science@mit fall 2014
TRANSCRIPT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Innovation Cluster in and around Kendall Square is depicted above (illustration courtesy of MITIMCo).BIO/PHARMA VCENERGY IT/DATAMIT
Dear Friends,
As you may recall, in June of 2014 I agreed to stay on as Dean of Science on a more permanent basis, dropping the “interim” qualifier on my job title. You can thus look forward to hearing more from me in this capacity over the next several years.
In this issue of Science@MIT, Institute Professor and Nobel Laureate Phil Sharp tells us about the ways in which MIT scientists have shaped Kendall Square. The area looks entirely different now than it did when I arrived here in 1980. Back then, it was a decaying, unsafe industrial zone; now it has become a beautiful mecca for technology, largely due to its proximity to MIT. With the additional attraction of the affiliated Whitehead and Broad Institutes for biomedical and genomic research, Cambridge has become a world-wide center for biotechnology.
Letter from the DeanTABLE OF CONTENTS
Michael SipserDean, MIT School of Science andBarton L. Weller Professor of Mathematics.
Letter from the Dean 1
Features
How to Build a Biotech Renaissance Bendta Schroeder 3
The Department of Biology as a Source of Convergence Phil Sharp 6
Getting Africa on the Climate-Change Grid Jimmy Gasore 10
A New Fundamental Science Initiative for MIT 13
Donor Profile
A Much Needed Boost for Basic Research at MIT John and Cindy Reed 12
Science News & Events from Our Departments, Laboratories, and Centers
Biology 15
Brain and Cognitive Sciences 16
Chemistry 20
Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences 21
Mathematics 23
Physics 25
Support the School of Science 27
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Published twice yearly
Fall 2014
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Executive Editor :
Contributing Writers:
Photography:
Proofreader + Copyeditor:
Design:
Jessica Boyle
Dawn Adelson, Jessica Boyle, Elizabeth Chadis, Jimmy Gasore, Helen Hill, Laurie Ledeen, Erin McGrath, Dennis Porche, Bendta Schroeder, Phil Sharp, Rachel Traughber, Genevieve Wanucha
M. Scott Brauer, Helen Hill, Justin Knight, Kelly Lorenz, Dominick Reuter, Mandana Sassanfar, Danielle Stingu, Bryce Vickmark, Allison Wing, Nina Wu
Sharon Bailly
Ink Design, inc.
L E T T E R F R O M T H E D E A N
Companies started by MIT faculty have attracted other biotech firms to become a part of the vibrant community that has grown up nearby. We are proud of the extraordinary ways our faculty and alumni precipitated the growth of this incredible 21st century industry that will revolutionize the way we live and understand ourselves.
Additionally, Sharp looks ahead to make the case for the convergence of many scientific and engineering fields around the life sciences – a trend which he argues will be a necessary approach to future research and development if we are going to solve the major problems of our time. Although convergence is a national and international phenomenon, MIT has played an important leadership position in the movement. Our own Department of Biology soared to prominence through the convergence of physical sciences and biology in the middle of the last century.
I hope you will be inspired by EAPS graduate student Jimmy Gasore, who is in Rwanda building the first high-frequency climate observatory station in Africa. The ultimate goal of the station is to accurately measure greenhouse gases on the continent – a continent that covers a fifth of the world’s land and which, until now, has been a glaring missing piece of the data we need to understand the climate change puzzle. This project, which will put Africa on the climate-change grid, has been a joint effort of the Rwandan government, MIT faculty and students, and individual alumni and donors who support our activities.
Speaking of support for science at MIT, we are most pleased to introduce the new Fundamental Science Investigator Award (FSIA), a bold approach to the problem of reduced federal funding for our scientists. Cindy and John Reed ’61 (XV), S.M. ’65 (XV) have generously provided the funds to establish the first of what we hope will be a number of very special awards to support research in the School of Science. Through the vantage point of the MIT Corporation, which John chaired from 2010 to 2014, and through his work on various committees throughout the Institute, he came to the conclusion that MIT needs to provide more support for basic scientific research.
I completely agree, and am deeply appreciative of John and Cindy’s philanthropic support for science. To all of our donors who support the School of Science, I thank you.
As always, I look forward to hearing from alumni and friends of the School of Science. You can reach me at [email protected].
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We are proud of the extraordinary ways our faculty and alumni precipitated the growth of [biotech], which will revolutionize the way we live and understand ourselves.
– Mike Sipser
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In the 1970s, if you stood at the corner of Main and Vassar Streets and looked out from the edge of the MIT campus, you would see nothing but a vacant lot. Kendall Square had been decimated by the decline of manufacturing and by businesses escaping to the suburbs, leaving only a few scattered outposts, such as Draper Laboratory and the Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center.
When the leaders of a new company, Biogen, looked for a location for their Cambridge headquarters in 1980, they chose a spot on one edge of that vacant lot, on Binney Street. When Biogen opened in 1982, the company was a pioneer on multiple fronts: it was one of the first few biotech companies, the first company to obtain a recombinant DNA (rDNA) license in Cambridge, and a harbinger of great changes in store for Kendall Square.
While Biogen never left Cambridge, it would move its headquarters for a time to the suburb Weston. But on February 11, 2014, the company, now Biogen Idec, celebrated its return to Binney Street. And the contrast between the Kendall Square of 1982 and 2014 could not be greater: This time, Biogen Idec would be joining a bioscience community populated by numerous high-profile biotech companies, research institutes, and startups.
Biogen Idec’s relocating celebrations included the unveiling of a series of permanent exhibits featuring some of the people important to the company’s history, as well as the dedication of a new building to Biogen co-founder Phillip A. Sharp, an MIT Institute Professor of Biology and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.
Sharp’s Nobel prize-winning discovery of RNA splicing at MIT helped lay the groundwork for Biogen. Naming a Biogen Idec building after a scientist is unusual — as they’re usually named after business people — but the name is fitting: In many ways, Sharp’s story mirrors that of the biotech renaissance in Kendall Square.
Finding a Community at MIT
Much of Sharp’s scientific career was shaped by searching for and finding the right community. He was looking for a place that would give him not only the right research tools, but also the right people who could provide mentorship, work toward similar
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How to Build a Biotech Renaissance
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Written by Bendta Schroeder
goals, and exchange exciting new ideas. Sharp had worked his way from an undergraduate degree in chemistry in 1966 at Union College, a small liberal arts institution not too far from his rural home in the northern hills of Kentucky, to completing a doctorate in physical chemistry in 1969 at the University of Illinois.
His thesis used physical and statistical theory to characterize DNA as a polymer. But when he read the 1966 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory symposium on “The Genetic Code,” he was inspired to join the emerging fields of molecular biology and genetics and sought the right community to help him make the jump.
Sharp found an excellent opportunity in working for Norman Davidson at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), who had been working as a chemist, but was transitioning into what would become groundbreaking work in molecular biology. Sharp knew that in getting a postdoctoral position at Caltech, he would be joining “a whole host of very extraordinary young people and professors,” he said, with whom he would share the same scientific background and scientific goals.
When Sharp wanted to extend his research into human cells, he looked for a new scientific home, which he found at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. Sharp was particularly pleased to be working under the tutelage of the laboratory’s then-Director Jim Watson. “I was totally excited about being in that environment,” Sharp explained, “because I knew there would be great people who were doing interesting things I could work with.” There, his postdoctoral fellowship eventually grew into a senior research position, where he studied gene structure and regulation using adenoviruses.
But, ultimately, Sharp wanted to work at MIT, to work alongside the likes of David Baltimore, who was using RNA viruses to explore mammalian cell biology, and David Botstein and Harvey Lodish, who both focused on bacterial and mammalian systems. Sharp wanted to be part of MIT’s community that focused on molecular approaches to understanding the human cell, which, he believed, was the future of the field.
