Volume 51 – Number 18 Wednesday – February 28, 2007 TechTalk S ERVING T HE M I T C OMMUNITY Speakers exhort the Institute and the nation to honor MLK’s legacy and lead the way forward—quickly

Ruth Walker said, refer- and computer groups. And this year, there are eight new News Office Correspondent ring to his science, could MLK visiting professors and scholars, r e n o w n e d not ignore rac- more than ever before in the program’s 1963 “I Have ism or injus- history. MIT’s 33rd annual Dr. Martin Luther a Dream” tice at MIT And Hockfield pointed to the Insti- King Jr. Celebration, held Friday, Feb. 16, speech, from or anywhere tute’s ongoing gender-equity initiative as was a sign of the Institute’s “extraordinary which she read else, Hockfield a model, both for what can be achieved commitment to the principles of Dr. King,” an excerpt. said: These are with concerted effort and for the kind of President Susan Hockfield told the capac- “We have been “issues that national influence an MIT initiative can ity crowd at Walker Memorial. walking for- reach beyond have. But this is a time when there is a great ward. But we any single indi- “We want our new initiative on minority need to “accelerate the pace of change,” need to pick vidual or any faculty issues, recently announced by the she added. up the pace.” single institu- provost, to have the same catalytic impact “If MIT today is to advance its historic Ted Childs Jr. Participants Elizabeth Clay tion.” and to demonstrate the same kind of insti- mission of teaching, research and service, at the celebra- Still, in tutional and national leadership,” she said. we simply must increase opportunities tory breakfast, which also featured musi- the larger context, the president had The title for this year’s King celebra- for minority faculty, students and staff,” cal selections by the MIT Gospel Choir some good news to report: Of new fac- See MLK Hockfield said. and solos by Hiram Ettienne, administra- ulty on campus this year, 11.5 percent are “King urges us to walk together,” she tive assistant in electrical engineering members of underrepresented minority Page 6 Dresselhaus New analog wins L’Oréal- circuits could UNESCO Award impact consumer MIT Institute Professor Mildred Dres- electronics selhaus is the North American winner of a 2007 L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women Advances in digital electronic circuits in Science. have prompted the boost in functions and She and four other recipients, each ever-smaller size of such popular consum- representing a different continent, were er goods as digital cameras, MP3 players named at a ceremony Feb. 22 at UNESCO and digital televisions. But the same can- House in Paris where Sir Lindsay Owen- not be said of the older analog circuits in Jones, chair of the same devices, which process natu- L’Oréal, and ral sights and sounds in the real world. Koïchiro Mat- Because analog circuits haven’t enjoyed a suura, direc- similar rate of progress, they are draining tor-general of power and causing other bottlenecks in UNESCO, pre- improved consumer electronic devices. sented each lau- Now MIT engineers have devised new reate with her analog circuits they hope will change that. $100,000 award. They reported the work at the Interna- Dresselhaus tional Solid State Circuits Conference was selected for (ISSCC) in San Francisco Feb. 11-15. “conceptualiz- “During the past several decades engi- IMAGE COURTESY / NASA/JPL-CALTECH/T. PYLE (SSC) ing the creation neers have focused on allowing signals to of carbon nano- This artist’s concept shows a cloudy Jupiter-like planet, similar to HD 209458b, that be processed and stored in digital forms,” Mildred Dresselhaus tubes,” accord- orbits very close to its fiery hot star. said Hae-Seung Lee, a professor in MIT’s ing to L’Oréal Microsystems Technology Laboratories and UNESCO (United Nations Education- (MTL) and the Department of Electri- al, Scientific and Cultural Organization). Extrasolars’ light guides atmosphere research cal Engineering and Computer Science Due to their small size, high strength and (EECS). “But most real-world signals are electrical conductivity, carbon nanotubes Anne Trafton researchers used NASA’s Spitzer Space analog signals, so analog circuits are an are ideal for new materials used in objects News Office Telescope to capture the most detailed essential part of most electronic systems.” such as lightweight bicycles and flat-panel information yet about an extrasolar Analog circuits are used to amplify, screens. planet. process and filter analog signals and con- A native of Bronx, N.Y., Dresselhaus So far, astronomers have discovered Seager’s team is one of three that are vert them to digital signals, or vice versa, has conducted scientific research for more about 200 planets outside our solar reporting spectral observations of extra- so the real world and electronic devices than four decades. An MIT professor of system, known as “extrasolar” plan- solar planets this week. Two groups can talk to each other. Analog signals are physics and electrical engineering, she ets. Very little is known about most of studied HD 209458b, and one stud- continuous and they vary in size, whereas received her Ph.D. from the University of them, but for the first time, scientists ied another planet in a different solar digital signals have specific or discrete Chicago. She began her MIT career at the have obtained new information about system. The work by Seager’s team is values. Lincoln Laboratory studying superconduc- the atmospheres of two such planets reported in the Feb. 22 issue of Nature. The reason the two different types of tivity; she later switched to magneto-optics, by splitting apart the light emitted from Astronomers often learn about dis- electronic signal circuits did not advance carrying out a series of experiments that them. tant objects, such as stars and galaxies, at the same pace, Lee said, is because they led to a fundamental understanding of the Sara Seager, MIT associate professor by studying the composition of light are very different. Digital circuits can be electronic structure of semimetals, espe- of earth, atmospheric and planetary sci- emitted by them, Seager said. But extra- decreased in size more easily, for exam- cially graphite. ences, is part of a research group based solar planets are much dimmer than ple, by using the popular complementa- Dresselhaus was the first tenured at Goddard Space Flight Center that ry metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) studied a planet about 904 trillion miles See PLANETS See DRESSELHAUS from Earth, known as HD 209458b. The Page 4 See CIRCUITS Page 6 Page 4 NEWS RESEARCH HUMANITIES

FRANCIS E. LOW DIES THE UPSIDE OF WRINKLES MIT SLOAN ALUM WINS MUH The physicist and former provost was 85. New polymer ‘skin’ will aid bioengineering. Arts manager Michael Kaiser will give annual talk. Page 2 Page 4 Page 7

MIT, ABU DHABI ENERGY SIGN AGREEMENT GLOBAL WARMING COMES HOME WAR TRILOGY COMPLETED Institute of Science and Technology is first of its kind Researchers see signs in metro Boston’s flora and Laura Harrington’s study of war culminates in ‘N.’ in the region. fauna. Page 7 Page 3 Page 8 PAGE 2 February 28, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk

Francis E. Low, theoretical physicist DIGITALK: WHERE IT’S AT Prep computers for and former provost, dies at 85 daylight saving time The Energy Policy Act of 2005 Francis E. Low, a retired MIT physicist and provost Before becoming provost, he directed MIT’s Center changed the dates of daylight sav- who worked on the Manhattan Project, died of heart fail- for Theoretical Physics and the Laboratory for Nuclear ing time this year. It will start three ure on Feb. 16 at a retirement home in Haverford, Pa. He Science. An Institute Professor, he retired from MIT weeks earlier (March 11) and end was 85. in 1991 but continued to teach physics for a few more one week later (Nov. 4) than last year. These date “Francis was a hero of the physics department,” said years. changes may impact your operating system and current department head Marc Kastner. “His theoretical “Low’s career spanned enormous changes in what it some software. ideas shaped much of modern particle physics as well as meant to be a physicist. When he began his training in If you run a current operating system (Mac OS condensed matter physics, and he was a wise, the late 1930s, physics was still treated as just X 10.4; Windows XP or Vista; Linux Red Hat Enter- generous colleague who helped many of us one subject among many. Yet soon after that, prise 4) and subscribe to an auto update service, you when we were starting our careers at MIT.” thanks to their wartime service, physicists’ should be set. If you don’t subscribe or you have an Low described his teaching and interac- roles expanded dramatically. They became earlier operating system, your date-time stamp may tions with students as highlights in his long administrators, consultants, even political not automatically update on Sunday, March 11 at career. His former students include Alan Guth forces to be reckoned with. Francis excelled 2 a.m. You will then need to manually set the date- (Ph.D. 1972), the Victor F. Weisskopf Profes- in each of these roles, while making several time stamp. sor of Physics at MIT; Mitchell Feigenbaum lasting contributions to physics itself. He has If you use TechTime for calendaring, IS&T (Ph.D. 1970), the Toyota Professor of Math- left an impressive legacy of ideas and of stu- advises that you cross-check your calendar pages for ematical Physics at the Rockefeller University; dents,” said David