News & Stories

Improving global health equity by helping clinics do more with less

More children are being vaccinated around the world today than ever before, and the prevalence of many vaccine-preventable diseases has dropped over the last decade. Despite these encouraging signs, however, the availability of essential vaccines has stagnated globally in recent years, according the World Health Organization. One problem, particularly in low-resource settings, is the difficulty […]

Associate Professor Amah Edoh receives Baker Award for undergraduate teaching

Amah Edoh, associate professor in anthropology, has received the Everett Moore Baker Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. This Institute-wide award, named in honor of Everett Moore Baker, dean of students from 1947 to 1950, is given every year to an MIT faculty member, recognizing an “exceptional interest and ability in the instruction of undergraduates.” […]

A mobile tool for global change

Frontline health workers represent the lifeblood of many health care systems in low- and middle-income countries around the world. Often overworked and underpaid, these workers operate outside hospital settings to meet the community’s poorest people where they live and work, ensuring health care initiatives impact the families that need them most. The global growth in […]

A force for health equity

After spending three weeks in Kenya working on water issues with Maasai women, Kendyll Hicks was ready to declare it her favorite among the international projects she’s participated in through MIT. As a volunteer with the nonprofit Mama Maji, Hicks spoke about clean water, menstrual hygiene, and reproductive health with local women, sharing information that […]

New theories at the intersection of algebra and geometry

As a self-described “classical type of mathematician,” Chenyang Xu eschews software for paper and pen, chalk and chalkboard. Walk by his office, and you might simply see him pacing about, deep in concentration. Walking — across campus to get a cup of coffee, or from his apartment to his office — is an essential part […]

3 Questions: Professor Kenda Mutongi on Africa, women, power — and human decency

MIT Professor Kenda Mutongi teaches courses in African history, world history, and gender history, and serves on the MIT Africa Working Group. She is the author of two award-winning books: “Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi” (University of Chicago Press, 2017) and “Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya” (University of Chicago Press, 2007). […]

A new way to irrigate crops year-round

Toward the end of 2019, startup Khethworks began selling what the team refers to internally as “version one” of its 320-watt solar-powered water pump. The pump allows farmers in India who rely on crop harvests to feed their families to farm year-round instead of being limited to the four-month monsoon season. In just a couple […]

Anoushka Bose: Targeting a career in security studies and diplomacy

Anoushka Bose arrived at MIT in 2016 intent on pursuing problems related to climate change and energy. But two years later, she found herself discussing arms control and international security with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov during a policy forum connecting American and Russian students. “It was eye-opening for me,” says Bose, a double major […]

3 Questions: Shola Lawal on human rights and social justice

It’s been a banner year for Nigerian journalist Shola Lawal. The young reporter, who focuses on human rights and social justice issues, was selected as the 2019 International Women’s Media Foundation’s Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. The fellowship brought her to MIT this fall as a research associate at the Center for International Studies and provides further journalistic […]

Making buildings from industrial waste

Elsa Olivetti’s interest in materials science began when she was an engineering science major at the University of Virginia. Initially unable to settle on any one form of engineering, she took an introduction to materials science class on a whim. She loved the way materials science let her examine everyday material, like a block of […]