HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
 1
|
"MIT" redirects here. For other uses, see MIT (disambiguation).
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Motto: | "Mens et Manus" (Latin for "Mind and Hand") |
| Established | 1861 (opened 1865) |
| Type: | Private |
| Endowment: | US $9.98 billionBoston Globe Business Team. "MIT endowment grows by $1.6b", Boston Globe, Boston Globe, September 11, 2007. |
| Chancellor: | Phillip Clay |
| President: | Susan Hockfield |
| Provost: | L. Rafael Reif |
| Faculty: | 998 |
| Undergraduates: | 4,127 |
| Postgraduates: | 6,126 |
| Location: | Cambridge, Mass., U.S. |
| Campus: | Urban, 154 acres (0.6 km²) |
| Athletics: | Division III 41 varsity teams |
| Colors: | Cardinal Red and Grey |
| Mascot: | Beaver |
| Website: | web.mit.edu |
| |
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing 32 academic departments,MIT Facts 2007: Academic Schools and Departments, Divisions & Sections. Retrieved on 2007-02-14. with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research. MIT is one of two private land-grant universities and is also a sea grant and space grant university.
MIT was founded by William Barton Rogers in the year 1861 in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States. Although based upon German and French polytechnic models of an institute of technology, MIT\'s founding philosophy of "learning by doing" made it an early pioneer in the use of laboratory instruction,1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 4, p. 292: "[MIT] was a pioneer in introducing as a feature of its original plans laboratory instruction in physics, mechanics, and mining." undergraduate research, and progressive architectural styles. As a federally funded research and development center during World War II, MIT scientists developed defense-related technologies that would later become integral to computers, radar, and inertial guidance. After the war, MIT\'s reputation expanded beyond its core competencies in science and engineering into the social sciences including economics, linguistics, political science, and management.
MIT\'s endowment and annual research expenditures are among the largest of any American university.TheCenter Research University Data (2005). Retrieved on 2006-12-15. MIT graduates and faculty are noted for their technical acumen (72 affiliated Nobel Laureates, 47 National Medal of Science recipients, and 29 MacArthur Fellows),http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/awards/nobel.htmlMIT Facts 2007: Faculty and Staff."Three from MIT win top U.S. science, technology honors", MIT News Office, July 19, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-07-20. MIT Office of Provost, Institutional Research. MIT MacArthur Fellows. Retrieved on 2006-12-16. entrepreneurial spirit (a 1997 report claimed that the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT affiliates would make it the twenty-fourth largest economy in the world),Bank of Boston Economics Department (March 1997). MIT: The Impact of Innovation. Retrieved on 2006-10-04. and irreverence (the popular practice of constructing elaborate pranks, or hacking, often has anti-authoritarian overtones).
Contents |
MIT\'s Great Dome.
| “ | ...a school of industrial science [aiding] the advancement, development and practical application of science in connection with arts, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce.Charter of the MIT Corporation. Retrieved on 2007-03-22. | ” |
| —Act to Incorporate the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Acts of 1861, Chapter 183 | ||
In 1861, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts approved a charter for the incorporation of the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston Society of Natural History" submitted by William Barton Rogers. Rogers sought to establish a new form of higher education to address the challenges posed by rapid advances in science and technology during the mid-19th century with which classic institutions were ill-prepared to deal.MIT Facts 2007: Mission and Origins. Retrieved on 2006-07-18. The Rogers Plan, as it came to be known, was rooted in three principles: the educational value of useful knowledge, the necessity of “learning by doing,” and integrating a professional and liberal arts education at the undergraduate level.Lewis, Warren K.; Ronald H. Rornett, C. Richard Soderberg, Julius A. Stratton, John R. Loofbourow, et al (December 1949). Report of the Committee on Educational Survey (Lewis Report). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, p. 8. Retrieved on 2006-10-04. Barton\'s philosophy for the institute was for "the teaching, not of the manipulations done only in the workshop, but the inculcation of all the scientific principles which form the basis and explanation of them;" The Founding of MIT, cites (1) Letter, William Barton Rogers to Henry Darwin Rogers, March 13, 1846, William Barton Rogers Papers (MC 1), Institute Archives & Special Collections, MIT Libraries.
