SHASS News

Victor K. McElheny, the celebrated journalist and author who founded MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Program more than 40 years ago and served for 15 years as its director, died on July 14 in Lexington, Massachusetts, after a brief illness. He was 89. Born in Boston and raised in Poughkeepsie, New York, McElheny’s storied journalism career spanned seven […]

Doing your taxes can feel like a very complicated task. Even so, it might be less intricate than trying to make sense of what people think about taxes. Several years ago, MIT political scientist Andrea Campbell undertook an expansive research project to understand public opinion about taxation. Her efforts have now reached fruition, in a […]

Growing up in Paris, Vincent Rollet was exposed to the world beyond France from an early age. His dad was an engineer who traveled around the globe to set up electrical infrastructure, and he moved the family to the United States for two years when Rollet was a small child. His father’s work sparked Rollet’s […]

MIT equips students with the tools to advance science and engineering — but a new class aims to ensure they also develop their own values and learn how to navigate conflicting viewpoints. Offered as a pilot this past spring, the multidisciplinary class 21.01 (Compass Course: Love, Death, and Taxes: How to Think — and Talk […]

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has elected 120 members and 30 international members, including five MIT faculty members and 13 MIT alumni. Professors Rodney Brooks, Parag Pathak, Scott Sheffield, Benjamin Weiss, and Yukiko Yamashita were elected in recognition of their “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.” Membership to the National Academy of Sciences […]