the so-called ‘love hormone’ – which can reduce stress and improve mood.
The team found a strong association between ADM and the volume of the insula, a brain hub for interoception, our ability to sense what's happening inside our body – the greater the ADM levels, the smaller the volume of this region. Higher ADM levels were also linked to lower volume of the left caudate, a region involved in emotional, reward, and social processes. In addition, higher levels of ADM were linked to increased risk of early death.
Another of the proteins, ASGR1, is associated with higher cholesterol and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, while other identified proteins play roles in the development of insulin resistance, atherosclerosis (‘furring’ of the arteries) and cancer progression, for example.
Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge said: “These findings drive home the importance of social contact in keeping us well. More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely. That’s why the World Health Organization has described social isolation and loneliness as a ‘global public health concern’. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy.”
The research was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Shanghai Rising-Star Program, National Key R&D Program of China, Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project, 111 Project, Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, and Zhangjiang Lab.
Interactions with friends and family may keep us healthy because they boost our immune system and reduce our risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.
More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy
By Mr Shane Pereira, Research Associate at the Institute of Policy Studies Social Lab, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS, and Associate Professor Julien Cayla from the Division of Marketing at Nanyang Business School
A quiet intensity held the room on edge as the clock ticked down in the final moments of the 2024 MIT Science Bowl Invitational. Montgomery Blair High School clung to a razor-thin lead over Mission San Jose High School — 70 to 60 — with just two minutes remaining.
Mission San Jose faced a pivotal bonus opportunity that could tie the score. The moderator’s steady voice filled the room as he read the question. Mission San Jose’s team of four huddled together, pencils moving quickly across their white scratch paper. Across the stage, Montgomery Blair’s players sat still, their eyes darting between the scoreboard and the opposing team attempting to close the gap.
Mission San Jose team captain Advaith Mopuri called out their final answer.
“Incorrect,” the moderator announced.
Montgomery Blair’s team collectively exhaled, the tension breaking as they sealed their championship victory, but the gravity of those final moments when everything was on the line lingered — a testament to just how close the competition had been. Their showdown in the final round was a fitting culmination of the event, showcasing the mental agility and teamwork honed through months of practice.
“That final round was so tense. It came down to the final question,” says Jonathan Huang, a senior undergraduate at MIT and the co-president of the MIT Science Bowl Club. “It’s rare for it to come down to the very last question, so that was really exciting.”
A tournament of science and strategy
Now in its sixth year at the high school level, the MIT Science Bowl Invitational welcomed 48 teams from across the country this year for a full day of competition. The buzzer-style tournament challenged students on topics that spanned disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and physics. The rapid pace and diverse subject matter demanded a combination of deep knowledge, quick reflexes, and strategic teamwork.
Montgomery Blair’s hard-fought victory marked the culmination of months of preparation. “It was so exciting,” says Katherine Wang, Montgomery Blair senior and Science Bowl team member. “I can’t even describe it. You never think anything like that would happen to you.”
The volunteers who make it happen
Behind the scenes, the invitational is powered by a team of more than 120 dedicated volunteers, many of them current MIT students. From moderating matches to coordinating logistics, these volunteers form the backbone of the invitational.
Preparation for the competition starts months in advance. “By the time summer started, we already had to figure out who was going to be the head writers for each subject,” Huang says. “Every week over the summer, volunteers spent their own time to start writing up questions.”
“Every single question you hear today was written by a volunteer,” said Paolo Adajar, an MIT graduate student who served in roles like questions judge this year and is a former president of the MIT Science Bowl Club. Adajar, who competed in the National Science Bowl as a high school student, has been involved in the MIT Invitational since it began in 2019. “There's just something so fun about the games and just watching people be excited to get a question right.”
For many volunteers, the event is a chance to reconnect with a shared community. “It’s so nice to get together with the community every year,” says Emily Liu, a master’s student in computer science at MIT and a veteran volunteer. “And I’m always pleasantly surprised to see how much I remember.”
Looking ahead
For competitors, the invitational offers more than just a chance to win. It’s an opportunity to connect with peers who share their passion for science, to experience the energy of MIT’s campus, and to sharpen skills they’ll carry into future endeavors.
As the crowd dispersed and the auditorium emptied, the spirit of the competition remained — a testament to the dedication, curiosity, and camaraderie that define the MIT Science Bowl Invitational.
Montgomery Blair High School team members (left to right) Katherine Wang, Evan Zhang, Yunyi Ling, and Kian Dhawan, moments before winning the final match.
By adapting artificial intelligence models known as large language models, researchers have made great progress in their ability to predict a protein’s structure from its sequence. However, this approach hasn’t been as successful for antibodies, in part because of the hypervariability seen in this type of protein.
To overcome that limitation, MIT researchers have developed a computational technique that allows large language models to predict antibody structures more accurately. Their work could enable researchers to sift through millions of possible antibodies to identify those that could be used to treat SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases.
“Our method allows us to scale, whereas others do not, to the point where we can actually find a few needles in the haystack,” says Bonnie Berger, the Simons Professor of Mathematics, the head of the Computation and Biology group in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and one of the senior authors of the new study. “If we could help to stop drug companies from going into clinical trials with the wrong thing, it would really save a lot of money.”
The technique, which focuses on modeling the hypervariable regions of antibodies, also holds potential for analyzing entire antibody repertoires from individual people. This could be useful for studying the immune response of people who are super responders to diseases such as HIV, to help figure out why their antibodies fend off the virus so effectively.
Bryan Bryson, an associate professor of biological engineering at MIT and a member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, is also a senior author of the paper, which appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Rohit Singh, a former CSAIL research scientist who is now an assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics and cell biology at Duke University, and Chiho Im ’22 are the lead authors of the paper. Researchers from Sanofi and ETH Zurich also contributed to the research.
Modeling hypervariability
Proteins consist of long chains of amino acids, which can fold into an enormous number of possible structures. In recent years, predicting these structures has become much easier to do, using artificial intelligence programs such as AlphaFold. Many of these programs, such as ESMFold and OmegaFold, are based on large language models, which were originally developed to analyze vast amounts of text, allowing them to learn to predict the next word in a sequence. This same approach can work for protein sequences — by learning which protein structures are most likely to be formed from different patterns of amino acids.
However, this technique doesn’t always work on antibodies, especially on a segment of the antibody known as the hypervariable region. Antibodies usually have a Y-shaped structure, and these hypervariable regions are located in the tips of the Y, where they detect and bind to foreign proteins, also known as antigens. The bottom part of the Y provides structural support and helps antibodies to interact with immune cells.
Hypervariable regions vary in length but usually contain fewer than 40 amino acids. It has been estimated that the human immune system can produce up to 1 quintillion different antibodies by changing the sequence of these amino acids, helping to ensure that the body can respond to a huge variety of potential antigens. Those sequences aren’t evolutionarily constrained the same way that other protein sequences are, so it’s difficult for large language models to learn to predict their structures accurately.
“Part of the reason why language models can predict protein structure well is that evolution constrains these sequences in ways in which the model can decipher what those constraints would have meant,” Singh says. “It’s similar to learning the rules of grammar by looking at the context of words in a sentence, allowing you to figure out what it means.”
To model those hypervariable regions, the researchers created two modules that build on existing protein language models. One of these modules was trained on hypervariable sequences from about 3,000 antibody structures found in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), allowing it to learn which sequences tend to generate similar structures. The other module was trained on data that correlates about 3,700 antibody sequences to how strongly they bind three different antigens.
The resulting computational model, known as AbMap, can predict antibody structures and binding strength based on their amino acid sequences. To demonstrate the usefulness of this model, the researchers used it to predict antibody structures that would strongly neutralize the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The researchers started with a set of antibodies that had been predicted to bind to this target, then generated millions of variants by changing the hypervariable regions. Their model was able to identify antibody structures that would be the most successful, much more accurately than traditional protein-structure models based on large language models.
Then, the researchers took the additional step of clustering the antibodies into groups that had similar structures. They chose antibodies from each of these clusters to test experimentally, working with researchers at Sanofi. Those experiments found that 82 percent of these antibodies had better binding strength than the original antibodies that went into the model.
Identifying a variety of good candidates early in the development process could help drug companies avoid spending a lot of money on testing candidates that end up failing later on, the researchers say.
“They don’t want to put all their eggs in one basket,” Singh says. “They don’t want to say, I’m going to take this one antibody and take it through preclinical trials, and then it turns out to be toxic. They would rather have a set of good possibilities and move all of them through, so that they have some choices if one goes wrong.”
Comparing antibodies
Using this technique, researchers could also try to answer some longstanding questions about why different people respond to infection differently. For example, why do some people develop much more severe forms of Covid, and why do some people who are exposed to HIV never become infected?
Scientists have been trying to answer those questions by performing single-cell RNA sequencing of immune cells from individuals and comparing them — a process known as antibody repertoire analysis. Previous work has shown that antibody repertoires from two different people may overlap as little as 10 percent. However, sequencing doesn’t offer as comprehensive a picture of antibody performance as structural information, because two antibodies that have different sequences may have similar structures and functions.
The new model can help to solve that problem by quickly generating structures for all of the antibodies found in an individual. In this study, the researchers showed that when structure is taken into account, there is much more overlap between individuals than the 10 percent seen in sequence comparisons. They now plan to further investigate how these structures may contribute to the body’s overall immune response against a particular pathogen.