Because open conflict in the Civil War broke out only a few months later, MIT\'s first classes were held in rented space at the Mercantile Building in downtown Boston in 1865.Andrews, Elizabeth, Nora Murphy, and Tom Rosko(2004), William Barton Rogers: MIT\'s Visionary Founder (Charter, laboratory instruction, first classes in Mercantile building) Construction of the first MIT buildings was completed in Boston\'s Back Bay in 1866 and MIT would be known as "Boston Tech." During the next half-century, the focus of the science and engineering curriculum drifted towards vocational concerns instead of theoretical programs. Charles William Eliot, the president of Harvard University, repeatedly attempted to merge MIT with Harvard\'s Lawrence Scientific School over his 30-year tenure: overtures were made as early as 1869 The history montage at the Kendall/MIT T-stop with other proposals in 1900 and 1914 ultimately being defeated.National Selection Committee Ballot - Power of the NSC. Retrieved on 23 November, 2005."Tech Alumni Holds Reunion. Record attendance, novel features. Cooperative plan with Harvard announced by Pres. Maclaurin. Gov. Walsh Brings Best Wishes of the State.", Boston Daily Globe, 1914-01-11, p. 117.
Maclaurin quoted: "in future Harvard agrees to carry out all its work in engineering and mining in the buildings of Technology under the executive control of the president of Technology, and, what is of the first importance, to commit all instruction and the laying down of all courses to the faculty of Technology, after that faculty has been enlarged and strengthened by the addition to its existing members of men of eminence from Harvard\'s Graduate School of Applied Science.""Harvard-Tech Merger. Duplication of Work to be Avoided in Future. Instructors Who WIll Hereafter be Members of Both Faculties", Boston Daily Globe, 1914-01-25, p. 47. Canceled by a 1917 State Judicial Court decision.Harvard Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
A plaque of George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, in Building 6. His nose is rubbed by students for good luck"Students hope \'Eastman moment\' proves lucky as they head into final exams" (2002-05-22). Retrieved on 2008-03-12..
The attempted mergers occurred in parallel with MIT\'s continued expansion beyond the classroom and laboratory space permitted by its Boston campus. President Richard Maclaurin sought to move the campus to a new location when he took office in 1909.The "New Tech" (2006-09-08). Retrieved on 2006-12-01. An anonymous donor, later revealed to be George Eastman, donated the funds to build a new campus along a mile-long tract of swamp and industrial land on the Cambridge side of the Charles River. In 1916, MIT moved into its handsome new neoclassical campus designed by the noted architect William W. Bosworth which it occupies to this date. The new campus triggered some changes in the stagnating undergraduate curriculum, but in the 1930s President Karl Taylor Compton and Vice-President (effectively Provost) Vannevar Bush drastically reformed the curriculum by re-emphasizing the importance of "pure" sciences like physics and chemistry and reducing the work required in shops and drafting. Despite the difficulties of the Great Depression, the reforms "renewed confidence in the ability of the Institute to develop leadership in science as well as in engineering."Report of the Committee on Educational Survey, page 13 The expansion and reforms thus cemented MIT\'s academic reputation on the eve of World War II by attracting scientists and researchers who would later make significant contributions in the Radiation Laboratory, Instrumentation Laboratory, and other defense-related research programs.
MIT was drastically changed by its involvement in military research during World War II. Bush was appointed head of the enormous Office of Scientific Research and Development and directed funding to only a select group of universities, including MIT.Leslie, Stuart (2004-04-15). The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-07959-1. Zachary, Gregg (1997-09-03). Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century. Free Press. ISBN 0-684-82821-9. During the war and in the post-war years, this government-sponsored research contributed to a fantastic growth in the size of the Institute\'s research staff and physical plant as well as placing an increased emphasis on graduate education.Report of the Committee on Educational Survey, page 13
As the Cold War and Space Race intensified and concerns about the technology gap between the U.S. and the Soviet Union grew more pervasive throughout the 1950s and 1960s, MIT\'s involvement in the military-industrial complex was a source of pride on campus. More Emphasis on Science Vitally Needed to Educate Man for A Confused Civilization (1958-02-14). Retrieved on 2006-11-05. Iron Birds Caged in Building 7 Lobby: Missiles on Display Here (1958-02-25). Retrieved on 2006-11-05. However, by the late 1960s and early 1970s, intense protests by student and faculty activists (an era now known as "the troubles")"At a critical time in the late 1960s, Johnson stood up to the forces of campus rebellion at MIT. Many university presidents were destroyed by the troubles. Only Edward Levi, University of Chicago president, had comparable success guiding his institution to a position of greater strength and unity after the turmoil." David Warsh (June 1, 1999). A tribute to MIT\'s Howard Johnson. Boston Globe. Retrieved on 2007-04-04. against the Vietnam War and MIT\'s defense research required that the MIT administration to divest itself from what would become the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and move all classified research off-campus to the Lincoln Laboratory facility.
