From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

Two “sisters” — both university chiefs -- celebrate the victory of the first African-American U.S. President, but remind listeners that American institutions have not yet achieved the full measure of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream. MIT, which prides itself on inventing the future, says Su...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

Two students deliver heartfelt appeals for courage and integrity at the annual Martin Luther King Day breakfast. In the 1940s, Matt Gethers recounts, his grandfather was forced to flee South Carolina after defending his brother against white racists in a store. Gethers wonders if he’d h...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

If economic analyses earned ratings like movies, this event would receive an X for extremely disturbing. Two of the field’s most prominent voices spare any sugar coating in their unsettling accounts of the world’s unfolding economic crisis. Martin Feldstein had a hard time choosing which of the ...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

MIT President Susan Hockfield hails a new era of collaboration between the Institute and China, and Zhou Wenzhong, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China, discusses the larger relationship between his country and the U.S., particularly in light of the ...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

Cellphone and mobile communication aficionados (not to mention the rest of us) appreciate that our favorite tech gadgets increasingly resemble props from Star Trek. A shout out then to Irwin Jacobs and Qualcomm, the company perhaps most responsible for such astonishing gear. In his talk, Jacobs ...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

Rafael Bras, a professor of civil and environmental engineering who pioneered the field of hydrologic science, is MIT's James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award winner for 2008-2009. If he doesn’t have the whole world in his hands, Rafael Bras certainly grasps more pieces of the gigant...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

There will be a time “beyond crisis,” asserts Robert C. Merton, who delves into the dense science of derivatives — a field he has fundamentally shaped -- to explain how the vast global economic collapse has come about, and how financial innovations at the heart of the collapse could also b...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

Bill Viola dims the lights in MIT’s Room 10-250, and begins to talk of life, death and all that lies between, leaving the realm of classroom and entering a place of potential enlightenment. Weaving together his video art, personal anecdotes, poetry and other writings from religious traditions sp...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

The Obama campaign owes its victory not to a single charismatic candidate, but to the efforts of a disciplined and motivated organization whose roots go back to landmark movements of the 1960s. Marshall Ganz, who cut his teeth on civil rights work and with Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers, des...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

A West Point start, army career, and a disciplined approach to distilling key life experiences has guided Robert McDonald through his 20 years at Procter & Gamble. McDonald recommends a deliberate system of self-examination that results in an articulation of beliefs, which he sees as essential t...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

In a panel that at times resembles a late-night ramble and conversation, three film music professionals discuss changes in their industry, with some no-holds-barred dishing and kvetching. Martin Marks sets the scene historically, starting with the revolutionary introduction of sound to film. He ...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

In 1986, Hyundai’s first export to the U.S, the $4995 Excel, developed embarrassing quality problems, and the company found itself grist for late night talk shows. But John Krafcik recounts with pride Hyundai’s turnaround, from laughingstock of the American auto market back in the 1980s, to seve...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

“Just a sleep-deprived activist and organizer.” That’s how environmentalist Bill McKibben describes his current incarnation, with writing career in abeyance while he proselytizes about the danger of climate change. The plight he first wrote about as hypothesis in 1989 has evolved into “deeply ro...

From: MIT World on Sun, May 17 2009 12:53 AM

Climate change poses perhaps the premiere threat to coming generations, says Martin Madaus, but to avoid its worst impacts, we must confront the issue now. To that end, Madaus exhorts business leaders to focus immediately on building environmental sustainability into their operations, as he has ...

From: MIT World on Wed, May 13 2009 5:07 PM

These five security specialists seem dubious about major Defense Department reforms as the Obama administration winds into action. Cindy Williams first unloads these basics: the U.S. FY 2009 Department of Defense non-war budget is over half a trillion dollars – “about as much money as th...

From: MIT World on Wed, May 13 2009 5:07 PM

Two “sisters” — both university chiefs -- celebrate the victory of the first African-American U.S. President, but remind listeners that American institutions have not yet achieved the full measure of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream. MIT, which prides itself on inventing the future, says Su...

From: MIT World on Wed, May 13 2009 5:07 PM

Two students deliver heartfelt appeals for courage and integrity at the annual Martin Luther King Day breakfast. In the 1940s, Matt Gethers recounts, his grandfather was forced to flee South Carolina after defending his brother against white racists in a store. Gethers wonders if he’d h...

From: MIT World on Wed, May 13 2009 5:07 PM

MIT President Susan Hockfield hails a new era of collaboration between the Institute and China, and Zhou Wenzhong, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China, discusses the larger relationship between his country and the U.S., particularly in light of the ...

From: MIT World on Wed, May 13 2009 5:07 PM

Cellphone and mobile communication aficionados (not to mention the rest of us) appreciate that our favorite tech gadgets increasingly resemble props from Star Trek. A shout out then to Irwin Jacobs and Qualcomm, the company perhaps most responsible for such astonishing gear. In his talk, Jacobs ...

From: MIT World on Wed, May 13 2009 5:07 PM

Rafael Bras, a professor of civil and environmental engineering who pioneered the field of hydrologic science, is MIT's James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award winner for 2008-2009. If he doesn’t have the whole world in his hands, Rafael Bras certainly grasps more pieces of the gigant...