Writing & Speeches

Dear members of the community,

As I explained by video last Saturday, one of our concerns about the current encampment has been its potential to turn our campus into a magnet for protestors from outside MIT. This is not theoretical: Earlier this week, a…

Dear members of the MIT community,

Yesterday morning I recorded a video for the community related to the current encampment. I intended to share it with you yesterday.

The video is here and the transcript is here.

I paused…

View the video.

Hello, everyone.

As you surely know, campus communities across the country are struggling to cope with strongly contending views on the war in the Middle East – and MIT is too. 

So I want to let you know what I see here, and…

Dear members of the MIT community,

I write to share the news that Vice Chancellor Ian A. Waitz, the Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has agreed to become MIT’s next vice president for research (VPR). He will begin a five-year term…

Dear members of the MIT community,

Last fall, Provost Barnhart and I were delighted to provide more than two dozen research teams from across MIT with seed funds to develop impact papers that would articulate effective roadmaps, policy…

Dear members of the MIT community,

I write to let you know of the passing of an MIT icon: Professor Ed Roberts '58, SM '58, SM '60, PhD '62, who died Tuesday morning after an illness.

As an academic, Ed set records for speed – at 33, the youngest person…