Kaiser, associate professor the weeks of March 11 through April 1 and the week and Susan Coppersmith (S.B. 1978), professor of science, technology and society. of Oct. 29 with your reserved calendar snapshot on of physics at the University of Wisconsin at In 1969, he became a founding member the web at calendar-too.mit.edu. This snapshot dis- Madison. of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He plays the times you originally entered in TechTime, Low, who was Guth’s Ph.D. advisor, “com- served as chair for a short period but stepped before IS&T applied a vendor patch on Feb. 19. Note bined a sharp intuition with a powerful calcula- Francis E. Low down over a disagreement with members who that TechTime will correctly handle the time for any tional ability, and with these talents he contrib- refused to study whether nuclear reactors meetings you scheduled after Feb. 19. uted enormously to the foundations of theoretical physics. could be made safe and reliable. To learn more about the impact of daylight He delighted in learning new skills, from flying an airplane During World War II, Low worked on the mathemat- saving time changes on computer systems to playing the piano to composing music. Francis was a ics of uranium enrichment processes for the Manhattan and applications, visit web.mit.edu/ist/topics/ wonderful person and physicist, and I feel very lucky to Project at the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. He os/dst.html. If you have questions, contact have had a chance to absorb some of his zest, wisdom and left the project to join the Army’s 10th Mountain Division the Help Desk at [email protected] or inspiration,” Guth said. in Europe. He served as a mule driver and later as an artil- x3-1101. Low joined MIT’s physics department in 1957 and lery surveyor. served as provost from 1980 to 1985. During that time, he After the war, Low went to Columbia University, where MIT Medical launches Patient Online encouraged a prominent role for the humanities in MIT’s he earned his Ph.D. in physics in 1950, followed by post- You can now connect with MIT Medical at any curriculum. He was also proud that MIT became affiliated doctoral work at the Institute for Advanced Study in hour to manage many details of your medical care. with the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research dur- Princeton. He spent a few years teaching at the University Patient Online lets you send messages to your clini- ing his tenure as provost, according to his daughter, Mar- of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before arriving at MIT. cian, access your health history, request an appoint- garet Low Smith. Low, who grew up in Manhattan, married his wife, ment or renew a prescription, all from the conve- Paul Gray, MIT president emeritus, said of Low, “This Natalie Sadigur Low, in 1948. After she died in 2004, he nience of your web browser. Patient Online is both world-class theoretical physicist proved to be an adept and moved from Belmont, Mass., to Haverford. secure and confidential: It upholds MIT Medical’s skillful leader. The faculty of the Institute and I are much He had a pilot’s license, enjoyed tennis and was a gifted strict privacy standards and complies with federal in his debt for his willingness to undertake service to this piano player, known among friends for his ability to sing regulations. special place.” and play tunes by Cole Porter. To register for Patient Online, go to MIT Med- Gray also noted that Low was the “key individual at In addition to his daughter, he is survived by another ical’s home page at web.mit.edu/medical/login. MIT in planning, developing and negotiating all the critical daughter, Julie; a son, Peter; and six grandsons. html. Once you have an account, you can access the elements” in establishing the Whitehead Institute for Bio- A memorial service at MIT will be scheduled at a later Online Front Desk to request, reschedule or cancel medical Research 25 years ago. date. appointments or to update your contact information. The Online Consultation Room lets you communi- cate privately with your clinician and his or her staff Vest is awarded Abelson Prize for service to society about routine medical issues. You can also request prescription renewals and review your medications, Charles M. Vest, MIT president emeritus, has been He now serves on an advisory committee on transforma- list of allergies and immunization history. If you awarded the 2006 AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize for tional diplomacy for the U.S. Secretary of State and on the have questions about registering for or using Patient his outstanding contributions to public policy, education Secure Borders and Open Doors Advisory Committee of Online, e-mail [email protected]. and university research. the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Vest is a “leading voice in the ongoing conversation The Abelson Prize was inspired by Philip Hauge Abel- Technotrash becomes Technocycle about the future of American research universities and son, who served as long-time senior adviser to AAAS. Due to the strong interest on campus in recy- has offered sound counsel to policymakers on some of the “Chuck Vest has epitomized Phil Abelson’s view of the cling technological materials, the MIT Department toughest issues confronting the nation,” said Alan I. Lesh- citizen-scientist,” said Leshner. of Facilities has revamped its Technotrash program. ner, chief executive officer of the American Association Vest earned his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering Now called Technocycle, the initiative features for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive from West Virginia University in 1963 and his M.S. and recycling bins in local mailrooms around campus. publisher of Science. Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan in 1964 Community members can discard cell phones, While serving as president of MIT from 1990 to 2004, and 1967, respectively. He is the recipient of 10 honorary PDAs, pagers, diskettes, CDs, tapes, keyboards Vest worked to strengthen gov- doctoral degrees. and rechargeable batteries in these bins. Be sure, ernment-university-industry Vest, whose academic specialty was applied optics, says though, to delete any sensitive data before you toss! relations and helped bring edu- he enjoyed teaching and doing research. But he took the Facilities also plans to put Technocycle bins in cation and research issues to post of associate dean of the University of Michigan’s Col- strategic public places on campus. Once these loca- broader public attention. He put lege of Engineering at the behest of a colleague and found tions are finalized, Facilities will post the informa- special emphasis on undergrad- that he liked administrative work. tion at web.mit.edu/facilities/environmental/reuse. uate education in science and Asked by an interviewer in 2005 whether his back- html#technocycle. engineering and also stressed ground in engineering prepared him for his 14-year ten- If you have a large amount of tech material to the importance of racial and ure as MIT president, Vest answered that an analytical recycle, call x3-6360 or e-mail [email protected] to cultural diversity among facul- approach can be helpful in defining and breaking down a arrange for a pickup. ty and students at MIT, AAAS problem. “But frankly,” he said, “fostering the careers of materials stated. young people is a thrill.” Sign up for security alerts Vest, who has been nominat- Vest also spoke of the changes for MIT and other Awareness is the key to prevention. With so ed to be the next president of institutions in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, with many security risks associated with computing now- Charles M. Vest the National Academy of Engi- much more attention focused on scholars and students adays, it’s essential that you keep up to date. To neering, chaired the President’s from abroad who seek visas to live and study in the Unit- receive the latest news on this front, be sure to sub- Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station ed States. “My view is that it is the government’s role scribe to IS&T’s Security-FYI e-mail newsletter. Its and serves on the President’s Committee of Advisors on to decide who comes to this country as an employee or new format provides short summaries on software Science and Technology. He chaired the U.S. Department scholar or student, but once they are admitted we should security patches and virus alerts, a safe computing of Energy Task Force on the Future of DOE Science Pro- be able on our campuses to treat everybody exactly the tip, and any IT-security news that’s relevant to MIT grams, was vice chair of the Council on Competitiveness same way,” Vest said. He said it is essential that “we keep community members. To sign up for this informa- for eight years and is a past chair of the Association of filling the bucket of new knowledge and new technology.” tive and timely newsletter, go to mailman.mit.edu/ American Universities. The Abelson Prize is awarded annually to either a pub- mailman/listinfo/ist-security-fyi. Vest also served as a member of the Commission on lic servant or to a scientist whose career has been dis- Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding tinguished both for scientific achievement and for other Digitalk is compiled by Information Services and Weapons of Mass Destruction and on the U.S. Secretary notable services to the scientific community. The prize Technology. of Education’s Commission on the Future of Education. consists of a plaque and an honorarium of $5,000.