“This is where a language model fits in very beautifully because it has the scalability of sequence-based analysis, but it approaches the accuracy of structure-based analysis,” Singh says.
The research was funded by Sanofi and the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health.
Michael "Mike" Walter, MIT Health applications support generalist, passed away on Nov. 2 at age 46 after a battle with cancer.
At home, Walter was a husband and devoted father to his two adolescent sons. But for 22 years, he was everyone’s friend and the smiling face at MIT Health who never failed to solve individual computer problems, no matter how large or small.
Walter came to MIT as an office assistant in MIT Health’s Medical Records department in 2002. He eventually transferred to MIT Health’s Technology Services team, where he worked from 2009 until his passing. Information Systems Manager David Forristall, who had previously worked in medical records, still remembers when “this young guy came to work for his first day.”
“When he first got to Medical Records, he thought it was only going to be a pit stop — that he was only going to be here for like two weeks,” says Walter’s colleague, Technical Support Specialist Michael Miller. “Then, 20 years later…”
“You don’t often, other than a family member, watch someone grow through their life,” says Forristall. “So for him to come to MIT as a young man at the start of his career, to a full-blown career with a wife and children. He basically came here as a boy, and we watched him turn into a man.”
Walter’s colleagues were always struck by how positive he was. “He never complained about help desk tickets. All of us looked to him for that,” remembers Medical Records Manager Tom Goodwin. “When I found myself getting a little annoyed, I would just look to Mike and think, he doesn’t do that.”
Without fail, Walter would drop everything to help his MIT Health colleagues. “He would go out on a call, and people would just keep stopping him,” remembers Senior Programmer Analyst Terry McNatt. “They would see him around the building, and they knew he would help them. He wouldn’t come back for two hours!”
The needs of MIT patients were just as important to Walter. At the annual flu clinics, Walter would, without fail, volunteer for the full day. Oftentimes people could find him serving as a go-fer; he would deliver vaccines, Band-Aids, and whatever other supplies were needed to help the vaccinators be as efficient as possible.
According to his colleagues, Walter’s dedication to the MIT community is best explained by the day he learned of his cancer diagnosis. A major snowstorm was approaching, and Walter was diligently working to get laptop computers set up so employees could work remotely for multiple days if needed. All the while, he felt awful. Eventually he went to Urgent Care to be seen.
“Urgent Care was telling him, ‘You need to go to Mount Auburn hospital right now,’” recalls Forristall. “But Mike didn’t want to go.” He refused to leave until all the laptops were properly set up so his colleagues could continue to care for patients despite the impending MIT snow closure. He only left after he grudgingly agreed to have his peers cover for him.
Walter was also a Patriots superfan, and deep lover of sports. He had multiple footballs at his desk at all times, and for years he would gather his colleagues for “coffee-break” walks around campus where they would all walk and toss a football back and forth. Anyone who passed by was invited to Walter’s game of catch — students, construction workers, staff, and faculty alike were welcome.
“Mike was always happy and he shared that with everyone,” says Forristall. “He made you happy when you saw him. We loved him and he loved us.”
Mike Walter is survived by his wife Cindy (Cucinotta), his sons Ben and Leo, and many extended family members and friends. See his legacy page here.
Assistant professor of sociology at Howard University, Nicole Dezrea Jenkins is one of four visiting professors from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Visiting Howard sociologist gathering data for global research project on cultural, economic, legal significance of styles, textures
Nikki Rojas
Harvard Staff Writer
4 min read
During a recent research trip to Cuba, sociologist Nicole Dezrea Jenkins was stopped on the street by three teary-eyed local women. The women — just a few of the dozens around the world whom Jenkins will speak to as part of her Global Crowns Project — thanked her for sharing their stories and caring about their experiences.
“There is something about having an exchange where there is an interpreter in between us but we can still connect,” she said. “It’s really powerful.”
As a qualitative researcher, Jenkins, an assistant professor of sociology at Howard University, conducts interviews and focus groups to gather and analyze data on Black women’s lives. This year, she is in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Sociology Department — one of four visiting professors from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) supported by the FAS and the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative — pursuing research on the cultural significance of natural hair and working on her first book.
“African American students of mine have talked about their hair, and a lot of experiences around their hair being something that is different from other young people’s hair,” said Mary Waters, John L. Loeb Professor of Sociology and interim department chair. “But it wasn’t until I sat down with Nicole that I really understood — not only that this is an interpersonal issue and an identity issue, but also the far-reaching effects of African American women’s hair and the fact that it’s legal to discriminate against somebody based on their hair. I was blown away when she told me about that!”
Laws vary by jurisdiction, but presently 25 states have enacted the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), a law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination, and two states have passed an executive order inspired by the legislation.
Jenkins is traveling to different countries — including France, Brazil, and Cuba — to interview Black women about their experiences wearing natural hairstyles and textures.
“The research I’m conducting right now is very intimate. Women are sharing experiences with me that bring out so much emotion,” she said. “I’m hearing stories of joy, where I’m busting out laughing with my participants. I’m also having moments where I’m tearing up because a woman is crying because she’s sharing a story with me about how someone made her feel terrible or embarrassed her.”
As part of her work, Jenkins has incorporated AI to help her during and after the interview process, particularly for those conversations conducted in languages other than English. “With these multilingual interviews, the use of AI makes this a nearly seamless process,” she said.
As a researcher, Jenkins not only leverages AI tools for translation and transcription, but also helps her with coding.
“Along with the interviews, we want to identify patterns in what folks are saying, and AI technology can do that really well. This is not something that is just easily a one-off and it’s done,” she explained. “You have to really work. AI is like a calculator; you have to know what numbers to input and what problem you’re solving. To use AI the same way, you have to know how to prompt the AI work with these tools.”
Jenkins acknowledged that some scholars are hesitant to employ AI, but she encouraged them to embrace the tools for their scholarship.“I’m hoping that researchers will use these tools not just to save money … but to be able to expand the scope of what we could do by saving costs in these other areas,” like transcription and translation, she said.
While at Harvard, Jenkins is also working on a book based on a two-year ethnography project she conducted at an African braiding and weaving hair salon in Las Vegas. With a semester under her belt, Jenkins said the resources she’s been provided at Harvard for her book and research have “propelled me to be very productive.”
She and Waters underscored the importance of scholarly exchanges between HBCUs and institutions like Harvard.
“I’m really hopeful that these exchange programs will set up longer-lasting relationships, so that we can visit each other and share our research,” Waters said.
“The exchange between faculty and students in these collaborations is really important for a number of reasons. Providing opportunities for networking across institutions provides more opportunities for collaborative work, whether through research publications or teaching. There’s a lot to learn from HBCU faculty, and students from Harvard could really benefit from being exposed to them,” Jenkins added.
A Cornell Tech-led research group is in the early stages of developing a portable, inexpensive device that uses radio frequency signals and machine learning to measure lead contamination levels in soil.
Immune cells in the brain can partially break down large amyloid plaques characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease by latching on to them, forming a sort of external stomach and releasing digestive enzymes into the space, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.
By Dr Mathew Mathews, Head of the Social Lab and Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS and Mr Melvin Tay, Research Associate at the same institute
By Professor Marcus Ong, Programme Director from the Health Services & Systems Research Programme and Adjunct Associate Professor Kenneth Tan, both from the Duke-NUS Medical School
In this series, NUS News explores how NUS is accelerating sustainability research and education in response to climate change challenges, and harnessing the knowledge and creativity of our people to pave the way to a greener future for all.
Sustainability is an integral part of the NUS experience, a commitment deeply embedded in hostel life. Alongside campus-wide initiatives such as energy and water conservation, promoting recycling and enhancing biodiversity, NUS students are encouraged to champion eco-friendly practices in their living spaces to do their part for the environment and contribute towards a greener future.
From finding new homes for pre-loved items for incoming student residents to nurturing new friendships while caring for plants together, these student groups in the hostels have implemented a range of thoughtful initiatives that show how small, meaningful actions can leave a lasting impact.
Eusoff Hall
Better known for its strong sporting culture, Eusoff Hall (EH) also has a Green Committee made up of a dedicated group of students who organise various activities to encourage Eusoffians to adopt more eco-conscious habits in their daily lives. Justin Soon, a Year 2 undergraduate from the School of Computing (SOC) and Vienna Fiorella Anong, a Year 2 undergraduate from the Faculty of Science are heading the Committee this academic year.
One of the recurring projects helmed by the team is a hall-wide recycling competition which aims to foster community engagement while cultivating a sense of environmental responsibility by making recycling accessible and rewarding within the students’ living spaces. The competition takes place every academic year, from the middle of Semester 1 to the middle of Semester 2. Each block in EH is assigned a designated recycling box where residents can deposit recyclables such as paper, plastics, and metals. At the end of the competition period, the Green Committee evaluates each block's recycling efforts based on criteria such as proper sorting of recyclables and cleanliness, before sending the recyclables to the recycling point. Winning blocks are awarded for their dedication to sustainability, inspiring continued eco-friendly habits throughout the hall.
To cultivate a stronger sense of community ownership over the green spaces in EH, the Committee initiated building a spice garden. Featuring a diverse range of plants including bougainvillea, chili, papaya, and lemongrass, the project aims to spark an interest in gardening among Eusoffians, encouraging them to care for the plants and environment around them. Those who cultivated edible plants, such as rosemary and basil, have also harvested them for cooking!
