Author: mantulin

Fellowship funds graduate studies for outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants.

Julia Mongo | Office of Distinguished Fellowships | MIT Career Advising and Professional Development

April 25, 2023

MIT graduate students Kat Kajderowicz and Shomik Verma, alumni Desmond Edwards ’22 and Steven Truong ’20, and Vaibhav Mohanty, an MD-PhD student in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, are among the 30 recipients of this year’s Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.

The P.D. Soros Fellowships for New Americans program honors the contributions of immigrants and children of immigrants to the United States. The program recognizes the potential of immigrants to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture, and academia by providing $90,000 in graduate school financial support over two years.

Students interested in applying to the P.D. Soros Fellowship may contact Kim Benard, associate dean of distinguished fellowships in Career Advising and Professional Development.

Desmond Edwards ’22

Desmond Edwards graduated from MIT in 2022 with a double major in biological engineering and biology and a minor in French. As a National Science Foundation GRFP Fellow and Jamaica’s first Knight-Hennessy Scholar, Edwards is currently a PhD student in microbiology and immunology at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, where he researches immunity to infectious diseases. He intends to lead a scientific career not only contributing to groundbreaking academic research, but also ensuring that the fruits of this research have their maximal benefit to society through public policy, outreach, and education.

Born and raised in Jamaica, Edwards lived in rural St. Mary and attended school in urban Kingston. His constant childhood illnesses prompted his interest in better understanding human disease and his desire to develop novel therapeutic options for their treatment and prevention. At MIT, Edwards conducted host-pathogen research in Professor Rebecca Lamason’s lab, focusing on characterizing mutants of interest and developing novel genetic tools for use in the tick-borne pathogen Rickettsia parkeri. As an Amgen Scholar, he also worked with Professor Viviana Gradinaru at Caltech to engineer solutions for a novel gene therapy for Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder primarily seen in girls.

Interested not only in the technical details of scientific research but also in its societal impact, Edwards has dedicated himself to serving the community through roles in the MIT Biotech Group, student representation and advocacy, and teaching and mentorship. For his academic achievements and commitments to community and nation-building, he was awarded a 2022 Prime Minister’s National Youth Award for Excellence, the highest national award bestowed on Jamaicans between the ages of 15 and 29 by the Prime Minister of Jamaica.

Kathrin (Kat) Kajderowicz

Kat Kajderowicz is a neuroscience PhD student in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She is co-advised by professors Sinisa Hrvatin and Jonathan Weissman at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and is researching how cells from hibernating organisms can survive cold temperatures to engineer human cells to do the same. Kajderowicz envisions her work improving organ transplantation and therapeutic hypothermia technologies. She hopes to someday lead a research group developing technologies that allow humans to safely enter and exit “hibernation-like” stasis for medical treatment purposes.

Kajderowicz grew up in Chicago’s large Polish-immigrant community. Her parents fled communist Poland in the early 1980s, arriving in the United States with no savings, college degrees, or knowledge of English. Kajderowicz’s mother worked as a housekeeper, while her father worked in construction. As undocumented immigrants fighting to obtain green cards, they spent most of their savings on the American naturalization process and rarely sought medical care because they couldn’t afford insurance and feared deportation. To help financially, Kajderowicz began working as a golf caddie at age 14. Her golf clients connected her with shadowing and interning opportunities at technology and biotechnology companies and hospitals, which inspired her career interests.

As an undergraduate at Cornell University, Kajderowicz worked at the Lab of Ornithology, where she built computational pipelines to better understand songbird communication. During undergraduate summers at Harvard University, she worked on comparative genomics and population genetics projects using plants, fruit flies, and butterflies. As a post-baccalaureate researcher at Harvard Medical School, she built imaging tools to visualize the development of different types of mouse retinal neurons.

In 2020, Kajderowicz’s father passed away from metastatic lung cancer. Kajderowicz served as his caregiver and medical proxy. Her greatest source of comfort was her hospital waiting room community. Inspired by the power of communities, Kajderowicz founded DNA Deviants, a 2,000-plus member biotechnology group that hosts podcasts on Twitch to discuss breakthrough research and organizes career mentorship programs.