MIT is "a university polarized around science, engineering, and the arts."
James R. Killian (1949-04-02). The Inaugural Address. Retrieved on 2006-06-02.
MIT has five schools (Science, Engineering, Architecture and Planning, Management, and Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) and one college (Whitaker College of Health Sciences and Technology), but no schools of law or medicine.The Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technonolgy (HST) offers joint MD, MD-PhD, or Medical Engineering degrees in collaboration with Harvard Medical School.
Harvard-MIT HST Academics Overview. Retrieved on 2007-08-05.
MIT is governed by a 78-member board of trustees known as the MIT CorporationMIT Corporation. Retrieved on 2007-03-18. which approve the budget, degrees, and faculty appointments as well as electing the President. A Brief History and Workings of the Corporation. Retrieved on 2006-11-02. MIT\'s endowment and other financial assets are managed through a subsidiary MIT Investment Management Company (MITIMCo).MIT Investment Management Company. Retrieved on 2007-01-08. The chair of each of MIT\'s 32 academic departments reports to the dean of that department\'s school, who in turn reports to the Provost under the President. However, faculty committees assert substantial control over many areas of MIT\'s curriculum, research, student life, and administrative affairs.Rafael L. Bras (2004-2005). Reports to the President, Report of the Chair of the Faculty. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.
MIT students refer to both their majors and classes using numbers alone. Majors are numbered in the approximate order of when the department was founded; for example, Civil and Environmental Engineering is Course I, while Nuclear Science & Engineering is Course XXII. MIT Education. Retrieved on 2006-12-03. Students majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the most popular department, collectively identify themselves as "Course VI." MIT students use a combination of the department\'s course number and the number assigned to the class number to identify their subjects; the course which many American universities would designate as "Physics 101" is, at MIT, simply "8.01." Course numbers are traditionally presented in Roman numerals, e.g. Course XVIII for mathematics. Starting in 2002, the Bulletin (MIT\'s course catalog) started to use Arabic numerals. Usage outside of the Bulletin varies, both Roman and Arabic numerals being used). This section follows the Bulletin\'s usage.
MIT\'s 168-acre (68.0 ha) Cambridge campus spans approximately a mile of the Charles River front. The campus is divided roughly in half by Massachusetts Avenue, with most dormitories and student life facilities to the west and most academic buildings to the east. The bridge closest to MIT is the Harvard Bridge, which is marked off in the fanciful unit – the Smoot. The Kendall MBTA Red Line station is located on the far northeastern edge of the campus in Kendall Square. The Cambridge neighborhoods surrounding MIT are a mixture of high tech companies occupying both modern office and rehabilitated industrial buildings as well as socio-economically diverse residential neighborhoods.
MIT buildings all have a number (or a number and a letter) designation and most have a name as well.MIT Whereis. Retrieved on 2007-08-05. Typically, academic and office buildings are referred to only by number while residence halls are referred to by name. The organization of building numbers roughly corresponds to the order in which the buildings were built and their location relative (north, west, and east) to the original, center cluster of Maclaurin buildings. Many are connected above ground as well as through an extensive network of underground tunnels, providing protection from the Cambridge weather. MIT also owns commercial real estate and research facilities throughout Cambridge and the greater Boston area. MIT\'s on-campus nuclear reactor is the second largest university-based nuclear reactor in the United States. The high visibility of the reactor\'s containment building in a densely populated area has occasionally caused controversy,http://www-tech.mit.edu/V105/N59/nucle.59n.htmlABC News. Loose Nukes: A Special Report. Retrieved on 2007-04-14. but MIT maintains that it is well-secured.MIT News Office (2005-10-13). MIT Assures Community of Research Reactor Safety. Retrieved on 2006-10-05. Other notable campus facilities include a pressurized wind tunnel, a towing tank for testing ship and ocean structure designs, and a low-emission cogeneration plant that serves most of the campus electricity and heating requirements. MIT\'s campus-wide wireless network was completed in the fall of 2005 and consists of nearly 3,000 access points covering 9,400,000 square feet (873,289.0 m²) of campus.MIT maps wireless users across campus (2005-11-04). Retrieved on 2007-03-03.