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- News Office Interim News Manager ...... Sarah H. Wright office/techtalk-info.html. The News Office is in Room 11-400, Massachusetts Institute of Editor Senior Communications Officer ...... Patti Richards Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Telephone: 617-253-2700 Sarah H. Wright Senior Science and Postmaster: Send address changes to Mail Services, Building WW15, Massachusetts E-mail: [email protected] Engineering Editor ...... Elizabeth Thomson Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Photojournalist 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 Reporter/Writer ...... Sash a Brown Tech Talk is distributed free to faculty and staff offices and residence halls. It is also avail- able free in the News Office and the Information Center. Office of the Arts Production Operations/Financial Administrator ...... Myles Crowley Anne Trafton Administrative Assistant II ...... Mary Anne Hansen Domestic mail subscriptions are $25 per year, nonrefundable. Checks should be made http://web.mit.edu/arts Administrative Assistant II ...... Patti Foley payable to MIT and mailed to Business Manager, Room 11-400, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Computer Support Assistant ...... Roger Donaghy 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 February 28, 2007 PAGE 3 MIT, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company sign cooperative agreement Effort will help establish region’s first research-driven grad program

MIT and the Abu Dhabi Future Energy nucleus of the Masdar Initiative, feeding Company (ADFEC) announced Sunday it with talent and innovative technologies the signing of a cooperative agreement to enhance economic development and preparing the way for MIT’s Technology promote new industries using renewable and Development Program to help develop energy and resources in the emirate and the Masdar Institute of Science and Tech- the region,” said Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of nology in Abu Dhabi. ADFEC. “This cooperative agreement will The agreement paves the way for MIT lead to a superior relationship between faculty, coordinated by MIT’s Technology the Masdar Institute and MIT to jointly and Development Program, to assist Mas- address global energy issues.” dar in the development of a postgraduate Al Jaber highlighted the importance of educational and research institute, making developing indigenous R&D capabilities in it the first institution dedicated to research- Abu Dhabi to address issues of particu- driven graduate programs in the region. lar regional importance, such as energy, The Masdar Institute of Science and water and sustainability. “The guiding Technology is envisioned as the center- philosophy of Masdar is to transform the piece of a multifaceted, regional economic natural resource wealth of the country to PHOTO / DAN BERSAK development program—the Masdar Initia- a long-term, sustainable knowledge econ- Zachary LaBry, a junior in aeronautics and astronautics, listens to information on a student- tive—announced in April 2006 by the Abu omy through the development of human led effort to bring biodiesel to campus at the second Re-Generator event on energy Dhabi government. capital that can effectively compete in the initiatives. “MIT faculty and staff will provide global marketplace,” he added. advice, scholarly assessment and assis- The collaborative research programs tance in connection with the establish- between MIT and the Masdar Institute Re-Generator event focuses on ment of the Masdar Institute,” said MIT will be interdisciplinary and will focus on Chancellor Phillip Clay. “This includes areas central to the mission of the Masdar working with ADFEC to develop collab- Initiative’s goal of diversifying the region’s student energy initiatives orative research and create indigenous economy. academic programs, to create a strategy The Masdar Institute will operate as an Deborah Halber visualize campus energy use, building by for commercializing Masdar Institute’s independent, nonprofit research and edu- News Office Correspondent building. research results and to build the insti- cational institution, conducting courses • Campus Building Energy Audits tute’s organizational and administrative in English and offering postgraduate seeks to motivate behavioral change and capabilities.” degrees to men and women in the United Dozens turned out for the second event identify building and system improve- Efforts are presently under way for Arab Emirates, Middle East, North Africa seeking to broaden student involvement in ments by gathering information—and pro- MIT faculty to assist Masdar with recruit- and the South Asian region. It will aug- a variety of energy-related campus initia- viding it to the energy mapping group and ing faculty and administrators, developing ment academic resources of the region by tives. MIT Facilities—on how energy is used in joint research and designing educational providing a suitable vehicle for expand- The first MIT Generator, held last buildings and modeling how that usage programs. Student recruitment will follow. ing R&D, developing strategic alliances November, brought together working might be affected if improvements such as The Masdar Institute plans to admit its with global corporations, providing entre- groups and individuals who shared the replacing windows were made. first postgraduate students in Abu Dhabi preneurial opportunities for startups and goal of making MIT a more environmen- • Closing the Loop wants to provide in the summer of 2009. training and educating a work force to tally and energy-friendly place. instant feedback on how our “The Masdar Institute will serve as the compete in the global market. The Re-Generator was held actions affect the planet. A Feb. 12 in the Stata Center. “sticker blitz” on everything After hearing presentations from lights to water heaters to from groups whose efforts revolving doors, for instance, range from pasting energy- could let people know that awareness stickers on light using the revolving door switches to developing tools would save enough energy to track building energy use, to light a 60-watt bulb for 23 Zachary LaBry, a junior in minutes. aeronautics and astronautics, • The Indicators Work- sought information on an effort ing Group will assess “walk to bring biodiesel to campus. the talk” efforts on campus “I’m interested in alternative and measure MIT’s progress fuels,” he said. Sherwin Greenblatt against that of other universi- The following working ties through a biannual “MIT groups presented information and solic- Sustainability Report.” ited new members: • The Campus Visioning project seeks • Biodiesel@MIT seeks to bring a a way to create steps to enact and evaluate biodiesel processor to campus to turn used MIT’s long-range environmental imprint PHOTO / PAYAM ROUHANI vegetable oil from campus dining facilities through 2050. into fuel for campus vehicles. • RecycleMania@MIT 2007 is MIT’s Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company CEO Sultan Al Jaber, left, and MIT Chancellor Phillip • The MIT Dorm Electricity Compe- entry in a national competition involving Clay prepare to sign the cooperative agreement. tition offers $10,000 in energy-efficiency more than 200 colleges and universities improvements to the dorm that shows the trying to generate the largest total of recy- greatest percentage reduction in electric- cled material. ity per student from March 9 to May 4. • The Laboratory for Energy and the Faculty discuss widening international programs • The Sustainable Transportation Environment and the Environmental Pro- Deborah Halber during his or her four years at MIT. Through Policy class aims to evaluate and grams Office sponsor several campus News Office Correspondent One committee member said that recommend alternative commuter and sustainability UROPs each semester for because MIT is a global institution, it’s business-related transportation policies for hands-on projects on topics as diverse as important for undergraduates to under- the MIT campus. energy conservation in laboratories to A faculty committee looking into ways stand very different learning and work • The Energy Mapping Working Group See REGENERATOR to expand MIT students’ access to cross- styles and gain a global toolkit that seeks to identify ways to reduce MIT ener- Page 8 cultural and international experiences includes a competency to work in other gy consumption by developing tools to recommended doubling existing opportu- cultures and to develop leadership skills nities from around 300 to 600 by the 2008- across cultures. 2009 academic year. The goal is to eventu- While MIT already provides such Team unlocks genetic basis of Type 2 diabetes ally increase by a factor of three or four opportunities through MIT Interna- Researchers from the Broad Institute shuler, the director of the Program in the 15 percent of MIT student who cur- tional Science and Technology Initiatives of MIT and Harvard, Lund University and Medical and Population Genetics at the rently take advantage of such experiences. (MISTI), the Cambridge/MIT Exchange Novartis have announced the completion Broad Institute and an associate profes- Linn W. Hobbs, professor of materi- and other programs, Hobbs and Sive of a genome-wide map of genetic differ- sor at Massachusetts General Hospital als science and nuclear engineering, and acknowledged there are barriers to par- ences in humans and their relationship to and Harvard Medical School. “Since dia- Hazel L. Sive, professor of biology, report- ticipation. These include a lack of student Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic dis- betes and cardiovascular risk factors are ed the recommendations at the Feb. 21 awareness of the programs, a limited orders. influenced by many genes, environment faculty meeting, where the faculty contin- number of slots, lack of flexibility to miss All results of the analysis are accessi- and behavior, these powerful new tools ued its discussion of the recommendations a semester on campus, lack of encour- ble, free of charge, on the Internet to sci- are required to pick up the effect of any of the MIT Task Force on the Undergradu- agement by mentors and a financial pen- entists around the world. one genetic risk factor.” ate Educational Commons. alty for the large number of students who The work is the result of a pioneering As a so-called “complex” disease, Type If approved, the changes to MIT’s contribute to their tuition by working on public-private collaboration known as the 2 diabetes is influenced by several genetic undergraduate curriculum will be the most campus. To address some of these con- Diabetes Genetics Initiative (DGI), which factors that, when combined, can signifi- far-reaching of the past half-century. cerns, the global MIT web site is now live was formed in 2004 and is aimed at deci- cantly increase a person’s risk of disease, Among other recommendations, the internally. phering the genetic causes of Type 2 dia- but alone exert only small effects. Initial task force endorsed an increased role for The committee also recommended the betes. Although Type 2 diabetes clearly analyses of the data generated by the DGI international educational experiences in development of an umbrella global educa- runs in families, suggesting the impor- reflect this complexity. the undergraduate years. tion program and the creation of an Office tance of inherited factors, its genetic ori- Given the subtle nature of each genetic Noting that new MIT models for glob- of Global Education to advertise and gins remain largely unclear. variation and