Volume 51 – Number 24 Wednesday – April 25, 2007 TechTalk S ERVING T HE M I T C OMMUNITY Three-neutrino model still rules particle physics Anne Trafton results about half an hour into Monroe said last week, after Pappalardo Fellow who arrived at MIT last News Office her talk. The outcome? The her lecture. September and worked on the MinibooNE standard model is still safe: Experiments done in the project as a graduate student at Columbia The experiment confirms the 1990s at the Liquid Scintillator University. Physicists can rest easy—the Standard model’s prediction that there Neutrino Detector (LSND) at Neutrinos are generated by nuclear Model of Particle Physics is still in effect. are only three types of neu- the Los Alamos National Labo- reactions, such as those that occur in the More than 100 MIT students and pro- trinos (tiny elementary par- ratory offered strong indirect sun or in nuclear reactors. Most come fessors jammed into Room 35-225 on ticles that are components of evidence for the existence from the sun: More than 50 trillion solar Wednesday, April 11, to hear the long- atoms). of a fourth neutrino, but the neutrinos pass through the human body anticipated results of a particle detection Some of the assembled results were controversial. every second, but they are extremely diffi- experiment designed to produce evidence crowd seemed disappointed So another experiment, the cult to detect because they have no charge that would confirm or reject the model, that the foundation of par- Booster Neutrino Experiment and a mass so tiny it has never been mea- which outlines the elements of particle ticle physics had not been (MinibooNE) was launched in sured. physics. upended. Jocelyn Monroe late 2002 to try to replicate the Currently scientists know that there are MIT postdoctoral associate Jocelyn “This was such a big ques- results. Monroe, who worked on the experiment, tion. It would have changed everything” if “It was very important to confirm or See NEUTRINO prolonged the suspense, revealing the they found evidence for a fourth neutrino, refute the LSND result,” said Monroe, a Page 4 Faculty honor Virginia Tech victims, applaud Edgerton winner, in meeting Deborah Halber and other ways to get messages out to the News Office Correspondent community. Some faculty members request- ed a system for following up on students who they had referred to student services, The faculty observed a moment of while maintaining the students’ privacy. silence at the April 18 faculty meeting for the victims of the tragedy at Virginia Edgerton Award announced Tech, and Theresa M. Stone, Nergis Mavalvala, associ- MIT’s executive vice president ate professor of physics and and treasurer, and representa- Alfred P. Sloan Research Fel- tives from Campus Police and low, received the Edgerton Environmental Health and Award from the award selec- Safety (EHS) presented an tion committee. The annual overview of how news of the award goes to a junior non- shootings has impacted emer- tenured member of the MIT gency response discussions on faculty. “It means a lot to me, campus. and almost everything I do is Stone emphasized that because of the fantastic men- police and EHS personnel rou- toring I get at this wonderful tinely use drills and exercises place,” Mavalvala said. to anticipate every kind of Philip S. Khoury, associate emergency. Theresa M. Stone provost and Ford Internation- William Van Schalk- al Professor of History, gave wyk, managing director of Envi- an update on MIT’s international engage- ronmental Health and Safety Pro- ments, which include 75 projects in more grams, said an extensive communica- tions system is in place that includes See MEETING e-mail, emergency channels on cable TV Page 6 Deborah Loeb Bohren is appointed vice president for external affairs Deborah Loeb Bohren, currently as the standard of excellence in our cho- executive vice president at sen fields.” the Washington, D.C., public Bohren herself said, “I am affairs firm of Powell Tate, will thrilled and honored to have join MIT as vice president for the opportunity to join the external affairs on May 21. MIT community in this new President Susan Hockfield role. MIT is a world-renowned announced Bohren’s appoint- educational institution with ment in an e-mail letter to the an unwavering dedication Institute’s faculty and staff on to knowledge, education, April 18. research and innovation, as In her letter, Hockfield well as a commitment to mak- PHOTO / L. BARRY HETHERINGTON noted that Bohren brings to ing a positive difference in the her new role extensive experi- world in which we live. I can- Engine of science ence in public relations, gov- not imagine a more exciting or ernment affairs and employee Deborah Loeb Bohren challenging place to work.” The Cambridge Science Festival, which runs through Sunday, April 29, kicked off communications in both the As vice president for exter- April 21 with a special event at Cambridge City Hall. Above, left to right, Harriette private and public sectors, and said that nal affairs Bohren will lead the coordina- Crawford, Venola Bynoe, and Harriette’s son, Malik Crawford, inspect a car powered her work would “enhance MIT’s public See BOHREN by electricity. See story and list of events on page 5. visibility and ensure that we continue to be recognized nationally and internationally Page 6 NEWS RESEARCH AMBITIONS

STATESMAN FOR SCIENCE CAPE CLEANUP AIDS WATER STUDIES LINGUA NON FRANCA Sen. Edward Kennedy delivers the Compton A hugely expensive project has advanced hydrology MIT linguists take on challenger to Universal Lecture. research. Grammar. Page 3 Page 4 Page 7

HOUSE OF HADID A NEURON WAY OF KNOWING A LITTLE BEE TOLD ME Pritzker Prize winner Zada Hadid talks flow in Researchers discover neurons may ‘know’ how to Two MIT Sloan students build a free web site that architecture, accessories. tell glossy from grainy surfaces. gives the ‘buzz’ on business school admissions. Page 7 Page 5 Page 7 PAGE 2 April 25, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Ivan D. Dimitrov, of Sofia and Senior House, dies at 20 DIGITALK: WHERE IT’S AT Sarah H. Wright music and professional soccer team CSKA, said his friend News Office Ivan Z. Dimitrov, a sophomore in electrical engineering IT Energy@MIT table and computer science. The two men (no relation), who One highlight of MIT Earth Week had been friends since high school in Sofia, were both 2007 is the Earth Day Fair on April Ivan D. Dimitrov, an undergraduate from Sofia, Bulgar- members of the CSKA fan club and went to many soccer 26, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Stata ia, who was known among friends for his positive nature games together. Center. If you come, be sure to stop and passion for life, died on Saturday, April 21, as a result “He was very special. He was always happy. He set by the IT energy table. IS&T staff of injuries from a motorcycle goals for himself and he got them: He wanted to be a will have a demonstration of energy use by comput- crash. croupier last summer, so he did that. He wanted to own ers and monitors. You can also introduce yourself Dimitrov, 20, was fatally a motorcycle, so he did that,” said Dimitrov, adding, “He to MIT’s new IT energy coordinator, Laxmi Rao. As injured at about 3:30 a.m. when read all the safety manuals. He was a careful driver.” head of the IT Energy@MIT initiative—part of the he lost control of his 1998 Both Tsekov and Dimitrov recalled their friend’s capac- campus energy task force—she is eager to share Kawasaki 600 motorcycle on ity to see the potential for humor or high spirits in any ideas on how to reduce the IT energy footprint at the Fenway exit ramp off Stor- situation. It was his idea, they noted, to “claim the suite MIT, including insights gleaned from courses row Drive east in Boston, news for Bulgaria, complete with barricades, flags and plastic and research. You can also send feedback to it- reports said. swords” as a prank on new students. He also gave every- [email protected]. Dimitrov had had plans to one nicknames, they said. If you can’t make it to the IT energy table, go to New York City on Satur- While his successes in math provided him the oppor- visit the initiative’s web page at web.mit.edu/ist/ day night to hear Bulgarian tunity to travel widely—he went to Mexico, Greece, Cuba services/it-energy. folk music star Milko Kalayd- and Russia, they said—his focus remained on returning to Designing interactions Ivan D. Dimitrov zhiev, according to friends in Sofia and buying property in the neighborhood where he Senior House, where Dimitrov grew up. Digital technology has changed the way we inter- lived since coming to MIT last September. He “didn’t want to make a lot of money—just enough to act with everything from the games we play to the When he arrived on campus, Dimitrov quickly live and enjoy life,” said his friends. tools we use at work. In “Designing Interactions,” immersed himself in the close-knit Bulgarian community, Dimitrov is survived by his mother, Neli, a hotel admin- from the MIT Press, author Bill Moggridge intro- inspiring other students with his infectious good humor istrator, his father, Dimiter, owner of a commercial clean- duces us to 40 influential designers who have shaped and ingenuity for pranks, said a friend and housemate, ing business, and his younger brother, Dani, all of Sofia. our interaction with technology. Moggridge, design- Illiya Tsekov, a junior in mechanical engineering. A memorial service will be held at MIT on Saturday. er of the first laptop computer (the GRiD Compass, He was a fan of all things Bulgarian, particularly the The funeral will be in Sofia. 