Vienna, a sustainability champion in EH, and the Head of the Green Committee said, “Together, through initiatives like the spice garden and recycling competition, we are sowing seeds for a greener future. Small actions lead to big change, and by working as a community, we can nurture sustainability one step at a time.”
Sheares Hall
Despite being one of the oldest halls at NUS, Sheares Hall’s (SH) commitment to taking meaningful actions for the environment has endured. The SH community is deeply passionate about environmental sustainability and has organised a diverse range of activities, encouraging Shearites to actively contribute to both the environment and the broader community. It also has a dedicated student committee, ConSheares, that leads such meaningful activities and encourages participation from across the hall.
As part of the Sheares Newly Discovered Companion (SNDC) programme, in which freshmen select a senior from their block to guide them through their first year of hall life, Shearites have the opportunity to participate in the Adopt a Plant initiative at the Sheares Garden. Each SNDC pair gets to choose between cactuses or fittonias, and are taught how to care for the different types of plants. They are also involved in the entire gardening process, from casting and decorating the cement pots to planting saplings, with each student taking home a potted plant at the end. Beyond strengthening community bonds, this initiative allows Shearites to gain a deeper understanding of the vital role plants play in our ecosystem and how gardens contribute to urban sustainability.
Among those who forged new friendships while laying down roots at Sheares Hall were Gabriel Ponce Simundo (right of picture), a freshman at SOC, and Bernadette Tan (left of picture), a senior from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Gabriel shared that the experience helped him develop a love for nature and an appreciation of the tranquility of gardening.
In the spirit of giving back, ConSheares partnered with the Sheares Hall Voluntary Corps and Tasek Academy and Social Services to educate disadvantaged students from primary to early secondary school about environmental issues. The EnviroKids initiative allows Shearites to share their insights about environmental issues and the impact of everyday actions while raising the students' environmental awareness through engaging, hands-on activities. These include turning recycled materials into musical instruments and creating craft projects, making learning about sustainability both fun and interactive. While previous iterations of this programme were organised across two sessions, the committee is exploring the possibility of converting this into a recurring engagement with the students.
Prince George’s Park Residence
Housing students from over 68 different countries, Prince George’s Park Residences (PGPR) is a vibrant melting pot of cultures including local, international and exchange students. As a residence for many short-term students, a significant amount of perfectly usable items was often discarded as the residents moved out of PGPR, contributing to unnecessary waste. This led to a collaboration between PGPR and the UTown Residences’ Sustainability Committee, utilising their existingInfiniUse initiative to reduce waste by gathering unwanted items, sorting them, and redistributing them, primarily to incoming international and exchange students. InfiniUse has since grown into a campus-wide initiative, with the team behind it also collecting unclaimed parcels to be repurposed and preventing additional waste.
The initiative is currently managed by two Year 4 undergraduates, Shayer Ahmed from SOC and Regina Tan from the College of Design and Engineering, both of whom are project leaders for InfiniUse. They said, “We aim to ensure the sustainability of InfiniUse in the long run as it has benefited over 300 exchange students and helped to redistribute more than 20 boxes of second-hand items, enabling the NUS community to choose more sustainable living options.”
By giving pre-loved or unused items a second life, the InfiniUse team aims to shift students' consumption habits, promote a culture of reuse at NUS, and ease the move-in process for new residents.
This is the first in a two-part series featuring sustainability initiatives at the various hostels in NUS.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have jointly appointed Professor Atif Mian as the MAS Distinguished Term Professor in Economics and Finance from 2 to 17 January 2025. Professor Mian will be hosted by NUS Business School’s Department of Real Estate and the Economic Policy Group of MAS during the term of the Professorship.
Professor Mian is the John H. Laporte, Jr. Class of 1967 Professor of Economics, Public Policy, and Finance at Princeton University. He co-founded the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan and is currently the Director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
Professor Mian’s research emphasises the role of leverage, credit cycles and financial fragility in driving macroeconomic outcomes. His research explores how household debt contributes to economic recessions and how inequality can affect the long-term sustainability of economic growth. He is the co-author of House of Debt, an influential book demonstrating how excessive borrowing pre-Global Financial Crisis (GFC) led to prolonged economic stagnation post-GFC.
Professor Andrew Kenan Rose, Dean of NUS Business School, said, “Professor Atif Mian is an esteemed figure in economics and finance who has produced influential research in a number of areas. I look forward to his visit, and am sure that many of our faculty and students will benefit from interactions with him.”
Mr Edward Robinson, Deputy Managing Director (Economic Policy) and Chief Economist, MAS, said, “Professor Mian is an internationally renowned economist whose work has significantly contributed to our understanding of how excessive debt can increase the likelihood of recessions and dampen long-term economic growth. His research has important implications for key aspects of financial stability in Singapore. It is our great privilege to welcome him as the 23rd MAS Term Professor, and we look forward to learning from such a distinguished scholar.”
Professor Mian will deliver a public lecture at NUS on 14 January 2025, where he will speak on the effects of inequality on financialisation, debt-dependence, and a debt super-cycle. In addition, Professor Mian will engage in dialogue sessions with NUS faculty members to discuss his latest research findings.
Professor Mian will also give a talk at MAS, and engage with senior policymakers and economists on international finance and monetary policy issues.
NUS College and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences alumnus Salifian Sulaiman (Class of 2024) has won the Singapore Rhodes Scholarship this year, becoming Singapore’s 30th Rhodes Scholar. Under the scholarship, Salifian will be pursuing doctoral research in anthropology and migration studies at the University of Oxford in October 2025.
The Rhodes selection process identifies outstanding young leaders of exceptional character and intellect who apply their energy and talents fully to the service of others and to addressing humanity's challenges.
Explaining this year’s choice, Ms Yong Ying-I, who chaired the Selection Committee, noted that the scholarship recognises leaders whose efforts can catalyse positive change in the community by inspiring others to serve the common good. “Salifian distinguished himself by exemplifying what the Scholarship seeks to represent. His ethically responsible, intellectually rigorous and personally reflective approach is valuable in the area of migration studies. In Singapore and elsewhere globally, migration challenges abound. We are excited to see how he will make use of the Rhodes experience to become a stronger community and thought leader in the future, contributing to building a better world,” she said.
Salifian completed his NUS-Waseda double-degree programme in 2024, earning a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History from NUS and a Bachelor of Arts in International Liberal Studies from Japan’s Waseda University.
Inspired by experience
Salifian’s interest in his chosen field of anthropology and migration studies is motivated by a concern for uplifting vulnerable and minority communities worldwide, as well as his own experiences.
“I grew up in a working-class family. I have three brothers and parents who did their best to provide for us and encourage us in pursuing our passions and goals as we were growing up. I am grateful for the scholarships and financial aid that have supported my education, in particular the Wee Cho Yaw Future Leaders Award that I received throughout my time at NUS,” said Salifian. The scholarship “helped me overcome some of the financial challenges my family was facing so that I could focus on my studies and have a well-rounded university experience,” he added.
Having overcome some obstacles of his own growing up, the aspiring researcher is passionate about sharing the stories of others who have overcome challenges and pursued their dreams to inspire positive action in others.
Driven by a desire to promote inclusivity and raise awareness about faith and culture, Salifian started ‘Salam’ to support and represent the Malay/Muslim students in his community at NUS College (the successor to the University Scholars Programme) and organise interfaith dialogues that encouraged students to engage in difficult but important conversations about faith and common understanding.
Now in its fourth year and with a membership of about 50 students, ‘Salam’, continues to advocate for the Malay/Muslim community on campus through engagement activities and events.
“My years at NUS College were especially formative for me,” he shared. “The residential experience allowed me to constantly engage with my peers and teachers. The creative courses and the conversations shared over meals or even late into the night expanded my curiosity and worldview, and somewhere within that my dream of becoming a Rhodes Scholar was birthed,” reflected Salifian, who served as a Residential Assistant for more than two years.
Salifian’s passion to make a difference was not confined to campus activities. In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Salifian put his baking skills to good use and founded the Bake As One charity project, a collaboration with three other home-based bakeries in Singapore to raise funds for the Children’s Charities Association of Singapore, benefitting underprivileged children.
During his time as an exchange student in Japan under his double-degree programme, Salifian also started an initiative with local students and entrepreneurs called Blossom As One to uplift underprivileged groups through e-commerce. It later branched out to provide English tuition to local children to build their confidence in a foreign language.
Community empowerment
Salifian is now pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge under the Lee Kuan Yew–Quantedge Studentship and LBKM Postgraduate Prestigious Scholarship, which he will complete in August 2025, before heading to Oxford in the fall to begin doctoral research.
“This will be an excellent opportunity for me to learn from the outstanding faculty and other students, especially from the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), Oxford Martin School, and the Department of Education,” Salifian said.
Even after he completes his doctoral research at Oxford, Salifian intends to continue contributing to research on issues related to anthropology and migration, such as the impact of overseas experiences and education on promoting social mobility amongst working-class families. He will also be seeking opportunities to work on projects to uplift underprivileged youth in Singapore through mentorship and other vocational support.