Vaibhav Mohanty

Vaibhav Mohanty is pursuing an MD-PhD in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, where he is earning a second PhD (in chemistry). His goal is to extend his physics-based theories of evolution to understand how molecular-level structural changes in proteins can induce changes in evolutionary fitness of viruses and cancers. Mohanty aspires to develop novel therapeutic approaches to combat diseases subject to evolution on fast timescales, and to treat patients with such diseases.

Mohanty was born in Durham, North Carolina, and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. His parents emigrated from Odisha, India, to the United States to pursue academic research careers in biology. Accepted to Harvard College at age 15, Mohanty graduated in 2019 with a master’s degree in chemistry (theory) and a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in chemistry and physics and a minor in music. He was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society and received a 2018 Barry Goldwater Scholarship for his physics research. As an undergraduate and master’s student, Mohanty’s published research papers spanned a number of interdisciplinary topics across the sciences and even music, including diffusion MRI physics, time-dependent quantum mechanics of graphene, and mathematical and geometrical models of voice leading in music theory. In 2022, Mohanty earned a PhD in theoretical physics as a Marshall Scholar at the University of Oxford’s Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, where he worked in the Condensed Matter Theory Group to use statistical physics and spin glass theory to investigate fundamental properties of biological evolution.

In addition to being a scientific researcher, Mohanty is an award-winning classical and jazz music composer, arranger, pianist, and saxophonist. His large wind ensemble and chamber works are distributed and performed regularly around the United States and in many parts of the world. He actively performs as a jazz pianist.

Steven Truong ’20

Steven Truong graduated from MIT in 2020 with a double major in biological engineering and writing. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi and was also named a Barry Goldwater Scholar. As a Marshall Scholar in the United Kingdom, Truong completed an MPhil in computational biology at Cambridge University and an MA in creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Currently, he is an MD-PhD student at Stanford University. In his future career, Truong aspires to help solve and treat metabolic disorders such as diabetes. He hopes to make these discoveries accessible — especially for communities traditionally underrepresented and underserved in medicine — as a physician-scientist, science communicator, and storyteller.

Truong was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Vietnamese refugees. His parents and relatives pooled their resources to start a family-owned nail salon. Truong spent his evenings after school at the salon, where he assisted in the business’s operations and finished homework between helping customers. In his free time, he avidly read science fiction and fantasy, which evolved into a passion for science. Truong eventually realized he could use science to address diabetes, a disease that affects much of his family and community.

During his undergraduate years at MIT, Truong worked in the Langer-Anderson Lab to develop smart insulins, and in the Lauffenburger Lab to study the link between the immune system and diabetes. With funding from MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, he started a study investigating the genetic basis of diabetes with colleagues at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City. The data from this study were published, associating single nucleotide polymorphisms to Type 2 diabetes in Vietnamese individuals. Truong and his colleagues eventually secured a grant to expand their studies through the National Foundation for Science Technology and Development. The grant currently funds Vietnam’s largest genome-wide association study, which he co-leads.

Shomik Verma

Shomik Verma is pursuing a PhD in mechanical engineering at MIT with Professor Asegun Henry, where he is working on energy storage to make variable renewable energy sources such as solar more reliable, and on a next-generation power plant based on thermophotovoltaic power conversion. After his PhD, Verma hopes to use his skill set to decarbonize industry and make cheap, clean, and reliable energy available to all.

Growing up in Sugar Land, Texas, Verma maintained a deep connection to Indian culture. There was a strong emphasis on education, and he spent many weekends at math competitions with fellow Asian Americans. Verma started noticing some interesting patterns at the math competitions he attended — oil and gas companies would often sponsor them, and the conversations his petroleum engineer father had with his friends often turned to the geopolitics of energy. Verma was struck by the realization that he lived in the oil and gas capital of the world, with parents who were from the coal capital of India. He was caught between two worlds — the fossil fuel industry that enabled his way of life, and the growing threat of global warming he learned about in school.

When Verma lost his uncle to black lung, he decided it was time to devote his life to clean energy. While studying mechanical engineering at Duke University, he helped lead the Duke Electric Vehicles team to two Guinness world records for fuel efficiency, for both battery electric and fuel cell vehicles. In the U.K., as a Marshall Scholar, he completed an MPhil in materials science and conducted research at Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge, working on improving the efficiency of solar cells.

Developed at SMART, the therapy stimulates the host immune system to more effectively clear bacterial infections and accelerate infected wound healing.

Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology

March 24, 2023

Researchers have developed a novel combination therapy using the anticancer agent mitoxantrone (MTX), together with an antibiotic, vancomycin, for treating bacteria that are resistant to the vancomycin, which are also known as vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis or VRE. The therapy uniquely targets both VRE and the host, stimulating the host immune system to more effectively clear bacterial infections and accelerate infected wound healing. The work was led by scientists at the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) interdisciplinary research group at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, in collaboration with Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, MIT, and University of Geneva.

Antimicrobial resistance is a significant global health concern, causing 4.95 million deaths from infections associated with or attributed to antimicrobial resistance in 2019 alone. By 2050, the Asia-Pacific region is forecast to account for 47 percent of AMR-related deaths worldwide if immediate and coordinated actions are not taken to avert a potential drug-resistance crisis. In response to this aggravating health threat, new and innovative approaches to treating bacterial infections are being developed, including the use of antimicrobials that can overcome resistance mechanisms and host-directed therapies that enhance the innate human immune system to combat bacterial infections.

VRE is a “hard-to-kill” bacterium due to its increasing antibiotic resistance. It can cause serious infections, including urinary tract, bloodstream, and wound infections associated with catheters or surgical procedures. The treatment of VRE infections has posed a significant challenge as the bacteria exhibit resistance to vancomycin — an antibiotic commonly used to treat endocarditis, skin, stomach, and intestine infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria — and other commonly used antibiotics.

In this research, the team tested MTX’s effectiveness and antibiotic activity against VRE, both in vitro and in vivo. Despite VRE’s resistance to vancomycin, MTX was found to inhibit the growth of VRE more effectively when used in the presence of vancomycin. This outcome is due to the synergistic relationship between MTX and vancomycin, which makes VRE more sensitive to vancomycin by lowering the vancomycin concentration required to kill VRE. The research also demonstrated that MTX improved wound healing by enhancing the ability of macrophages — a type of white blood cell that kills microorganisms, removes dead cells, and stimulates the action of other immune cells — to fight off VRE infections, and by recruiting more immune cells to the site of infection.

MIT co-authors on a paper about the work include professor of biology Jianzhu Chen and visiting professor Guangan Hu, both of whom are affiliated with the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

SMART was established by MIT in partnership with the National Research Foundation of Singapore (NRF) in 2007. SMART is the first entity in the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) developed by NRF. SMART serves as an intellectual and innovation hub for cutting-edge research interactions between MIT and Singapore. SMART currently comprises an Innovation Centre and five interdisciplinary research groups: AMR, Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine, Disruptive and Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision, Future Urban Mobility, and Low Energy Electronic Systems.

The AMR interdisciplinary research group is a translational research and entrepreneurship program that tackles the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. By leveraging talent and convergent technologies across Singapore and MIT, we aim to tackle AMR head-on by developing multiple innovative and disruptive approaches to identify, respond to, and treat drug-resistant microbial infections. Through strong scientific and clinical collaborations, our goal is to provide transformative, holistic solutions for Singapore and the world.

Senior Mercy Oladipo is building tools to address disparities in health care.

Laura Rosado | MIT News correspondent

March 24, 2023

Choosing a major was a long process for Mercy Oladipo. Coming into MIT, she was interested in both computer science and medicine, but a plan for how those passions would intersect took some time to coalesce.

Oladipo finally settled on a joint major in computer science and molecular biology, which allowed her to dive into computer science and also fulfill her pre-med class requirements.

At face value, the classes in her two majors “are very far-removed,” says Oladipo. “You don’t really touch any interaction until your junior or senior year, but it helped me feel like I could do whatever I want and chart my own path.”

Now a senior, Oladipo has pursued a range of opportunities that allow her to apply her coding skills to build tools for health care, with support from MIT’s PKG Center. These include exploring health disparities in end-of-life care with the Clinical Decision-Making Group in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, revamping the webpage for the Boston Medical Center’s Autism Friendly Initiative, and creating websites for studies run by Tufts University’s Maternal Outcomes for Translational Health Equity Research (M.O.T.H.E.R.) Lab.

For Oladipo, the through-line among her interests has always been equity, whether in health care or in education.