1981) and a founder of the design firm IDEO, tells these stories from an industry insider’s viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to out- come. Among the innovators he interviews are Will Daniel Barclay, 22, shared wit, gift for political debate Wright, creator of The Sims; Larry Page and Sergey The body of Daniel Barclay, an MIT graduate student his Ashdown House residence. Brin, the founders of Google; Doug Engelbart, Bill who had been missing for nearly two weeks, was found According to The Tech, Barclay’s last known commu- Atkinson and others involved in the invention and washed ashore on Cape Cod last Thursday, April 19, nications were a phone call to his grandmother and an development of the mouse and the desktop; and MIT according to news reports. With that sad discovery, a instant message to some classmates. professors Hiroshi Ishii and John Maeda. bright light and keen wit were Those same classmates, as well as friends and teach- “Designing Interactions” is illustrated with more lost to Barclay’s family and ers from Barclay’s high school and childhood years in than 700 images and accompanied by a DVD with friends. Menlo Park, California, poured their sadness, affection segments from all the interviews. You can also Barclay’s body was found and happy memories of the former ‘Quiz Kid’ onto a web browse by chapter and view segments from the on Scusset Beach in Sandwich, site set up by Barclay’s mother, 1978 MIT alumna Susan DVD at designinginteractions.com. Mass.; it was identified by his Kayton. Expanded access to historic e-journals family on Friday, according to Richard Samuels, director of the Center for Internation- the Boston Globe. The cause of al Studies, was Barclay’s freshman advisor. According to The MIT Libraries recently acquired electronic death was drowning, although Samuels, Barclay possessed not only an “unusually attrac- access to earlier issues of journals in fields of inter- the medical examiner is waiting tive package of geniality and intense intelligence,” but also est across MIT. Researchers can now link to and for the results of routine toxicol- a great sense of humor. Samuels wrote he was “grateful to read journal citations going back many decades ogy tests. Cape and Islands Dis- him for making jokes…His playful e-mails put a smile on without leaving their offices or labs. The expanded trict Attorney Michael O’Keefe my face.” access includes important collections in the life sci- told the Globe that there were Barclay is survived by his mother, his father, Michael ences, neuroscience, engineering, mathematics, Daniel Barclay no indications of foul play. Barclay, and his sister, Rachel, 19. A memorial service at chemistry, economics, physics, and art and archi- A third-generation MIT stu- MIT has been tentatively scheduled for Thursday, April tecture, as well as major national newspapers back dent, Barclay, 22, had earned a bachelor of science degree 26, in the MIT Chapel, and a memorial will be planned in to the 19th century. The Libraries also plan to add in economics in February and was slated to get bach- California in the coming weeks. historic e-journals in other subjects. elor and master of science degrees in political science this To read more memories of Barclay, to contribute your Many current and historical journals can be June. own, or to find out about memorial service plans, please accessed by going directly to a journal’s web site— He had been missing since April 8 and was last seen in go to www.suekayton.com/daniel.htm. on-campus users are automatically recognized as being from MIT and granted access. Current MIT faculty, students and staff can also gain off-campus access with certificates through Vera at libraries. CrossTalk panelists discuss visualizations mit.edu/vera. To see some of the recently purchased collec- Robin H. Ray erator. Vijay Kumar and Violeta Ivanovna, both of OEIT, tions and titles, go to libraries.mit.edu/backfiles. News Office Correspondent were also on hand and added to the discussion at various Web publishing insights points. If you publish on the Web and are interested Belcher showed the audience a computer-animated in new developments, check out the MIT Webpub CrossTalk is back. The panel discussion series, now model that he built to capture concepts in plasma phys- User Group blog at webpub.mit.edu. It announces hosted by the new Office of Educational Innovation and ics that are difficult to explain to students. “This is why I the group’s bimonthly meetings and posts presenta- Technology (OEIT), reconvened on April 19 after a hia- like visualizations: to show things that you normally can’t tions from the meetings. It’s also a place for informa- tus. The series offers a forum for MIT faculty to talk see or processes that you normally can’t observe.” tion sharing: find out, for example, about navigating about issues at the intersection of teaching, learning and Durand, whose expertise is in computer and 3-D by touch, or about Twitter, “a global community of technology. graphics, spoke of the need to improve visual literacy. friends and strangers answering one simple ques- Last week’s meeting focused on the topic of visualiza- Students have powerful computer tools at their com- tion: What are you doing?” tion: Are visualizations eye candy or useful educational mand, but when putting together graphics for a tech- If you have an item you’d like to see posted on tools? Do visualizations improve learning? Can one artic- nical paper, they don’t have any basis for deciding, for the blog, send it to [email protected]. Anyone with ulate the principles that make for good visualizations? example, whether to use color or gray-scale. “None of an MIT certificate can log into the blog to add com- The topic was evidently of great interest, because Room the students have any idea which one to choose when, ments to posts. 5-217 was filled to capacity, with some late arrivals stand- and I think that this will be something that any of our ing in the hallway. students should know for their professional life.” Durand Quick Google search tip Phillip Long, associate director of the OEIT, intro- mentioned his association with Image and Meaning, a You can focus your Google searches by putting duced the panel, which represented a diversity of sci- series of conferences and workshops held at Harvard a minus sign (“-”) in front of words you want to entific disciplines: John W. Belcher, professor of phys- that involves scientists, artists and writers in improving avoid. For example, to find articles about biological ics and Class of 1960 Faculty Fellow, who is behind the ways of communicating scientific information and con- viruses, but not computer viruses, type “viruses development of Technology Enabled Active Learning; cepts (www.imageandmeaning.org). -computer” into the Google search field. For more Fredo Durand, associate professor of electrical engi- Walker explained that his interest in visualization MIT search options, visit web.mit.edu/search.html. neering and computer science; and Graham Walker, derives directly from his research in molecular biology. American Cancer Society Research Professor of Biology. Digitalk is compiled by Information Services and Sanjoy Mahajan, associate director of the Teaching and See CROSSTALK Technology. Learning Laboratory and EECS lecturer, acted as mod- Page 6

News Office Staff Tech Talk is published by the News Office on Wednesdays during term time except for HOW TO REACH US Executive Director ...... Pamela Dumas Serfes most Monday holiday weeks. See Production Schedule at http://web.mit.edu/news- office/techtalk-info.html. The News Office is in Room 11-400, Massachusetts Institute of News Office Interim News Manager ...... Sarah H. Wright Editor Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Senior Communications Officer ...... Patti Richards Telephone: 617-253-2700 Sarah H. Wright Senior Science and Postmaster: Send address changes to Mail Services, Building WW15, Massachusetts E-mail: [email protected] Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Photojournalist Engineering Editor ...... Elizabeth Thomson Assistant Director/Photojournalist ...... Donna Coveney Subscribers may call 617-252-1550 or send e-mail to [email protected]. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice Donna Coveney Web Developer/Editor ...... Lisa Damtoft Tech Talk is distributed free to faculty and staff offices and residence halls. It is also avail- Production Reporter/Writer ...... SashBrown a able free in the News Office and the Information Center. Office of the Arts Operations/Financial Administrator ...... Myles Crowley Carol Demers Domestic mail subscriptions are $25 per year, nonrefundable. Checks should be made http://web.mit.edu/arts Administrative Assistant II ...... Mary Anne Hansen payable to MIT and mailed to Business Manager, Room 11-400, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Administrative Assistant II ...... Patti Foley Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307.

