Professor Walter Lewin of MIT's physics department achieved celebrity status after the MIT News Office and OpenCourseWare secured a front page story on him in The New York Times on Dec. 19. The piece, which examined the popularity of his free online lectures, became the most e-mailed article on the Times' web site for two consecutive days and led to features about him on the CBS Evening News, The Boston Globe, Forbes and the Guardian--not to mention requests for him to appear on talk shows with Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Ellen DeGeneres. Numerous book publishers and agents also approached Lewin to tell his story. Photo / Donna Coveney

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 16, 2008 (download PDF).