The Stata Center houses CSAIL, LIDS, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Frieze on Building 2 dedicated to Isaac Newton
As MIT\'s school of architecture was the first in the United States,MIT Architecture: Welcome. Retrieved on 2007-04-04. it has a history of commissioning progressive, if stylistically inconsistent, buildings.Starchitecture on Campus (2004-02-22). Retrieved on 2006-10-24. The first buildings constructed on the Cambridge campus, completed in 1916, are known officially as the Maclaurin buildings after Institute president Richard Maclaurin who oversaw their construction. Designed by William Welles Bosworth, these imposing buildings were built of concrete, a first for a non-industrial — much less university — building in the U.S.Jarzombek, Mark (2004), written at Boston, Designing MIT: Bosworth\'s New Tech, Northeastern University Press The utopian City Beautiful movement greatly influenced Bosworth\'s design which features the Pantheon-esque Great Dome, housing the Barker Engineering Library, which overlooks Killian Court, where annual Commencement exercises are held. The friezes of the limestone-clad buildings around Killian Court are engraved with the names of important scientists and philosophers. The imposing Building 7 atrium along Massachusetts Avenue is regarded as the entrance to the Infinite Corridor and the rest of the campus.
Alvar Aalto\'s Baker House (1947), Eero Saarinen\'s Chapel and Auditorium (1955), and I.M. Pei\'s Green, Dreyfus, Landau, and Wiesner buildings represent high forms of post-war modern architecture. More recent buildings like Frank Gehry\'s Stata Center (2004), Steven Holl\'s Simmons Hall (2002), and Charles Correa\'s Building 46 (2005) are distinctive amongst the Boston area\'s staid architecture"Boston isn’t yet fully embracing contemporary architecture... it’s far riskier to put an unapologetically modern building in the historic Back Bay, not far from the neighborhood’s Victorian town houses and Gothic Revival columns."Rachel Strutt (February 11, 2007). Stained Glass?. Retrieved on 2007-04-04. and serve as examples of contemporary campus "starchitecture." These buildings have not always been popularly accepted; the Princeton Review includes MIT in a list of twenty schools whose campuses are "tiny, unsightly, or both." " 2007 361 Best College Rankings: Quality of Life: Campus Is Tiny, Unsightly, or Both. Princeton Review (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-09. It should be noted in this regard that the size of the campus is considerable.
MIT enrolls more graduate students (approximately 6,000 in total) than undergraduates (approximately 4,000). In 2006, women constituted 44 percent of all undergraduates and 30 percent of graduate students. The same year, MIT students represented all 50 states, the District of Columbia, three U.S. Territories, and 113 foreign countries.
The admissions rate for freshmen in 2007 was 11.9% with over 69% of admitted freshmen choosing to enroll. Although graduate admissions are less centralized, they are similarly selective: 19.7% of 16,153 applications were admitted with 61.2% of admitted candidates enrolling. MIT Facts 2007: Admission to MIT. Retrieved on 2007-02-14.
Undergraduate tuition is $33,400 and graduate tuition is $33,600 per year although 64% of undergraduates receive need-based financial aid and 87% of graduate students are supported by MIT fellowships, research assistantships, or teaching assistantships.MIT Facts 2007: Graduate Education. Retrieved on 2007-02-14.MIT Facts 2007: Tuition and Financial Aid.
The Infinite Corridor is the primary passageway through campus.
MIT has an extensive core curriculum required of all undergraduates called the General Institute Requirements (GIRs). The science requirement, generally completed during freshman year as prerequisites for classes in science and engineering majors, comprises two semesters of physics classes covering Classical Mechanics and E&M, two semesters of math covering single variable calculus and multivariable calculus, one semester of chemistry, and one semester of biology. Undergraduates are required to take a laboratory class in their major, eight Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) classes (at least three in a concentration and another four unrelated subjects), and non-varsity athletes must also take four physical education classes. In May 2006, a faculty task force recommended that the current GIR system be simplified with changes to the science, HASS, and Institute Lab requirements.Proposed Revisions to GIRs Are Unveiled. Retrieved on 28 June, 2006.