Editorial/Production Assistant ...... Anne Trafton Periodical postage paid at Boston, MA. Permission is granted to excerpt or reprint any Printed on recycled paper Communications Assistant ...... Heather Manning material originated in Tech Talk. MIT Tech Talk NEWS April 25, 2007 PAGE 3 Kennedy praises MIT Medical director outlines improvements MIT, decries in care, access for Institute community White House Kettyle likens task force report to ‘annual physical’

Deborah Halber take a thorough and careful look at the right level of care and the right caregiver ‘pseudo-science’ News Office Correspondent medical care needs of the community in a timely fashion by phone, e-mail or in and how we were meeting those needs. person. Ruth Walker We also looked at our insurance programs We also are hiring two new additional News Office Correspondent MIT Medical’s 389 staff members han- with a renewed interest in making sure female internists. We want to be sure we dle 130,000 patient visits a year from stu- their fiscal foundations are robust. have comfortable care for all members dents, staff, faculty, alumni and their family The task force pointed out areas in of our community, and we saw a need for “Truth is taking a beating,” Sen. members. These patients, who range from which we needed to enhance our services more female, primary care practitioners. Edward Kennedy warned in a forceful newborns to the elderly, see primary care and underscored a real need to admin- Both of these new internists are highly attack on the science policy of the Bush clinicians and a host of specialists or are ister benefits differently. MIT Human experienced, mid-career physicians. In administration in his delivery of the 2007 referred to world-class teaching hospitals Resources is making a number of changes addition, we have improved access to Der- Karl Taylor Compton Lecture, held April such as Mt. Auburn, Massachusetts Gen- matology, the Eye Service and Neurology 13 in the Stata Center’s Kirsch Auditorium. eral, Children’s and Dana Farber Cancer through partnerships with key medical Kennedy accused the administration of Institute. institutions. “skewed thinking” that has “spread like a In 2004, then-President Charles Vest We evaluated our dental services and cancer…infesting every policy decision created the Task Force on Medical Care decided that on-site, convenient, high-qual- they make.” for the MIT Community, charging it with ity dental care with a full range of services He continued: “Tragically—and danger- examining the cost and quality of medical from checkups to implants makes a lot of ously—the administration has developed a services and health insurance coverage sense for the community. To put the Den- pattern and practice of ignoring or manip- provided by MIT to its students, employ- tal Service on a more robust fiscal footing, ulating facts to achieve a desired political ees, retirees and post-docs. In November we have increased the hours of service result. But no matter how hard they try to 2005, the task force concluded that the and increased the efficiency of scheduling create their own pseudo-science and pseu- existing MIT model for providing health so we now have more appointments avail- do-reality, in the long run, they will not care and health insurance has performed able and can serve more people. succeed. The reality-based community is well historically, that the MIT community We have expanded our mental health alive and well. And we’re fighting back.” is generally highly satisfied with it and services for students and staff and contin- Kennedy, the senior senator from Mas- that it can continue to serve MIT well in ue to look carefully at our outreach pro- sachusetts, and the second-longest-serv- the future. A working group led by then- grams as we explore more ways to connect ing member of the Senate, commended Executive Vice President and Treasurer with the community, especially regarding MIT’s role, over a century and a half, of Sherwin Greenblatt reviewed the task the effects of stress and overwork. contributing to public policy informed by force’s 41 recommendations and issued a We have made huge strides in the science. William Barton Rogers and the progress report last month. technology of our information systems as other founders of the Institute “believed Dr. William M. Kettyle, medical direc- well. We are one of the few major medical in what they called ‘the happy influence of tor of MIT Medical, provides an overview PHOTO / MARK OSTOW practices with completely electronic and scientific culture on the industry and civili- of the task force process and what MIT secure patient-data recording. Patients can zation of nations,’” he said. Medical patients can expect as the recom- William M. Kettyle request appointments and ask questions Among the issues he touched on: mendations are implemented. online while their privacy is completely Stem cell research: Calling the Q: You’ve seen a lot in your 15 years at in medical benefits, and we are undertak- protected. Soon, all medical records will be administration’s policy “flawed, and frank- MIT Medical, the last seven as the depart- ing a number of changes that will enhance online, and patients will be able to access ly, nonsensical,” he accused the adminis- ment’s medical director. How has health availability of care. their test results online. tration of paying “lip service” to the reli- care at the Institute changed during your A recent trend is that patients have Q: One of the current trends is a focus gious concerns of those who oppose such tenure? become much more involved in their own on wellness, healthy lifestyles and preven- research without truly reflecting them. A: MIT Medical has provided over 100 diagnosis and treatment options. Medical tive medicine. What is MIT Medical doing He added that the lack of federally funded years of care for students and faculty and care is now more of a partnership between about these issues? research was putting the United States at a staff, so we have a very long tradition of the patient and the provider, which is a A: We have a number of initiatives in “serious competitive disadvantage.” providing convenient on-site care, and that good thing. place and are developing more ways for Contraception: “The White House won’t change. We’re a multispecialty prac- Q: One of the recommendations of people to be proactive about their own allowed a narrow minority in its right-wing tice providing care across the continuum the task force was to add resources and health. Getfit@MIT, for instance, is a team- base to drown out” the scientific consen- of ages from preconception to conception improve the access to care. How is MIT based exercise-focused program, this year sus on the safety of the emergency contra- to geriatrics. It’s like providing care for an Medical working toward these goals? involving almost 2,300 people. ceptive pill Plan B, which was not finally entire extended family, albeit one with a A: Our goal is an overall improvement Our Center for Health Promotion and approved for over-the-counter sales until huge number of children in the 17-to-21 in access to care, as well as improvement Wellness works to help members of the August 2006. age range. We’re not just a student health in access to care in specific specialties and community get the information they need Global warming: “With the backing service or just a company doctor—we’re to new clinicians. We now have a full com- of its cronies in the oil and gas industry, all those things and more. plement of five triage nurses. This means See KETTYLE the administration decided to create its The task force process allowed us to that we will be able to get people to the Page 6 own reality,” he said. The recent Supreme Court ruling rejecting the administration’s arguments for failing to regulate carbon dioxide emissions “is by no means the end MIT community shares sorrow, support for Virginia Tech of the story, but it is an enormous victory.” Kennedy also called for a return to Anne Trafton more than 60 people who attended the Randolph asked mourners to take “those good old days” when people like News Office interfaith service. inspiration from the actions of Virginia the founders of MIT “understood that the Many in attendance wore Virginia Tech Tech professor Liviu Librescu, a 76-year- never-ending effort to form a more per- sweatshirts or T-shirts. As Randolph read old Holocaust survivor who blocked the fect union would always require a restless Members of the MIT community gath- each victim’s name, members of the audi- door of his classroom while students spirit that asks new questions and is not ered April 18 at the MIT Chapel to share ence came forward to light a candle in jumped out the windows to escape. afraid of the answers.” their sorrow over the shootings at Vir- memory of each of the 33 people killed, “We begin (to heal) by remembering ginia Tech and to draw strength from one including the gunman. what Liviu Librescu did when he gave his another. Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui life that his students might live, and we “We need to try to take comfort in the shot and killed 32 students and professors celebrate life,” Randolph said. “When we presence of one another as we deal with a at the school on Monday before turning leave, I hope you go forward with hope Scholarship program tragedy that is beyond our imagination,” the gun on himself, in what was the worst and reflect anew on the gift of life that we Institute Chaplain Robert Randolph told mass shooting in U.S. modern history. share together.” to be expanded Larry Benedict, dean of student life, MIT and Harvard plan to expand described what he experienced while he the Kennedy Scholarship program, was a dean at Johns Hopkins University in which brings scholars from the Unit- 1996 when a student there shot and killed ed Kingdom to the two institutions. another student. They made the announcement on “Suddenly our peace, our sense of secu- April 13 during celebrations of the rity and our sense of personal safety and 40th anniversary of the program, invulnerability had been shattered by a which was established in the Unit- single gun blast,” he recalled, adding that ed Kingdom to honor the memory the recent shootings have brought back of President John F. Kennedy and all the emotions he experienced then. provides funding for British gradu- Benedict offered hope and encourage- ate students to study at Harvard and ment to those dealing with the Virginia MIT. Tech tragedy. To strengthen the program, MIT “Did we get through it? Yes, we did, and Harvard have committed to and so will our colleagues and friends at raise new endowment funds for up Virginia Tech,” Benedict said. “We took to two additional Kennedy fellow- comfort and drew strength from one ships at each university. another.” “It is an honor to be able to play During the service, prayers were a role in preserving the strength of offered for the victims, their families, the the Kennedy Trust Scholarship Pro- Virginia Tech community, and state and gram, and I am confident that these police leaders assisting in dealing with the aftermath of the shootings. PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY See KENNEDY Randolph encouraged all those who At an interfaith service in commemoration of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings, 33 attended the service to sign cards to be Page 6 candles were lit to represent each of those who died. The ceremony, held April 18, was sent to Virginia Tech on behalf of MIT and organized by MIT’s chaplains. displayed on the Virginia Tech campus. PAGE 4 April 25, 2007 RESEARCH MIT Tech Talk Costly Cape Cod cleanup has advanced groundwater hydrology research

