Shirley McBay, the former dean of student affairs at MIT who directed groundbreaking efforts that improved the future of students of color, has died at 86, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. “She was very dedicated to ensuring that as more women and minorities came to MIT, they did well – that they could thrive,” said associate dean of engineering for diversity, equity and inclusion Daniel Hastings. “She, in that sense, had a national impact.”
Shirley McBay, the dean for student affairs at MIT in the 1980s and a leading advocate for diversity in science and math education, has died at age 86, reports Clay Risen for The New York Times. McBay “confronted the challenge of bringing more students from underrepresented minorities into science, technology, engineering and math, both at her university and in higher education broadly.”
Boston Globe reporter Steve Annear spotlights research specialist Kathy Cormier’s dedication to tending a flower planter at the Collier Memorial. “Here’s something that’s empty that I can fill, and make myself feel better and make other people — hopefully — feel better,” says Cormier. MIT Chief of Police John DiFava says, “what she is doing is just so amazing. I just think it’s wonderful and it’s so illustrative of the way we have been treated here.”
MIT has announced a new climate action plan aimed at helping the Institute tackle climate change, reports Kristina Chen for The Tech. The plan offers increased opportunities for student involvement and a new organizational structure. Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research, explains that MIT feels “that it’s our responsibility and duty to try to make a genuine difference, and to do that, we’re going to need the help of everyone in the community.”
Prof. Basima Tewfik speaks with BBC reporter Peter Rubinstein about imposter syndrome. Tewfik has found that “by leaning into the feelings of inadequacy – rather than trying to resist or overcome them – and putting extra effort into communication, imposters can actually outperform their non-imposter peers in interpersonal skills,” writes Rubinstein.
Reuters reporter Trevor Hunnicutt spotlights how Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, has been tapped by the Biden administration to serve on the National Economic Council.
In an article for the Cambridge Chronicle, Maya Johnson describes MIT’s efforts to mitigate Covid-19 transmission on campus. “Our main goal is to know where the virus is and make sure that we can prevent our community from getting the virus,” says Suzanne Blake, director of MIT Emergency Management. “Public health and safety is our number one priority for students.”
Michael Hecht of MIT’s Haystack Observatory speaks with Perry Russom of NECN about MOXIE, a new experimental device that will convert carbon dioxide in the Marian atmosphere into oxygen. Hecht explains that the inspiration for MOXIE lies in how it would be easier, “if we could make that oxygen on Mars and not have to bring this huge honking oxygen tank with us all the way from Earth.”
Prof. Tanja Bosak speaks with Vox reporter Brian Resnick about how Martian materials collected by the Perseverance rover might provide clues about early life forms on Earth. "These [Martian] rocks are older, by half a billion or a billion years, than anything that’s well preserved that we have on Earth,” says Bosak.
Boston Globe reporter Caroline Enos spotlights the contributions of MIT researchers to the Mars 2020 mission, in particular the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment or MOXIE. “MOXIE could have a big impact on future missions if it is successful,” Enos explains.
Haystack’s Michael Hecht, the principal investigator for the Mars MOXIE experiment, speaks with Max G. Levy of Smithsonian about the challenges involved in developing MOXIE’s oxygen-producing technology. “We want to show we can run [MOXIE] in the daytime, and the nighttime, in the winter, and in the summer, and when it’s dusty out," says Hecht, "in all of the different environments."
Michael Hecht, MOXIE principal investigator and director of research at MIT Haystack Observatory, speaks with CNN’s Ashley Strickland about MOXIE, an apparatus that was designed to convert carbon dioxide on Mars into breathable oxygen and fuel. With MOXIE, "you don't have to take an estimated 27 metric tons of oxygen to Mars,” says Hecht.
Principal research scientist Andrew Sutherland and a colleague at the University of Bristol have solved a decades-old math problem known as the “summing of the three cubes.” The team found the answer with the help of the platform the Charity Engine, “which utilizes idle, unused computing power from over 500,000 home PCs to create a crowdsourced and environmentally conscious supercomputer,” writes David Grossman for Popular Mechanics.
Ryan Mandelbaum writes for Gizmodo about the efforts of principal research scientist Andrew Sutherland and others to use a crowd-sourced supercomputer to solve a math problem that scientists have been working on since the 1950s. “You wait and wait and just when you’re at the point of giving up, the number shows up,” said Sutherland. “It’s very gratifying.”
Esteban Bustillos of WGBH’s On Campus highlights the work of MIT Director of Athletics Julie Soreiro ahead of her retirement at the end of the fall semester. “Soriero's biggest contribution may be making the school’s athletic mission an extension of its academic one,” says Bustillos. “It’s best summed up in a phrase that’s become something of a mantra for her: ‘We will not apologize for winning.’”