An app for Black mothers

Everything came together when Oladipo participated as a sophomore in Womxn Ignite, a tech incubator for women interested in public interest technology. It was there that she first had the idea for Birth By Us, a startup she co-founded with Ijeoma Uche, a second-year master’s student at the University of California at Berkeley.

Birth By Us is a pregnancy and postpartum app built by and for Black women. The goal is to be a centralized source of information throughout the entire birth experience, from prenatal appointments to postpartum recovery. Every day, users fill out a questionnaire to screen for symptoms that are often overlooked, and will be provided with resources tailored to their personal experience. With Birth By Us, Oladipo hopes to address the racial disparity in maternal deaths while also forging stronger connections between community programs and Black mothers.

Now a senior, Oladipo still sees many paths ahead of her following graduation. Over the next few years, she plans to keep working on and scaling Birth By Us. She’d also like to attend medical school and pursue maternal health research in other contexts.

“Everything is very intertwined,” Oladipo says when asked about what comes next. “It’s all the same topic in different fonts.”

Oladipo also says she isn’t stressed about the uncertainty in her future. She credits that comfort to the support she receives from her family and her faith. Oladipo is grateful for her family’s presence in her life, whether that’s in the form of advice from her parents and two older siblings or daily calls from her younger brother.

A lifelong love of language learning

This year, Oladipo spent Independent Activities Period in Aguascalientes, Mexico, teaching middle schoolers through the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives’ Global Teaching Labs program. Along with two other MIT students, they tackled coding and building lava lamps, and ended the program by building a Rube Goldberg machine in collaboration with Panamerican University.

To apply for the program, Oladipo needed to be able to speak Spanish, a requirement she easily cleared from studying the language since high school. There were two reasons why she had picked it up. The first was that most of her friends also spoke Spanish and she wanted to be able to converse with them in their native language.

“My best friend in seventh grade didn’t have a phone, so we’d always email back and forth in the mornings,” says Oladipo. “I would try to practice my Spanish with him. I look back and the grammar is not there, the spelling is all off, but it was cute.”

The second reason was that she had studied Latin since second grade and found herself wondering what came next after completing AP Latin.

“Everyone used to tell me it’s a dead language, but I thought it was so cool,” says Oladipo. She adds that she was “such a nerd back then” for enjoying the nuances of the language, such as the rigid grammatical structure and how English derivatives came to be.

Oladipo didn’t plan on taking Portuguese in college — she had originally intended on adding Yoruba to her arsenal but couldn’t work it into her schedule — but decided to take it when it fit her schedule. Now, she’s eyeing a potential Fulbright in São Paolo and has plans to see more of Latin America following graduation.

For now, Oladipo is focusing on finishing up her college career. In between managing her company and balancing her classwork, she’s also a member of the cheerleading team. And, she’s currently the president of the Xi Tau Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. where she helps plan public service events and other programs throughout the year.

There’s a lot on her plate, and Oladipo acknowledges that. But she’s also looking forward to what comes after graduation.

“I’m a bit of a workaholic, but I’m excited to be more done and focus on what I actually want to put my time toward,” she says.

The Institute also ranks second in five subject areas.

MIT News Office

March 22, 2023

Professors Gabrieli, Gubar, Martin, and Sass are honored for exceptional undergraduate teaching.

Meghan Burke | Office of the Registrar

March 10, 2023

The Office of the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar’s Office have announced this year’s Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellows: professor of brain and cognitive sciences John Gabrieli, associate professor of literature Marah Gubar, professor of biology Adam C. Martin, and associate professor of architecture Lawrence “Larry” Sass.

For more than 30 years, the MacVicar Faculty Fellows Program has recognized exemplary and sustained contributions to undergraduate education at MIT. The program is named in honor of Margaret MacVicar, the first dean for undergraduate education and founder of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). New fellows are chosen every year through a competitive nomination process that includes submission of letters of support from colleagues, students, and alumni; review by an advisory committee led by the vice chancellor; and a final selection by the provost. Fellows are appointed to a 10-year term and receive $10,000 per year of discretionary funds.

Gabrieli, Gubar, Martin, and Sass join an elite group of more than 130 scholars from across the Institute who are committed to curricular innovation, excellence in teaching, and supporting students both in and out of the classroom.

John Gabrieli

“When I learned of this wonderful honor, I felt gratitude — for how MIT values teaching and learning, how my faculty colleagues bring such passion to their teaching, and how the students have such great curiosity for learning,” says new MacVicar Fellow John Gabrieli.