Fast radio bursts are brief and brilliant explosions of radio waves emitted by extremely compact objects such as neutron stars and possibly black holes. These fleeting fireworks last for just a thousandth of a second and can carry an enormous amount of energy — enough to briefly outshine entire galaxies.
Since the first fast radio burst (FRB) was discovered in 2007, astronomers have detected thousands of FRBs, whose locations range from within our own galaxy to as far as 8 billion light-years away. Exactly how these cosmic radio flares are launched is a highly contested unknown.
Now, astronomers at MIT have pinned down the origins of at least one fast radio burst using a novel technique that could do the same for other FRBs. In their new study, appearing today in the journal Nature, the team focused on FRB 20221022A — a previously discovered fast radio burst that was detected from a galaxy about 200 million light-years away.
The team zeroed in further to determine the precise location of the radio signal by analyzing its “scintillation,” similar to how stars twinkle in the night sky. The scientists studied changes in the FRB’s brightness and determined that the burst must have originated from the immediate vicinity of its source, rather than much further out, as some models have predicted.
The team estimates that FRB 20221022A exploded from a region that is extremely close to a rotating neutron star, 10,000 kilometers away at most. That’s less than the distance between New York and Singapore. At such close range, the burst likely emerged from the neutron star’s magnetosphere — a highly magnetic region immediately surrounding the ultracompact star.
The team’s findings provide the first conclusive evidence that a fast radio burst can originate from the magnetosphere, the highly magnetic environment immediately surrounding an extremely compact object.
“In these environments of neutron stars, the magnetic fields are really at the limits of what the universe can produce,” says lead author Kenzie Nimmo, a postdoc in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “There’s been a lot of debate about whether this bright radio emission could even escape from that extreme plasma.”
“Around these highly magnetic neutron stars, also known as magnetars, atoms can’t exist — they would just get torn apart by the magnetic fields,” says Kiyoshi Masui, associate professor of physics at MIT. “The exciting thing here is, we find that the energy stored in those magnetic fields, close to the source, is twisting and reconfiguring such that it can be released as radio waves that we can see halfway across the universe.”
The study’s MIT co-authors include Adam Lanman, Shion Andrew, Daniele Michilli, and Kaitlyn Shin, along with collaborators from multiple institutions.
Burst size
Detections of fast radio bursts have ramped up in recent years, due to the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). The radio telescope array comprises four large, stationary receivers, each shaped like a half-pipe, that are tuned to detect radio emissions within a range that is highly sensitive to fast radio bursts.
Since 2020, CHIME has detected thousands of FRBs from all over the universe. While scientists generally agree that the bursts arise from extremely compact objects, the exact physics driving the FRBs is unclear. Some models predict that fast radio bursts should come from the turbulent magnetosphere immediately surrounding a compact object, while others predict that the bursts should originate much further out, as part of a shockwave that propagates away from the central object.
To distinguish between the two scenarios, and determine where fast radio bursts arise, the team considered scintillation — the effect that occurs when light from a small bright source such as a star, filters through some medium, such as a galaxy’s gas. As the starlight filters through the gas, it bends in ways that make it appear, to a distant observer, as if the star is twinkling. The smaller or the farther away an object is, the more it twinkles. The light from larger or closer objects, such as planets in our own solar system, experience less bending, and therefore do not appear to twinkle.
The team reasoned that if they could estimate the degree to which an FRB scintillates, they might determine the relative size of the region from where the FRB originated. The smaller the region, the closer in the burst would be to its source, and the more likely it is to have come from a magnetically turbulent environment. The larger the region, the farther the burst would be, giving support to the idea that FRBs stem from far-out shockwaves.
Twinkle pattern
To test their idea, the researchers looked to FRB 20221022A, a fast radio burst that was detected by CHIME in 2022. The signal lasts about two milliseconds, and is a relatively run-of-the-mill FRB, in terms of its brightness. However, the team’s collaborators at McGill University found that FRB 20221022A exhibited one standout property: The light from the burst was highly polarized, with the angle of polarization tracing a smooth S-shaped curve. This pattern is interpreted as evidence that the FRB emission site is rotating — a characteristic previously observed in pulsars, which are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars.
To see a similar polarization in fast radio bursts was a first, suggesting that the signal may have arisen from the close-in vicinity of a neutron star. The McGill team’s results are reported in a companion paper today in Nature.
The MIT team realized that if FRB 20221022A originated from close to a neutron star, they should be able to prove this, using scintillation.
In their new study, Nimmo and her colleagues analyzed data from CHIME and observed steep variations in brightness that signaled scintillation — in other words, the FRB was twinkling. They confirmed that there is gas somewhere between the telescope and FRB that is bending and filtering the radio waves. The team then determined where this gas could be located, confirming that gas within the FRB’s host galaxy was responsible for some of the scintillation observed. This gas acted as a natural lens, allowing the researchers to zoom in on the FRB site and determine that the burst originated from an extremely small region, estimated to be about 10,000 kilometers wide.
“This means that the FRB is probably within hundreds of thousands of kilometers from the source,” Nimmo says. “That’s very close. For comparison, we would expect the signal would be more than tens of millions of kilometers away if it originated from a shockwave, and we would see no scintillation at all.”
“Zooming in to a 10,000-kilometer region, from a distance of 200 million light years, is like being able to measure the width of a DNA helix, which is about 2 nanometers wide, on the surface of the moon,” Masui says. “There’s an amazing range of scales involved.”
The team’s results, combined with the findings from the McGill team, rule out the possibility that FRB 20221022A emerged from the outskirts of a compact object. Instead, the studies prove for the first time that fast radio bursts can originate from very close to a neutron star, in highly chaotic magnetic environments.
“These bursts are always happening, and CHIME detects several a day,” Masui says. “There may be a lot of diversity in how and where they occur, and this scintillation technique will be really useful in helping to disentangle the various physics that drive these bursts.”
“The pattern traced by the polarization angle was so strikingly similar to that seen from pulsars in our own Milky Way Galaxy that there was some initial concern that the source wasn't actually an FRB but a misclassified pulsar,” says Ryan Mckinven, a co-author of the study from McGill University. “Fortunately, these concerns were put to rest with the help of data collected from an optical telescope that confirmed the FRB originated in a galaxy millions of light-years away.”
“Polarimetry is one of the few tools we have to probe these distant sources,” Mckinven explains. “This result will likely inspire follow-up studies of similar behavior in other FRBs and prompt theoretical efforts to reconcile the differences in their polarized signals.”
This research was supported by various institutions including the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Trottier Space Institute at McGill University, and the University of British Columbia.
An artist's illustration of a neutron star emitting a radio beam from within its magnetic environment. As the radio waves travel through dense plasma within the galaxy, they split into multiple paths, causing the observed signal to flicker in brightness.
The new approach uses samples from infected humans to allow real-time monitoring of pathogens circulating in human populations, and enable vaccine-evading bugs to be quickly and automatically identified. This could inform the development of vaccines that are more effective in preventing disease.
The approach can also quickly detect emerging variants with resistance to antibiotics. This could inform the choice of treatment for people who become infected - and try to limit the spread of the disease.
It uses genetic sequencing data to provide information on the genetic changes underlying the emergence of new variants. This is important to help understand why different variants spread differently in human populations.
There are very few systems in place to keep watch for emerging variants of infectious diseases, apart from the established COVID and influenza surveillance programmes. The technique is a major advance on the existing approach to these diseases, which has relied on groups of experts to decide when a circulating bacteria or virus has changed enough to be designated a new variant.
By creating ‘family trees’, the new approach identifies new variants automatically based on how much a pathogen has changed genetically, and how easily it spreads in the human population – removing the need to convene experts to do this.
It can be used for a broad range of viruses and bacteria and only a small number of samples, taken from infected people, are needed to reveal the variants circulating in a population. This makes it particularly valuable for resource-poor settings.
“Our new method provides a way to show, surprisingly quickly, whether there are new transmissible variants of pathogens circulating in populations - and it can be used for a huge range of bacteria and viruses,” said Dr Noémie Lefrancq, first author of the report, who carried out the work at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Genetics.
Lefrancq, who is now based at ETH Zurich, added: “We can even use it to start predicting how new variants are going to take over, which means decisions can quickly be made about how to respond.”
“Our method provides a completely objective way of spotting new strains of disease-causing bugs, by analysing their genetics and how they’re spreading in the population. This means we can rapidly and effectively spot the emergence of new highly transmissible strains,” said Professor Julian Parkhill, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine who was involved in the study.
Testing the technique
The researchers used their new technique to analyse samples of Bordetella pertussis, the bacteria that causes whooping cough. Many countries are currently experiencing their worst whooping cough outbreaks of the last 25 years. It immediately identified three new variants circulating in the population that had been previously undetected.
“The novel method proves very timely for the agent of whooping cough, which warrants reinforced surveillance given its current comeback in many countries and the worrying emergence of antimicrobial resistant lineages,” said Professor Sylvain Brisse, Head of the National Reference Center for whooping cough at Institut Pasteur, who provided bioresources and expertise on Bordetella pertussis genomic analyses and epidemiology.
In a second test, they analysed samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes Tuberculosis. It showed that two variants with resistance to antibiotics are spreading.
“The approach will quickly show which variants of a pathogen are most worrying in terms of the potential to make people ill. This means a vaccine can be specifically targeted against these variants, to make it as effective as possible,” said Professor Henrik Salje in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Genetics, senior author of the report.