In 1974, Salvador Luria asked Sharp to join the newly established Center for Cancer Research (CCR) at MIT (now the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research). Sharp accepted, and moved to
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A look back at how Institute Professor Phillip Sharp, his startup Biogen, and MIT’s biotech community helped revive Kendall Square
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the center’s home in a small building on Ames Street that had been converted from a chocolate factory. Along with Sharp, Luria recruited many other researchers who would usher in what has been dubbed MIT’s “golden age” of biology.
At the CCR, Sharp joined a roster that already included Baltimore (who would win the Nobel Prize for his work on RNA viruses), Nancy Hopkins (who would make important discoveries about retroviral cancers in mice), David Housman (co-founder of Genzyme who identified the genomic location of the Huntington gene), and Robert Weinberg (who would isolate the first oncogene and tumor suppressor gene). Sharp’s Nobel Prize-winning discovery of RNA splicing occurred in 1977, only 3 years after he joined the CCR.
Building Relationships beyond MIT
When Sharp arrived at the CCR, the center was embroiled in controversy. Its research program was organized around rDNA, a brand new, controversial technology that joined together DNA sequences from multiple sources, allowing scientists to introduce DNA between species.
In 1974, a group of scientists met to discuss their concerns about the potential hazards of rDNA. This group, led by
Paul Berg, a Stanford University biochemist (and including Baltimore), worried that without setting responsible guidelines for rDNA, scientists could inadvertently cause serious harm. For instance, they could confer antibiotic resistance to naturally pathogenic bacteria or give otherwise harmless bacteria the power to cause tumors in humans. The group published a letter in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, later known as the “Berg letter.” The authors outlined their concerns and recommended a temporary moratorium on rDNA experimentation, which the National Institutes of Health (NIH) soon adopted.
But just when the international moratorium on rDNA experimentation was lifted, then-Cambridge Mayor Alfred Velucci called for an additional 2-year moratorium, citing objections to the potential risks of rDNA experimentation and lack of public consent. While it was Harvard University’s proposal for a new facility that triggered the new moratorium, it was MIT that had the most to lose: The CCR facilities were already built, and its scientists were waiting to begin their rDNA research.
MIT and Harvard worked closely with the Cambridge City Council, developing a joint review board that would ensure rDNA facilities adhered to NIH guidelines. MIT faculty and administration met with the citizens of Cambridge at street fairs,
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teach-ins, and debates to help them understand rDNA research, and how the NIH guidelines would ensure their safety. By 1977, the scientific community won its case when the city passed an ordinance adopting the NIH guidelines and lifting the rDNA moratorium.
Mapping Success
While the rDNA controversy slowed down the progress of research temporarily, MIT’s outreach to Cambridge citizens helped the Kendall Square bioscience community flourish. The quick success of the CCR in rDNA research persuaded the philanthropist Jack Whitehead to establish the Whitehead Institute in Kendall Square in 1982, in affiliation with MIT and led by Baltimore. The city’s established regulatory framework attracted the attention of biotech venture capitalists.
In fact, the innovative science at MIT and the regulatory transparency of Cambridge attracted the attention of Ray Schaefer, an MIT alumnus and venture capitalist. Schaefer began talks with Sharp and Wally Gilbert, a Harvard molecular biologist, that eventually led, in cooperation with several prominent scientists in Europe, to the creation of Biogen in 1978.
By the time Biogen opened its doors, fears about rDNA subsided in the face of the prosperity of the biotech research community.
When Velucci cut the ribbon at Biogen’s opening ceremony, he reassured the audience that he had “no fear of recombinant DNA as long as it paid its taxes.”
Today, Biogen Idec is one of the many biotech companies and research centers clustered around MIT’s campus, many founded by the Institute’s leaders. Sharp’s colleagues at the Koch Institute — a mix of scientists and engineers working to fight intractable cancers — can take credit for many of these institutions. Since the Koch Institute was formed 5 years ago, its faculty (including MIT Institute Professor Bob Langer) have formed 18 companies, many of which are located in Kendall Square.
Other biotech companies have come to the neighborhood to take advantage of the healthy infrastructure in Cambridge and its vibrant bioscience community. While there were many individuals and organizations involved, MIT faculty members and administrators indeed played a major role in reviving Kendall Square, because they understood that in order to build a thriving bioscience program, they would have to build a thriving community of talented people — at MIT and beyond.
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MIT Co-Founded Biotech and High Tech
Agios Akamai AlnylamArchemixAVEO PharmaceuticalsBiogen IdecEpizymeEtexGenzymeIronwood PharmaceuticalMetabolix Millenium PharmaceuticalMomenta PharmaceuticalsSanofiTakeda PharmaceuticalsVertex Pharmaceutical
MIT Affliliated Institutes
Broad InstituteRagon InstituteWhitehead Institute
MIT Departments and Institutes
Biological EngineeringBrain & Cognitive Sciences ComplexChemical EngineeringChemistryComputer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Department of BiologyElectrical Engineering & Computer ScienceHarvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & TechnologyKoch InstituteMaterials Science & EngineeringMechanical EngineeringPhysics
Other High Tech Companies
Abcam AcceleronAegerion PharmaceuticalsAmazonAmgen AriadBoston BiomedicalCelexionCharles River VenturesCICDraper LaboratoryEisai SchlumbergerFlagship VenturesFirefly BioworksGenomics CollaborativeGoogle Highland CapitalH3 BiomedicineIntersystemsInvivo TherapeuticsMetabolix
MicrosoftNovartis Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research Partners HealthCarePermeon BiologicsPfizer Ra PharmaSanofiSirtrisVMwareLab Central
6F E A T U R E S
The Department of Biology as a Source of Convergence
The Changing Way We “Do Science”
In the next decade, the world will face growing challenges that can be answered by the life sciences: providing better health care at a sustainable cost, economically transforming plant cellulose into transportable fuels by genetically engineering organisms and more efficient enzymes, and feeding a growing world population by opening up arid climates and high-salinity soils to farming through the genetic engineering of plants. All of these must be done in parallel with maintaining and improving the environment, including reducing global warming. However, to garner the benefits of revolutionary advances in molecular and genetic engineering, the life sciences must converge with the physical, mathematical, computational, and engineering sciences.
1974 1982 1991 1993 2000 2001
MIT opens the Center for Cancer Research
The Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences is established.
Biology becomes an undergraduate course requirement.
The Department of Biological Engineering is established.
The McGovern Institute for Brain Research is founded at MIT by Pat ’59 (VII) and Lore McGovern. Biology professor and Nobel Laureate Phillip Sharp is appointed as Founding Director.
Jack Whitehead founds the Whitehead Institute in affiliation with MIT. Biology professor and Nobel Laureate David Baltimore becomes Whitehead’s Founding Director.
Written by Phil Sharp, Nobel Laureate and Institute Professor
MIT biologist and Nobel Laureate Salvador Luria; future Professor of Biology Nancy Hopkins; and future Nobel Laureate David Baltimore at MIT’s Center for Cancer Research, January 1974.
7F E A T U R E S
“Convergence” does not mean that different fields of study merely share their tools, but rather that the fields come together to re-conceptualize approaches to research and solving problems. While the progress toward convergence is a national and international phenomenon, MIT has an important leadership position in the movement. The modern Department of Biology was established through the convergence of physical sciences and biology in the middle of the last century, and the department has since then contributed enormously to bringing life sciences to a period of even greater engagement through convergence.
The first revolution in convergence was born from the discovery of the structure of DNA by a physicist, Francis Crick, and a
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2002
The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory is founded at MIT by Barbara and Jeffry Picower. Susumu Tonegawa, Nobel Laureate and Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, is appointed Founding Director.
