Boston.com reporter Bill Griffith writes that MIT and the New England Motor Press Association are holding their fifth technology conference on May 21 at the Media Lab. During the event, MIT alumnus Chris Brewer will receive the “Winter Vehicle of New England” on behalf of Ford.
Professor Esther Duflo has been awarded Spain's Princess of Asturias social science prize for her work studying poverty in developing countries, the Associated Press reports. The organizers of the prize said that Duflo has “profoundly changed strategies for education, health and employment in Africa, Asia and Latin America.”
Guardian reporter Jason Farago writes about Prof. Emerita Joan Jonas’ multimedia installation at the Venice Biennale. Farago writes that Jonas’ exhibit has been “has been the hit of the Giardini,” and “that in a show with too little regard for form, her profound and affecting new work proves that politics and beauty are not at odds.”
Prof. Emerita Joan Jonas’ installation at the Venice Biennale is a “triumphal exhibition,” writes Roberta Smith for The New York Times. Smith says that Jonas’ exhibit is “one of the best solo shows to represent the United States at the biennale in over a decade — an effortless combination of maturity and freshness.”
Prof. Robert Langer, winner of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, speaks with Joel Brown of The Boston Globe about his current research and the need for government support for basic research. “So much good stuff has come out of basic research, research that you don’t really know where it’s going to go. So you want people to be able to get grants to do that,” explains Langer.
Boston Globe reporter Laura Collins-Hughes speaks with Professor Emerita Joan Jonas about her upcoming display at the Venice Biennale. “At the moment what attracts me, what I’m focusing on, is that the world is sort of in trouble in relation to the natural environment,” said Jonas about her motivation for her installation.
Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus has been named the recipient of the 2015 IEEE Medal of Honor “for her leadership and contributions across many fields of science and engineering,” reports Melissa Lott for Scientific American. Dresselhaus is the first woman to receive the award, the IEEE’s highest honor.
Mark Anderson profiles Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus, recipient of the 2015 IEEE Medal of Honor, for IEEE Spectrum, chronicling her journey from a childhood passion for music to her pioneering research on carbon. Anderson writes that Dresselhaus has “blazed a path for researchers eager to exploit the magic of carbon computing.”
The MIT Visual Arts List has released details about Professor Emerita Joan Jonas’ upcoming video presentation at the Venice Biennale, writes Meredith Goldstein for The Boston Globe. Jonas “will present a new video performance, ‘They Come to Us Without a Word II,’ three times from July 20 to 22, with live musical accompaniment.”
A team of MIT researchers won the grand prize in a competition that challenged participants to develop sustainable desalination technologies, reports Jeff Daniels reports for NBC News. The MIT researchers designed a solar-powered "electrodialysis reversal system that desalinates water using electricity.”
In an article for Popular Science, Mary Beth Griggs reports that a team of MIT researchers won the Desal Prize, a competition judging the effectiveness of new desalination systems. The MIT team developed a system that uses solar panels to power “a system that removes salt from the water through electrodialysis.”
Lauren Beavin of Boston Magazine speaks with A.M. Turing Award recipient Michael Stonebraker about why Boston is such a great place for computer scientists. The Boston tech scene "is way above critical mass, and the quality of life here is very, very high,” Stonebraker explains.
MIT’s List Visual Arts Center is displaying a collection of Prof. Emerita Joan Jonas’ video art, writes Sebastian Smee for The Boston Globe. “The selection adds up to a fascinating overview of Jonas’s achievement, which is as rich and complex as it is disarming and improvised,” Smee writes.
Lisa Cohen writes for The New York Times Style Magazine about the work of MIT Professor Emerita Joan Jonas, who has been selected to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale. “If the idiosyncratic qualities of Jonas’s work have made it inscrutable to some, its power is undeniable,” writes Cohen.
The ACM has awarded the A.M. Turing Award, widely regarded as the “Nobel Prize in Computing,” to CSAIL researcher and adjunct professor Michael Stonebraker, reports Barb Darrow for Fortune. Stonebraker is “famous for arguing that database is not a one-size-fits-all category."