Gabrieli PhD ’87 received a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale University and his PhD in behavioral neuroscience from MIT. He is the Grover M. Hermann Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive sciences. Gabrieli is also an investigator in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the founding director of the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative (MITili). He holds appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and studies the organization of memory, thought, and emotion in the human brain.

He joined Course 9 as a professor in 2005 and since then, he has taught over 3,000 undergraduates through the department’s introductory course, 9.00 (Introduction to Psychological Science). Gabrieli was recognized with departmental awards for excellence in teaching in 2009, 2012, and 2015. Highly sought after by undergraduate researchers, the Gabrieli Laboratory (GabLab) hosts five to 10 UROPs each year.

A unique element of Gabrieli’s classes is his passionate, hands-on teaching style and his use of interactive demonstrations, such as optical illusions and personality tests, to help students grasp some of the most fundamental topics in psychology.

His former teaching assistant Daniel Montgomery ’22 writes, “I was impressed by his enthusiasm and ability to keep students engaged throughout the lectures … John clearly has a desire to help students become excited about the material he’s teaching.”

Senior Elizabeth Carbonell agrees: “The excitement professor Gabrieli brought to lectures by starting with music every time made the classroom an enjoyable atmosphere conducive to learning … he always found a way to make every lecture relatable to the students, teaching psychological concepts that would shine a light on our own human emotions.”

Lecturer and 9.00 course coordinator Laura Frawley says, “John constantly innovates … He uses research-based learning techniques in his class, including blended learning, active learning, and retrieval practice.” His findings on blended learning resulted in two MITx offerings including 9.00x (Learning and Memory), which utilizes a nontraditional approach to assignments and exams to improve how students retrieve and remember information.

In addition, he is known for being a devoted teacher who believes in caring for the student as a whole. Through MITili’s Mental Wellness Initiative, Gabrieli, along with a compassionate team of faculty and staff, are working to better understand how mental health conditions impact learning.

Associate department head and associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences Josh McDermott calls him “an exceptional educator who has left his mark on generations of MIT undergraduate students with his captivating, innovative, and thoughtful approach to teaching.”

Mariana Gomez de Campo ’20 concurs: “There are certain professors that make their mark on students’ lives; professor Gabrieli permanently altered the course of mine.”

Laura Schulz, MacVicar Fellow and associate department head of brain and cognitive sciences, remarks, “His approach is visionary … John’s manner with students is unfailingly gracious … he hastens to remind them that they are as good as it gets, the smartest and brightest of their generation … it is the kind of warm, welcoming, inclusive approach to teaching that subtly but effectively reminds students that they belong here at MIT … It is little wonder that they love him.”

Marah Gubar

Marah Gubar joined MIT as an associate professor of literature in 2014. She received her BA in English literature from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a PhD from Princeton University. Gubar taught in the English department at the University of Pittsburgh and served as director of the Children’s Literature Program. She received MIT’s James A. and Ruth Levitan Teaching Award in 2019 and the Teaching with Digital Technology Award in 2020.

Gubar’s research focuses on children’s literature, history of children’s theater, performance, and 19th- and 20th-century representations of childhood. Her research and pedagogies underscore the importance of integrated learning.

Colleagues at MIT note her efficacy in introducing new concepts and new subjects into the literature curriculum during her tenure as curricular chair. Gubar set the stage for wide-ranging curricular improvements, resulting in a host of literature subjects on interrelated topics within and across disciplines.

Gubar teaches several classes, including 21L.452 (Literature and Philosophy) and 21L.500 (How We Got to Hamilton). Her lectures provide uniquely enriching learning experiences in which her students are encouraged to dive into literary texts; craft thoughtful, persuasive arguments; and engage in lively intellectual debate.

Gubar encourages others to bring fresh ideas and think outside the box. For example, her seminar on “Hamilton” challenges students to recontextualize the hip-hop musical in several intellectual traditions. Professor Eric Klopfer, head of the Comparative Media Studies Program/Writing and interim head of literature, calls Gubar “a thoughtful, caring instructor, and course designer … She thinks critically about whose story is being told and by whom.”