The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research is created to bring together biologists and chemists along with biological, chemical, mechanical, and materials science engineers, computer scientists, clinicians, and others, bringing an interdisciplinary approach to the fight against cancer.
2008 2011
A certificate program for biophysics is approved.
Course 6-7, Computer Science and Molecular Biology, becomes a joint major between the Department of Biology and the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.
2012
The Institute for Medical and Engineering Sciences (IMES) is created.
2013
The Center for Integrative Synthetic Biology (CISB) is created.
While the progress toward convergence is a national and international phenomenon, MIT has an important leadership position in the movement. – Phil Sharp
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biologist, James Watson, thereby changing the focus of the life sciences to molecular biology and genes. MIT staked its position in the movement when Salvador Luria, the thesis mentor of James Watson, was recruited to the department in the late 1950s to strengthen molecular biology. Luria would go on to receive a Nobel Prize with his close friend and collaborator, the physicist Max Delbrück, as well as with geneticist Alfred Hershey.
Over the years, many faculty in the Department of Biology were trained in physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences before turning to questions of the life sciences. The career of Paul Schimmel at MIT is an example of this progression. Trained as a polymer chemist at Stanford with Paul Flory, recipient of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Schimmel was recruited to MIT by the Chemistry Department but migrated to the Department of Biology early in his career in order to pursue his important work on the specificity of transferring information from the genetic code in DNA to proteins.
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MIT as a whole has evolved with broader engagement in life sciences through the growth of the Department of Biology. Expansion of the department occurred with the opening of the Center for Cancer Research in 1974, agreement of affiliation with the Whitehead Institute in the early 1980s, establishment of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in 1991, and two neuroscience-oriented institutes – the McGovern Institute in 2001 and the Picower Institute in 2002. More recently, affiliations with the Broad Institute and Ragon Institute have furthered this scope. The faculty in the life sciences of the Departments of Biology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences have grown from roughly 46 in 1974 to over 130 in 2014. As a centerpiece of the evolving convergence movement at MIT, 12 cancer biologists from the Center for Cancer Research joined 12 engineers from several departments to create the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research in 2008.
Important Institute-wide decisions accelerated the spread of convergence on campus. A particularly significant one was the requirement that all students needed to be educated in the core principles of modern biology. The first class with a biology requirement graduated in 1997. In parallel with this, many faculty from engineering departments at MIT took a 1-week “bootcamp”-type course taught by faculty in the Department of Biology.
It is impossible to precisely summarize all of the convergence-type advances at MIT over the past decades. However, some are easily identified: the merging of some faculty from the Department of Applied Biological Science into the Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Biology in 1988, the creation of the Department of Biological Engineering in 2000, and the establishment of the Institute for Medical and Engineering Sciences in 2012. Examples at the level of education include the establishment of joint departmental convergent-type graduate training programs, such as the Biophysics Group and the Center for Integrative Synthetic Biology (CISB) – created in 2008 and 2013, respectively – and the establishment of a joint undergraduate major between the Department of Biology and the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Currently, about one-third of the faculty in the School of Engineering have some aspect of their research program in life sciences.
Reports and articles attempting to project the promise of this trend can be found on the MIT website www.convergencerevolution.net.
Importantly, this focus…became the nucleus of the powerful biotechnology cluster in Kendall Square. Innumerable patients have benefited from the translation of this basic science to technology advanced at MIT. – Phil Sharp
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The Path to the Future of Life Sciences
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Since the recruitment of Salvador Luria, genes and their applications have been a major focus of MIT’s Department of Biology. The importance of this focus to the success of MIT biologists can be tracked through the several Nobel Prizes that would follow: Luria’s discovery of genetic traits in bacteria, Gobind Khorana’s synthesis of the first gene (Khorana’s primary appointment was in chemistry), David Baltimore’s discovery of the reverse transcription of RNA sequences to DNA sequences, Susumu Tonegawa’s discovery of DNA rearrangement as the basis for immune diversity, Robert Horvitz’s discovery of the genes controlling cell death, and my own discovery of the split gene structure in higher organisms. Beyond this, many trainees of the department have made similar contributions with comparable recognition. Importantly, this focus on genes and molecular biology became the nucleus of the powerful biotechnology cluster in Kendall Square. Innumerable patients have benefited from the translation of this basic science to technology advanced at MIT through the proximity of this biotech cluster.
The latest wave in convergence involves combining molecular and cellular biology – in which MIT has so long been a leader – with genomics, engineering, and knowledge of physical sciences. Engineers have engaged in life sciences in the past, so what is new about today’s convergence? In the past, biology and biomedical sciences have benefited greatly from the quantitative approaches and technology of engineers and physical sciences. Examples of previous successes range from heart pacemakers to massive bioreactors producing antibiotics. Many of these contributions have been at the level of whole organism physiology, as well as at the level of organs and tissue. Today, however, new opportunities to converge life sciences with physical, mathematical, computational, and engineering sciences are found at the molecular level.
MIT has committed to leading the new wave of convergence by making broader engagement in the life sciences possible for faculty members working across the Institute. Through the growth of the Department of Biology and the proliferation of new departments, research centers, and educational programs
(see timeline, pages 6-7, for more details), MIT continues to bring faculty and students together from the life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering. As a result, our faculty are making advancements in the treatment of cancer, the editing of the genome, and using bacterial viruses to make batteries and solar cells. They are poised to make a second biotechnology renaissance here in Cambridge.
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Institute Professor and 1993 Nobel Laureate Phil Sharp.
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The exponential increase of greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution has been constantly shifting the global climate to a dangerous level, suggesting an urgent need for an immediate and sustained global mitigation. Strategies for emissions reduction are usually implemented at the national and regional level, requiring that the amount of emissions and the geographical distribution of their sources be known at national and regional scales, as well. Information on greenhouse gas emissions and the sources of their distribution is readily available in most of the developed world, thanks to computing power and human capacity. A different picture, however, emerges from developing countries; for example, there is no long-term high frequency greenhouse observing station on the entire African continent. Since Africa covers a fifth of the world’s landmass, this is no small piece of lost data. Thus the ultimate goal of my research project: getting Africa on the climate-change grid.
Tropics in general – and in Africa in particular – have contributed a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural activities, wild fires, and deforestation; during the end of the last decade, tropical wetlands played a central role in the increased presence of atmospheric methane. Emissions from sources like these constitute the most uncertain element of the global carbon budget. Still, “lack of data” is the only term used to describe Africa’s emissions.
I am building the first high-frequency climate observatory station in Africa, located in the Republic of Rwanda. I will then use the resulting data to estimate emissions of carbon dioxide and methane in Eastern and Central Africa. Quantifying tropical African emissions will not only support regional and national emission reduction policies, but also reduce the largest uncertainty in the global carbon budget – thereby adding a piece of new understanding to the climate-change puzzle.
Choosing the right place to host the climate observatory station was a challenge by itself. First, logistical considerations like power supply, accessibility, and laboratory space were considered. Second, and most important, were the technical considerations: The station had to be away from cities and towns and higher in altitude in order to measure background concentration. Moreover, a large station “footprint” was preferred, as it would allow for sampling a larger region with just one station. The footprint, which is a map of all possible origins
Getting Africa on the Climate-Change GridJimmy GasoreEarth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Graduate Student
of air masses arriving at the station, is obtained by running computer simulations that follow the trajectory of air mass in the backward direction. Those criteria were met by Mount Kalisimbi, a 15,000-foot extinct volcano located in the Northwest Region of the Republic of Rwanda. Computer simulations of trajectories of air masses coming to Mount Kalisimbi indicate that this location can sample air masses from Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the north, India and the Indian Ocean in the east, Madagascar in the south, and all the countries in between, with some extension into Western Africa. The high elevation of Mount Kalisimbi allows measurement of the “background” concentration, which is free from the contamination of pollution from local sources. In this respect, Kalisimbi has attributes of a global observatory sampling the entire troposphere.