Denise Brehm disposal at the MMR, we’d have known the plumes were Civil and Environmental Engineering much greater in extent. But that is hindsight,” LeBlanc told the audience of civil and environmental engineers in Wong Auditorium. The tale of the Cape Cod cleanup has all the elements The military reservation has a distinguished history of an epic novel: It’s long. It offers intrigue, heroes and over the past century, serving as a staging area during plot twists. And, of course, it changes the world. World War II for troops heading to Europe and as Otis Denis LeBlanc, who has spent much of his career Air Force Base during the Cold War. Today the area is studying the hydrology of western Cape Cod, described home to the Army National Guard, the Coast Guard, the in a talk on April 9 how the investigation into a single Air National Guard, a military cemetery and a number of “plume” or tongue of contaminated water underground environmental programs. became a 25-year gold mine of hydrology research and Researchers began following the plume, which they fueled an ongoing effort to rid the Cape’s groundwater of soon learned was several plumes, by drilling and sam- pollutants. pling. As work progressed, the scope of the cleanup had “This is a very complicated and very expensive project to be changed, and changed again with the discovery of involving hundreds of people. I’m going to tell one part of new plumes that traveled further than anticipated, the the story: how our understanding of the groundwater finding of different contaminants and the growing under- hydrology in Western Cape Cod has been shaped by this standing of the Cape’s hydrology. work,” said LeBlanc, an MIT alumnus (S.M. 2001) and One very important hydrological discovery arising hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, who pre- from the research is that underground plumes don’t sented the 2007 Freeman Lecture, hosted annually by dead-end at lakes and disperse into the reservoirs of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering freshwater. Instead, a plume can change course to flow (CEE). under a lake and continue on an altered path. Peter Shanahan, a senior lecturer in CEE who intro- The scope of work now includes an Army National duced LeBlanc, said that researchers working on the Guard training range covering 14,000 acres, one of the site have produced 126 journal articles, 140 USGS stud- largest undeveloped areas in eastern Massachusetts. ies and 50 theses and dissertations from 15 universities, Plumes from this area contain chemicals from munitions “including one fundamental paper that changed the way such as explosive compounds and perchlorate, a propel- people think about dispersion in groundwater systems.” lant. The source of one perchlorate plume, discovered The USGS began studying the hydrology of the Mas- in December 2003, has been traced to the launch site sachusetts Military Reservation (MMR) wastewater of a nearby town’s annual fireworks display. That plume treatment facility near Ashumet Pond in 1983. At about originates along the trail where fireworks’ debris falls the same time, the Department of Defense began the and eventually soaks into the ground with rainwater. process of cleaning up environmental damage at military By the end of 2007, the cleanup will have cost $925 installations. The USGS pointed the DOD to a single GRAPHIC COURTESY / USGS plume of treated wastewater, with the assumption that See CAPE COD toxins from the military base were likely to be found. In this illustration of the ‘shoulder’ of the Cape, the Cape Page 6 Nobody realized at that point that the plume and the Cod Canal is visible at the top. If the land is viewed as process would balloon into a decades-long, billion-dollar a clock, Bourne is at 11, Sandwich at 12:15, Barnstable project. at 3 and Mashpee at 5:30. Falmouth is in the bottom left “I think if we had known the real history of waste corner. NEUTRINO Continued from Page 1 three types, or “flavors,” of neutrinos—-electron neutri- nos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos. Experiments have shown that these neutrinos can oscillate from one flavor to another. However, the LSND experiments offered evi- dence for a fourth flavor, a “sterile” neutrino, which would call the Standard Model of Particle Physics into question. The model, developed in the 1970s, is based on Ein- stein’s theory of relativity and outlines the 16 types of subatomic particles (including the three neutrinos) that physicists have identified. “The Standard Model is the periodic table of particle physics,” Monroe said. “If the MinibooNE experiment found that extra particles needed to go into that, it would have been very, very exciting.” The MinibooNE experiment, conducted at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory outside Chicago, was designed to detect the energy traces left behind when a neutrino collides with the nucleus of a carbon atom. The detection takes place in a massive tank filled with 250,000 gallons of purified mineral oil. Researchers generated neutrinos by firing a beam of protons at a target made of beryllium (a lightweight metal). When the beam hits the target, the protons pro- duce particles that decay into neutrinos and other elemen- tary particles. During the three years that the researchers collected data, they sent 5.5 x 1020 (more than a billion billion) protons into the target, but expected to measure only 400 electron neutrinos. “That tells you how difficult it is to measure neutrino oscillations,” Monroe said. The researchers analyzed some of the data as they PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY went along, but they waited until the end of March to look at the last one percent of their data-—in the range Lives of a cell where evidence for the fourth neutrino would be found—- to ensure no bias in interpreting the results. Kathy Vandiver, far right, takes students from the Adventure Science Center in Nashville, Tenn., through the new cell The team finally looked at the critical results on March exhibit at the MIT Museum. Vandiver developed the exhibition in conjunction with the museum. The students—from 26, during a six-hour meeting at Fermilab. left, Ben Almassi, Devonte Duff and Thuy Trieu—were winners of a science writing essay contest. “It was such a dramatic moment,” Monroe recalled. “Everyone was so tense. There were people on Mini- booNE who have been studying these questions for 17 years.” Once the team started looking at the data, it soon became apparent that there were no energy oscillations Finkelstein will give Sigma Xi Lecture in the range where they would have been expected if a Amy Finkelstein, assistant professor of economics, will Finkelstein graduated from Harvard University summa fourth type of neutrino existed, Monroe said. deliver the 2007 Sigma Xi Lecture, titled “Researching the cum laude in government in 1995 and won a Marshall “I had mixed feelings,” she said. “My first reaction was Impact of Universal Health Insurance: Lessons from Medi- Scholarship to Oxford University. From 1997 to 1998 she that I was happy with the results. We predicted the back- care,” at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 26, at the MIT Fac- worked as a staff economist for the Council of Economic ground and we got it right. My second reaction was that I ulty Club, Building E26. Each year, the MIT chapter of Advisers. She received her Ph.D. in economics from MIT was so disappointed that we didn’t find the 17th particle in Sigma Xi, the national scientific research society, honors in 2001. She joined the MIT faculty in 2005. Finkelstein is the standard model. It would have changed everything.” an outstanding junior faculty member with the opportu- associate editor of the Journal of Public Economics and The MinibooNE team involved about 70 researchers nity to present his or her research to the MIT community. is a faculty research fellow of the National Bureau of Eco- from 14 institutions, and was funded by the U.S. Depart- Linn Hobbs, professor of materials science and nuclear nomic Research. ment of Energy and the National Science Foundation. engineering, is president of the MIT chapter. Finkelstein’s research focuses on two main areas— The MinibooNE experiment is now running a three- Recent honorees include Angelika Amon, associate market failures and government intervention in insurance year study of antineutrinos, and Monroe is continuing professor of biology; Angela Belcher, professor of biologi- markets and the impact of public policy on the health care her neutrino oscillation studies at MIT with assistant pro- cal engineering and materials science and engineering; sector, particularly on the development and diffusion of fessor of physics Joseph Formaggio. She’s also working Yoel Fink, associate professor of materials science and medical technology. with MIT physics professor Peter Fisher to come up with engineering; Linda Griffith, professor of biological engi- The annual lecture, open to the public, will be preceded ways to detect dark matter, which is even more difficult neering; Seth Lloyd, professor of mechanical engineering; by the Sigma Xi dinner for new initiates. Those wishing to observe than neutrinos. Dark matter accounts for the and Franz-Josef Ulm, professor of civil and environmental to attend the dinner at 6:30 p.m. should contact Hobbs at vast majority of mass in the universe but has never been engineering. x3-6835 or [email protected]. observed. surfaces-figure-2.jpg Image courtesy / Edward Adelson

