Marking Juneteenth + wildfire science + diversity in STEM + MIT Gala

MIT Weekly June 17, 2023 Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.  Want a daily dose of MIT in your inbox? [Subscribe to the MIT Daily](. A Poem to Mark Juneteenth #[Black-and-white still of Joshua Bennett, who stands center stage while performing his poem “America Will Be” with his hand on his chest, alongside the masked Argus Quartet as they play string instruments. A pianist performs right of Bennett.]( In his poem “[America Will Be]( [Joshua Bennett]( pays tribute to his father, who lived through the violence of the Jim Crow era yet “somehow still believes in this grand blood-stained / experiment still votes still prays that his children might / make a life unlike any he has ever seen.” [Watch the video]( | [Learn about Bennett’s teaching at MIT→]( Top Headlines Q&A: Are far-reaching fires the new normal? As Canada’s wildfires continue to be felt downwind, MIT experts weigh in on what to expect in the coming months, with wildfire season underway. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Advancing material innovation to address the polymer waste crisis With an eye toward sustainability, MIT researchers developed an expansive dataset to help determine whether or not a polymer is biodegradable. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Does gendered language in job postings attract more women? An MIT study finds tailoring language in job ads doesn’t increase gender diversity — and suggests what firms can do to actually diversify their applicant pool. [Full story via MIT Sloan→]( [MIT Heat Island]( At MIT, taekwondo captures students’ minds, hands, and hearts MIT Sport Taekwondo has become one of the most popular club sports at MIT because of its tight-knit team and ability to help students clear their heads. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( Studying phages far from home Biology graduate student Tong Zhang has spent the last two years learning the intricacies of how bacteria protect themselves. [Full story via MIT News →]( [MIT Heat Island]( #ThisisMIT #[About 22 members of MIT’s Track and Field and Cross Country team pose for portrait in front of the White House. Two screens behind them on left and right say “College Athlete Day: Celebrating Champions”. Text via @mitathletics: Happy College Athlete Day from @MITTFXC here at The White House! #RollTech @NCAADIII]( [Follow @MITAthletics on Twitter →]( In the Media Opinion: Expelled from the mountain top? // Science Sylvester James Gates Jr. ’73, PhD ’77 makes the case that “diverse learning environments expose students to a broader range of perspectives, enhance education, and inculcate creativity and innovative habits of mind.” [Full story via Science→]( Opinion: Big tech is bad. Big AI will be worse. // The New York Times Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu and Professor Simon Johnson make the case that “rather than machine intelligence, what we need is ‘machine usefulness,’ which emphasizes the ability of computers to augment human capabilities.” [Full story via The New York Times→]( MIT research could be game changer in combating water shortages // NBC Boston MIT researchers discovered that a common hydrogel used in cosmetic creams, industrial coatings, and pharmaceutical capsules can absorb moisture from the atmosphere even as the temperature rises. [Full story via NBC Boston→]( Wiggly worms and quantum objects follow surprisingly similar equations // New Scientist MIT scientists have found that the “motions of undulating animals and the states of quantum objects can be described using strikingly similar equations.” [Full story via New Scientist→]( Scene at MIT #[Collage of three images placed horizontally from runway: Teresa Gao wears a choker necklace, metallic brasserie, and pleated skirt with net-like material that Gao holds akin to wings. Vivian Chinoda wears black skirt with vest with colorful tassels that reach to knee to foot length. Rine Pan wears light blue from head to toe while wearing antlers, a black vest with wings, and a garland that hangs from waist.]( A gallery of art by independent creators, creations from MIT classes, and a runway where MIT models displayed designers’ work were showcased recently at the MIT Gala, a nod to the annual Met Gala fashion event in New York City. Synths reverberated throughout the room, courtesy of MIT Laptop Ensemble, while MIT’s E33 Productions lined the runway with red LEDs and filled the room with pink, purple, and blue hues. The sold-out show sprouted from MIT’s undergraduate student-run fashion publication, [Infinite Magazine](. MIT Gala was the release event for the magazine’s 11th issue, which was crafted over the course of the 2022-23 school year. [Learn more via Arts at MIT→]( [“] To make new discoveries and expand our understanding of life, we seek colleagues and trainees who are curious, persistent, creative, ingenious, insightful, determined, collaborative, generous, and ambitious. To find these exceptional people, we have to look broadly. We have to look further than we have in the past. —Amy Keating, head of the Department of Biology, at the inaugural MIT Catalyst Symposium, which aims to bring outstanding postdocs from underrepresented backgrounds in science to engage with MIT community members [Full story via MIT News →]( Did You Know? Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the date that enslaved Black Americans in Texas were finally notified of their freedom, nearly two and half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. While Juneteenth celebrations date back to 1866, Juneteenth was recently [adopted as an MIT-wide holiday]( and proclaimed a U.S. national holiday. Juneteenth is a day to remember the [history of enslaved Black Americans]( who were deprived of freedom for centuries, and it is also a day for recognizing progress and celebrating the culture and achievements of Black Americans. We encourage you to celebrate and be in community with others in the coming days by attending gatherings and events like [talks]( [arts]( [festivals]( [fairs]( [concerts]( [cookouts]( [and more](. This edition of the MIT Weekly was brought to you by [using your auto-reply for good on Juneteenth](. ✉️ Have feedback to share? Email mitdailyeditor@mit.edu. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! —MIT News Office [Forward This Email]( [Subscribe]( [MIT Logo] Massachusetts Institute of Technology This email was sent to {EMAIL} because of your affiliation with MIT, or because you signed up for our newsletters. [subscribe]( [update preferences]( [unsubscribe]( [view in browser]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( MIT News Office · 77 Massachusetts Avenue · Cambridge, MA 02139 · USA