SHASS News

In a theater, the first thing the audience sees, and looks at the longest, is the stage. Even so, set design is something most of us know little about. Why does a set have its form and elements? How does it suit the performance?  Consider a set that designer and MIT Associate Professor Sara Brown […]

Nik Sandu points to a graph on the whiteboard in a seventh-grade science class. “According to the graph, what is the energy of the ball?” she asks, gently waving a hand to settle the room’s twitchy energy. “Voices are off.” A student raises his hand, noticing an askew Y-axis. “This one doesn’t go through zero. A […]

MIT economist Whitney Newey PhD ’83, the Ford Professor of Economics, emeritus, has received the 2026 Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics. The biennial Nemmers prizes from Northwestern University recognize top scholars for their lasting contributions to new knowledge, outstanding achievements, and the development of significant new modes of analysis. The university cited Newey — whose research has […]

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has elected 120 members and 25 international members for 2026, including six MIT faculty members and 10 additional alumni.  Among MIT professors, Bengt Holmström, Michale Fee, Gareth McKinley ’91, Keith Nelson, Fan Wang, and Catherine Wolfram ’96 were elected in recognition of their “distinguished and continuing achievements in original […]

This spring, six reporters from The Associated Press’ climate desk traveled from cities across the United States to work with students from the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing. Students developed and pitched local climate stories, then, over a four-day intensive weekend, worked with visual journalists from the AP to report and produce their pieces. […]