(There is also a photo of the researchers from Donna, surfaces-1.tif)

MIT Tech Talk NEWS April 25, 2007 PAGE 5 Supply chain event Research team finds neurons may focuses on energy efficiency ‘know’ glossy from grainy surfaces The MIT Center for Transportation and Anne Trafton in terms of “luminance histograms,” Lavanya Sharan, an MIT graduate student Logistics and the Council of Supply Chain News Office which plot the distribution of pixel val- at the Computer Science and Artificial Management Professionals (CSCMP) will ues. They also estimated the histograms Intelligence Lab. host a one-day conference, Achieving the of responses of neurons that respond to Technology based on this research Energy-Efficient Supply Chain, on April 30 Imagine looking at a pool of spilled light and dark spots in an image. In both could also be useful for autonomous vehi- in Wong Auditorium. milk. Your brain knows that it’s milk and cases, they found that the “skewness” of cles, said Sharan. The conference will present experts not another white substance like sugar or the histogram, which measures its asym- “You want to know what kind of sur- from academia and industry who will cottage cheese, but how does it know? metry, was correlated with the subject’s face you’re on—is the road dry or wet or explain the business implications of higher MIT researchers and colleagues inves- perceptions of surface qualities. Positive icy? Are you on a dirt road? A machine energy costs and what companies can do tigating how the brain interprets the skewness led to darker and glossier sur- vision system needs to make these judg- to build energy efficiency into their supply appearance of surfaces think they have an face appearance. ments based on the surface appearance,” chains. answer. They have found that the percep- The researchers also found that they she said. Historically, supply chain design and tion of reflectance and gloss are correlated could manipulate subjects’ perceptions of See NEURONS management have been predicated on with certain statistical properties of the glossiness by digitally manipulating the the easy avail- image. These properties could be coded skewness of the images, said study author Page 6 ability of cheap by neurons that respond differentially to energy—even light and dark spots. as globalization The research team, a collaboration has stretched between MIT and the NTT Communica- product pipe- tion Science Labs in Japan, reported its lines thou- findings in the April 18 online issue of sands of miles Nature. from remote Studying how the brain analyzes sur- manufacturing face appearance is not only important to centers to end understanding the workings of the human markets. This brain, but could also help scientists devel- is now chang- op better visual systems for robots. ing, according “We know a lot about the perception of Yossi Sheffi to MIT-CTL objects, but much less about the percep- Director Yossi tion of the materials that the objects are Sheffi. “Rising fuel costs and the increas- made of,” said Edward Adelson, an author ing volatility of energy markets mean that of the paper and professor of visual sci- companies can no longer afford to ignore ence in the Department of Brain and Cog- these costs. They need to reevaluate nitive Sciences at MIT. “Our studies show their supply chain strategies and network that statistical skewness, which quantifies design to take into account the soaring an asymmetry between light and dark pat- cost of energy,” Sheffi said. terns, has a strong influence on the way a Strategic re-evaluation is a major chal- material is perceived.” lenge for most organizations as the eco- Analyzing visual attributes such as nomics of energy consumption influence every facet of supply chain management, color, texture and gloss is critical in every- from sourcing to final delivery. day tasks such as deciding whether a Topics to be discussed will include how patch of pavement is icy, whether a pan- supply chains have evolved on the basis of cake is cooked, or whether skin is healthy, cheap energy, measuring the carbon foot- according to the researchers. print, sourcing, manufacturing and distri- In their experiments, the research bution network design, and transportation team asked subjects to rate the lightness and packaging. and glossiness of natural materials such as Session leaders will include Mark stucco or fabric. The surfaces have a mix Buckley, vice president for environmental of dark shadows and bright highlights, giv- affairs at Staples; Ernest Moniz, MIT pro- ing rise to distinctive visual patterns. fessor of physics and director of the MIT “Natural surfaces are complicated,” Energy Initiative; Tracey L. Rosser, vice said Adelson. “They have bumps and dips, president for corporate traffic at Wal-Mart; and the light reflects in complex ways, pro- and Kevin P. Wrenn, senior vice president ducing characteristic statistical patterns.” for operations and quality at Fujitsu Com- These patterns serve as signatures both PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY puter Systems. for the shape and the material composing Professor Edward Adelson, right, and his MIT co-author, graduate student Lavanya Sharan, For more information, visit www.sup- the surface. with some of the surfaces they use to measure subjects’ descriptions of their perception of plychainenergy.org. The researchers quantified the images texture, glossiness, etc., in the lab. MIT innovations First Cambridge Science Festival starts with a bang Ruth Walker day at noon. cil chamber since the end of rent control.” fuel festival News Office Correspondent The bang was provided by a group of MIT President Susan Hockfield hailed Presented by the MIT Museum, events MIT undergrads who assembled an offi- it as “an absolutely great day” and stressed from April 26-29 include: cial “kickoff” contraption in the council how “enormously excited” MIT is to be Let there be no doubt about it: The chamber at Cambridge City Hall. working with the City of Cambridge on the April 26, 4-7 p.m. spirit of Rube Goldberg is alive and well A capacity crowd, including many fami- festival. The MIT Entrepreneurial Tour at MIT. lies with young children, packed into the “I keep hearing this wonderful phrase, An insider’s tour of the MIT campus The Cambridge Science Festival— room to witness the scene. Cambridge ‘Cambridge is a science city’—I like that,” shows where discoveries occurred and billed as the first of its kind in the nation— City Manager Bob Healey quipped, “I she said. “We are really the epicenter of what famous companies are MIT spinoffs. started off quite literally with a bang Satur- haven’t seen a crowd this big in the coun- science and technology innovation today.” Referring to the children in the audi- April 26, 5-7:30 p.m. ence, she said, “I’m delighted to see all Kids’ night at MITERS you young people, our future inventors and scientists, our future engineers.” Take things apart, fool around with giz- The “contraption” took months of brain- mos and gadgets with the folks at MITERS. storming and weeks of construction. The April 26, 7-9 p.m. engineers had to reconcile, as one of them put it, “unbounded creativity with the con- One Laptop Per Child, Tang Center struction materials readily available in a A review of the $100 laptop technology. short period of time.” After a fanfare from the MIT March- April 28 and 29, 12-5 p.m. ing Band, playing in the upstairs gallery, Real Kids: Real Science Stars! and a countdown from Hockfield and John Join in a science experiment on the set Durant, director of the MIT Museum, of DragonflyTV, the PBS kids show. Sadie Scheffer ’10 set the machinery in motion by stepping into a giant “hamster April 28, 2-4 p.m. wheel,” eight feet across. SciPro Awards Within a few seconds, in the final phase See the results of 8th and 9th graders of the contraption, an airbag had inflated, working with MIT student mentors on leading to the unfurling of the Cambridge Student Street at the Stata Center. Science Festival banner. It worked—almost perfectly, with just a April 28, 2-5 p.m. and 7-10 p.m. couple of quick assists from the engineers. Not Your Grandpa’s Model Railroad As the photographers gathered to immor- talize the contraption before it was disas- See MIT’s 800-linear-foot model rail- sembled, the engineers celebrated with road with scale models of MIT buildings. PHOTO / L. BARRY HETHERINGTON hugs and high-fives all around. For more events and locations, visit John Durant, director of the MIT Museum, speaks at the April 21 kickoff event for the The Cambridge Science Festival had www.cambridgesciencefestival.com. Cambridge Science Festival. been launched. PAGE 6 April 25, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk MEETING BOHREN CROSSTALK Continued from Page 1 Continued from Page 1 Continued from Page 2 many others. Some expressed frustration at the time involved in creating the sort than 35 countries. While 2,000 students tion of MIT’s communications with exter- Because proteins have 3-D structures, of sophisticated animations and models now participate in either a summer or nal constituencies and audiences, includ- “our students have a terrible time looking that a generation of students raised on semester abroad, the goal is to increase ing government and the media. Hockfield at a static two-dimensional representation Xbox has come to expect. Others dis- international educational experiences for said that MIT’s relationships with govern- of a protein and getting any sense of what cussed the pedagogic value of hands-on students and to increase the 6 percent of ment, the media and the broader public it’s like and what its properties are.” The models, the vast differences in students’ sponsored research and 9 percent of cash are “critical to advancing sound policies problem in his field, he reports, is that learning styles and 3-D visualization abil- gifts that come from foreign sources in