He added: “If we see a rapid expansion of an antibiotic-resistant variant, then we could change the antibiotic that’s being prescribed to people infected by it, to try and limit the spread of that variant.”
The researchers say this work is an important piece in the larger jigsaw of any public health response to infectious disease.
A constant threat
Bacteria and viruses that cause disease are constantly evolving to be better and faster at spreading between us. During the COVID pandemic, this led to the emergence of new strains: the original Wuhan strain spread rapidly but was later overtaken by other variants, including Omicron, which evolved from the original and were better at spreading. Underlying this evolution are changes in the genetic make-up of the pathogens.
Pathogens evolve through genetic changes that make them better at spreading. Scientists are particularly worried about genetic changes that allow pathogens to evade our immune system and cause disease despite us being vaccinated against them.
“This work has the potential to become an integral part of infectious disease surveillance systems around the world, and the insights it provides could completely change the way governments respond,” said Salje.
The research was primarily funded by the European Research Council.
Researchers have come up with a new way to identify more infectious variants of viruses or bacteria that start spreading in humans - including those causing flu, COVID, whooping cough and tuberculosis.
The approach will quickly show which variants of a pathogen are most worrying in terms of the potential to make people ill. This means a vaccine can be specifically targeted against these variants, to make it as effective as possible.
Former University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Homerton College and St Edmund's College, is made Knight Grand Cross (GBE) for services to cancer research, clinical research, medicine and to charities.
Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu, who has been President of Wolfson College since October 2024, becomes a Dame (DBE) for services to chemical sciences and inclusion and diversity. Professor Uchegbu is a renowned expert in the field of pharmaceutical science and was most recently Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London. Her research has focussed on methods that can be used to help drugs reach their target more effectively and reduce the likelihood of uncomfortable side effects. While at UCL she spearheaded a project to improve outcomes for both staff and students from under-represented ethnic groups. She is is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
She said: “I’m absolutely thrilled. I wouldn’t say I’m humbled – I know people say that, but when I saw the letter at the Porters’ Lodge what I felt was an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride. In my wildest dreams I never believed I would get such an award.”
Professor Ashley Moffet, Professor of Reproductive Immunology, is made Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) for services to reproductive health. A Fellow of King's College, she is the foremost international authority on the immunology of human reproduction and her work on genetic research has helped explain high rates of pre-eclampsia and maternal mortality in Ugandan populations. She is a Fellow of both the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
She said: "I am delighted by this honour that is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of my many colleagues both here in Cambridge and in Uganda who are working together so tirelessly to support women in the field of maternal health."
Professor Gilly Carr is Professor of Conflict Archaeology and Holocaust Heritage and receives an OBE for services to Holocaust research and education. Professor Carr, a Fellow of St Catharine's College, is a member of both the UK delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the academic advisory board for the UK Holocaust Memorial Centre. Professor Carr has a particular research interest in wartime incarceration, internment and imprisonment. 2024 saw the publication of her latest book, 'A Materiality of Internment', which drew on over 15 years of research and interviews with more than 65 former internees.
She said: “I am absolutely thrilled for my research and teaching to be recognised in this way. I've been working hard on behalf of victims of Nazism and the Holocaust for 15 years and for this to be seen as nationally important and worthwhile encourages me to continue my work with vigour.”
Professor Rachel Oliver, who also receives an OBE, is a materials engineer, inventor and commercial spinout founder. A Fellow of Robinson College, she is currently Director of the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride and Chief Scientific Officer of Poro Technologies Ltd (Porotech). Her research is in understanding and engineering the small-scale structure of semiconductor materials to enable new technologies to develop. Professor Oliver is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineering and is a passionate advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion in science and engineering.
She said: “I am delighted to receive this honour and it is vital that I acknowledge the fabulous teams that I work with both in the University of Cambridge and at Porotech, a company that spun out from my research group. I hope I can encourage more people to get involved in semiconductors in the UK. The semiconductor ecosystem has been an exciting place to work throughout my career, but never more so than right now, with both research and industry rapidly growing and stepping up to address some of the most pressing challenges we face.”
Dr James Biddulph, former headteacher of the University of Cambridge Primary School, has been awarded an MBE for services to education. Dr Biddulph was the inaugural headteacher of the school from 2015 until 2023, and under his leadership it attained an Outstanding Ofsted rating in 2018.
Eleanor Sharpston KC, an Emeritus Fellow of King's College, has been made Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) for services to Justice and to the Education of Law in the UK and Europe. Dame Eleanor has combined a career as a barrister (specialising in European Union and European Convention on Human Rights law) with an academic career first at University College London and then at the University of Cambridge where she continues as a Yorke Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Law Faculty. She was also Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor in Legal Science from 2023 to 2024.
Academics and staff at both the University of Cambridge and Colleges feature in the 2025 list, which recognises the achievements and service of people across the UK.
The near future could see AI assistants that forecast and influence our decision-making at an early stage, and sell these developing ‘intentions’ in real-time to companies that can meet the need – even before we have made up our minds.
This is according to AI ethicists from the University of Cambridge, who say we are at the dawn of a “lucrative yet troubling new marketplace for digital signals of intent”, from buying movie tickets to voting for candidates. They call this the Intention Economy.
Researchers from Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) argue that the explosion in generative AI, and our increasing familiarity with chatbots, opens a new frontier of ‘persuasive technologies’ – one hinted at in recent corporate announcements by tech giants.
‘Anthropomorphic’ AI agents, from chatbot assistants to digital tutors and girlfriends, will have access to vast quantities of intimate psychological and behavioural data, often gleaned via informal, conversational spoken dialogue.
This AI will combine knowledge of our online habits with an uncanny ability to attune to us in ways we find comforting – mimicking personalities and anticipating desired responses – to build levels of trust and understanding that allow for social manipulation on an industrial scale, say researchers.
“Tremendous resources are being expended to position AI assistants in every area of life, which should raise the question of whose interests and purposes these so-called assistants are designed to serve”, said LCFI Visiting Scholar Dr Yaqub Chaudhary.
“What people say when conversing, how they say it, and the type of inferences that can be made in real-time as a result, are far more intimate than just records of online interactions”
“We caution that AI tools are already being developed to elicit, infer, collect, record, understand, forecast, and ultimately manipulate and commodify human plans and purposes.”
Dr Jonnie Penn, an historian of technology from Cambridge’s LCFI, said: “For decades, attention has been the currency of the internet. Sharing your attention with social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram drove the online economy.”
“Unless regulated, the intention economy will treat your motivations as the new currency. It will be a gold rush for those who target, steer, and sell human intentions.”
“We should start to consider the likely impact such a marketplace would have on human aspirations, including free and fair elections, a free press, and fair market competition, before we become victims of its unintended consequences.”
In a new Harvard Data Science Review paper, Penn and Chaudhary write that the intention economy will be the attention economy ‘plotted in time’: profiling how user attention and communicative style connects to patterns of behaviour and the choices we end up making.
“While some intentions are fleeting, classifying and targeting the intentions that persist will be extremely profitable for advertisers,” said Chaudhary.
In an intention economy, Large Language Models or LLMs could be used to target, at low cost, a user’s cadence, politics, vocabulary, age, gender, online history, and even preferences for flattery and ingratiation, write the researchers.
This information-gathering would be linked with brokered bidding networks to maximize the likelihood of achieving a given aim, such as selling a cinema trip (“You mentioned feeling overworked, shall I book you that movie ticket we’d talked about?”).
This could include steering conversations in the service of particular platforms, advertisers, businesses, and even political organisations, argue Penn and Chaudhary.
While researchers say the intention economy is currently an ‘aspiration’ for the tech industry, they track early signs of this trend through published research and the hints dropped by several major tech players.
These include an open call for ‘data that expresses human intention… across any language, topic, and format’ in a 2023 OpenAI blogpost, while the director of product at Shopify – an OpenAI partner – spoke of chatbots coming in “to explicitly get the user’s intent” at a conference the same year.
Nvidia’s CEO has spoken publicly of using LLMs to figure out intention and desire, while Meta released ‘Intentonomy’ research, a dataset for human intent understanding, back in 2021.
In 2024, Apple’s new ‘App Intents’ developer framework for connecting apps to Siri (Apple’s voice-controlled personal assistant), includes protocols to “predict actions someone might take in future” and “to suggest the app intent to someone in the future using predictions you [the developer] provide”.
“AI agents such as Meta’s CICERO are said to achieve human level play in the game Diplomacy, which is dependent on inferring and predicting intent, and using persuasive dialogue to advance one’s position,” said Chaudhary.
“These companies already sell our attention. To get the commercial edge, the logical next step is to use the technology they are clearly developing to forecast our intentions, and sell our desires before we have even fully comprehended what they are.”
Penn points out that these developments are not necessarily bad, but have the potential to be destructive. “Public awareness of what is coming is the key to ensuring we don’t go down the wrong path,” he said.
Conversational AI agents may develop the ability to covertly influence our intentions, creating a new commercial frontier that researchers call the “intention economy”.
Public awareness of what is coming is the key to ensuring we don’t go down the wrong path
Singapore has been ranked among the world’s top 10 nations - and first in Asia – for its readiness to address the challenges and leverage the opportunities of an ageing population, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Columbia University. Switzerland tops the rankings, with Japan ranking 15th globally and second in Asia, while USA ranks 24th.
