Editorial
Our Ecosystem Under Duress: An Invitation to Engage
MIT’s ecosystem of research and teaching was established over generations by individuals drawn to this institution from around the world by the promise of academic freedom, resources, intellectual exchange, and institutional support.
Faculty Travelogue
Out of Denver
We came out of Denver, the Mile High City, at 5,280 feet above sea level, where the air is thin and the light falls clean and hard off the Front Range in a way that makes everything look slightly more permanent than it is.
Where Does Civilitas Live? Wikipedia, MIT, and the Infrastructure of Equity
This spring I received two invitations that turned out to be about the same question. The first was to write for this graduation issue of the Faculty Newsletter.
From The Faculty Chair
Relationships Strong Enough to Solve Problems
The May Institute Faculty Meeting traditionally mixes business and pleasure. This May, our business included a report on our annual elections for faculty governance by Chair of the Committee on Nominations (CoN) and former Chair of the Faculty Rick Danheiser.
A Message to Our Graduates
Not long before your Commencement, I celebrated a personal milestone graduation as my elder daughter received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory University.
Congratulations to Our Graduates
Congratulations on your graduation, and on all you have accomplished at MIT. On behalf of the Nuclear Science and Engineering department, we are proud to celebrate this milestone with you.
Address to the American Physical Society on the Presentation of the Sakharov Prize 2026
The scroll of Esther, set in Persia 2,400 years ago, reaches its climax with a heart-wrenching dilemma facing the Jewish queen: the prospect of a genocidal plan she is being asked to confront, and a court whose laws assign capital punishment if she does so.
An Archery Lesson for Our Graduates
The paradigmatic instructor in Indian legend is the guru Drona. Renowned for his ascetic ways and his skill with weapons of all sorts, Drona is tutor to the competing clans of princes whose story is told in the Sanskrit epic called the Mahabharata.
Names in Stone, Names Read Aloud
There is a particular comfort, in moments like this, in blaming the weather. A shift in the air, a disturbance arriving from elsewhere – something that unsettles what had seemed settled. Universities are practiced at registering such changes.
Open Letter on the Proposed Changes to the General Institute Requirements
This letter highlights the intellectual risks and pedagogical challenges associated with the proposal by the Task Force on the Undergraduate Academic Program (TFUAP) to compress science General Institute Requirements and suggests an alternative framework . . .
Future-Proofing the Academic Library
When called upon to define the research library of the future, MIT, as usual, chose a bold path.
Lament for the MIT Libraries
For universities across time, the library was the heart, research center, and substance of the knowledge and processes of education that any university contributed to, built on and extended.