and practices for education and research” the advanced modeling software lacks ity, and the power of metaphor in commu- 2006. as well as to the Institute’s own role as “a crucial student-friendly features, such as nicating ideas to others, whether profes- Khoury told the faculty that, at a time beacon of inspiration for the importance of a “back” button. It’s been difficult to find sional audiences or students. There was when research funding for the physi- science and technology.” tools that strike a balance between tech- a lengthy debate about whether polished cal and biological sciences is decreas- The MIT News Office and the Office nological sophistication and practicality graphics can actually be misleading. ing domestically, MIT should develop an of Government and Community Relations for the classroom. Kathy Vandiver, director of commu- international strategy to pursue students, will report to Bohren, who will also work The panel opened the floor to ques- nity outreach and education programs research updates and funding sources. closely with the MIT Washington Office tions. The audience proved to represent a at the Center for Environmental Health Suzanne Berger, professor of political in the development and implementation of broad cross-section of the MIT communi- Sciences, encouraged everyone to visit science, agreed, noting that MIT gradu- MIT’s strategy for federal relations. More ty, including teachers and researchers in the LEGO model of a protein molecule, ates will function best as sophisticated broadly, she will serve as the senior advis- civil and environmental engineering, the a highly successful visualization of a very contributors to their fields if they have the er to the Institute’s academic and admin- Center for Educational Computing Initia- complex structure that is now on display ability to create and access knowledge out- istrative leadership on public affairs and tives, aeronautics and astronautics and at the MIT Museum. side of their home society. external communications. Daniel Roos, associate dean of engi- At Powell Tate, Bohren has been neering for engineering systems, gave an responsible for the design, development overview of the new MIT Portugal Pro- and implementation of strategic commu- KENNEDY gram funded by the Portugal Ministry of nications and public affairs for healthcare intellectual life of MIT and Harvard and Science, Technology and Higher Educa- organizations in the corporate, nonprofit Continued from Page 3 to the further strengthening of transat- tion. The program, involving seven uni- and government sectors. Prior to join- actions are a significant step toward lantic ties in their future careers,” said versities, 15 research centers and a gov- ing Powell Tate, she spent a decade at ensuring the Trust’s continued vitality,” Richard Lester, MIT trustee of the Ken- ernment laboratory, aims to help the Por- WellChoice, the parent of Empire Blue said Harvard President Derek Bok, who nedy Memorial Trust. Harvard’s repre- tuguese generate new knowledge-based Cross and Blue Shield, including four sentative on the board is Roderick Mac- industries and raise the education level of years as senior vice president for commu- Farquhar. its workforce. nications. Since September 1966, when the first Margery Resnick, associate professor At WellChoice, Bohren designed, exe- Kennedy Scholars enrolled at Harvard of foreign languages and literature, pre- cuted and oversaw a comprehensive pub- and MIT, 432 students have been award- sented data from the previous two years lic relations program; served as primary ed Kennedy Scholarships. Many have of work by the Committee on Discipline. company spokesperson with the media; gone on to distinguish themselves in aca- In 2005-06, the committee heard 23 cases developed an investor relations program demia, public service, politics, business that resulted in sanctions ranging from that built investor confidence in the com- and the media. Prominent former Kenne- letters of apology and restitution to sus- pany after its initial public offering; coordi- dy Scholars include David Miliband, the pension and expulsion. Several cases were nated government affairs activities at the U.K. environment minister, and Mervyn resolved through mediation. During the federal, state and local levels; and provided King, governor of the Bank of England. last academic year, panels heard several strategic counsel on public affairs to the Four current members of MIT’s facul- cases in lieu of the full committee when chief executive officer and senior manage- ty first came to MIT on Kennedy Schol- warranted and an academic integrity hand- ment team. arships: Lester, professor of nuclear sci- book was created and distributed to MIT Bohren began her career in Washing- ence and engineering and director of community. ton, D.C., where she specialized in labor MIT’s Industrial Performance Center; In other business, MIT President Susan relations with the federal government Barbara Imperiali, professor of biology Hockfield said that more than 1,000 people and employee organizations. Before join- and chemistry; Gareth McKinley, pro- watched Sen. Edward Kennedy deliver the ing WellChoice, she held positions in fessor of mechanical engineering; and Compton Lecture on April 13. The lecture public relations and as director of the dis- PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY Andrew Whittle, professor of civil and series will be expanded to include two to trict office of Rep. Nita M. Lowey of New Edward M. Kennedy environmental engineering. four lectures in the coming year as well York. She holds a degree in political sci- The Kennedy Scholarship program as smaller format events for students to ence from Arizona State University and a participated in the April 13 celebrations. is Britain’s living national memorial to interact with speakers. Hockfield said she master’s degree in public administration MIT President Susan Hockfield noted, President Kennedy. At the time of its cre- welcomes suggestions for future speakers. from the John F. Kennedy School of Gov- “The Kennedy Scholarships offer excep- ation, Sen. Edward Kennedy called it the In two votes on motions entertained at ernment at Harvard University. tional students unique opportunities to most ambitious of all the memorials to the March meeting, the faculty voted to In announcing the appointment, Hock- broaden their intellectual and personal his brother. A meadowland memorial was disband the Committee on Faculty-Admin- field thanked the faculty and staff who horizons, in ways that are more impor- also established at Runnymede, on the istration, folding its duties into the Faculty assisted in the search process: Elizabeth tant than ever in an era defined by global banks of the Thames where King John Policy Committee, and to accept minor A. Garvin, executive vice president of the interaction.” sealed the Magna Carta in 1215. wording changes to the rules and regula- MIT Alumni Association; Professor Steven All Kennedy Scholars, including those The senator, who participated in the tions of the faculty. R. Lerman of the Department of Civil and to be supported by the new funds, are 40th anniversary celebrations and deliv- Environmental Engineering; Suzana Lisan- chosen in a highly competitive selection ered the Karl Taylor Compton Lecture at ti, publisher of the MIT home page; Dean process, and admitted to Harvard or MIT, remains a passionate supporter of of Admissions Marilee Jones; Dean of the MIT. The selection process in the United the Kennedy Scholarships and hosts the NEURONS Sloan School of Management Richard Kingdom is undertaken by the Kennedy scholars each year in Boston and Wash- Schmalensee; and Pamela Dumas Serfes, Memorial Trust, which is chaired by ington. Continued from Page 5 executive director of news and communi- British economic historian Emma Roth- The Kennedy Memorial Trust will The exact neural mechanism for detect- cations. schild, herself a former Kennedy Scholar continue to fund the existing scholar- ing image skewness is unknown, but at MIT. ships, in addition to the new fellowships the researchers have offered a tentative “This will ensure that some of the to be funded by Harvard and MIT. model. very best British graduate students will For more information on the Kennedy In the retina and brain, there are cells continue to come to Boston and, like Scholarships, visit the Kennedy Trust that are preferentially sensitive to either CAPE COD their predecessors, contribute to the web site at www.kennedytrust.org.uk. bright patterns or dark ones. After pooling Continued from Page 4 responses within each cell population, the brain could compare the balance between million, with $460 million more budgeted, very bright and very dark patterns. This bringing the projected cost to $1.4 billion. KETTYLE balance determines the skewness. More than 6,000 sampling wells have “We don’t know what the underlying been drilled. The U.S. Air Force, U.S. Continued from Page 3 physiology is, but what we do know is that Army, Massachusetts National Guard to make healthy lifestyle choices. Their the computation of skewness is something and USGS are working together on the outreach efforts include workshops and that could be done very easily with the project. classes on specific topics like nutrition, fit- hardware that does exist in the early parts Much progress has been made on the ness and stress management. of the brain’s visual system,” said Adelson. 