Leading Change: A Conversation with Ron Williams
In what Dean Dave Schmittlein bills as a master class, Ronald A. Williams discusses how an emphasis on new technology and application of basic values helped turn around the health care giant Aetna.
Williams’ case study begins in 2001, when he arrived to find a corporation bleeding out -- having lost $280 million in th
Lunch with a Laureate: Robert Horvitz
As an undergraduate at MIT, Robert Horvitz did not take a biology course until his senior year. But after only six weeks into his first class with professor Cy Leventhal, he realized this was the field for him. He boldly asked for a recommendation as part of his application to grad school—in biology. “Is it too late?” he
Alzheimer’s Disease: Realizing the Promise of Molecular Medicine
In 1906, when Alois Alzheimer first described the disease that bears his name, it was a rarity; life expectancy in the US was around 50 years, and few people lived long enough to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD). But as life expectancies have risen around the world, AD has become vastly more prevalent, and it is now one of the m
Airline Security: Where are We?
The events of 9/11 unleashed a flood of security measures across all dimensions of daily life, many of them aimed at averting repeat attacks on aircraft. So you might imagine that the risks of flying have been much reduced. You’d be wrong, says Arnold Barnett, who has scrutinized the changes in air security regulations, and
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
The authors of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy caused a sensation on the Beltway and on campuses across the U.S. Here they walk a respectful MIT audience through their argument that Israel does not deserve unconditional support from the U.S.
Stephen Walt builds a case that a special relationship exists
Bill Porter in Conversation with Howard Anderson
Some of the lessons Bill Porter picked up as a 13-year-old ranch hand in Colorado seem to have lasted a lifetime. When his boss told him to drive over a treacherous mountain pass into town for some chicken feed, Porter said he could not yet drive. He was told, “Just do it.” And when he faced taking a team of horses out to pas
El Sistema: Social Support and Advocacy Through Musical Education
Even in the confines of a panel discussion,
Gustavo Dudamel radiates so much passion and ebullience that it requires little imagination to see him at the podium with a baton in hand. MIT’s 2010 McDermott Award in the Arts winner is, at the tender age of 29, one of the world’s top conductors and music disseminators.
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
From the publisher:
“Heralded as a “sorcerer of narrative” (Foreign Policy) with an instinct for “poetic and intoxicating language” (Freie Presse), twenty-nine-year-old Saša Stanišić bounded onto the international literary scene to great fanfare and acclaim. How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone—the tale
Counting the Dead in Iraq
It’s no wonder there was an outcry when Gilbert Burnham’s group released its report on mortality in Iraq. The numbers of civilian deaths so overwhelmed body counts calculated by other groups that many were stunned or disbelieving, and Burnham earned the enmity of some U.S. and Iraqi government officials.
Bur
Sustainable Accessibility: A Grand Challenge for the World and for MIT
Transportation systems, as we know them today, will simply not sustain the worlds’ growing population. Imagine a projected population of nine billion individuals. If this future population had mobility patterns like drivers in the United States, there would be a staggering 7.6 billion motor vehicles, using 440 million barre
Student Remarks 2006 MLK Breakfast
With a mix of bitterness and hope, these two young men address the legacy of Martin Luther King. David Lowry, a Lumbee Indian, grew up in southeastern North Carolina where the great majority of the Lumbee people reside.
He speaks compellingly of his Lumbee Indian ancestry, and his need to be recognized at MIT and beyond as part
Opening Remarks/How the Brain Invents the Mind
In trying financial times, Susan Hockfield remains optimistic and committed to pursuing MIT’s massive, multi-year initiatives in energy and life sciences. She prefaces her “whirlwind” tour of MIT for an alumni audience by referencing the campus-wide relief at the change in presidential administrations, which promises
Portuguese studies review
The PSR is a peer reviewed journal devoted to promoting interdisciplinary scholarly study of the countries, regions, and communities that share, build on, or are transforming a Portuguese or Brazilian legacy. The PSR promotes a critical understanding of the historical and current evolution of political, economic, social and cultural networks incorporating Portugal, Brazil, and other lusophone countries. The journal, launched in 1991 by Trent University (Ontario, Canada) is published biannually,
Bulletin of the Polytechnic Institute of Jassy, construction : architecture section
The Bulletin of the Polytechnic Institute of Jassy, Construction, Architecture Section is an online journal from Romania that publishes interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed papers on "theoretical and applied research related to building materials and equipments, structural mechanics, roads and foundation". Although the Bulletin itself publishes scientific articles, covering all the fields from Mathematics to Social Sciences, the Construction, Architecture section of the bulletin covers a wide range
Village Works
From 1992 to 1993, women in villages of rural north west China were given cameras to record a year of their daily life, as pat of a women's reproductive health programme supported by the Ford Foundation. The resulting pictures not only formed an exhibition, but were used as prompts to discussions with officials on improving conditions in the areas involved. From the main page of the website, users can view a textual introduction to the project, and link to selected photographs, covering: work; f
Reith Lectures 2008 - Chinese Vistas
The online companion to BBC Radio 4's 2008 Reith Lecture series allows users to listen to and read transcripts of talks and discussion from China expert Jonathan Spence. The Reith lectures were inaugurated in order to increase public understanding of important issues of the day, and in 2008 (Beijing Olympic year), Spence delivered lectures on: Chinese ideas of sport and athleticism; the relationship between China and the United States; China and the United Kingdom in the post-Mao era; and Confuc
London Chinese cultural centre
The London Chinese Cultural Centre stages film, education and music and performance events in the capital. Its simple homepage lists a guide to current and future events, of which users are able to read a brief summary, and be navigated to a new page for further visual and textual information (in English and complicated Chinese characters). One of the main annual events run by the centre is the London Chinese Film Festival, which shows Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese films, often witho
Perspectives Chinoises
Perspectives Chinoises (Chinese Perspectives) is a French language quarterly revue of modern Chinese politics, economics, society and culture published by The French Centre For Contemporary China (CEFC). From a menu bar on the main page, users can access the mission statement of the publication, along with links to full text online versions of articles from the journal from 2003 to 2005. Summaries of articles from 2006 to 2008 are also provided, with plans to publish full text versions of more r
[University of Northumbria Cultural Policy Collection]
This Web resource offers a searchable database of the Cultural Policy Collection at the University of Northumbria. This comprises the archives of Visual Arts UK 1996 (a celebration of the Visual Arts throughout the North of England), the English Regional Arts Boards (1967-2002) and Year of the Artist (YOTA) national award (1992-1999). The database is searchable by organisation, person or subject keyword and the results provide brief information about the archives. The collection is part of the U
Wyndham Lewis's art criticism in 'The Listener', 1946-1951 : postwar British art in its context of i
This website, entitled Wyndham Lewis's Art Criticism in 'The Listener', 1946-1951, is the outcome of an AHRC research project, 2008-2009, at the University of Plymouth, England and the Universidad de La Rioja in Spain. Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) was not only a major English artist of the twentieth century, who co-founded the Vorticist movement, he was also an important art critic, a novelist and short-story writer, a cultural commentator, a political theorist, and a philosopher. This research pro