This research group has previously reported comparisons of adaptation to ageing among developed countries. To conduct the current work, the group developed a new measure - the Global Ageing Society Index, which permits comparisons between low- and middle-income countries as well as more developed ones to assess the preparedness of 143 countries, covering 95.4% of the world’s population, to tackle the challenges of population ageing. The study examines five key domains: well-being, productivity and engagement, equity, cohesion, and security, with input from 25 experts across high-, middle-, and low-income countries.
Led by Assistant Professor Cynthia Chen from the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH) and Professor John W Rowe from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the landmark study was published in the scientific journal Nature Agingon 27 December 2024. The research was made possible through the invaluable contributions of Mr Julian Lim, Research Assistant at NUS SSHSPH.
Summarising the key observations of the study, Asst Prof Chen explained, “While high-income countries lead the rankings in readiness for a rapidly ageing society, low- and middle-income nations trail behind. Although low- and middle-income countries often have younger populations today, many are expected to experience rapid population ageing in the future. Individuals with limited financial security may face serious challenges in accessing healthcare later in life. If health and social security systems remain insufficient to address the needs of older adults, the financial burden on individuals and their families could escalate, potentially leading to widespread economic consequences.”
“As such, an effective response to population ageing can offer numerous benefits. Countries can mitigate the growth in healthcare costs while harnessing the potential of older adults, whose experience and wisdom can contribute significantly to societies. In the long run, this can lead to global societal benefits. We hope our findings can help prioritise action for countries at all levels of development,” she added.
Singapore’s global performance across the five domains central to successful adaptation to societal ageing is summarised below:
Well-Being: 1st
A successfully ageing society provides healthcare informed by a sophisticated understanding of the healthcare needs of older persons. Singapore performed best in Well-being, securing the top global ranking in this domain. The nation achieved the world’s longest healthy life expectancy at older ages; strong universal health coverage (6th); a high share of life expectancy spent in good health (10th); and high life satisfaction (23rd).
The study noted that in promoting long-term, transformational change, Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) has implemented a set of health transformation efforts, including preventive efforts such as screening, immunisation, health promotion (such as the National Steps Challenge and the Healthier Dining programme), and education. MOH has also recently intensified the nation’s efforts in chronic disease prevention and management through the implementation of Healthier SG from 2023. This initiative aims to transition the healthcare system from a reactive treatment model to one focused on proactive preventive care.
Security: 6th
Economic and physical security for older persons is a cornerstone of a thriving ageing society. According to the study, Singapore ranks 6th globally in average income and 1st in both perceived safety walking at night and satisfaction with healthcare quality among those aged 50 years and above. Mental health resilience also ranks highly, placing 6th worldwide.
Productivity and Engagement: 17th
A successfully ageing society facilitates the engagement of older persons. In Singapore, while participation in retraining for ages 16-64 ranks impressively at 10th worldwide, other indicators such as labour force engagement among ages 55-64; as well as volunteering, feeling active and productive daily, and job satisfaction among older populations, have been ranked between 41st to 67th. This highlights substantial opportunities to enhance societal engagement and promote personal fulfilment in later life.
Equity: 36th
A society that is ageing well ensures equitable distribution of resources across generations. In Singapore, despite a high ranking for income (9th globally for both living comfortably, and having enough money for food among those aged 50+), there are disparities between young and old populations in income, food, labour force participation and educational attainment, which would require attention.
Cohesion: 42nd
In a successfully ageing society, strong social connections are preserved both within and across generations. Social trust among older adults and the support available to this group in Singapore present a mixed picture. While a significant proportion of older individuals can rely on friends and relatives (24th) and have access to the internet (24th), trust in neighbours ranks 71st. Furthermore, a significant proportion of older adults live alone (115th), suggesting the need for initiatives fostering community connections and reducing isolation.
The research team recognises that MOH has just embarked on Age Well SG in 2024 and is expanding the network of Active Ageing Centres as drop-in nodes for seniors to co-mingle with one another and with neighbours. This also creates opportunities for seniors living alone to be engaged with buddying and befriending programmes, which will help to address the areas which the team has identified.
Proactive and holistic healthy longevity initiatives by Health District @ Queenstown
Singapore’s efforts in adapting to an ageing society are exemplified by initiatives such as the Health District @ Queenstown (HD@QT). This is a multi-stakeholder collaboration co-led by the National University Health System (NUHS), NUS, and the Housing & Development Board (HDB) to promote physical, mental and social well-being at every stage of life.
“The findings of this study inform and validate our efforts at the Health District @ Queenstown. We strive to co-create with residents and service providers an inclusive community that fosters healthy, purposeful lives across the lifespan. Successful sustainable programmes from Queenstown, which have been designed to align with the domains of the Global Ageing Society Index, can be scaled to the whole of Singapore to address the evolving challenges of an ageing population,” said Professor John Eu-Li Wong, Executive Director of NUS Centre for Population Health and Senior Advisor at NUHS. Prof Wong is also the Co-Chair of the HD@QT Steering Committee.
Prof Wong added, “As initiatives such as HD@QT take root, we hope to demonstrate how societies can turn the challenges of ageing into a blueprint for healthy, purposeful longevity and empowerment.”
MIT’s research community had another year full of scientific and technological advances in 2024. To celebrate the achievements of the past twelve months, MIT News highlights some of our most popular stories from this year. We’ve also rounded up the year’s top MIT community-related stories.
3-D printing with liquid metal: Researchers developed an additive manufacturing technique that can print rapidly with liquid metal, producing large-scale parts like table legs and chair frames in a matter of minutes. Their technique involves depositing molten aluminum along a predefined path into a bed of tiny glass beads. The aluminum quickly hardens into a 3D structure.
Tamper-proof ID tags: Engineers developed a tag that can reveal with near-perfect accuracy whether an item is real or fake. The key is in the glue that sticks the tag to the item. The team uses terahertz waves to authenticate items by recognizing a unique pattern of microscopic metal particles mixed into the glue.
Chatting with the future you: Researchers from MIT and elsewhere created a system that enables users to have an online, text-based conversation with an AI-generated simulation of their potential future self. The project is aimed at reducing anxiety and guiding young people to make better choices.
Converting CO2 into useful products: Engineers at MIT designed a new electrode that boosts the efficiency of electrochemical reactions to turn carbon dioxide into ethylene and other products.
Generative AI for databases: Researchers built GenSQL, a new generative AI tool that makes it easier for database users to perform complicated statistical analyses of tabular data without the need to know what is going on behind the scenes. The tool could help users make predictions, detect anomalies, guess missing values, fix errors, and more.
Reversing autoimmune-induced hair loss: A new microneedle patch delivers immune-regulating molecules to the scalp. The treatment teaches T cells not to attack hair follicles, promoting hair regrowth and offering a promising solution for individuals affected by alopecia areata and other autoimmune skin diseases.
Inside the LLM black box: Researchers demonstrated a technique that can be used to probe a large language model to see what it knows about new subjects. The technique showed the models use a surprisingly simple mechanism to retrieve some stored knowledge.
Sound-suppressing silk: An interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers from MIT and elsewhere developed a silk fabric, barely thicker than a human hair, that can suppress unwanted noise and reduce noise transmission in a large room.
Working out for your nervous system: Researchers found that when muscles work out, they help neurons to grow as well. The findings suggest that biochemical and physical effects of exercise could help heal nerves.
Finding AI’s world model lacking: Researchers found that despite its impressive output, generative AI models don’t have a coherent understanding of the world. Large language models don't form true models of the world and its rules, and can thus fail unexpectedly on similar tasks.
Over two choreographed move-in days in August, more than 600 residents unloaded their boxes and belongings into their new homes in Graduate Junction, located at 269 and 299 Vassar Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With smiling ambassadors standing by to assist, residents were welcomed into a new MIT-affiliated housing option that offers the convenience of on-campus licensing terms, pricing, and location, as well as the experienced building development and management of American Campus Communities (ACC).
With the building occupied and residents settled, the staff has turned their attention to creating connections between new community members and celebrating the years of a collaborative effort between faculty, students, and staff to plan and create a building that expands student choice, enhances neighborhood amenities, and meets sustainability goals.
Gathering recently for a celebratory block party, residents and their families, staff, and project team members convened in the main lounge space of building W87 to mingle and enjoy the new community. Children twirled around while project managers, architects, staff from MIT and ACC, and residents reflected on the partnership-driven work to bring the new building to fruition. With 351 units, including studios, one-, two-, and four-bedroom apartments, the building added a total of 675 new graduate housing beds and marked the final step in exceeding the Institute’s commitment made in 2017 to add 950 new graduate beds.
The management staff has also planned several other events to help residents feel more connected to their neighbors, including a farmers market in the central plaza, fall crafting workshops, and coffee breaks. “Graduate Junction isn’t just a place to live — it’s a community,” says Kendra Lowery, American Campus Communities’ general manager of Graduate Junction. “Our staff is dedicated to helping residents feel at home, whether through move-in support, building connections with neighbors, or hosting events that celebrate the unique MIT community.”
Partnership adds a new option for students
Following a careful study of student housing preferences, the Graduate Housing Working Group — composed of students, staff, and faculty — helped inform the design that includes unit styles and amenities that fit the needs of MIT graduate students in an increasingly expensive regional housing market.