MacVicar Fellow and professor of literature Stephen Tapscott praises her experimentation, abstract thinking, and storytelling: “Professor Gubar’s ability to frame intellectual questions in terms of problems, developments, and performance is an important dimension of the genius of her teaching.”

“Marah is hands-down the most enthusiastic, effective, and engaged professor I had the pleasure of learning from at MIT,” writes one student. “She’s one of the few instructors I’ve had who never feels the need to reassert her place in the didactic hierarchy, but approaches her students as intellectual equals.”

Tapscott continues, “She welcomes participation in ways that enrich the conversation, open new modes of communication, and empower students as autonomous literary critics. In professor Gubar’s classroom we learn by doing … and that progress also includes ‘doing’ textual analysis, cultural history, and abstract literary theory.”

Gubar is also a committed mentor and student testimonials highlight her supportive approach. One of her former students remarked that Gubar “has a strong drive to be inclusive, and truly cares about ‘getting it right’ … her passion for literature and teaching, together with her drive for inclusivity, her ability to take accountability, and her compassion and empathy for her students, make [her] a truly remarkable teacher.”

On receiving this award Marah Gubar writes, “The best word I can think of to describe how I reacted to hearing that I had received this very overwhelming honor is ‘plotzing.’ The Yiddish verb ‘to plotz’ literally means to crack, burst, or collapse, so that captures how undone I was. I started to cry, because it suddenly struck me how much joy my father, Edward Gubar, would have taken in this amazing news. He was a teacher, too, and he died during the first phase of this terrible pandemic that we’re still struggling to get through.”

Adam C. Martin

Adam C. Martin is a professor and undergraduate officer in the Department of Biology. He studies the molecular mechanisms that underlie tissue form and function. His research interests include gastrulation, embryotic development, cytoskeletal dynamics, and the coordination of cellular behavior. Martin received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and his BS in biology (genetics) from Cornell University. Martin joined the Course 7 faculty in 2011.

“I am overwhelmed with gratitude knowing that this has come from our students. The fact that they spent time to contribute to a nomination is incredibly meaningful to me,” says Martin. “I want to also thank all of my faculty colleagues with whom I have taught, appreciate, and learned immensely from over the past 12 years. I am a better teacher because of them and inspired by their dedication.”

He is committed to undergraduate education, teaching several key department offerings including 7.06 (Cell Biology), 7.016 (Introductory Biology), 7.002 (Fundamentals of Experimental Molecular Biology), and 7.102 (Introduction to Molecular Biology Techniques).

Martin’s style combines academic and scientific expertise with creative elements like props and demonstrations. His “energy and passion for the material” is obvious, writes Iain Cheeseman, associate department head and the Herman and Margaret Sokol Professor of Biology. “In addition to creating engaging lectures, Adam went beyond the standard classroom requirements to develop videos and animations (in collaboration with the Biology MITx team) to illustrate core cell biological approaches and concepts.”

What sets Martin apart is his connection with students, his positive spirit, and his welcoming demeanor. Apolonia Gardner ’22 reflects on the way he helped her outside of class through his running group, which connects younger students with seniors in his lab. “Professor Martin was literally committed to ‘going the extra mile’ by inviting his students to join him on runs around the Charles River on Friday afternoons,” she says.

Amy Keating, department head and Jay A. Stein professor of biology, and professor of biological engineering, goes on to praise Martin’s ability to attract students to Course 7 and guide them through their educational experience in his role as the director of undergraduate studies. “He hosts social events, presides at our undergraduate research symposium and the department’s undergraduate graduation and awards banquet, and works with the Biology Undergraduate Student Association,” she says.

As undergraduate officer, Martin is involved in both advising and curriculum building. He mentors UROP students, serves as a first-year advisor, and is a current member of MIT’s Committee on the Undergraduate Program (CUP).

Martin also brings a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as evidenced by his creation of a DEI journal club in his lab so that students have a dedicated space to discuss issues and challenges. Course 7 DEI officer Hallie Dowling-Huppert writes that Martin “thinks deeply about how DEI efforts are created to ensure that department members receive the maximum benefit. Adam considers all perspectives when making decisions, and is extremely empathetic and caring towards his students.”

“He makes our world so much better,” Keating observes. “Adam is a gem.”