the importance of subse- al experiences currently exist in pilot facilitate international and cross-cultural “The Human Genome Project, Hap- quent scientific validation and replication, phases, ready to be expanded, the com- education. Map database and new genomic tools the partnership’s conclusions have yet mittee recommended a fivefold increase in In previous meetings, the faculty voted have made it possible for the first time to be released, pending peer-review and opportunities to around 1,500 by the 2010- to elicit campus-wide feedback on the task to screen the genome for DNA variations publication. However, scientists worldwide 2011 academic year, which would provide that contribute to common diseases,” can access the data without delay at www. almost every undergraduate a chance to See FACULTY said principal investigator David Alt- broad.mit.edu/diabetes/. work, travel or study abroad at some point Page 6 PAGE 4 February 28, 2007 RESEARCH MIT Tech Talk Wrinkled ‘skin’ widens bioengineers’ scope Scientists, including one affiliated archical nested wrinkles—along desired with MIT, have demonstrated a new paths. Specific examples to date include method for developing wrinkled hard “S” shapes, circular patterns and long skins on polymers using a focused ion horizontal channels akin to the repeating beam. tines of a closed zipper. The technique has potential use for “Irradiation by the ion beam alters biological sensors and microfluidic devic- the chemical composition of the polymer es, and it may offer new ways to build close to its surface and forms a thin stiff custom-made cell templates for tissue skin, which wants to expand,” said Vaziri. engineering. “The consequent mismatch between the The work, a collaboration among mechanical strain of the generated stiff researchers at MIT, Harvard University skin and the underlying polymeric sub- and Seoul National University, was pub- strate, almost like a tug-of-war, buckles lished in a recent issue of the Proceed- the skin and forms the wrinkle patterns.” ings of the National Academy of Scienc- Such patterns can be used in the es. The researchers have also filed for a construction of microfluidic devices for U.S. patent covering the discovery. particle separation and mixture and also By controlling the direction and have potential use in designing biosen- intensity of the ion beam, the research- sors. The researchers have also started ers literally sculpted patterns on flat a close collaboration with scientists at areas of polydimethylsiloxane, a silicon- the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sci- based organic polymer more commonly ences and Technology aimed at explor- known as the primary ingredient in Silly ing the behavior of living cells on these Putty®. patterned substrates. Such research may “This technique is a one-step process lead to the development of an effective for creating wrinkled skins,” said Ash- and robust method to build custom tem- kan Vaziri, a research affiliate in MIT’s plates for engineering and growing tis- Biological Engineering Division. “The sues. method is more robust compared with Vaziri’s co-authors are Professor John traditional techniques. The patterns can Hutchinson and Myoung-Woon Moon of be generated along desired paths by sim- Harvard, and Sang Hoon Lee, Jeong-Yun ply controlling the relative movement of Sun and Kyu Hwan Oh, all from Seoul the ion beam and polymeric substrate. National University. It’s almost like using an airbrush on fab- The research was supported in part by ric. At a smaller scale the desired mor- the Korea Research Foundation, the Cen- phology of wrinkles can be achieved by ter for Advanced Materials Processing controlling the ion beam intensity.” (part of the 21st Century Frontier R&D Because only the areas exposed to the Program), the Office of Naval Research beam are affected, the method enabled and Harvard Engineering and Applied PHOTO COURTESY / MOON, ET AL. the scientists to create a variety of pat- Sciences. terns—from simple one-dimensional --Michael Patrick Rutter, A focused ion beam induced this wrinkled hard skin on a polymer surface. The wrinkles are wrinkles to peculiar and complex hier- Harvard University hierarchical with the primary wavelength of 465 nanometers. PLANETS Continued from Page 1 already knew that HD 209458b had sodi- um, hydrogen, helium and carbon in its stars and thus far more difficult to study. atmosphere. They also expected it to have Light from extrasolar planets is “very, water vapor, but the Goddard spectral anal- very hard to measure because the stars ysis did not show any signs of water vapor are so bright and the planets are faint. in the atmosphere. Scientists did not find This planet is right at the edge of what we traces of water vapor in the atmosphere of can detect with this telescope,” said Sea- HD 189733b either. ger, who arrived at MIT in January to start “That doesn’t mean water vapor’s not a program devoted to studying extrasolar there, but it means the atmosphere is planets. behaving differently than expected,” The study appearing in Nature was led Seager said. by Jeremy Richardson of the Goddard The Goddard team’s other major find- Space Flight Center near Baltimore, Md. ing was evidence of sandy particles known The three studies as silicates in the mark the first time atmosphere of HD a telescope has cap- 209458b. NASA sci- tured enough light entists hypothesize to detect traces of that clouds of those molecules in an particles could be PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY extrasolar planet’s blocking emissions atmosphere. from water vapors. MIT professor Hae-Seung Lee and his colleagues have developed new analog circuits— “This is an amaz- Another team comparator-based switched capacitor circuits—that handle voltage differently than con- ing surprise,” said that studied HD ventional analog ones, resulting in greater power efficiency. Spitzer Project Sci- 209458b, based at entist Michael Wer- JPL obtained similar ner of NASA’s Jet results. Propulsion Labora- The Goddard CIRCUITS tory (JPL) in Pasa- team recorded its Continued from Page 1 To compensate for these shortcomings, dena, Calif. “We had data during two analog circuits must consume much more no idea when we eclipses of HD technology. And much of the design and power, thus draining precious energy designed Spitzer 209458b, each of performance enhancement can actually from batteries. that it would make which lasted for be done by computer software rather In addition, it still is not clear whether such a dramatic step about three hours. than by a human. That’s not the case with traditional operational amplifier-based cir- in characterizing By subtracting analog circuits, which Lee said require cuits can be applied to emerging technolo- exoplanets.” the light that was clever designs by humans to be improved gies such as carbon nanotube-nanowire Studying light emitted by the sun because of their variable nature. devices and molecular devices. spectra only works Sara Seager alone from the light “There is a lot of room for innovation in Lee’s research group, in collaboration with so-called “tran- of the planet and the human design,” he said. “The impor- with Professor Charles Sodini’s group in sit planets”—planets sun together, the tance of analog circuits is growing in light MIT’s MTL and EECS, recently demon- whose orbits carry them in front of their researchers obtained a spectrum of light of the digital improvements, so engineers strated a new class of analog circuits that sun when viewed from our solar system. from the planet itself. can make a difference in products by Lee said eliminates operational amplifiers HD 209458b, discovered in 1999 in the After the infrared light was captured, working on them.” Currently, analog cir- while maintaining virtually all benefits of constellation Pegasus, was the first of 14 it was separated into its component wave- cuits are rather expensive and they con- operational amplifier-based circuits. These such planets that have been found. lengths, the same way a prism diffracts sume a disproportionate amount of power new comparator-based switched capacitor Only a few of those planets, includ- light into a rainbow. Signatures at different compared with digital circuits. (CBSC) circuits handle voltage differently ing HD 209458b, are bright enough for wavelengths represent emissions from dif- Another blow to analog circuits is that than conventional analog ones, resulting the spectral studies to yield useful data. ferent chemical compounds present in the the advancements in fabrication (manu- in greater power efficiency. A research group at Caltech is reporting atmosphere. facturing) technology to improve digital Lee said CBSC may enable high-per- spectral observations of another such plan- The new results offer hope of finding circuits have had a negative impact on formance analog circuits in emerging et, known as HD 189733b. Both planets and analyzing other planets, including them. Traditionally, many conventional technologies because it would be easier to are classified as “hot Jupiters,” meaning smaller, rocky planets like Earth. analog circuits have relied upon devices implement comparators than operational they are large and gaseous, like Jupiter. “It’s very hard to find Earth-like planets known as operational amplifiers. Two neg- amplifiers in these technologies. Temperatures on HD 209458b range because they’re too small. But that’s the ative side effects that advanced fabrica- The first prototype MIT CBSC was from 1100 to 1600 degrees Kelvin, and the ultimate goal,” said Seager. tion technologies have had on operational demonstrated in an analog-to-digital con- planet is so close to its sun that it takes Seager’s team’s research was funded by amplifier-based analog circuits are that verter and presented at 2006 ISSCC. The only three and a half days to complete its NASA, the Goddard Center for Astrobiol- when used in consumer or other devices, orbit. ogy, the Spitzer Theory Program and the they have reduced the range of the analog See CIRCUITS From previous observations, scientists Carnegie Institute of Washington. signal and decreased the device’s gain. Page 6 MIT Tech Talk RESEARCH February 28, 2007 PAGE 5 Computer model mimics how the brain recognizes objects Cathryn M. Delude turns computer vision from a trick into rons process input and output stimuli the cognitive centers. This slower form of McGovern Institute something really useful,” said co-author according to neural recordings in physi- object recognition provides time for con- Stanley Bileschi, a postdoctoral associate ological labs. text and reflection, such as: If I see a car, it in the Poggio lab. must be on the road and not in the sky. For the first time, MIT scientists have Making it more useful Giving the model the ability to recog- applied a computer model of how the brain Recognizing scenes The model used in the street scene nize such semantic features will empower processes visual information to a complex, The IEEE paper describes how the application mimics only the computations it for broader applications, including man- real-world task: recognizing the objects in team “showed” the model randomly select- the brain uses for rapid object recognition. a busy street scene. The researchers were ed images so that it could “learn” to iden- The lab is now elaborating the model to See SURVEILLANCE pleasantly surprised at the power of this tify commonly occurring features in real- include the brain’s feedback loops from Page 6 new approach. world objects such as trees and people. “People have been talking about com- In so-called supervised training sessions, puters imitating the