11 plumes that contain solvents and fuels, We are also continuing to increase our The researcher’s skewness model the first contaminants discovered. At role in environmental safety and natural is supported by experiments with visual present, 53 extraction wells pump out 17.5 disaster, pandemic flu and severe storm aftereffects, which showed that the human million gallons of water each day, which, preparedness. This is an important area of visual system can adapt to skewness. Simi- after treatment, is pumped back into involvement for us. lar to what happens when you stare at an the ground to maintain the water table. Q: Do you have any final thoughts on image of a certain color and then see an Work on the explosives and perchlorate, the task force process? after-image, staring at patterns with a high “the contaminant du jour,” is just getting A: I like saying that the task force eval- degree of positive skewness will cause the under way, LeBlanc said. uation can be compared to one’s annual next pattern you look at to appear nega- He predicts the tale will not end entire- physical. It is something you should do on PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY tively skewed, which causes the material ly, but the damage will have been miti- a regular basis to make sure that you are to appear lighter and less glossy. gated. “The plumes will remain, but be healthy and fit. It’s a source of valuable The lead author on the Nature paper is dilute and patchy. The focus will change information you can use to stay healthy or Sugar magnolia Isamu Motoyoshi of the Human and Infor- to plume management in the context of become healthier. So at MIT Medical, we The sweetest signs of spring are mation Science Lab at NTT Communica- water supply,” said LeBlanc. want to make sure that our organization sometimes the smallest. These tion Science Labs in Japan. Shin’ya Nishida The Freeman Lecture is presented is also healthy and vital. It is our mission delicate yet hardy magnolia blos- of NTT is also an author on the paper. annually by CEE and the Boston Soci- to continue to serve the Institute, in this soms appeared near Building 26 on The research was funded by NTT (Nip- ety of Civil Engineers to honor the late way, by promoting wellness and providing Monday—symbols of serenity in a pon Telegraph and Telephone Corpora- John R. Freeman, a CEE alumnus who care in support of effective learning and tumultuous time. tion) and the National Science Foundation. designed the original Charles River Dam. research. MIT Tech Talk AMBITIONS April 25, 2007 PAGE 7 Pritzker-winner Hadid discusses fluidity in Free site gives the ‘buzz’ on architecture, accessories

Robin H. Ray business school admissions News Office Correspondent Amy MacMillan MIT Sloan Educational Services

World-renowned architect Zaha Hadid presented an overview of her astonishing A free web site dedicated to M.B.A. body of work to a capacity crowd in Room applicants will mitigate the long and stress- 10-250 on April 10. Her talk, entitled “Total ful process of applying to business schools Fluidity on All Scales,” was the 19th annual and will help applicants determine their Arthur H. Schein Memorial Lecture, given chances of getting into the school of their in memory of an honored MIT architec- choice. ture alumnus who died in 1983. Inspired by their own experiences of Visiting associate professor of architec- applying to business school, M.B.A. ’07 ture Sanford Kwinter, who introduced the students Tom Duterme and Jose Almirall speaker, called Hadid “one of the world’s have created MBA Buzz (www.mbabuzz. most distinguished architects,” whose com) to ease the pain for others. work reflects “a universe not of grids but “The (admission) process was veiled in of vortexes.” rumors. I was in China when I was apply- “Hadid’s work both transposes and ing, and it was hard to connect with the displaces the very horizon that serves as schools,” Duterme says. our orienta- Almirall says the two of them, along tion point in with a few other students, started brain- the world. Her storming the idea back in 2005 as an idea curves careen for the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Com- across the can- petition, but the idea never really got off vas or page, as the ground. Then, Almirall and Duterme if to mock the decided to collaborate on their own. They PHOTO / AMY MacMILLAN straight lines scheduled a dinner meeting in December MIT Sloan M.B.A. students Jose Almirall, left, and Tom Duterme created mbabuzz.com to that they partly 2005, but that night, Duterme was on his reduce anxiety among business school applicants. portray,” he bike and was hit by two cars. Dazed, he said. escaped with a few cuts and bruises, but and can update the status of their school MBA Buzz as an “interesting (and poten- The Bagh- their meeting was postponed. applications. Visitors to the site can plot tially addictive) web site, especially as the dad-born Hadid, Despite that inauspicious start, Almi- applicants by business school and then ana- amount of data in the system continues to currently the rall and Duterme launched their web site lyze them further—by round, status, age, grow. Definitely worth checking out.” Zaha Hadid Eero Saarinen on Feb. 14, 2006, as a way to make the GPA, GMAT score and other statistics. As their time at MIT Sloan comes to an Visiting Profes- business school application process more The site is a labor of love for Almi- end, Almirall and Duterme are content to sor of Architec- transparent. Business school applicants rall and Duterme, both of whom have watch the site grow as new users register ture at Yale University, is the only woman from all over can register at the free site to poured countless hours into it. Having every day. While they may expand the site to have won the Pritzker Architectural create a user profile. Each registrant has a gone through the admissions process further in the future, for now they’re enjoy- Prize, the field’s highest honor. She stud- private e-mail box and a list of buzzmates themselves, they knew just what kind of ing the final few months of a whirlwind ied in the 1970s at London’s Architectural to keep track of friends and other appli- information they would have liked to have business school experience. Duterme has Association before establishing her own cants. The site features a graphical inter- had as an applicant. Through MBA Buzz, accepted a full-time position with Google practice in that city. Zaha Hadid Architects face plotting application that allows you to they enjoy bringing a new level of “trans- and Almirall will go work for IBM. currently employs some 200 architects and see where all of the applicants are, as well parency” to applications, providing appli- Is business school admission random? executes projects, large and small, all over as a predictor tool that allows applicants to cants with a wide range of valuable data “No, it’s predictable,” said Duterme. “It’s the world. The Guggenheim Museum in assess the probability of getting an inter- to consider as they plot their admissions a mix of art and science.” From the rapid New York exhibited a retrospective of her view and even getting in. More than 1,000 strategies. growth of the site and the value it provides work, including a number of her paintings, business school applicants have registered What’s the buzz about MBA Buzz? The to anxious applicants, it’s clear that Almi- in the fall of 2006. in the past year, according to Duterme. site has received positive feedback from rall and Duterme have found a winning Fluidity on every scale was the theme One of the most interesting aspects its users and from bloggers. Charles Hud- combination. of Hadid’s presentation at MIT, as it is the of the site is the plotter. Business school son, a member of Google’s New Business Alexander Slawsby (M.B.A. ’07) contrib- hallmark of her work. Starting with her applicants enter basic statistical information Development team, recently described uted to this article. smallest-scale projects, she showed the audience slides of the streamlined cutlery she designed for WMF, one of Europe’s largest cutlery manufacturers. (The lim- Linguists doubt exception to Universal Grammar ited-production five-piece set retails for $250.) The scale moved up from there, Robin H. Ray Pirahã morphosyntax (the relationships of Harvard and Cilene Rodrigues of the through chandeliers and handbags to fur- News Office Correspondent between words and how their elements Universidade Estadual de Campinas in nishings, cars, hotel rooms, private homes, convey meaning). Brazil—fired back in March of this year civic and commercial buildings, right As a culture, says Everett, Pirahã speak- with a paper titled “Pirahã Exceptional- through to skyscrapers and entire urban Controversies in the field of linguistics ers lack any sense of the past beyond what ity: A Reassessment,” taking issue with fabrics. She showed a series of seamless, seldom make headlines, which is why the living individuals have personally experi- virtually every claim to Pirahã’s unique- sculptural shelves that, as she put it, are current imbroglio over an alleged coun- enced, and they have no creation myths or ness that Everett advanced. Everett hast- “almost like calligraphy or dancing figures terexample to Universal Grammar (UG), fiction, no sense of numbers or counting, ily answered (also in March) with “Cul- on a wall.” made famous in the 1960s by Noam and no art. Constraints of culture, Everett tural Constraints on Grammar in Pirahã: A Although some, as Kwinter noted, have Chomsky, MIT professor of linguistics, is believes, in turn impoverish the language, Reply to Nevins, Pesetsky, and Rodrigues criticized her work as “paper architec- so unusual. which has no tenses, no names for colors (2007).” (Those two papers may be viewed ture”—that is, unbuildable—the dozens On one side is Daniel L. Everett, a lin- and other allegedly unique paucities. at the LingBuzz linguistics archive site, of executed projects Hadid presented over guist at Illinois State University, who has The language constraints, he claims, ling.auf.net/lingbuzz, where they head the the course of her lecture constitute an spent several decades studying Pirahã, a indicate “some of the components of so- “Top Recent Downloads” list.) answer to these critics. From the sweeping language spoken by roughly 350 indige- called core grammar are subject to cultur- Pesetsky marvels at the interest this Bergisel Ski Jump in Innsbruck, Austria, nous hunter-gatherers in the Amazon rain- al constraints, something that is predicted debate has sparked, not only within the to the Ordrupgaard Museum Extension forest. On the other are a number of lin- field but in the world at large. As of April in Copenhagen, her extant works playfully guists, including MIT linguistics professor 12, he noted in an e-mail, “Our paper has defy common geometry and even gravity David Pesetsky, who have thrown doubt been downloaded 1,300 times and (Ever- while paying close attention to the needs upon many of Everett’s claims, both cul- ett’s) reply has been downloaded 910 and motivations of the clients. tural and linguistic, about the Pirahã. times—astonishing figures for the site and Her airy design for the BMW central In a telephone interview, Pesetsky said, for a field like