Because of the high elevation of Kalisimbi, accessibility is a challenge for now. Luckily, the government of Rwanda is building a cable car to the summit for ecotourism, which will also allow regular access to the station and other infrastructures on the summit. While waiting for a cable car, I am operating on Mount Mugogo, which is a temporary station near Kalisimbi. With its altitude of 8,500 feet, Mugogo does not have the attributes of a global station but is perfect for a regional climate station; in fact, it is the data from Mount Mugogo that I will use to estimate regional emissions. At Mount Mugogo, I test and install instruments and train local station technicians. I am currently measuring carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, ozone, solar radiation, and other meteorological variables.
In addition to setting up a climate observatory station, I will be using inverse methods to estimate surface sources and sinks of carbon dioxide and methane in Eastern and Central Africa.
The process of estimating surface emissions from atmospheric concentration is much like going back in time, which is why it is called an inverse problem. Gas molecules are emitted by human activities like cars and power plants, as well as by natural processes like those that take place in wetlands. After emissions, the gas undergoes physical processes; namely, mixing and transport by winds, chemical transformations fueled by solar radiation, and chemical reactions with other atmospheric constituents. The combination of these physical and chemical processes determines the concentration of a certain gas measured at a given time and place. On the other hand,
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inverse emissions estimation starts by measuring atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and meteorological information, then estimating what was emitted at the surface by carefully going through all the chemical transformations and physical mixing undergone by the gas molecules in the reverse direction. This technique requires powerful computers and advanced mathematics.
At the end of this project, I will provide the very first comprehensive regional high-frequency observation-based emissions estimation for Central and Eastern Africa. This information will be the basis for regional carbon policies and improve the current understanding of the global carbon budget. Furthermore, the estimated sources and sinks of carbon dioxide and methane will provide to the scientific community additional data for comparing and checking global inversion studies, calibrating ecosystem models, and verifying regional emissions.
i Jimmy Gasore, EAPS Graduate Student.
ii Mount Kalisimbi will host the only high-frequency greenhouse gases monitoring station on the African continent.
iii Rwandan President Paul Kagame (far right) meets EAPS graduate student Jimmy Gasore, who is from Rwanda, and Ron Prinn, TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science, during his April 2014 visit to MIT.
To read about President Paul Kagame’s visit to MIT, visit sciencem.it/1Bh4FgV
To learn more about MIT’s research efforts, visit cgcs.mit.edu
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Those paying attention to where the federal government is investing in R&D may notice that we are not living in an easy time for those pursuing fundamental scientific research. Diminishing federal support has had major consequences for scientists at MIT and all over the country: Graduate programs are at risk of shrinking in size and young faculty are seeing their grant applications rejected despite excellent reviews. In order to ensure that the School of Science at MIT remains one of the world’s premier institutions for scientific research, we need to create additional support for our scientists pursuing basic, curiosity-driven research.
Enter John Reed ’61 (XV), S.M. ’65 (XV), Chairman of the MIT Corporation from 2010 to 2014. Together with his wife Cindy, John Reed has initiated and made possible the first Fundamental Science Investigator Award (FSIA) in the School of Science. This award, described on the following pages, is modeled after the enormously successful Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator program and will be granted only to faculty addressing very fundamental questions, such as the origins of life, the science of climate, or the nature of dark matter. In short, the award provides a multi-year funding base that allows the faculty member to lead a small research program without relying on outside funding. It is expected that research conducted with the support of the FSIA will lead to publishable results, which will then enable further funding from risk-adverse federal agencies.
It is not everyone who has the combined ability and foresight to understand the impact of something like the FSIA on our scientific enterprise. And one might be hard-pressed to find that perspective in someone who was formerly a banker. But John Reed learned about the challenges of supporting fundamental science during his time as Chairman and from spending time on various Visiting Committees and Advisory Councils throughout the schools.
“I think that those engaged in basic science need support, and I think that the nature of the support can be budget relieving, which obviously makes a difference to us… Basic research is key, and it doesn’t gather the kind of support that cancer or energy gets.” With that statement, Reed has zeroed in on one of the critical problems in the way scientific research is currently funded: Those pursuing fundamental scientific problems don’t yet necessarily know what the applications of their discoveries will be, so their research does not fall neatly under a category or theme. What’s more, Reed said, “I don’t want to give money for specific research
A Much Needed Boost for Basic Research at MITJohn and Cindy Reed Create the First Fundamental Science Investigator Award
topics because they come and go; supporting those who will be doing research is more beneficial than supporting the research topic alone.”
Reed declared, “The key is that MIT needs support for basic science. Cindy and I are early supporters because we care about MIT and understand the value of basic research. We hope others will join us in supporting this effort.”
John Reed on His Days as a Student
“I was coming to MIT at a time when you were here to learn, you weren’t here to have fun. No one ever asked me whether I was having fun. When I was here, tuition hit $1,000 and everybody protested! I got everything out of MIT that I could have hoped,” he says. “I learned how to think. You could tell that your brain got pushed up a notch. The problems were hard and you had to get your brain organized.
“My father, MIT class of 1924, told me that I would be on my own once I got married or graduated…whichever came first. So when I graduated he sent me a nice letter from Argentina [where John grew up] with a gift of some books, a note of congratulations, and a request that I remit any money left in my checking account.”
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The Birth of Science at MIT
In 1930, the MIT Corporation recognized that the engineer of the future would need a deeper understanding of science, and that this new education could not be provided without a top-tier science faculty. Until that time, MIT did a good job of training people to build and run the machines of the industrial revolution, but they were not prepared to exploit the new knowledge of quantum mechanics, atomic physics, and subatomic physics that were about to reshape technology. Recruiting scientist Karl Compton as MIT’s eleventh President, they made a pivotal decision that would ultimately allow the Institute to participate in the development of radar and to a play a leading role in post-war science and engineering research.
The United States government’s appreciation of the importance of science for national defense led to an exponential growth in the fraction of the federal budget spent on research, which reached a peak during the Apollo program of the 1960s. As defense-research spending declined after the Cold War, federal
spending on the life sciences grew rapidly, so that the fraction of the discretionary budget spent on basic research was roughly constant. MIT faculty members followed, by reorienting their research to address the exciting opportunities provided by the revolution in molecular biology. Thus, for over 60 years, MIT has been among the leading science – not just engineering – universities in the world, because of generous funding by the federal government.
However, that generous funding for fundamental science is no longer forthcoming. Austere budgets have kept the growth of funding in the physical sciences far below inflation since the end of the Cold War; the same has been true for the life sciences for the past decade (except for the 2 years of stimulus funding during the Great Recession). What’s more, in times of reduced federal funding, applied research does much better than fundamental science, and MIT’s new sources of funding – from foreign governments and foundations – are focused on applied problems, rather than new discoveries.
A New Fundamental Science Initiative for MIT
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Why New Scientific Discoveries Are Important
Basic research is the process of creation, and without it, applications vanish.
When initially starting his project aiming to develop an atomic clock, Professor Dan Kleppner never imagined it would someday become the technology at the heart of GPS. “With basic research, you don’t begin to recognize the applications until the discoveries are in hand,” he said recently. “In my view, basic science is the best thing that mankind pursues.”
