Much of MIT's uniqueness and great success rests on the fact that research and education in the sciences are at the core of the Institute. Thus, every undergraduate student at MIT learns the basic elements of chemistry, mathematics, physics, and molecular biology. The School of Science offers frontier research and educational programs in virtually all areas of contemporary science.
Science at MIT is simultaneously very abstract and very practical. Most importantly, it is always exciting. An education in science, both at the undergraduate and at the graduate level, prepares one for many careers. Students with bachelor's degrees in science often go on to medical school, law school, business school, and other professional schools including engineering. Some, of course, also go on to pursue PhDs in their fields of specialization. Many students with PhD degrees in science or mathematics pursue distinguished careers in research and education. However, others enjoy equally satisfying careers in business, industry, and government. Many combine their PhD degrees in science with medical, law, or business degrees and are uniquely prepared to face the modern world.
The future for science at MIT is as vast as the creative imaginations of each faculty and student, which continually mandate new academic and research directions for the School. Interests extend from the fundamental constituents of matter such as quarks and gluons to the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, from the flow of fluids in porous rocks to the flow of currents in the oceans and the atmosphere, from the molecular biology of individual neurons in the brain to the complex processes involved in language acquisition, from the mathematics underlying computer science to the fundamentals of geometry, from the chemistry of catalysis to the biochemical processes involved in photosynthesis, from the microscopic structures of individual proteins to the genetics of cancer.
Students at all levels and of all persuasions are invited to join in this exciting enterprise, as undergraduates or as graduates, as minors or as majors, as generalists or as specialists.
Science has been at the core of an MIT education since the Institute's founding by the distinguished natural scientist, William Barton Rogers, in 1861. The earliest offerings in chemistry, geology, and general science were expanded in the 1930s to include physics, mathematics, and biology, under the leadership of Karl Taylor Compton. During his tenure and into the post-war years, the Institute saw vast growth in the physical sciences, as federal funding for basic research increased.
Life sciences attained new prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, and the Department of Biology expanded with the additions of the Center for Cancer Research and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Recently, the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences expanded with the addition of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the McGovern Institue for Brain Research, adding to the increased School-wide interest in the neurosciences. Today, the sciences at MIT are ranked among the best in the world, a ranking which is reflected in the number of Nobel laureates on the faculty (currently eight) and among alumni of the School.
The interdepartmental research centers and laboratories associated with the School of Science include:
Center for Cancer Research
Laboratory for Nuclear Science
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Spectroscopy Laboratory
Refer to the section on Interdisciplinary Research and Study in Part 1 for detailed descriptions of these centers and labs. For a description of the Radiological Sciences Joint Doctoral Program, refer to the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology section under Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs in Part 2.
The emerging field of computational and systems biology represents an integration of concepts and ideas from the biological sciences, engineering disciplines, and computer science. Recent advances in biology, including the human genome project and massively parallel approaches to probing biological samples, have created a new opportunity to focus on understanding biological problems from a systems perspective. Systems modeling and design are well established in engineering disciplines but are relatively new to biology. Advances in computational and systems biology require multidisciplinary teams with skill in applying principles and tools from engineering and computer science to solve problems in biology and medicine. To provide education in this emerging field, the Computational and Systems Biology (CSB) program integrates MIT's world-renowned disciplines in biology, engineering, math and computer science. Graduates of the program will be uniquely prepared to develop new methods, make novel discoveries and establish new paradigms. They will also be well positioned to assume critical leadership roles in both academia and industry, where this new area is becoming increasingly important.
For more information on the CSB program, see the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs section in Part 2.
Brochures describing the academic programs and research centers are available through each department; contact the appropriate academic officer directly.
Marc A. Kastner, PhD
Donner Professor of Science
Dean
Hazel Louise Sive, PhD
Professor of Biology
Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Associate Dean
Ronald E. Hasseltine, BA
Assistant Dean for Finance
Heather G. Williams, MA
Assistant Dean for Administration and Human Resources