brain for a long time,” the model used those features to label said Tomaso Poggio, the Eugene McDer- by category examples of objects found in mott Professor of Brain and Cognitive digital photographs of street scenes, such Sciences and a member of the McGovern as buildings and cars. The photographs Institute for Brain Research at MIT. “That derive from a street scene database com- was Alan Turing’s original motivation in piled by Bileschi. the 1940s. But in the last 50 years, compu- Compared to traditional computer- ter science and AI (artificial intelligence) vision systems, the biological model was have developed independently of neuro- surprisingly versatile. Traditional systems science.” are engineered for specific object classes. “Our work is biologically inspired com- For instance, systems engineered to detect puter science,” said Poggio, who is also faces or recognize textures are poor at co-director of the Center for Biological and detecting cars. In the biological model, the Computational Learning. same algorithm can learn to detect widely IMAGES COURTESY / STANLEY BILESCHI, MCGOVERN INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN RESEARCH AT MIT “We developed a model of the visual different types of objects. system that was meant to be useful for neu- To test the model, the team presented An MIT model for object recognition takes as input the unlabeled images of digital roscientists in designing and interpreting full street scenes consisting of previously photographs from the street scene database (left) and generates automatic annota- experiments, but that also could be used unseen examples from the street scene tions (right). The orange bounding boxes are for pedestrians (‘ped’) and cars (‘car’). for computer science,” said Thomas Serre, database. The model scanned the scene The system would have also detected bicycles if present. For sky, buildings, trees a postdoctoral associate in Poggio’s lab and, based on its supervised training, and road, the system uses color coding (blue, brown, green and grey). and lead author of a paper on the work in recognized the objects in the scene. The the March 2007 IEEE Transactions on Pat- upshot is that the model was able to learn tern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. from examples: This, according to Poggio, “We chose street scene recognition as is a hallmark of artificial intelligence. an example because it has a restricted set of object categories, and it has practical Modeling object recognition social applications,” said Serre. Teaching a computer how to recog- Near-term applications include popula- nize objects has been exceedingly diffi- tion surveillance and assistance for auto- cult because a computer model has two mobile drivers; eventually, applications paradoxical goals. It needs to create a rep- could include visual search engines, bio- resentation for a particular object that is medical imaging analysis and robots with very specific, such as a horse as opposed realistic vision. On the neuroscience end, to a cow or a unicorn. At the same time the this research is essential for designing representation must be sufficiently “invari- augmented sensory prostheses, such as ant” so as to discard meaningless changes ones that could replicate the computa- in pose, illumination and other variations tions carried by damaged nerves from the in appearances. retina. Even a child’s brain handles these “And once you have a good model contradictory tasks easily in rapid object of how the human brain works,” Serre recognition. Pixel-like information enters explained, “you can break it to mimic a from the retina and passes through the brain disorder.” One brain disorder that hierarchical architecture of the visual cor- involves distortions in visual percep- tex. What makes the Poggio lab’s model PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY tion is schizophrenia, but nobody under- so innovative and powerful is that, compu- stands the neurobiological basis for those tationally speaking, it mimics the brain’s Tomaso A. Poggio, professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (left), and postdocs distortions. own hierarchy. Specifically, the “layers” Thomas Serres and Stanley Bileschi (right), stand in front of a street scene. “The versatility of the biological model within the model replicate the way neu- Data suggest a genetic link for schizophrenia Deborah Halber problems that characterize schizophrenia. News Office Correspondent The researchers confirmed that the PPP3CC gene is involved in diagnosed schizophrenia in Caucasian, African- Gene mutations governing a key American and Japanese individuals. EGR3 brain enzyme make people susceptible involvement was confirmed through a sep- to schizophrenia and may be targeted in arate test. future treatments for the psychiatric ill- “These data suggest that the brain ness, according to MIT and Japanese signals governed by calcineurin stand at researchers. a convergent point of the molecular dis- The work, by scientists from MIT’s ease pathology of schizophrenia, and the Picower Institute for Learning and Memo- involvement of the EGR genes reinforces ry and Japan’s RIKEN Brain Science Insti- this,” said co-author Takeo Yoshikawa of tute, was reported in the early online edi- the RIKEN Brain Science Institute. This tion of the Proceedings of the knowledge could lead to new National Academy of Sciences schizophrenia therapeutics on Feb. 20. targeting the calcineurin sys- According to the National tem, he said. Institute for Mental Health, an “This study provides genet- estimated 51 million people ic and biological evidence that worldwide suffer from schizo- PPP3CC and EGR3, both con- PHOTO / STEPHANIE SCHOROW phrenia. Although 80 percent stituents of the calcineurin sig- Scot Osterweil, creative director of the CMS Education Arcade, shows freshman Paul of schizophrenia cases appear naling pathway, may indepen- Medlock-Walton a game designed to teach math and literacy to middle school students. to be inherited, the specific dently elicit increased risk for genetic components underly- schizophrenia,” said co-author ing individuals’ susceptibil- Susumu Tonegawa, Picower CMS fetes digital games, cultural research ity and pathology are largely Professor of Biology and Neu- unknown. roscience at MIT. “These find- Stephanie Schorow of course, food competed for table space. By studying genetically Susumu Tonegawa ings raised a novel and poten- News Office Correspondent “Grab a stress bulb,” CMS undergradu- engineered mice and the tially important role for EGR ate administrator Generoso Fierro told genetic makeup of schizophrenic individu- genes in schizophrenia pathogenesis.” passersby as he handed out squeezable als, the MIT and Japanese scientists pin- In addition to Yoshikawa and Tonega- The students, staff and faculty of MIT’s canary-colored toy light bulbs, stamped pointed the PPP3CC gene and other genes wa, authors are Kazuo Yamada, Yoshimi Comparative Media Studies program with “Comparative Media Studies.” in the early growth response (EGR) gene Iwayama, Tetsuo Ohnishi, Hisako Ohba, showed they could walk the walk and talk Most important, on hand to chat and family (specifically, EGR3) as likely sus- Tomoko Toyota and Jun Aruga of RIKEN the talk of transformative media technol- answer questions were representatives pects for causing the disease. Brain Sciences Institute; David J. Gerber of ogy when they turned the Stata Center of the Convergence Culture Consortium, These genes are critical in the signaling the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and lobby into an attention-grabbing interior New Media Literacies, the Educational pathway for the brain enzyme calcineurin. the RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research landscape on Feb. 22. Arcade, Hyper Studio and other programs Calcineurin is prevalent in the central ner- Center; and Yoshio Minabe of Kanazawa A human-sized comic book hero plac- within CMS, itself part of MIT’s literature vous system, where it plays a role in many University School of Medicine in Japan. ard pointed the way. A three-section slide neuronal functions whose disturbances This work is supported by the RIKEN show filled a wall with moving images of See CMS would play into the disorganized thinking, Brain Science Institute and other agencies CMS projects. Computers, brochures and, Page 6 attention deficits, memory and language and institutes. PAGE 6 February 28, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Panel reviews four centuries of remixing the Bard Robin H. Ray and cross-media practices, historic and the question of whether it is still Shake- pher. Ethan Hawke’s character is based in News Office Correspondent contemporary. She noted that Shake- speare if (as in opera) the plot and words part on the persona of Kurt Cobain, evok- speare himself was not confined to plays have been thoroughly revised and (as in ing alienated youth culture. The young but also wrote lyric and narrative poetry, silent film) if there is no sound. prince, heir to the Denmark Corporation, A Japanese production of “King Lear” and furthermore that rewriting and co- Henderson pointed to recent film ver- is shown filming his environs and his fel- with an all-male cast, a film version of writing were standard practice in the sions of Shakespeare to show “how mal- low characters, constantly editing the foot- “Hamlet” with the Prince of Denmark as Elizabethan theater. “He was certainly leable the boundaries of Shakespeare are age and reviewing it, in a disheveled room video artist and playful reedits of the bal- not the genius figure/scriptural god that and continue to be.” Michael Almareyda’s at the “Hotel Elsinore”—in short, display- cony scene from “Romeo and Juliet” that he became a few hundred years later,” “Hamlet” with Ethan Hawke in the lead ing the kind of endless mulling-over for become YouTube valentines—these are she said. Later, during the Restoration role (2000), another made-for-TV “Hamlet” which his character is famous. just three of the many multimedia and period, Shakespeare’s plays and other starring Campbell Scott (2000) and Paul Other remixings Donaldson highlight- cross-media interpretations of William classics were rewritten to suit contem- Mazursky’s “Tempest” (1982), in which ed were Michael Hoffman’s “A Midsum- Shakespeare’s work that a panel of schol- porary tastes. Most notably, and notori- the Shakespeare script was jettisoned mer Night’s Dream” (1999), suffused with ars discussed at the MIT Communications ously, Nahum Tate rewrote “King Lear” entirely, retaining only the characters and references to opera and self-consciously Forum, “Remixing Shakespeare,” on Feb. to give it a happy ending: King Lear gets a parallel setting, show that “there are a lot parading its anachronistic 19th-century 15. As the participants made clear, rework- the throne back and Edgar and Cornelia of virtues in impurity.” setting, and playful or parodying works, ing Shakespeare across many media is pair up. It is easy to mock such efforts, Peter Donaldson, professor of litera- of which there are hundreds posted on nothing new. Henderson observed, but the historical ture, then took the podium, noting that he the Internet. He screened a remarkable The forum was, in the words of Henry context is key: This plot change “speaks finds it useful to go back to some very old clip of Peter Sellers, dressed and lighted in Jenkins, the John E. Burchard Professor to a generation that has lived through, literary terms in thinking about remixing imitation of Lawrence Olivier’s Richard III, of Literature, who introduced the partici- and perhaps may live through