“Innovative places struggle to build housing fast enough, which limits who can access them. Building housing keeps our campus’s innovation culture open to all students. Additionally, new housing for students reduces price pressure on the rest of the Cambridge community,” says Nick Allen, a member of the working group and a PhD student in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He noted the involvement of students from the outset: “A whole generation of graduate students has worked with MIT to match Grad Junction to the biggest gaps in the local housing market.” For example, the building adds affordable four-bed, two-bath apartments, expanded options for private rooms, and new family housing.
Neighborhood feel with sustainability in mind
The location of the residence further enhances the residential feel of West Campus and forms additional connections between the MIT community and neighboring Cambridgeport. Situated on West Campus next to Simmons Hall and across from Westgate Apartments, the new buildings frame a central, publicly accessible plaza and green space. The plaza is a gateway to Fort Washington Park and the newly reopened pedestrian railroad crossing enhances connections between the residences and the surrounding Cambridgeport neighborhood.
Striving for the LEED v4 Multifamily Midrise Platinum certification, the new residence reflects a commitment to energy efficiency through an innovative design approach. The building has efficient heating and cooling systems and a strategy that reclaims heat from the building’s exhaust to pre-condition incoming ventilation air. The building’s envelope and roofing were designed with a strong focus on thermal performance and its materials were chosen to reduce the project’s climate impact. This resulted in an 11 percent reduction of the whole building’s carbon footprint from the construction, transportation, and installation of materials. In addition, the development teams installed an 11,000 kilowatt-hour solar array and green roof plantings.
Within the human digestive tract are trillions of bacteria from thousands of different species. These bacteria form communities that help digest food, fend off harmful microbes, and play many other roles in maintaining human health.
These bacteria can be vulnerable to infection from viruses called bacteriophages. One of bacterial cells’ most well-known defenses against these viruses is the CRISPR system, which evolved in bacteria to help them recognize and chop up viral DNA.
A study from MIT biological engineers has yielded new insight into how bacteria in the gut microbiome adapt their CRISPR defenses as they encounter new threats. The researchers found that while bacteria grown in the lab can incorporate new viral recognition sequences as quickly as once a day, bacteria living in human gut add new sequences at a much slower rate — on average, one every three years.
The findings suggest that the environment within the digestive tract offers many fewer opportunities for bacteria and bacteriophages to interact than in the lab, so bacteria don’t need to update their CRISPR defenses very often. It also raises the question of whether bacteria have more important defense systems than CRISPR.
“This finding is significant because we use microbiome-based therapies like fecal microbiota transplant to help treat some diseases, but efficacy is inconsistent because new microbes do not always survive in patients. Learning about microbial defenses against viruses helps us to understand what makes a strong, healthy microbial community,” says An-Ni Zhang, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University.
Zhang is the lead author of the study, which appears today in the journal Cell Genomics. Eric Alm, director of MIT’s Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics, a professor of biological engineering and of civil and environmental engineering at MIT, and a member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is the paper’s senior author.
Infrequent exposure
In bacteria, CRISPR serves as a memory immune response. When bacteria encounter viral DNA, they can incorporate part of the sequence into their own DNA. Then, if the virus is encountered again, that sequence produces a guide RNA that directs an enzyme called Cas9 to snip the viral DNA, preventing infection.
These virus-specific sequences are called spacers, and a single bacterial cell may carry more than 200 spacers. These sequences can be passed onto offspring, and they can also be shared with other bacterial cells through a process called horizontal gene transfer.
Previous studies have found that spacer acquisition occurs very rapidly in the lab, but the process appears to be slower in natural environments. In the new study, the MIT team wanted to explore how often this process happens in bacteria in the human gut.
“We were interested in how fast this CRISPR system changes its spacers, specifically in the gut microbiome, to better understand the bacteria-virus interactions inside our body,” Zhang says. “We wanted to identify the key parameters that impact the timescale of this immunity update.”
To do that, the researchers looked at how CRISPR sequences changed over time in two different datasets obtained by sequencing microbes from the human digestive tract. One of these datasets contained 6,275 genomic sequences representing 52 bacterial species, and the other contained 388 longitudinal “metagenomes,” that is, sequences from many microbes found in a sample, taken from four healthy people.
“By analyzing those two datasets, we found out that spacer acquisition is really slow in human gut microbiome: On average, it would take 2.7 to 2.9 years for a bacterial species to acquire a single spacer in our gut, which is super surprising because our gut is challenged with viruses almost every day from the microbiome itself and in our food,” Zhang says.
The researchers then built a computational model to help them figure out why the acquisition rate was so slow. This analysis showed that spacers are acquired more rapidly when bacteria live in high-density populations. However, the human digestive tract is diluted several times a day, whenever a meal is consumed. This flushes out some bacteria and viruses and keeps the overall density low, making it less likely that the microbes will encounter a virus that can infect them.
Another factor may be the spatial distribution of microbes, which the researchers believe prevents some bacteria from encountering viruses very frequently.
“Sometimes one population of bacteria may never or rarely encounter a phage because the bacteria are closer to the epithelium in the mucus layer and farther away from a potential exposure to viruses,” Zhang says.
Bacterial interactions
Among the populations of bacteria that they studied, the researchers identified one species — Bifidobacteria longum — that had gained spacers much more recently than others. The researchers found that in samples from unrelated people, living on different continents, B. longum had recently acquired up to six different spacers targeting two different Bifidobacteria bacteriophages.
This acquisition was driven by horizontal gene transfer — a process that allows bacteria to gain new genetic material from their neighbors. The findings suggest that there may be evolutionary pressure on B. longum from those two viruses.
“It has been highly overlooked how much horizontal gene transfer contributes to this dynamic. Within communities of bacteria, the bacteria-bacteria interactions can be a main contributor to the development of viral resistance,” Zhang says.
Analyzing microbes’ immune defenses may offer a way for scientists to develop targeted treatments that will be most effective in a particular patient, the researchers say. For example, they could design therapeutic microbes that are able to fend off the types of bacteriophages that are most prevalent in that person’s microbiome, which would increase the chances that the treatment would succeed.
“One thing we can do is to study the viral composition in the patients, and then we can identify which microbiome species or strains are more capable of resisting those local viruses in a person,” Zhang says.
The research was funded, in part, by the Broad Institute and the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation.
A study from MIT biological engineers has yielded new insight into how bacteria in the gut microbiome adapt their CRISPR defenses as they encounter new threats.
Imagine that the head of a company office is misbehaving, and a disillusioned employee reports the problem to their manager. Instead of the complaint getting traction, however, the manager sidesteps the issue and implies that raising it further could land the unhappy employee in trouble — but doesn’t deny that the problem exists.
This hypothetical scenario involves an open secret: a piece of information that is widely known but never acknowledged as such. Open secrets often create practical quandaries for people, as well as backlash against those who try to address the things that the secrets protect.
In a newly published paper, MIT philosopher Sam Berstler contends that open secrets are pervasive and problematic enough to be worthy of systematic study — and provides a detailed analysis of the distinctive social dynamics accompanying them. In many cases, she proposes, ignoring some things is fine — but open secrets present a special problem.
After all, people might maintain friendships better by not disclosing their salaries to each other, and relatives might get along better if they avoid talking politics at the holidays. But these are just run-of-the-mill individual decisions.
By contrast, open secrets are especially damaging, Berstler believes, because of their “iterative” structure. We do not talk about open secrets; we do not talk about the fact that we do not talk about them; and so on, until the possibility of addressing the problems at hand disappears.
“Sometimes not acknowledging things can be very productive,” Berstler says. “It’s good we don’t talk about everything in the workplace. What’s different about open secrecy is not the content of what we’re not acknowledging, but the pernicious iterative structure of our practice of not acknowledging it. And because of that structure, open secrecy tends to be hard to change.”
Or, as she writes in the paper, “Open secrecy norms are often moral disasters.”
Beyond that, Berstler says, the example of open secrets should enable us to examine the nature of conversation itself in more multidimensional terms; we need to think about the things left unsaid in conversation, too.
Berstler’s paper, “The Structure of Open Secrets,” appears in advance online form in Philosophical Review. Berstler, an assistant professor and the Laurance S. Rockefeller Career Development Chair in MIT’s Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, is the sole author.
Eroding our knowledge
The concept of open secrets is hardly new, but it has not been subject to extensive philosophical rigor. The German sociologist Georg Simmel wrote about them in the early 20th century, but mostly in the context of secret societies keeping quirky rituals to themselves. Other prominent thinkers have addressed open secrets in psychological terms. To Berstler, the social dynamics of open secrets merit a more thorough reckoning.
“It’s not a psychological problem that people are having,” she says. “It’s a particular practice that they’re all conforming to. But it’s hard to see this because it’s the kind of practice that members, just in virtue of conforming to the practice, can’t talk about.”
In Berstler’s view, the iterative nature of open secrets distinguishes them. The employee expecting a candid reply from their manager may feel bewildered about the lack of a transparent response, and that nonacknowledgement means there is not much recourse to be had, either. Eventually, keeping open secrets means the original issue itself can be lost from view.
“Open secrets norms are set up to try to erode our knowledge,” Berstler says.
In practical terms, people may avoid addressing open secrets head-on because they face a familiar quandary: Being a whistleblower can cost people their jobs and more. But Berstler suggests in the paper that keeping open secrets helps people define their in-group status, too.
