Awards, honors and fellowships

MIT has been named one of best university in the U.S. for the economic value it returns to its students, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes.

Graduate student Karenna Groff ‘22 has been named NCAA Woman of the Year, an honor presented to a graduating female student-athlete who has distinguished herself in athletics, academics, leadership and community service, reports Matt Doherty for The Boston Globe. “I think the award is the first recognition I’ve gotten that looks into who I am and who I want to be,” says Groff. “I think it will help me frame the direction towards what I want the next chapter in my life to look like.”

Graduate student Karenna Groff ’22 speaks with CBS Boston reporter Mike UVA about her academic and athletic accomplishments. “Groff become just the sixth Division III student-athlete ever to be recognized as the NCAA Woman of the Year,” says Uva. “An honor that celebrates excellence both on and off the field for all divisions.”

NBC 1^st Look host Chelsea Cabarcas visits MIT to learn more about how faculty, researchers and students are “pioneering the world of tomorrow.” Cabarcas meets the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle team and gets a peek at Nimbus, the single-occupant vehicle that team members raced in the American Solar Challenge from Kansas City to New Mexico. Cabarcas also sees the back-flipping MIT mini cheetah that could one day be used in disaster-relief operations.

GBH reporter Esteban Bustillos spotlights graduate student Karenna Groff '22, the NCAA Woman of the Year, and her efforts to make a difference both on and off the field, from her work as an EMT at MIT to her efforts to reduce maternal mortality in southern India. “Using sports as a platform to drive forward equity in all these different walks of life has always been something that I want to be a part of,” explains Groff. 

Prof. Danna Freedman speaks with Callie Crossley of GBH about the inspiration for her research and being named a 2022 MacArthur grant fellow. “What was really an under designed idea was taking molecules and using them for quantum information science,” says Freedman. “There is a lot of data, but less intention and realizing this wide open space and this possibility was really tremendous to me because having a new opportunity to design inorganic molecules is very exciting.”

Boston.com reporter Clara McCourt spotlights how three MIT students - Jack Cook ‘22, Matthew Kearney and Jupneet K. Singh - have been selected as Rhodes Scholars. “The selected students — 32 in total — will go to Oxford University in England next October to pursue wide-ranging graduate degrees," writes McCourt, "with two or three years of study free of charge.”

Matthew Kearney, John “Jack” B. Cook ’22, and Jupneet K. Singh have been named 2023 U.S. Rhodes Scholars, reports NBC Boston 10.

Matthew Kearney , John "Jack” B. Cook ’22, and Jupneet K. Singh  are amongst the 2023 Rhodes Scholars, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. This year’s Rhodes Scholars "will go to Oxford University in England next October to pursue graduate degrees across the breadth of the social sciences, humanities, and biological and physical sciences,” says Elliot Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust. “They inspire us already with their accomplishments, but even more by their values-based leadership and selfless ambitions to improve their communities and the world.”

Wasalu Jaco (professionally known as Lupe Fiasco), an MLK Visiting Scholar, speaks with MLK Visiting Prof. C. Brandon Ogbunu about his appointment at MIT, views on the music industry and advice for creatives. “From a research standpoint, I was like, ‘I need new things to talk about.’ Then you realize, ‘Oh, rapping isn’t just songs, it isn’t just creating bars. It’s the way we arrange ideas in a novel way,’” says Jaco. “And then I ask: Is there something deeper to that, and what’s the best space to explore that? It’s the academic space, the laboratory space.” 

Prof. Peter Shor has been named one of the winners of the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, reports Nature. “Shor’s most renowned contribution is the development of quantum algorithms for prime number factorization,” writes Nature.

Prof. Danna Freedman has been named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow for “creating novel molecular materials with unique properties directly relevant to quantum information technologies,” reports Susan H. Greenberg for Inside Higher Ed. 

Prof. Danna Freedman, a synthetic inorganic chemist, has been honored as one of this year’s MacArthur Fellows, reports Travis Anderson for The Boston Globe. “The unmatched control inherent in synthetic chemistry opens doors to other fields and discoveries beyond chemistry,” said Freedman of her research. “By designing and creating chemical systems, we can uncover new science in areas ranging from quantum information science to magnetism.”

NPR’s Elizabeth Blair highlights the work of Prof. Danna Freedman, one of the 2022 MacArthur Fellows. Freedman, a synthetic inorganic chemist, is "creating novel molecular materials with unique properties directly relevant to quantum information technologies." Moriba Jah, a Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Scholar, has also been awarded a MacArthur "genius grant" for his work "envisioning transparent and collaborative solutions for creating a circular space economy that improves oversight of Earth's orbital spheres."

Prof. Danna Freedman has been awarded a 2022 MacArthur "genius grant" for her work in developing molecules that “have great storage and processing computing capacity,” reports the Associated Press.