Credits: Image courtesy of the Institute Community and Equity Office
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As an important step forward in MIT’s ongoing efforts to create a more welcoming and inclusive community, the Institute has hired six new assistant deans, one in each school and in the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, to serve as diversity, equity, and inclusion professionals.
Set to be in place by the fall of 2021, these new positions are a result of the February 2020 recommendations of the MIT working groups charged with implementing the findings of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) report on sexual and gender harassment of women in academia. Together, these reports called for “a network of support, advocacy, and community-building expertise across campus to improve our community culture.” MIT President L. Rafael Reif echoed these commitments to new staff and resources in his July 2020 lette
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“We’re in an emergency, and we need a coordinated effort with all hands and all minds on deck trying to solve this problem.” The urgency in that call to confront climate change, issued by MIT faculty member Asegun Henry SM ’06, PhD ’09, reverberated throughout MIT Better World (Sustainability), a recent virtual gathering of the global MIT community.
More than 830 attendees from 57 countries logged on to learn about climate change solutions in development at MIT and to consider how, in the words of Provost Martin A. Schmidt SM ’83, PhD ’88, “Every academic discipline in every corner of our community can contribute to solving this global challenge.” Schmidt, who is the Ray and Maria Stata Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, moderated the main session of the program, which also featured Vice President for Research Maria Zuber and linguistics graduate student Annauk Denise Olin.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology disciplining professor with ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein
Updated Dec 18, 2020;
A physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein is facing disciplinary action for not informing MIT that Epstein was a convicted sex offender.
A majority of members on an MIT panel found that Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Systems and Physics Seth Lloyd violated the college’s conflict of interest policy in connection with donations he received from Epstein, according to an email sent out by college Provost Martin A. Schmidt.
The five-member panel consisted of Professor Rohan Abeyaratne, Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu, Institute Professor Penny Chisholm, Materials Science and Engineering Department Head Jeffrey Grossman and Dean of Science Nergis Mavalvala.