again, they (in film, on the Internet, on stage), namely ponderously reciting the lyrics to “A Hard pants, “an all home-team event, showcas- think, the usurpation of the throne or the metaphor, conceit (extended and elabo- Day’s Night.” ing the literature faculty here at MIT.” killing of the king.” rated metaphor), and allegory. All of these Remixing Shakespeare is alive and Acting as moderator was Mary C. Fuller, The 19th and early 20th centuries concepts, like many of today’s remixes (in well. Said Henderson, “It’s the reason why associate professor of literature. abounded with Shakespeare experimen- hip-hop, for example), are about holding some of us find ourselves spending whole Diana Henderson, professor of lit- tation, including musical versions, opera two things in mind or in view, at once inde- lifetimes looking at Shakespeare, not erature and dean for curriculum and (by Verdi and Gounod, among others) pendently and interactively. just because of a particular play text but faculty support, spoke first and set the and silent film. These genres, examples He took up Almareyda’s “Hamlet” in because these four centuries of the remix stage with a discussion of multimedia of which were screened at the forum, beg detail, focusing on Hamlet as videogra- allow you a reflection of culture at large.” MLK CEHS calls for pilot project proposals DRESSELHAUS The Center for Environmental Health Sci- areas of endeavor to apply their expertise Continued from Page 1 ences at MIT, an interdisciplinary research to environmental health research. Continued from Page 1 center funded by the National Institutes • Provide an opportunity for investiga- tion was “Maximizing Potential: The Con- of Environmental Health Sciences, invites tors to take a multidisciplinary approach woman professor at MIT’s School of Engi- gruence of Diversity and Excellence.” MIT faculty to submit applications for fund- to environmental health research. neering and one of the first women ever Two student speakers reflected on this ing of pilot projects related to environmen- Proposal guidelines: Applicants should to receive a Fulbright Fellowship. She has topic and on King’s life and legacy. tal health research. The center anticipates submit a four-page proposal, which outlines received numerous awards, including the Elizabeth Clay, graduate student in funding five or more projects with a direct the specific aims, background and signifi- U.S. National Medal of Science and 19 urban studies and planning, made an cost of $15,000 to $25,000 each. The dead- cance, and proposed research plan. Please honorary doctorates worldwide. impassioned plea for justice and equity line for submitting proposals is March 1. include a face page with title of project, fac- In addition, Croatian native Petra in cities. “As a Klepac, a graduate student in biology, master’s stu- The pilot program seeks to: ulty name, affiliation, phone and e-mail. • Provide initial support for new inves- Applications should also include a received one of 15 UNESCO-L’Oréal dent in urban international fellowships. She will use the planning, I tigators to establish research in the area of detailed budget and budget justification, environmental health. biographical sketch and other support in $40,000 award to study population dynam- often think ics and optimal control of infectious dis- about what • Allow for exploration of innovative the NIH format (forms are available at new directions representing a significant grants1.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/ eases at Pennsylvania State University. makes a city Along with Dresselhaus, the L’Oréal- great,” she departure from ongoing funded research phs398.html.) for established investigators in the envi- Submit six copies of completed applica- UNESCO laureates include: said. • Latin America: Ligia Gargallo, profes- Cities like ronmental health sciences. tions to Jacqueline Breen, Administrative • Stimulate investigators from other Officer, CEHS, Room 56-235. sor of physical chemistry, Pontifical Catho- New York, lic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. London, Mum- • Africa: Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, bai and São professor of organic chemistry and pro- Paolo, she FACULTY CMS vice-chancellor, University of Mauritius, Tabitha Bonilla said, “all draw Mauritius. from the best Continued from Page 3 Continued from Page 5 • Europe: Tatiana Birshtein, professor, and the brightest, the most creative and Institute of Macromolecular Compounds, the cleverest. New citizens dare to make force’s report. These have focused primar- section. Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Peters- their marks there, and in doing so, make ily on the recommendations regarding The occasion was the CMS Colloquium burg, Russia. those cities wealthy and vibrant. Their math, science and engineering require- special event: “Converging Media: Games, • Asia/Pacific: Margaret Brimble, excellence and their diversity exist in a ments, so faculty chair Steven R. Lerman, Literacy and Culture Research Fair.” professor, chair of organic and medicinal virtuous circle. the Class of 1922 Distinguished Professor “We wanted to show the range of chemistry, University of Auckland, New “But often it is those who bring so of Civil and Environmental Engineering, activities CMS is involved in,” explained Zealand. much to the directed Wednesday’s discussion to the DeFlorez Professor of Humanities Henry Now in its ninth year, the L’Oréal- c i t y … t h a t recommendations on changing the gener- Jenkins. “It’s also a chance to show our UNESCO Award for Women in Science struggle to al Institute requirements within the School students about branding and publicity. We is the only one of its kind to honor emi- afford the city for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sci- always get kids to think about our mes- nent women scientists at the international they helped ences and on international experiences. sages and our role as communicators.” level. The five laureates are nominated by build.” Currently, eight new experimental Of great satisfaction to Geoffrey Long, respected scientists from around the world She cited classes are being developed, some interde- a second-year graduate student, was the and a jury of 14 selects the final recipients. the discrimina- partmental and possibly interschool. timing of the three PowerPoint projectors This year’s jury is presided over by Nobel tion that Latin In a separate agenda item, Provost L. that were showing images of CMS proj- Laureates Christian de Duve of the Insti- A m e r i c a n Rafael Reif said that the names of a core ects in a continuous loop. Each projector tute of Cellular Pathology in Belgium and i m m i g r a n t s group of faculty members who will explore managed, every 30 seconds, to coordinate Pierre-Gilles de Gennes of the Collège de often face in the issues facing faculty from underrepre- the projection of the words “Comparative France in Paris.Three hundred and sixty- the United sented minority groups on campus will be Media Studies” across the wall. two women from 76 countries have been States, for announced soon. The most important goal He hoped that students walking into recognized as L’Oréal-UNESCO laureates Ike Colbert instance. “And is to improve our numbers of underrepre- the fair would get a sense of excitement. or fellows. similar dis- sented minorities, he said, because MIT “The greatest thing about CMS is that The Women in Science program also crimination faces construction workers is committed to understanding the experi- it’s still a small department but it’s the fast- offers an online community, Agora (www. who build the gleaming towers of Mum- ences of minority faculty. est growing undergraduate major,’’ Long agora.forwomeninscience.com/agora/). bai and yet go home to illegal settlements said. “There’s so much cool stuff hap- with no water and no toilets.” pening here. The concept of the fair is to In her talk, senior Tabitha Bonilla cited spread that out a little bit. I don’t think her own German-Jewish-Mexican family SURVEILLANCE people know about us as much as they as an example of the true wealth inherent Continued from Page 5 should.” CIRCUITS in diversity, and she reflected on discrimi- One of the newer projects is a joint Continued from Page 4 nation both against—and among—under- aging seemingly insurmountable amounts MIT and Singapore project, the “Gambit represented minorities. of data, work tasks or even e-mail. The Game Lab,” which will promote and foster second prototype, an 8-bit, 200 megahertz The keynote speaker at the King break- team is also working on a model for rec- digital game research globally. Philip Tan, analog-to-digital converter, will be present- fast was Ted Childs Jr., a former IBM ognizing motions and actions, such as Gambit executive director, chatted with ed at the conference this month. executive now in practice as a diversity walking or talking, which could be used to fair-goers under a Gambit banner and near Other key MIT members of the consultant. Considering the future work- filter videos for anomalous behaviors—or a laptop loaded with some of his personal research team are EECS graduate stu- force of the United States, he lamented for smarter movie editing. game collection. dents John Fiorenza and Todd Sepke, the lack of a “competitive national talent Additional co-authors are Maximilian “We’re focusing on innovation in a way who were involved in the work presented strategy.” Riesenbuber, now at the Georgetown Uni- that makes it practical,” he explained, as in 2006; and EECS graduate student Lane In the interest of national competitive- versity Medical Center, and Lior Wolf, now a zombie stumbled with a menacing gait Brooks. ness, Childs, who is black, told the group, at Tel Aviv University. across the laptop’s screen. That requires The research leading to the 2006 “We have to end the focus on affirmative The street scene database is freely avail- “trying to take every single one of our ISSCC paper was funded by Microelec- action as a race and gender dialogue. able at cbcl.mit.edu/. This research was research ideas and build a game out of it. tronics Advanced Research Corp. The Affirmative action has to be about disad- partially funded by the Defense Advanced Not only does that mean we have to keep research leading to the paper presented vantage. People who are white and poor Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the ourselves very practical but gives a means this month was funded by the MIT Center have to be able to benefit from affirmative Office of Naval Research, the National Sci- for Integrated Circuits and Systems and a action because we need them on the play- ence Foundation and the National Insti- See CMS National Defense Science and Engineer- ing field.” tutes of Health. Page 8 ing Graduate Fellowship. MIT Tech Talk ARTS February 28, 2007 PAGE 7 MIT Sloan alum Michael Kaiser, of Kennedy Center, wins 2007 Muh award Michael M. Kaiser, the “turnaround art- The key to success in turning around ist” who led the financial revitalization of an arts center is similar to that of turn- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the ing around a business, Kaiser said. “If you American Ballet Theatre and other arts have a good product, that will help turn organizations, is the recipient of the 2007 things around. All the techniques I learned Robert A. Muh Alumni Award. (at MIT Sloan) can apply to the business The Muh award honors an MIT gradu- world. But success is the hardest thing to ate for noteworthy achievement in the measure in the nonprofit world.” humanities, arts and social sciences. Kaiser graduated from Brandeis with a Kaiser, a 1977 graduate of MIT Sloan degree in economics and received his mas- School of Management who is now at the ter’s degree in management from Sloan. helm of the John F. Kennedy Center for Kaiser has served as a research econo- the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., mist for Nobel prize-winning economist will deliver a talk titled “Cultural Diploma- Wassily Leontief and is the author of three cy” on Thursday at 5 p.m. in Bartos The- books: “Strategic Planning in the Arts: ater, Building E15. A Practical Guide” (1995); “We are delighted to wel- “Developing Industry Strat-

PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY come Michael Kaiser to cam- egies: A Practical Guide of pus as the next Robert A. Muh Industry Analysis” (1983); and Award winner,” said Deborah “Understanding the Competi- Bearing up Fitzgerald, the Kenan Sahin tion: A Practical Guide of Com- MIT is celebrating Daffodil Days 2007, an MIT Women’s League-sponsored fundraiser Dean of the School of Humani- petitive Analysis” (1981). for the American Cancer Society. Heather Peach, a child-life specialist, Janet Plotkin ties, Arts, and Social Sciences. He has received the of the MIT Women’s League and social worker Evelyn Malkin play with a child whose “Through his distinguished Dance Magazine Award in twin is a cancer patient at Massachusetts General Hospital. Teddy bears like the ones career as one of the top arts 2001, Capezio Award in 2002, above can be sent to cancer patients for a donation of $25. administrators in the world, he Helen Hayes Washington Post exemplifies the excellence we Award for Innovative Leader- seek to honor with the Muh ship in the Theater Commu- Award.” nity in 2003, St. Petersburg Before entering the arts Michael M. Kaiser 300 Medal in 2004, Washing- SHASS selects 26 Burchard Scholars management field, Kaiser was tonian of the Year in 2004, a management consultant in the corporate U.S. Department of State Citation in 2005, Twenty-six sophomores and juniors studies; Anthony Lioi, assistant professor, sector. In 1985, he sold the consulting firm Blacks in Dance Award in 2005, First have been selected as Burchard Scholars writing and humanistic studies; Michael he founded, Kaiser Associates, which spe- American to receive China’s “Award for in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Ouellette, senior lecturer, music and the- cializes in helping large corporations for- Cultural Exchange” in 2005 and the Order Social Sciences (SHASS) for 2007. ater arts; and Janet Sonenberg, professor mulate strategic plans. Among his clients of the Mexican Eagle in 2006. Kaiser was The awards, named after the school’s of theater arts. were General Motors, IBM, Corning Glass named Impresario of the Year in 2006 by first dean, John Ely Burchard, are given to The Burchard Scholars are as follows: Works and 50 other major corporations. Musical America. students who demonstrate unusual abili- Allison Berke ’08, biology, mathematics; Kaiser Associates remains a major partici- The Robert A. Muh Alumni Award was ties and academic excellence in the areas Raja Bobbili ’08, electrical engineering pant in the strategy-consulting field. first announced in October 2000 at the embraced by the school. According to and computer science, economics; Gabriel Kaiser took over as general manager of 50th anniversary celebration of the School SHASS dean Deborah Fitzgerald, overseer Cira ’08, architecture; Daniel Denis ’08, the Kansas City Ballet, where he retired of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences of the Burchard Program, the students nuclear science and engineering; Ross the financially troubled organization’s (SHASS). selected in the 21st year of competition for Goodwin ’09, economics, political science; deficit and developed a specialty in arts Muh (S.B. 1959), a life member of the the awards “are from exciting and diverse Ruijie He ’08, aeronautics and astronautics, turnarounds—helping, among others, the MIT Corporation and past chair of the backgrounds and are a remarkable group political science; Reshmaan Hussam ’09, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation, Humanities Visiting Committee, endowed of gifted young scholars.” economics; Anthony Jones ’08, mechani- the American Ballet Theatre and Britain’s the award to honor an MIT alumnus or The Burchard Scholars and a rotat- cal engineering; Ellis Kim ’09, manage- Royal Opera House. alumna who has made significant contri- ing group of faculty will be invited to a ment; Gloria Lee ’09, brain and cognitive The Kennedy Center was not in a butions to education, scholarship or per- series of dinners, beginning in February, sciences, literature; Noel Lee ’08, chem- financial crisis when Kaiser arrived there formance, academic administration or arts at which an MIT faculty member or visit- istry; Richard Lin ’09, materials science in 2001, so instead he focused on turn- management in the humanities, arts or ing scholar will present work in progress, and engineering, biology; Matthew Lord ing the Kennedy Center into a national social sciences. The award rotates among followed by a discussion. This will allow ’09, mathematics; Lauren McLendon ’08, destination. the three major areas in SHASS. students and faculty members to mix and biology; Mahalia Miller ’09, civil engineer- will give students, especially, an opportu- ing; Navine Nasser-Ghodsi ’09, brain and nity to engage in the kind of intellectual cognitive sciences; Juan Prajogo ’08, eco- exchange that characterizes scholarship in nomics and management science; Thaned ‘N (Bonaparte)’ is third in Harrington’s war trilogy the humanities, arts and social sciences. Pruttivarasin ’08, physics, music; Tala Robin H. Ray Q: How does “N” fit among your recent The emphasis throughout the program Qusous ’08, biological engineering; Jugal News Office Correspondent works? will be interdisciplinary. Shah ’08, nuclear science and engineering, A: I think of “N” as the third play in Aside from Fitzgerald, the selection biology; Lisa Song ’08, environmental sci- a loosely formed trilogy about war. “Hal- committee consisted of Margery Resnick, ence; Lucia Tian ’08, electrical engineer- The winter/spring 2007 issue of lowed Ground,” set during the last days professor of literature; Rebecca Faery, ing, economics; Jiao Wang ’08, biological TheatreForum magazine, a prestigious of the Civil War, puts us on the ground director, first-year writing, writing and engineering; Angelica Weiner ’09, urban venue for new works of drama, will include with four very young characters (ages 15 humanistic studies; Wyn Kelley, senior lec- studies and planning; Rany Woo ’08, brain a script by Laura Harrington, lecturer through 19) following a battle. “Pickett’s turer, literature; Thomas Levenson, asso- and cognitive sciences; Yi Zhou ’09, eco- in theater arts at MIT since 1995. Har- Charge” is a modern comedy about Civil ciate professor, writing and humanistic nomics and mathematics. rington’s play “N (Bonaparte),” which pre- War re-enactors who get their fondest wish miered at Boston’s Pilgrim Theatre Com- and fall through a hole in time. Looking at pany in 2005, war through the lens of re-enactors gave MacVicar Day highlights student learning is a tragicom- me a chance to explore our love affair with edy about the war. MacVicar Day 2007 will be held on David Wallace, associate professor of deposed French Q: How does “N” differ from your other Friday, March 2. Provost L. Rafael Reif mechanical engineering, will join students emperor, set on plays? will announce the new MacVicar Faculty and an alumnus in sharing personal learn- the island of St. A: With “N,” I wanted to explore the Fellows following the meeting of the MIT ing strategies and tools that enable them Helena where idea that violence is like a virus cascad- Corporation. to master valuable knowledge and skills. Napoleon is in ing through the centuries. And this time Each year, a public program on MacVic- As part of the MacVicar celebration, exile. Among I wanted to deal with the men in power, ar Day explores some aspect of innova- exhibits and demonstrations of technolo- its characters the generals. Napoleon thought of him- tive teaching or learning practices. This gies that support learning will be on dis- are an Irish doc- self as one of the great generals of all time year, the program is titled “I Learn Best play along the Stata Student Street, and tor, a pandering and compared himself to Caesar, Hadrian, When…” a reception will follow the roundtable dis- valet, the dead etc. The idea of the most famous human Beginning at 3:30 p.m. at the Stata cussion at 5 p.m. empress Jose- being on the planet imprisoned on a rock Center (Room 32-141), “I Learn Best” will The MacVicar Faculty Fellows program Laura Harrington phine, Joan of in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by include a round-table discussion moder- was established in 1992 to honor the life and Arc and a lot rats, was just too delicious to pass up. Here ated by Duane Boning, associate depart- contributions of the late Margaret MacVicar, of rats. For much of the play, Napoleon is the hubris of empire brought low. ment head of electrical engineering and who was a professor of physical science and reposes (fully clothed) in a bathtub. Q: What was your creative starting computer science. Faculty participants the first dean for undergraduate education at Harrington’s work is intimately bound point with “N”? Ruth Perry, professor of literature, and the time of her death in 1991. up with sound and music. She has writ- A: The inciting image for this play was ten half a dozen musicals and is among Napoleon in his bathtub on St. Helena. It the few living artists writing libretti for was a lead tub, the room was very opera. Her libretto for “Resurrection,” first dark. The longer he was on St. Helena, List Center wins two awards produced in 1999 by the Houston Grand the more time he spent in the bath. It is Opera, was set to music by Tod Macho- said that his hand wore a groove in the The List Visual Arts Center is has Monographic Museum show in Boston. ver, head of MIT Media Lab’s Hyperinstru- side of the tub from rubbing it so much. been chosen to receive two awards from In addition, the List Center’s exhibition, ments/Opera of the Future group. She is Q: What inspires you to explore history the New England chapter of the Inter- “Choreographic Turn: Daria Martin and currently at work on a new musical, “Out in your work? national Association of Art Critics, USA Peter Welzin in Collaboration with Wil- of the Blue,” with the award-winning com- A: We live in a society that has amnesia (AICA/USA) for the region’s best visual liam Forsythe, “ was chosen to receive poser Jenny Giering. “Out of the Blue” was when it comes to history. This is a very art exhibitions during the 2005-2006 the second place award for ‘Best The- commissioned and workshopped at Suf- dangerous habit. I love the story that JFK season. “America Starts Here: Kate matic Museum Show’ in the Boston area folk University in 2006 and has just won was reading Barbara Tuchman’s “The Ericson and Mel Ziegler,” jointly orga- at the fifth annual AICA/New England a spot in the Penn State University New Guns of August” during the Cuban missile nized by the List Visual Arts Center awards ceremony which will be held Musicals Festival for April 2007. crisis. I’m not sure what George W. Bush and Skidmore College, was chosen to today at the Isabella Steward Gardner Harrington discussed “N” and her cur- reads, but there’s certainly no evidence receive the First Place Award for Best Museum. rent and past projects. that he reads or understands history.