linguistics.” plant in Leipzig, Germany, completed in “What we tried to do in our response was While linguists at MIT pay a lot of 2006, broke down physical and psycho- to highlight the ways in which we are try- attention to theoretical questions, such as logical barriers between manufacturing ing to unravel the system that unites all the the universal properties of sound systems, and management with a “mix of blue- and languages in the world,” including Pirahã. speech perception and speech produc- white-collar workers.” Manufacturing, The attributes that Everett claims are tion, field linguistics is far from moribund management and design are now all under unique to that language are in fact extant here. Linguistics grad student Seth Cable one roof, with the cars shuttling (quietly) in other well-documented languages, such is heading off soon to Alaska on a National between painting and storage right past as Bengali and even German. Science Foundation dissertation grant to executives’ offices. One cafeteria now Linguistics began to focus attention on study the syntax and semantics of ques- serves everyone, from the cleaning staff UG several decades ago in an attempt to tions in Tlingit, a language spoken by an to the top management. move their study from the particulariza- indigenous people of the Pacific North- The scale of Hadid’s projects has tion of philology—the detailed descrip- west. One of the great figures in field lin- extended beyond individual buildings to tion of individual languages and language guistics, the late Kenneth Hale, was an rethinking entire urban regions. Current- families, with which the field was preoccu- PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY esteemed member of the MIT faculty until ly on track is a master plan for Zorroza- pied for centuries—to an understanding of his retirement in 1999; in his long career, urre, a neglected and ill-connected island the remarkable wealth of features that all Noam Chomsky he worked on languages as diverse as in Bilbao, Spain. Hadid’s dynamic, curv- languages share, and thence to an under- Hopi, Tohono O’odham (of the Sonoran ing lines of development—bending streets standing of the human mind. not to occur” by Chomsky’s universal- desert region) and Warlpiri. His fluency in but also constructing numerous bridges The current contretemps began with grammar model. the latter, an indigenous language of Aus- to connect the island with the rest of the Everett’s 2005 paper in Cultural Anthro- Everett’s article and his colorful field tralia, was such that he was able to keep city—will change a stagnated grid-plan pology, “Cultural Constraints on Grammar career have been taken up in the popu- his sons, Ezra and Caleb, fluent in the lan- into a dynamic urban mix of residential, and Cognition in Pirahã: Another Look at lar press, including the Independent, Der guage even after they had moved back to commercial and open space and working the Design Features of Human Language,” Spiegel and the New Yorker. the United States. “He was a linguist’s lin- infrastructure. which described a number of “gaps” in His critics—Pesetsky, Andrew Nevins guist,” as Pesetsky put it. PAGE 8 April 25, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Mel King Fellow’s advocacy opens doors for low-income community

Deborah Halber News Office Correspondent

Sometimes, a door is more than just a door. When Lee Farrow was a community organizer in New York City, she worked with formerly homeless people whose city- owned housing wasn’t much better than living outdoors. Their windows were bro- ken, their walls were cracked, their ceil- ings leaked. And the building’s front door was missing. Farrow, a 2006-07 Mel King Fellow with the Center for Reflective Community Prac- tice (CRCP) at MIT, helped the tenants navigate the municipal bureaucracy. They called, wrote, cajoled and complained until the door was replaced. Farrow said the process was about more than a door. “A building entrance door is the gateway for societal ills com- ing into your dwelling. People mobilized around that. New York City can be a very isolating place when you are living in mar- ginalized conditions with very little hope of those conditions changing. To witness and be a part of an effort to get a door changed generates so much aspiration among people after realizing they were able to do that. It was about empowering people with the resources and knowledge to achieve change.” Many of the residents went on to change other aspects of their lives. Farrow moved on, knocking on doors building PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY by building, block by block. For 32 years, Mel King Fellow Lee Farrow, above, helped produce the upcoming Community Innovation Spring Symposium, to be held May 4-5 at MIT. Farrow, who grew up in North Carolina, worked in some of New York’s most dev- astated neighborhoods, engaging with ties learn together from their work. The and the human spirit of community that said. neighborhood leaders and other commu- Mel King Community Practitioner Fellow- never leaves you.” Her goal now is to iden- Tenant organizations have helped for- nity-change agents to bring about trans- ship provides a yearlong opportunity for tify what she has learned about the most merly homeless people raise the capital formation in the neighborhoods and their extraordinary community practitioners to effective ways of bringing people together to buy their buildings from the city and residents. She spent her last 11 years in reflect on and document key areas of their and helping change their conditions. Most manage them as low-income co-ops. They New York developing and implementing practice. important, she wants to help people identi- have also led people to become involved in the Community Pride Program at the Har- One of the outcomes of Farrow’s work fy the knowledge they’ve gained from their establishing block associations and engag- lem Children’s Zone. is the Community Innovation Spring Sym- work to help solve community problems. ing in public activities that support neigh- While working with Ceasar L. McDow- posium, a seminar series that aims to Farrow saw that the process of taking borhood stabilization. ell, MIT professor of the practice of com- share and build knowledge from academ- ownership of their living conditions mim- Living in Boston since 2004, Farrow munity development in the Department of ics, local practitioners, policy-makers and icked the changes in their personal lives. goes back to New York occasionally. “To Urban Studies and Planning, and Dayna philanthropists. The series will take place “People had been feeling defeated. Orga- meet with the folks I worked with years Cunningham, executive director of CRCP, May 4-5. nizing with their peer tenants and going ago and to witness the new feelings about Farrow is reflecting on, chronicling and “As a veteran organizer, I’ve done a through the process of change to improve their neighborhoods—it is quite amazing analyzing her work to pinpoint lessons to lot of work in the course of my career to their living conditions gave them the abil- to see and witness how the human spirit share with the MIT community and the help people improve their lives and their ity to see they have an impact and a voice. can be moved from a place of hopeless- community-building field. Farrow also is living conditions,” she said. “Over time, Coming together around common condi- ness and helplessness to a place of accom- completing a Boston neighborhood-learn- you get really tired, but you realize there tions motivated them to do more about plishment.” All starting, she said, with peo- ing project as a model for how communi- is something about the core of this work their own personal development,” she ple trying to get their building a door. Alum ‘zaps’ MOS Composer Christine Southworth (S.B. 2002), at right, rehearses “Zap!,” a compo- sition in which the Van de Graaff genera- tor provides static and flashing lights for her musical composition with flutes, gui- tar, cello, bass, piano, robots and human voices. “Zap!” will be performed at the Muse- um of Science’s Theater of Electricity (Sci- ence Park, Boston) on Friday, April 27 at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. as part of the Cam- bridge Science Festival. Tickets cost $10; for more information, see cambridge- sciencefestival.org/.

PHOTO / BILL SOUTHWORTH MIT, Goethe-Institut examine history of video art in Germany MIT’s Visual Arts Program (part of For more information, call x3-5229 or the Department of Architecture) and the 617-262-6050, or e-mail program@boston. Goethe-Institut Boston are partnering to goethe.org. present “40 Years of Video Art in Ger- many,” a series of events supported by Schedule: the German Federal Cultural Foundation May 1: “The Sixties and Seventies.” aimed at saving, maintaining and medi- Judith Barry, director of the M.F.A. pro- ating the cultural heritage of video art, gram in visual arts at the Art Institute which has become one of the most influen- of Boston/Lesley University, and Roy tial art forms of the 20th century. Grundmann, director of the film stud- The events, which run from Tuesday, ies program at Boston University. 6:30 May 1 to Thursday, May 3, will feature a p.m., the Goethe-Institut (170 Beacon St., PHOTO / RENE R. CHEN vast collection of outstanding video shorts Boston). from 1963 to 2003 and panels of local May 2: “The Eighties and Nineties.” Pot heads experts examining each decade of the proj- Michael Rush, director of the Rose Art The humble pot, updated, personalized and generally given new life, will be among ect. Speakers will include Ute Meta Bauer, Museum at Brandeis University, and Ute the one-of-a-kind student artworks for sale at the upcoming Student Art Association director of the Visual Arts Program, who Meta Bauer, director of MIT’s Visual Arts pottery sale, held on May 10 and 11 in Lobby 10. The event, which runs from 9 a.m. will moderate the final panel discussion Program. 6:30 p.m., the Goethe-Institut. to 4:30 p.m. on both days, features innovative and traditional versions of the ancient with all participants. May 3: Panel discussion featuring vessel-makers’ art. The program is presented in conjunc- all participants, moderated by Ute Meta tion with the fifth Boston Cyberarts Festi- Bauer. 6:30 p.m., Broad Institute Audito- val (April 28 through May 6). rium (Room NE30-1154).