Lawrence “Larry” Sass

Larry Sass SM ’94, PhD ’00 is an associate professor in the Department of Architecture. He earned his PhD and SM in architecture at MIT, and has a BArch from Pratt Institute in New York City. Sass joined the faculty in the Department of Architecture in 2002. His work focuses on the delivery of affordable housing for low-income families. He was included in an exhibit titled “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Sass’s teaching blends computation with design. His two signature courses, 4.500 (Design Computation: Art, Objects and Space) and 4.501 (Tiny Fab: Advancements in Rapid Design and Fabrication of Small Homes), reflect his specialization in digitally fabricating buildings and furniture from machines.

Professor and head of architecture Nicholas de Monchaux writes, “his classes provide crucial instruction and practice with 3D modeling and computer-generated rendering and animation …  [He] links digital design to fabrication, in a process that invites students to define desirable design attributes of an object, develop a digital model, prototype it, and construct it at full scale.”

More generally, Sass’ approach is to help students build confidence in their own design process through hands-on projects. MIT Class of 1942 Professor John Ochsendorf, MacVicar Fellow, and founding director of the Morningside Academy for Design with appointments in the departments of architecture and civil and environmental engineering, confirms, “Larry’s teaching is a perfect embodiment of the ‘mens et manus’ spirit … [he] requires his students to go back and forth from mind and hand throughout each design project.”

Students say that his classes are a journey of self-discovery, allowing them to learn more about themselves and their own abilities. Senior Natasha Hirt notes, “What I learned from Larry was not something one can glean from a textbook, but a new way of seeing space … he tectonically shifted my perspective on buildings. He also shifted my perspective on myself. I’m a better designer for his teachings, and perhaps more importantly, I better understand how I design.”

Senior Izzi Waitz echoes this sentiment: “Larry emphasizes the importance of intentionally thinking through your designs and being confident in your choices … he challenges, questions, and prompts you so that you learn to defend and support yourself on your own.”

As a UROP coordinator, Sass assures students that the “sky is the limit” and all ideas are welcome. Postgraduate teaching fellow and research associate Myles Sampson says, “During the last year of my SM program, I assisted Larry in conducting a year-long UROP project … He structured the learning experience in a way that allowed the students to freely flex their design muscles: no idea was too outrageous.”

Sass is equally devoted to his students outside the classroom. In his role as head of house at MacGregor House, he lives in community with more than 300 undergraduates each year, providing academic guidance, creating residential programs and recreational activities, and ensuring that student wellness and mental health is a No. 1 priority.

Professor of architecture and MacVicar Fellow Les Norford says, “In two significant ways, Larry has been ahead of his time: combining digital representation and design with making and being alert to the well-being of his students.”

“In his kindness, he honors the memory of Margaret MacVicar, as well as the spirit of MIT itself,” Hirt concludes. “He is a designer, a craftsman, and an innovator. He is an inspiration and a compass.”

On receiving this award, Sass is full of excitement: “I love teaching and being part of the MIT community. I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of the MacVicar family of fellows.”

Seven postdocs and research scientists honored for contributions to the Institute.

Sarah Costello | School of Science

February 24, 2023

The MIT School of Science has announced seven postdocs and research scientists as recipients of the 2023 Infinite Expansion Award. Nominated by their peers and mentors, the awardees are recognized not only for their exceptional science, but for mentoring and advising junior colleagues, supporting educational programs, working with the MIT Postdoctoral Association, or contributing some other way to the Institute.

The 2023 Infinite Expansion award winners in the School of Science are:

• Nat Clarke, a postdoc in the Department of Biology, nominated by Professor Adam Martin;

• Christopher Cueva, a research scientist in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences nominated by assistant professor and McGovern Institute for Brain Research associate investigator Guangyu Robert Yang;

• Michael Fausnaugh, a research scientist in the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, nominated by Senior Research Scientist George Ricker;

• Gareth Izon, a postdoc in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences nominated by Professor Roger Summons;

• Kyle Jenks, a postdoc in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, nominated by professor and Picower Institute investigator Mriganka Sur;

• Vignesh Palani, a postdoc in the Department of Chemistry, nominated by Assistant Professor Alison Wendlandt; and

• Matheus Victor, a postdoc in the Picower Institute, nominated by professor and Picower Institute director Li-Huei Tsai.

A monetary award is granted to recipients, and a celebratory reception will be held for the winners this spring with family, friends, nominators, and recipients of the Infinite Expansion Award.