PAGE 8 February 28, 2007 NEWS MIT Tech Talk Metro Boston flora and fauna show global warming’s grip Deborah Halber expanded into a whole section, and he and become extinct very rapidly. Birds by spotting the first wood thrush of the News Office Correspondent became interested in how global warming who return after certain flowers have season. Even Thoreau’s Concord, Mass., is affecting species and how to detect the bloomed and insects have hatched could diaries with his painstaking observations local signature of global warming. starve. of 600 species have been invaluable. In a Lowell, Mass., cemetery on Memo- Discussions on global warming men- This science, the study of the timing This information provides patterns that rial Day in 1868, a photograph captured tioned the same studies over and over, of recurring natural phenomena, is called can help explain which species are most mourners in heavy winter clothing gath- and they were all in far-off places like phenology. Primack and Miller-Rushing sensitive and which are least sensitive to ered under leafless trees near the graves Antarctica. “In Boston, we could do bet- urged everyone attending the Soap Box to climate change, so we can make predic- of two brothers killed in the Civil War. ter,” he said. Four years ago, with Miller- become amateur phenologists by record- tions about the future, Primack said. “We’d At the same spot on Memorial Day in Rushing’s help, he started gathering data ing the arrival of flowers, butterflies and like to create a map of how things are 2005, cemetery visitors wore light spring from unlikely sources, such as the hobby- dragonflies, and other seasonal events, changing across New England. clothes. The trees were in full flower. ist who collected cemetery photos, on the and sending them to him. Many in the “This is not about glaciers or extinct These photographs are a close-to-home timing of flowering plants, ribbeting frogs audience said they would be willing get frogs in the mountaintops of Costa Rica,” reminder of the effects of global warming, and migrating birds. involved. he said. “This is a way people can see for said Boston University biology professor He found that all these things were The researchers have found data at themselves that climate change is affect- Richard Primack and BU graduate student happening earlier and earlier. Because the Arnold Arboretum, where plants have ing the organisms living in our gardens Abraham Miller-Rushing at a Feb. 21 Soap of its heat-trapping buildings and park- started flowering an average of eight days and the birds visiting our bird feeders.” Box event, “Global Warming: Up Close ing lots, Boston and other urban areas earlier over time; bird migration infor- This Soap Box program will be part of and Local,” at the MIT Museum. warmed more than the rest of the mation recorded in Manomet, Mass.; a the new Cambridge Science Festival to be Primack, an author of textbooks on country—2.5 degrees Celsius versus 0.6 woman who kept precise outdoor records held April 21-29. conservation biology, said that in 1992, degrees elsewhere. at her home for 50 years; naturalists’ dia- To send nature observations, e-mail global warming received little more than When co-dependent species become ries and birdwatchers at Mt. Auburn [email protected] with a mention in his textbooks. It has since out of sync, it can cause species to decline Cemetery who seek to outdo each other “Nature’s Calendar NE” in the subject line. RE-GENERATOR Continued from Page 3 up of faculty members Vladimir Bulovic, associate professor of electrical engineer- green building design to behavior change ing and computer science; Robert L. Jaffe, for computer energy use. professor of physics; Meg Jacobs, Class of • A group seeking to reduce MIT 1947 Career Development Associate Pro- greenhouse gas emissions has collected fessor of History; John Sterman, Jay For- 500 signatures on a letter asking MIT rester Professor of Management; Chris- President Susan Hockfield to lower MIT’s topher P. Zegras, assistant professor of emissions, and the group is working to urban studies and planning; and Les Nor- pass a resolution on emissions reductions ford, professor of architecture. through the Undergraduate Assembly and Student representatives are Sloan doc- Graduate Student Council. toral candidate Jason Jay and civil and • MIT Student Pugwash seeks to insti- environmental engineering sophomore tute an MIT graduation pledge to “explore Ariel Esposito; administration members and take into account the social and envi- are chief facilities officer Bill Anderson; ronmental consequences of any job I con- environmental health and safety programs sider and will try to improve these aspects director Bill Van Schalkwyk; Peter Coo- of any organization for which I work.” per, manager of sustainability engineering and utility planning; Steve Lanou, program Walking the talk manager for sustainability initiatives; At the Re-Generator, Leon R. Glicks- Associate Provost Lorna Gibson; adminis- man, professor of building technology trative assistant Amy Donovan; and Direc- and mechanical engineering and director tor of undergraduate teaching labs Dick of MIT’s Building Technology Program, Fenner. gave an update on the Campus Energy This spring, the Campus Energy Task Task Force. Force plans to identify a strategy for The Campus Energy Task Force is the increasing campus efficiency, review it first of several task forces created by the with the MIT community, present it to the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), an Insti- administration for action and start near- tute-wide effort to meet the global energy term solutions. challenge. The task force, also known as “Now that the MITEI has formed a “Walk the Talk,” is centered on how the Campus Energy Task Force, the Institute’s MIT campus will reflect the institutional commitment to ‘walking the talk’ is clear,” commitment to efficiency, innovation, cut- said Jay, one of Re-Generator’s organiz- ting carbon emissions and energy usage ers. “What remains is for students, staff and serve as a model for other universi- and faculty to help lead the way forward, ties. applying our technical and leadership Among its goals are to create a long- skills to tough energy and environmental range, campus-wide plan for energy challenges around MIT.” demand and supply; identify and promote Re-Generator was sponsored by short-term measures; develop a loan fund Sustainability@MIT, the MIT Energy Club, and other resources for improvements; UA Sustainability Committee, Students for develop and fund research and education- Global Sustainability, Share a Vital Earth al opportunities; and establish a campus (SAVE), MIT Student Pugwash and Sloan research center. Net Impact, with support from the Envi- PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY The task force, chaired by Glicksman ronmental Programs Office, the Labora- and Sherwin Greenblatt, director of the tory for Energy and the Environment and Chilly scenes of winter MIT Venture Mentoring Service, is made MIT Facilities. Kurt Stiehl, a senior in mechanical engineering, just couldn’t resist the skating rink that a recent cold snap created on Killian Court. CMS Continued from Page 6 which explores the use of educational games—fielded numerous questions of sending our research out.” about an education game in development, Projects include the development of tentatively called “Labyrinth.” Designed to new games played with body movement or teach math and literacy to middle school that use aural cues; this may open up the students, Labyrinth features puzzles and game market to the sight impaired, Tan monsters that challenge students to solve said. Such innovations may require new problems; it’s not meant for play during genres or stories. For example, previously school hours but kids may play it at home unserved gamers may not like zombies, to prepare themselves for a math curricu- Tan noted, although he added with a grin, lum in class. “a lot of people do like zombies.” “This is a chance to restate what good “It’s very important for us in CMS to learning games are about,” Osterweil observe the medium as it develops and explained. Behind him a poster proclaimed maybe even try to contribute to it so it can the four “freedoms” of game play: freedom run the gamut of all the different kinds to fail, freedom to experience, freedom of of expressions it’s capable of,” Tan said. effort and freedom to try on new identi- “None of us want to see games pigeon- ties. holed. There’s a tendency for the gaming The fair demonstrated that CMS industry to do that because risk is such an research “may be serious but it’s also PHOTO / STEPHANIE SCHOROW issue.” fun and has real-world applications,” said Across the lobby, Scot Osterweil, cre- Margaret Weigel, New Media Literacies Generoso Fierro, CMS undergraduate administrator, offered ‘stress bulbs’ stamped with ative director of the Education Arcade— research manager. ‘Comparative Media Studies’ to visiting CMS student Cabell Gathman.