Richard Schrock, the Frederick G. Keyes Professor of Chemistry who won the Nobel Prize in 2005, has said that by following his curiosity, he developed the catalysts for the chemical reaction now used every day for the green production of pharmaceuticals, fuels, and other synthetic chemicals. The same can be said of Nobel Laureate Bob Horvitz, who, during his curiosity-driven, extensive research on C. elegans, discovered specific genes that determine cell death. Even today, this fundamental finding is revealing new therapies for the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease.
Fundamental scientific research at MIT has led to the discovery of the first human cancer gene, the first experimental confirmation of the existence of the quark, and the first chemical synthesis of penicillin. Each and every one of these discoveries started with curiosity-driven research.
Science at MIT Matters
At MIT, our scientific discoveries lead to new technology and move to the marketplace more rapidly than almost anywhere else in the world. One only needs to count the startup companies in Kendall Square that have been founded by MIT science faculty members, students, and postdocs to see how well this is working (see page 5 for a partial listing). What’s more, these startups are often founded in collaboration with our colleagues in the School of Engineering.
In his inaugural address, President L. Rafael Reif touched on the critical importance of fundamental science at MIT: “I have no doubt that the people of MIT will continue their passionate pursuit of curiosity-driven, fundamental research. This work is extremely important in and of itself because it expands the body of knowledge. But it also handsomely returns the investment to
society, by enabling real-world solutions that we cannot begin to imagine. Unfortunately, these days, important segments of our society do not seem to fully appreciate this connection. But if a society gives up on basic research, it is giving up on its future. Let me say this again: If a society gives up on basic research, it is giving up on its future.”
The Fundamental Science Investigator Award
The new Fundamental Science Investigator Award (FSIA) has been created in an effort to help the School of Science reverse the pressures of shrinking graduate programs and reduced federal funding for basic scientific research. Promising, mid-career School of Science faculty will be carefully nominated to receive the FSIA, which will provide fellowships for three graduate students and one postdoctoral associate – the minimum size needed for an experimental effort in science. The FSIA provides a multi-year funding base that allows the faculty member to lead a small research program without relying on outside funding. Ultimately, the award should make him or her much more competitive in pursuing other sources of funding, because successful results accomplished while supported by the FSIA could eventually justify further support from risk-averse federal agencies or foundations.
The cost to sponsor an expendable multi-year Fundamental Science Investigator Award is $1.5 million. The cost to endow one FSIA is $9 million; our goal is to be able to offer at least five of these prestigious awards in the coming years. If you would like more information, please contact Elizabeth Chadis at 617.253.8903 or [email protected].
“ If a society gives up on basic research, it is giving up on its future.– L. Rafael Reif, President of MIT
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“Alan Grossman is an outstanding biologist who is deeply committed to the research and educational missions of the Biology Department,” said Michael Sipser, Dean of the School of Science and the Barton L. Weller Professor of Mathematics. “I am committed to working with him to sustain and enhance MIT’s position as an extraordinary place to do biology.”
Grossman received a B.A. in biochemistry from Brown University in 1979 and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1984. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology at Harvard University, Grossman joined MIT’s Department of Biology in 1988. In 1997, Grossman received the Eli Lilly and Co. Research Award, given by the American Society for Microbiology. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
BiologyAlan D. Grossman Appointed Department HeadWritten by Bendta Schroeder
Alan D. Grossman, the Praecis Professor of Biology, has been named the new Head of the Department of Biology. A faculty member since 1988 and an Associate Department Head from 2012 until June 2014, Grossman succeeds Tania Baker, the E.C. Whitehead Professor of Biology and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Grossman has significant experience in service, research, education, and outreach. He served for many years on the graduate committees for biology, computational and systems biology, and microbiology. He was Director or Co-Director of the biology graduate program for 7 years.
Grossman was instrumental in the establishment of the graduate program in microbiology in 2008 and served as its Director until 2012. The program is an interdepartmental, interdisciplinary endeavor, with more than 50 participating faculty members from several departments in the School of Science and School of Engineering. This program integrates educational resources across participating departments, builds connections among faculty with shared interests, and creates an educational and research community for training students in the study of microbial systems. Grossman also served as a member of the Committee on Curriculum and most recently on the Office of Minority Education’s Faculty Advisory Committee.
Grossman’s research combines a range of approaches – genetic, molecular, physiological, biochemical, cell-biological, and genomic – to study how bacteria sense internal and external conditions and control basic cellular processes. His current work seeks to define mechanisms regulating bacterial DNA replication and cellular responses to replication stress. His laboratory also studies horizontal gene transfer, the primary means by which antibiotic resistance is spread among bacteria.
“I have benefited tremendously from the support and encouragement from people in all parts of the department, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve this outstanding community,” Grossman said. “I look forward to working closely with my colleagues and continuing the tradition of recruiting and mentoring excellent young faculty, supporting educational and outreach efforts, and building strong and beneficial relationships with other departments. I also look forward to reaching out to our alumni and friends from our extended biology community, and from our larger Institute community.”
i Alan Grossman, Praecis Professor of Biology and new Head of the Department.
ii Alan Grossman and Graham Walker, American Cancer Society Professor, HHMI Professor, at this year’s Biology Department Summer Research Program Poster Session and Luncheon.
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Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Controlling Neural Circuits with Light: A Window into Psychiatric DiseaseWritten by Bendta Schroeder
A rat is placed in an unfamiliar chamber at the intersection of two corridors. One corridor is enclosed, the other is exposed. The rat has two choices: He can follow his inclination to explore his new environment and venture into the open corridor, or he can follow his anxious impulse to avoid predators by hiding in the enclosed passage. He chooses, for the most part, to stay out of sight. But then a researcher flips a switch. Immediately, the rat steps into the open passage – he’s up for adventure.
What Happened?
At the Dean’s Breakfast on March 26, 2014, Kay Tye ’03 (IX), Whitehead Career Development Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS), told the audience about her latest research on the neural basis of anxiety. Tye studies the neural circuitry that translates information from the world around us into impulses to either seek pleasure or avoid pain. Or, to put it simply, Tye studies the neuroscience of emotion. Emotions play an important role in how we interact with the world: They are a filter that lets us decide what is important in our environments, how much attention we should pay to it, and how we should react to it. Emotions motivate us to seek out what might benefit us and avoid what might harm us.
The problem is when emotions are no longer directly tied to the world around us, resulting in mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, and addiction. Anxiety, where an individual experiences sustained, increased apprehension without an immediate threat of harm, affects 28% of adults in the United States. There are several pharmaceutical treatments, but taking them often results in a lot of unwanted side effects. These pharmaceuticals bathe the entire brain in a soup of medicine, stimulating or inhibiting emotion-regulating parts of the brain indiscriminately, and they frequently produce opposing and adverse effects. Tye believes we can develop more effective treatments with fewer side effects if we instead target the specific neural circuits that regulate anxiety – but first, Tye needs to pinpoint exactly where those circuits are.
This is where the rat in the chamber comes in. Tye and the graduate students in her laboratory isolated a very specific connection, also called a projection, which carries signals between two regions of the rat’s brain that are thought to govern anxiety: the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and the ventral hippocampus (vHPC). This projection can be referred to as BLA-vHPC.
They used a technique called optogenetics – developed by MIT Professor Ed Boyden with researchers at Stanford University – which allowed them to turn the projection on and off like a switch. They encoded a package of DNA with a neuron inhibitor governed by a light-sensitive protein, and then spliced it into
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their target neurons. When they shone a light on the BLA-vHPC, the inhibitor turned the projection off and the rat immediately traded its timidity for boldness. Tye and her graduate students were also able to do the reverse: When they activated the BLA-vHPC, the rat traded its boldness for timid, anxious behavior. Because they could turn anxiety-related behavior on and off with their BLA-vHPC switch, Tye and her graduate students concluded that the BLA-vHPC projection helps govern anxiety.