“It’s also the basis for group identity,” she says.
Berstler avoids taking the position that greater transparency is automatically a beneficial thing. The paper identifies at least one kind of special case where keeping open secrets might be good. Suppose, for instance, a co-worker has an eccentric but harmless habit their colleagues find out about: It might be gracious to spare them simple embarrassment.
That aside, as Berstler writes, open secrets “can serve as shields for powerful people guilty of serious, even criminal wrongdoing. The norms can compound the harm that befalls their victims … [who] find they don’t justhave to contend with the perpetrator’s financial resources, political might, and interpersonal capital. They must go up against an entire social arrangement.” As a result, the chances of fixing social or organizational dysfunction diminish.
Two layers of conversation
Berstler is not only trying to chart the dynamics and problems of open secrets. She is also trying to usefully complicate our ideas about the nature of conversations and communication.
Broadly, some philosophers have theorized about conversations and communication by focusing largely on the information being shared among people. To Berstler, this is not quite sufficient; the example of open secrets alerts us that communication is not just an act of making things more and more transparent.
“What I’m arguing in the paper is that this is too simplistic a way to think about it, because actual conversations in the real world have a theatrical or dramatic structure,” Berstler says. “There are things that cannot be made explicit without ruining the performance.”
At an office holiday party, for instance, the company CEO might maintain an illusion of being on equal footing with the rest of the employees if the conversation is restricted to movies and television shows. If the subject turns to year-end bonuses, that illusion vanishes. Or two friends at a party, trapped in an unwanted conversation with a third person, might maneuver themselves away with knowing comments, but without explicitly saying they are trying to end the chat.
Here Berstler draws upon the work of sociologist Erving Goffman — who closely studied the performative aspects of everyday behavior — to outline how a more multi-dimensional conception of social interaction applies to open secrets. Berstler suggests open secrets involve what she calls “activity layering,” which in this case suggests that people in a conversation involving open secrets have multiple common grounds for understanding, but some remain unspoken.
Further expanding on Goffman’s work, Berstler also details how people may be “mutually collaborating on a pretense,” as she writes, to keep an open secret going.
“Goffman has not really systematically been brought into the philosophy of language, so I am showing how his ideas illuminate and complicate philosophical views,” Berstler says.
Combined, a close analysis of open secrets and a re-evaluation of the performative components of conversation can help us become more cognizant about communication. What is being said matters; what is left unsaid matters alongside it.
“There are structural features of open secrets that are worrisome,” Berstler says. “And because of that we have to more aware [of how they work].”
In this series, NUS News profiles the personalities shaping vibrant residential life and culture on campus, and how they craft a holistic residential experience that brings out the best in student residents.
As strains of ethereal music ebbed and flowed, supple dancers glided, swayed and leapt, commanding the stage in elaborate costumes. Among them was a young Dr Lynette Tan, who still has vivid memories of the night when Eusoff Hall staged its first dance production at Kallang Theatre in 1991.
Based on Kojiki – an ancient Japanese chronicle recounting the creation of the world and the Japanese islands, as well as myths and oral traditions of the nation’s history and culture – the dance-drama by student residents of the Hall at NUS was praised by The Straits Times as “a compelling interpretation”.
Some 30 years later, Dr Tan, an English Literature major, is back at Eusoff. This time, she plays an even more important role as its Hall Master.
“The students continue to be really vibrant, active and athletic, so I feel right at home here,” said the 53-year-old, who took up the post in July this year.
In many ways, she embodies the spirit of Eusoffians at the Hall, which is known for its sporting prowess and holds the record for eight consecutive wins in the NUS Inter-Hall Games.
A gymnast from a young age, Dr Tan also won a medal playing sports for Eusoff during her three-year stay at the Hall in the early 1990s. Now a mother of three, her interests remain varied – she was an avid gamer at one point and is also a published children’s author and poet.
On her return to Eusoff Hall, she was greeted by familiar sights such as the buildings and its greenery – including a pink mempat tree planted by then-President Wee Kim Wee in 1989, when the Hall officially opened.
But Dr Tan spotted some differences, too. “The (student) community today is kinder. They’re more aware of mental health and being inclusive,” she said.
Traditions such as the Eusoff Challenge that are conducted during orientation camp have since taken root. As part of the challenge, freshmen have to run a meandering route to the NUS track in batches, but there is a catch.
To demonstrate the principle that nobody gets left behind, the Hall’s Junior Common Room Committee (JCRC) will run around the track until every last Eusoff freshman completes the challenge, said Dr Tan.
The environment is a stark difference from her time, when it was more boot camp-like. “What I remember of orientation is (doing) a lot of push-ups,” said the arts graduate from the Class of 1993. The food served at the dining hall is a lot tastier now too, she added with a laugh.
When the senior lecturer is not teaching at RC4, she’s thinking of innovative ways to better engage the student community at Eusoff Hall. As a hall, one of four housing models at NUS, it places a strong emphasis on activities such as CCAs and community service initiatives to bring residents together.
NUS News sits down with Dr Tan to learn more about her vision and hopes for Eusoff Hall.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Tell us about your journey to becoming a Master.
A: The journey began when I was an undergraduate at NUS and my social world literally exploded. It was the first time I met so many diverse and talented individuals. After I graduated, I had always wanted to come to NUS to teach. I got my PhD in Film Studies, taught in the UK for a while and then had the opportunity to come back to Singapore and NUS in 2000. I stopped full-time work in 2003 for 10 years to start my family.
Soon after I returned to NUS, I was approached by the then-Master of RC4, Professor Lakshminarayanan Samavedham, to be a Resident Fellow (RF), a mentor and advisor to the college’s residents. I spent seven years at RC4 and went on to LightHouse as an RF for close to two years, before stepping up as Eusoff Hall Master.
Q: What’s a typical day like for you?
A: I usually start my day with a bowl of yoghurt and tending to my plants on the balcony of my apartment, where I live with my husband and children. I then teach at RC4 when I am not doing my Master’s duties at Eusoff Hall.
I like to keep myself physically fit and mentally well because I want to give my best for the work that I do. Usually I run, bike, or swim every day, or go to the gym when it’s raining.
I also work with the Hall’s Senior Common Room Committee and JCRC. We meet once a month, eat together and catch up with life at our Hall. This is also when we discuss and plan new initiatives and upcoming events.
We have a strong focus on community at our Hall and some of our new initiatives look to leverage on the talents of our international students so as to extend our reach and impact beyond Singapore. We want to be socially cohesive and grow together as we live by our motto, based on the acronym of our hall “EH” and coined by former master Professor Andrew Tay, “Excellence and Harmony”.
Q: What’s buzzing at Eusoff Hall?
A: We have co-curricular activity (CCA) groups in culture, service and sport, as well as signature events such as La Soirée where our alumni return to our hall, and give back through the sharing of their experience in industry, Eusoff Hall Dance Production, and Cultural Night. Eusoff Hall has built a reputation for excellence in sports and is particularly strong in swimming, track, badminton and basketball.
A longstanding hall tradition that we re-invented is Conversations over Dinner, where we invite alumni to give talks and chat with residents. We have a dynamic, loyal and illustrious alumni network that dates back to our beginnings as Eusoff College in 1958!
In line with NUSOne – NUS’ newest initiative aimed at giving students a holistic learning experience outside the classroom – I thought we could change things up and re-branded the event as “The Eusoff Conversation”. I asked our alumni to focus on NUSOne attributes, such as interpersonal skills, self-awareness and management, and mental resilience, that they had cultivated while living at Eusoff Hall and can see as integral to their success today.
In our latest instalment of the series this semester, we invited two alumni who led Singapore’s first all-women team to Mount Everest in May 2009, Sim Yi Hui and Jane Lee. They inspired our students in their sharing about discipline, resilience and the overcoming of failure, showing how the growth of these traits began while they were at Eusoff Hall, and were critical to their success at scaling Everest.
Then there is the Gathering of Eusoff Leaders (GEL), where we attend an annual retreat overseas in Southeast Asia, with SCRC and student leaders from our JCRC and CCA heads. The focus of this retreat is not only to bond our Hall’s leaders but also to strengthen their leadership skills. This year’s GEL was held along the coast of Batam.
Q: What is one thing many students don’t know about you?
A: I picked up gaming when I was a student, but have stopped due to other commitments. I played MapleStory and Plunder Pirates and was part of an international guild where we reached the top in global rankings. In that guild, there were people from all around the world and yet we were playing and enjoying the experience at the same time and learning from each other. I see that collapsing of physical distance and time as a key affordance of technology.
I wrote a short story based on my experience called “Jellyfish Pirates”. It was published in 2017 under Literary Shanghai, a community for English and Chinese writers with a local and regional literary focus.
Q: What makes Eusoff Hall home for you?
A: I have always felt like my students are an extension of my family and this is why I love teaching. I enjoy doing all kinds of activities with them. Just the other day, I played table tennis with Jerica Neo, the current JCRC President. I especially like going for runs and swims with my students.
I’m also so grateful for Ms Rashidah Salleh, our hall manager, who has been working here since I was a student. She is a cornerstone of our Hall and is much loved by our current students and alumni alike.
Home is where the people you value and enjoy spending time with are, and so home to me is not a building. It is not a physical space, but the community that you have. That’s what makes Eusoff Hall, and the whole community of Eusoffians, home for me.
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