MIT
MIT Faculty Newsletter  
contents Vol. XXVIII No. 4
March / April 2016

This issue of the Faculty Newsletter features continuing commentary on MIT's actions regarding the issue of climate change. There's our editorial, an article by Vice President of Research Maria Zuber, "An Update on Climate Action," as well as a piece by members of MIT's Climate Change Conversion Committee, and more.

Spotlight
Building the Dome. Courtesy: MIT Musuem
A Century in Cambridge
MIT2016 celebrates moving from Boston to Cambridge in 1916.
Does MIT Really Need
a Faculty Senate?

Prof. Patrick Winston takes issue with last issue's editorial suggesting the need for a faculty senate.
MIT Engineering Systems Division R. I. P.
Prof. Oli de Weck offers a eulogy and reflection on ESD.
 
Editorial
Some Steps Forward on Climate Action, More Needed
Editorial Subcommittee
The 116-day sit-in by members of Fossil Free MIT Coalition (FFMIT), directed against the MIT administration’s climate action and investment policies, ended on March 1 . . .
Nuclear Weapons Divestment Announced at MIT Conference
Max Tegmark
Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons announced on April 2 at MIT that the Cambridge City Council has unanimously voted to recommend divesting their $1 billion city . . .
An Update on Climate Action
Maria T. Zuber
Last December, I had the privilege of traveling to the Paris climate talks and being a witness to history: Nearly 200 countries, representing as grand a consensus as the . . .
MIT and the Climate Challenge:
The Need for More Than Technical Solutions
In September 2014, MIT established the Committee on the MIT Climate Change Conversation, with the mandate to “seek broad input from the Institute community . . .
Letters
An Updated Suggestion Regarding Climate Change
Alexander Slocum
Individually, we MIT faculty tend to be a hyper creative lot, although collectively, we tend to be cautious and reserved, especially with regard to curricula and governing . . .
A Century in Cambridge
John Ochsendorf
This spring, MIT commemorates its historic 1916 move from Boston to Cambridge with a series of academic and social events. MIT2016: Celebrating a Century in Cambridge
Does MIT Really Need a Faculty Senate?
Patrick Henry Winston
In the January/February 2016 issue of the Faculty Newsletter (Vol. XXVIII No. 3), the Editorial Board Editorial Subcommittee, noting low turnout at faculty meetings and . . .
MIT Engineering Systems Division R. I. P.
Olivier de Weck
On July 1, 2015, the Engineering Systems Division (ESD) ceased to exist as a recognized organizational unit at MIT. This event went unnoticed perhaps by a . . .
LabArchives: Store and Organize Your Research Data Online
Garry Zacheiss, Katherine McNeill
Researchers have become increasingly interested in the benefits of Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs). ELNs enable researchers to organize and store experimental . . .
Letters
Asking the Important Questions
Molly Ruggles
How lucky MIT is to have the measured, informed, and powerful intellectual reasoning of Prof. Sally Haslanger. In our community, where the humanities and social sciences . . .
Letters
Replanting Our Social and Emotional Landscape
Eve Odiorne Sullivan
Professor Eltahir’s warning in the November/December 2015 Faculty Newsletter is both compelling and deeply distressing. Noting his research in Civil and Environmental . . .
Letters
Defects in the MITIMCo Proposals
Gordon Kaufman
Your deconstruction of the current MITIMCo plan is required reading for MIT’s “Top Brass.” In particular, the proposal that several commercial buildings be built so . . .
Letters
Questioning Construction Plans for Kendall Square
Gary Hack
I read with interest your article in the current Faculty Newsletter, and wanted to applaud you for writing it. While I didn’t look at the plans in as much detail as you did, . . .
Numbers
Status of World Nuclear Forces
   
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