In the future, Tye plans to study BLA-vHPC circuitry for pharmaceutical targets. While rat and human brains are obviously different, the amygdala remains very similar across mammalian species. She is also applying similar approaches to study the role of connections between the lateral hypothalamus and the ventral tegmental area in addictive eating behaviors.
To carry out these studies, Tye depends on her current and incoming graduate students, who play a critical role within the department. As Department Head Jim DiCarlo recently shared, “[they] are essential to the department’s preeminence. They do a lot of the heavy lifting, conducting much of the department’s research while helping to teach and mentor undergraduates; being young and optimistic, they take risks that lead to exciting new discoveries and breakthroughs.”
More About Kay Tye
Kay Tye completed her undergraduate studies at MIT in 2003, majoring in brain and cognitive sciences with a minor in biology. She went to the University of California at San Francisco for her graduate studies under the mentorship of Patricia Janak, to train in in vivo electrophysiology and behavioral neuroscience, and earned her Ph.D. in 2008. Her thesis work was supported by a National Science Foundation Fellowship and was recognized with the Weintraub Award and the Lindsley Prize. She then stayed on for an extra year to complete a collaboration examining learning-induced plasticity using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in acute slice preparations with Antonello Bonci. She began her post-doctoral training at Stanford University in 2009 with the support of a National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health under the mentorship of Karl Deisseroth, where she integrated her existing skill set with imaging and optogenetic techniques to examine the basis of motivated behaviors. As of January 2012, she has returned to MIT to start her own laboratory as the Whitehead Career Development Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in BCS and the Picower Institute of Learning and Memory.
To learn more about the Tye Laboratory, visit www.tyelab.org
i After finishing her lecture, Professor Tye ’03 (IX) answered questions and discussed her research with a number of guests.
ii Jake Xia Ph.D. ’92 (VI) poses a question during the talk.
iii Peter Steven ’78 (XVIII), Ph.D. ’86 (XVII) and former MIT Professor Larry Evans enjoy their breakfast.
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A New Society Launches Celebrating Graduate Student Fellowship SupportWritten by Rachel Traughber
MIT’s graduate program in brain and cognitive sciences is consistently recognized as one of the best in the world. We attract outstanding students with the discipline and creativity to make major contributions to our understanding of the brain and how it works in sickness and health. From the nature of intelligence to understanding the diseases of development and aging, we are closing in on answers to some of the most challenging problems faced by human beings.
With the federal government sequester in effect, support for these students faces grave challenges.
“Our ability to enroll graduate students in our program is contingent on whether or not we have the financial capacity to support them while they are here,” said BCS Department Head Jim DiCarlo. “We are entering a golden age of brain and cognitive science research and discoveries. Now more than ever, this is a critical time to be sure we keep attracting the best minds to MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.”
The Champions of the Brain Fellows was created to address this need. Launched during the summer of 2013, the society’s purpose is twofold: to recognize the generosity of those friends and alumni who make it possible for BCS graduate students to explore their scientific dreams, and to encourage those who are considering supporting the graduate students of the department.
Champion of the Champions
Among the department’s long-time supporters who answered this call are Barrie HM and Al ’51 Zesiger. In 2009, when the Zesigers learned that BCS would be able to admit only 11 students due to funding concerns, they pledged $1 million to endow a fellowship for the department. As the department explored ways to recognize and encourage philanthropic support for graduate students, reaching out to the Zesigers was a natural choice.
Champions of the Brain Fellows
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We hope this event becomes a highlight of our academic year. It’s our opportunity to thank donors while enabling them to engage with the students, learn more about their research, and meet others who care about the department’s mission.
– Jim DiCarlo
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“Barrie and Al are wonderful advocates of graduate students in the department,” said DiCarlo, “I am so pleased that they are willing to help us take on this new challenge.”
To inaugurate the Champions of the Brain Fellows, the Zesigers have pledged an additional $1 million to match new fellowship donations. It is their hope that this commitment will inspire others.
The Inaugural Champions Dinner
On March 5, 2014, the department hosted its first Champions of the Brain Fellows celebration. The evening kicked off with a reception followed by an intimate dinner with students, faculty, and fellowship supporters. Over dinner, several BCS graduate students presented on their experiences and research at MIT: Becky Canter, Weedon Fellow, described her Alzheimer’s research in the Tsai Laboratory; Stephen Allsop, Halis Fellow and M.D./Ph.D. student in the Tye Laboratory, discussed his path to MIT and his interest in understanding how social information changes behavior; and Pedro Tsividis, Leventhal Fellow, shared his work on developmental accounts and computational models of curiosity and exploration in the Tenenbaum and Schulz Laboratories.
The department plans to hold this event annually, with the next dinner set to take place in the fall of 2015. Other benefits of membership include updates from students on their research and progress throughout their academic careers at MIT. Those interested in becoming a champion or learning more about the society can contact Elizabeth Chadis, Assistant Dean of Development, at 617-253-8903 or [email protected]
i Department Head Jim DiCarlo, 2013-2014 Zesiger Fellow Christine Eckhardt, and Barrie Zesiger HM.
ii Fellowship sponsor Estelle Weedon and Nobel Laureate Susumu
Tonegawa, Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, peer down from the reception area to the floors below.
iii Halis Fellow Stephen Allsop, an accomplished jazz pianist, provided musical entertainment for the evening with his ensemble NotetheNuanceLIVE!
iv McClelland Fellow Michael Lynn, of Mehrdad Jazayeri’s Laboratory, meets fellowship sponsor Bill McClelland ’47 (XVIII) and Lynne Lippincott.
Now is the time to invest in brain research and MIT is the place. Together, we can make a difference. – Barrie Zesiger
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Chemistry
A Springtime CelebrationWritten by Laurie Ledeen
Thanks to the generosity of two longstanding and thoughtful supporters, the Chemistry Department hosted a springtime celebration on May 18, 2014. Over 60 alumni, friends, and faculty gathered in the Winter Garden of MIT’s Media Laboratory. Guests enjoyed not only spectacular views of the Charles River and Back Bay, but also conversation and presentations focused on the department’s educational and research accomplishments, as well as its future plans, goals, and special projects.
Department Head Sylvia Ceyer began the evening with opening remarks and a warm welcome before turning it over to John Essigmann, William R. (1956) and Betsy Leitch Professor of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, who shared exciting news about a subject central to the department’s education mission and reputation. Essigmann’s presentation, entitled “Our Chemistry Labs Don’t Stink Anymore,” outlined the reasons why we can expect an improvement to the atmosphere in which our undergraduates study chemistry, due to the exciting and long overdue relocation of our undergraduate laboratories to the top floor of MIT’s new state-of–the-art nanotechnology building. This major capital project is a focal point for MIT’s planned campaign, and the department hopes to take full advantage of the project’s high internal and external profile.
A major feature of the new facility is the fact that the design of the new laboratories is inspired by URIECA, the department’s innovative undergraduate curriculum. This topic was the focus of Assistant Professor Brad Pentelute’s presentation, “Flowing into URIECA Moments at MIT.”
To conclude the evening’s presentations, Susan Solomon, Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Science, a well-known scientist whose research takes place at the intersection of basic science and public policy, gave her talk “The World’s Chemistry in Our Hands.”
i Guests had a wonderful view of the Charles River.
ii (Left to right): MIT Professors Yogi Surendranath Ph.D. ’11 (V D) and Kit Cummins Ph.D. ’93 (V) with local alumnus Timothy Oyer Ph.D. ’91 (V) and his wife, Joanne.
iii MIT alumni who attended the event were able to connect with professors, old and new, and learn about new research happening in the department. (Left to right): Julian Adams Ph.D. ’81 (V) meets Professor Mo Movassaghi and Brad Pentelute, Pfizer-Laubach Career Development Assistant Professor.
iv Judy Selwyn Ph.D. ’71 (V) and John Dolhun Ph.D. ’73 (V), friends of the department, engage in conversation between presentations.
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Earth, Atmosphericand PlanetarySciences
Memorial Symposium Held in Honor of the Late Professor Theodore R. MaddenWritten by Helen Hill
A symposium to honor the life and work of Professor Theodore “Ted” Madden, who died in November 2013 at age 88, was held March 14, 2014. The event brought together the Madden family, current EAPS faculty, former colleagues, and former students of Madden’s, and reflected the extraordinarily broad scope of Madden’s research, which extended from Earth’s core to the outer magnetosphere.
Speakers in the morning session “From the Earth’s Core to the Crust” (chaired by EAPS’ Professor Nafi Toksöz) included Michael Bergman Ph.D. ’92 (XII, XII D), Randall Mackie Ph.D. ’91 (XII, XII D), Dave Lockner Ph.D. ’90 (XII, XII D), David Fitterman Ph.D. ’75 (XII), Peter Molnar (University of Colorado), Yves Bernabé Ph.D. ’86 (XII), and Phil Nelson ’62 (XII), Ph.D. ’67 (XII).
After a luncheon in the Ida Green Lounge, the afternoon session “From the Earth’s Crust to Outer Space” (chaired by Brad Hager, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Earth Sciences) included Dale Morgan Ph.D. ’81 (XII D), Earle Williams Ph.D. ’81 (XII), Adolfo Figuero-Vinas Ph.D. ’81 (XII), and Norman Ness ’55 (XII B), Ph.D. ’59 (XII). An in-absentia video message from Jon Claerbout ’60 (VIII), Ph.D. ’67 (XII) was also shown.
The keynote address was given by Don Paul ’67 (XVIII), S.M. ’69 (XII), Ph.D. ’77 (XII), and EAPS Department Head Rob van der Hilst gave opening and closing remarks.
The talks were followed by a memorial service in the MIT Chapel. Among the speakers were Rob van der Hilst; Bill Thompson ’57 (XII B), S.M. ’58 (XII B), Ph.D. ’63 (XII); Carl Wunsch ’62 (XVIII), Ph.D. ’67 (XII); Yed Angoran Ph.D. ’76 (XII); and Enders Robinson ’50 (XVIII), S.M. ’52 (XIV), Ph.D. ’54 (XII). At the close, Taps and an Honor Guard were provided by members of the United States Marine Corps in honor of Madden’s service.
At the reception, which took place in Room 54-923 of the Green Building immediately following the service, it was announced that the Madden Fellowship fund had reached its fundraising goal in time to appoint the first Madden Fellow this fall. Major donors to the fund were Jie Zhang Ph.D. ’97 (XII D); John Reed ’61 (XV), S.M. ’65 (XV); and keynote speaker Don Paul ’67 (XVIII), S.M. ’69 (XII), Ph.D. ’77 (XII).
Ted Madden 1925-2013
Theodore Madden, or Ted as he was best known, was an MIT alumnus and faculty member whose contributions to research and teaching influenced a generation of Earth scientists. Ted entered the Institute in 1942 and never left, with the exception of a 3-year stint in the Marine Corps during World War II. Ted received his B.S. in physics in 1949 and his Ph.D. in geophysics in 1961. He was already a professor of geophysics when he received his graduate degree. Ted was known for his breadth of academic interests, competitive spirit, and holistic approach to education.
Ted was probably most celebrated for his work on methods for electrical exploration. In 1986, he received the Society of Exploration Geophysicists’ Reginald Fessenden Award in recognition of his “pioneering efforts in the development of frequency domain IP, both in practice and in theory.” Few biographies, however, capture the enormous breadth of his research, which spanned from the core of the Earth to the outer magnetosphere, and included topics as diverse as electromagnetics, seismology, gravity waves, plasma physics, and random networks.
Ted was also an accomplished athlete who loved all sports, particularly hockey, soccer, and lacrosse. He received MIT’s award for the most outstanding athlete in 1949. Ted liked to say that he “majored in sports and minored in physics.” His former students remember that he brought the same intensity to athletics as he did to inverse problems.
Ted will be missed by many friends and colleagues, but his enormous impact on MIT and the Earth sciences will continue. He leaves his wife, Halima, his children Salim, Jennifer, and Nadia ’00 (XII), and his grandchildren Laila and Matthew.
To watch the symposium online, visit sciencem.it/maddenmemorial
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At the Lorenz Center, Water Unites Leaders in Climate SciencesWritten by Genevieve Wanucha
Water has a lot of say in how Earth’s climate works – from cloud distribution to ocean circulation and from atmospheric moisture to snowfall patterns – and scientists often acknowledge that the uncertainty about our climate’s future trajectory comes from a lack of understanding of water. This intellectual challenge filled the better part of February 10-12, 2014, for 37 leading climate researchers, along with graduate students and postdoctoral Fellows, who participated in the Lorenz Center’s first scientific workshop, “Water in the Climate System,” which took place at the MIT Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts.
The Lorenz Center is a new climate research initiative founded by MIT Professors Kerry Emanuel and Daniel Rothman in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences as a way to renew the emphasis on fundamental questions about climate. The founders dedicated the center to the late MIT Professor Edward N. Lorenz, the architect of chaos theory, who shared in their conviction that more knowledge about the underlying principles of our climate would make the complex system easier to understand.
The workshop brought together some of the biggest names in climate-related fields, who presented work on the climate or hydrological mechanism of their research to an audience packed with inquiring minds. The five sessions included “Convection”; “Water Vapor, Clouds, and Climate”; “Moisture and Weather”; “Precipitation and Climate”; and “Potpourri,” an eclectic mixture of aquaplanet modeling and geomorphology. All 26 presentations are available in slide format at sciencem.it/ EAPSslides.
“It was a great opportunity for younger scientists to learn about the big ideas in the field and hear from voices outside of MIT,” said MIT Ph.D. student Tim Cronin. In fact, they uniquely benefited from the experience: To avoid the “experts-talking-to-experts” phenomenon, Emanuel implemented his strategy of giving the graduate students and postdocs the chance to ask the first few questions in every discussion period. Beyond being observers, the newer generation of researchers drove the conversation from the start.
More than a few times, a student’s inquiry would get the experts talking back and forth about the big climate conundrums of our time, such as: How do ocean and atmosphere circulations
transport heat across the globe? How can we design models that accurately estimate regional changes in the water cycle as the globe warms? When can we expect significantly different summers and snow storms?
This workshop was made possible by a generous gift from Colin Masson, a retired astrophysicist who appreciates the Lorenz Center’s broad view of climate science and who attended the event. Private donations like Masson’s support the Lorenz Center’s regular activities, which also include the annual John Carlson Lecture. To reach their ultimate vision, Emanuel and Rothman are currently raising funds to support graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scientists, with an emphasis on backgrounds in diverse areas, such as applied mathematics, biology, and chemistry.
“Our idea, simply put, is both to attract the very best minds to climate science and to give them free reign to think creatively, unsaddled by the pressing practical demands of climate forecasting,” the founders wrote in A Fresh Approach to Climate Science. If the “Water in the Climate System” workshop was any indication, the Lorenz Center already serves as that magnet of basic research talent.
To see slides from the workshop, visit sciencem.it/EAPSslides
To read A Fresh Approach to Climate Science, visit sciencem.it/afreshapproach
i Lorenz Center Co-Founders Daniel Rothman, Professor of Geophysics (left), and Kerry Emanuel ’76 (XII), Ph.D. ’78 (XIX), Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Atmospheric Science (right), pose for a photograph with Colin Masson, who made the entire workshop possible.
ii Lorenz Center Workshop attendees mingle in the MIT Endicott House with post-workshop refreshments.
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23S C I E N C E N E W S & E V E N T S
Mathematics
MIT Is the Place for Students to Study Mathematics
MIT students won the 2013 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition: Our team ranked first among 430 teams from across North America. Perhaps even more impressive, four MIT students were designated Putnam Fellows for scoring among the top five test takers. An additional eleven of our students ranked in the next 21, followed by another 20 who received Honorable Mention out of 56. Overall, MIT represents an enormous 43% of the top 81 scorers in the competition, beating MIT’s previous record performance of 40.5% just last year. Our students benefited from excellent coaching by Professors Richard Stanley, Abhinav Kumar ’02 (VI-3, VIIIB, XVIII), and Henry Cohn ’95 (XVIII).
The competition took place on December 7, 2013, when over 4,100 students took the exam from 557 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Established in 1938, the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition annually administers the exam on the first Saturday of December. The exam consists of 12 problems and lasts 6 hours, over two equal sessions. The median score this year was 1 point out of a possible 120. Those who win the Putnam Competition have gone on to become distinguished mathematicians, including several who have received the Fields Medal or won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Individual Putnam Fellows1. Mitchell M. Lee, MIT2. Zipei Nie, MIT 3. Evan O’Dorney, Harvard4. Bobby Shen, MIT5. David Yang, MIT
Teams1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology2. Carnegie Mellon University3. Stanford University4. Harvard University5. California Institute of Technology
MIT
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Winners of the 74th Putnam Competition
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The Dean of Science Visits New York
On the evening of April 3, 2014, Vlad Portnoy ’93 (VIII) hosted the Dean of Science, Michael Sipser, at Jefferies LLC’s Madison Avenue location in midtown Manhattan. After 5:30 PM reception, over 50 guests attended Sipser’s talk “Beyond Computation: The P versus NP Question.”
The P versus NP problem is one of the great unanswered questions of contemporary mathematics and is widely considered the most important unsolved problem in theoretical computer science. A solution to this problem would reveal the theoretical limitations of computer power for solving puzzles, cracking codes, proving theorems, and optimizing many practical tasks.
i Assistant Dean Elizabeth Chadis with Michael Sipser, Dean of Science, and Vlad Portnoy ’93 (VIII), the event’s host.
ii Ilya Lisansky ’99 (VI-3, XVIII), MNG ’99 (VI P) and Igor Gonta ’95 (VI-1), SM ’95 (VI A) enjoy the reception.
iii Elizabeth Dominguez ’78 (V) with her husband, Nestor.
iv Friends John Niforatos ’97 (II), Chris Danielian ’97 (XV), ’98 (VIII), and John Terilla, a mathematics professor, attended the Thursday evening presentation.
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Physics
Finding the Chemically Most Primitive Stars with the Australian SkyMapper Telescope
Some of the oldest, 13 billion-year-old stars can be found in the Milky Way Galaxy. They are found because they have unusually small amounts of heavy elements in them, which indicate that they must have formed early on in the universe, when not many elements – other than hydrogen and helium – had yet been created. Finding those ancient needles in the cosmic haystack requires large-scale sky surveys that enable efficient selection of candidate old stars. The Australian SkyMapper survey is a new effort that is poised for many exciting discoveries using a new specially tailored selection technique.
Anna Frebel, Silverman (1968) Family Career Development Assistant Professor of Physics, spoke of this effort at a breakfast talk on January 30, 2014, entitled “Finding the Chemically Most Primitive Stars with the Australian SkyMapper Telescope.” Physics Department Head Peter Fisher introduced Frebel after welcoming the attendees and sharing updates on the department.
During her presentation, Frebel also showed a video to the audience to share what it is like to be at the Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The same morning, an MIT alumni travel trip was touring the Magellan Telescopes, so the breakfast attendees were able to view what the other alumni were seeing on-site.
You can find more information on Frebel and the Magellan Telescopes at sciencem.it/1wUJpNd
i Anna Frebel, Assistant Professor of Physics, stands beneath the visible Milky Way in the Atacama Desert.
ii Sequence of stellar spectra with different levels of heavy element depletion. Top: the sun; Middle: two stars with only 1/1,000th of the solar iron abundance; Bottom: star with only 1/6,000th of the solar iron abundance. (Background image from NASA/CXC/PSU/JPL-Caltech/CfA; image processing: R. Fouche, spectra: A. Frebel.)
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Lourie Hosts the School of Science
Robert Lourie ’82 (VIII), Ph.D. ’86 (VIII) hosted an event on his yacht Prediction on June 20, 2014. Over 40 people attended, which included School of Science alumni and friends, faculty, and Lourie Fellows. Former Chairman of the Corporation, John Reed, gave remarks and shared updates about MIT and the School of Science. He also spoke about the importance of support for basic science, shared his involvement as a donor, and announced that he and his wife Cindy had created the first Fundamental Science Investigator Award in the School of Science. Lourie then spoke about his experience at MIT as an undergraduate and graduate student in the Physics Department and thanked his advisor Professor Bill Bertozzi, who was in attendance, for all of his support. Lourie said he was glad he was in a position to give back to MIT and to support graduate fellowships in the Physics Department. Lourie Fellows Gabriel Collin, Charles Epstein, Rebecca Russell, and Jing Wang were in attendance.
i Left to right: Robert Lourie ’82 (VIII), Ph.D. ’86 (VIII), host of the evening; Cindy Reed; John Reed ’61 (XV), SM ’65 (XV), former Chairman of the Corporation; Marc Kastner, Donner Professor of Science and former Dean of Science; and Michael Sipser, Dean of Science and Barton L. Weller Professor of Mathematics.
ii Alex Hastings (left), Renate Kurowski-Cardello, and Tom Cardello enjoy the view over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.
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27S U P P O R T T H E S C H O O L O F S C I E N C E
The graduate students in the School of Science
are not only a major force in MIT’s creative engine,
they are the foundation of MIT’s productivity.
Additionally, they are critical to the recruitment and
retention of our faculty and vital to maintaining the
strength and leadership of our scientific enterprise.
It should come as no surprise that growing
the number of both endowed and expendable
fellowships is a major institutional priority.
As you read on page 18, the Department of Brain
and Cognitive Sciences recently established the
Champions of the Brain Fellows to recognize the
men and women who support the department’s
students with either expendable or endowed
fellowships. Neuroscience is a field in its
infancy. Powerful new tools and insights, many
developed here at MIT, are creating a moment of
extraordinary opportunity – a chance to unravel
persistent puzzles of the brain and mind. Be part
of this scientific journey by becoming a Champion
of the Brain Fellows and joining us next October at
the annual reception and dinner, where students
and faculty mingle with their champions and
present their recent findings.
Membership begins with a gift of $70,000.
The School of Science continues to accept
donations in honor of former Dean, Marc A.
Kastner, and the fellowship which was created
in his honor. When he was Dean, Marc would
tell alumni and friends that the best way they
could support basic science at MIT was to
support our graduate students with a fellowship.
The Marc A. Kastner Fellowship celebrates his
many accomplishments.
You can make a gift to this fund online by visiting
giving.mit.edu/schoolofscience
For more details or if you have any questions
about making a gift to the School of Science,
please contact:
Elizabeth ChadisAssistant Dean for Development
MIT School of Science 6-131
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel: 617-253-8903
Email: [email protected]
Support the MIT School of ScienceGraduate students: Vital to MIT’s leadership
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, 6-131
Cambridge, MA 02139
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aParts of the wall may be missing, but the chalkboard still stands amidst renovations in Building 2. Naming opportunities in the new facility are still available.