Although the difficulty of MIT coursework has been characterized as "drinking from a fire hose," (1986) Leadership and Organizational Culture: New Perspectives on Administrative Theory and Practice. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01347-6. p. 59: "In the sixties... Students spoke of their undergraduate experiences as \'drinking from a fire hose.\'" the failure rate and freshmen retention rate at MIT are similar to other large research universities.Common Data Set, Enrollment and Persistence. Retrieved on 2006-10-06. Some of the pressure for first-year undergraduates is lessened by the existence of the "pass/no-record" grading system. In the first (fall) term, freshmen transcripts only report if a class was passed while no external record exists if a class was not passed. In the second (spring) term, passing grades (ABC) appear on the transcript while non-passing grades are again rendered "no-record."
Most classes rely upon a combination of faculty led lectures, graduate student led recitations, weekly problem sets (p-sets), and tests to teach material, though alternative curricula exist, e.g. Experimental Study Group, Concourse, and Terrascope.Concourse Program at MIT. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.Terrascope home page. Retrieved on 2007-01-08. Over time, students compile "bibles," collections of problem set and examination questions and answers used as references for later students. In 1970, the then-Dean of Institute Relations, Benson R. Snyder, published The Hidden Curriculum, arguing that unwritten regulations, like the implicit curricula of the bibles, are often counterproductive; they fool professors into believing that their teaching is effective and students into believing they have learned the material.
MIT historically pioneered research collaborations between industry and government."MIT for a long time... stood virtually alone as a university that embraced rather than shunned industry."
(August 8, 1987) "A Survey of New England: A Concentration of Talent". The Economist. "The war made necessary the formation of new working coalitions... between these technologists and government officials. These changes were especially noteworthy at MIT."
Edward B. Roberts (1991). "An Environment for Entrepreneurs", MIT: Shaping the Future. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. ISBN 0262631451. Fruitful collaborations with industrialists like Alfred P. Sloan and Thomas Alva Edison led President Compton to establish an Office of Corporate Relations and an Industrial Liaison Program in the 1930s and 1940s that now allows over 600 companies to license research and consult with MIT faculty and researchers.MIT ILP - About the ILP. Retrieved on 2007-03-17. As several MIT leaders served as Presidential scientific advisers since 1940,Nearly half of all US Presidential science advisors have had ties to the Institute. MIT News Office (May 2, 2001). Retrieved on 2007-03-18. MIT established a Washington Office in 1991 to continue to lobby for research funding and national science policy.MIT Washington Office. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.
MIT\'s proximityMIT\'s Building 7 and Harvard\'s Johnston Gate, the traditional entrances to each school, are 1.72 miles (2.77 km) apart along Massachusetts Avenue. to Harvard University has created both a quasi-friendly rivalry ("the other school up the river") as well as a substantial number of research collaborations such as the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Broad Institute, Center for Ultracold Atoms, and Harvard-MIT Data Center.Times Higher Education Supplement World Rankings 2005. Retrieved on 2006-10-04. “The US has the world’s top two universities by our reckoning — Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, neighbours on the Charles River.”Harvard-MIT Data Center. Retrieved on 2007-01-08. In addition, students at the two schools can cross-register without any additional fees, for credits toward their own school\'s degrees.
MIT has a long-standing cross-registration program with Wellesley College as well as an undergraduate exchange program with the University of Cambridge known as the Cambridge-MIT Institute.MIT Facts 2007: Educational Partnerships. Retrieved on 2007-02-14. MIT has limited cross-registration programs with Boston University, Brandeis University, Tufts University, Massachusetts College of Art, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
MIT maintains substantial research and faculty ties with independent research organizations in the Boston-area like the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as well as international research and educational collaborations through the Singapore-MIT Alliance, MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program,MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program. Retrieved on 2007-03-17. MIT Portugal Program MIT-Portugal. Retrieved on 2007-08-29. and MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) program.MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives. Retrieved on 2007-03-17.
MIT students, faculty, and staff are involved in over 50 educational outreach and public service programs through the MIT Museum, Edgerton Center,MIT Edgerton Center. Retrieved on 2007-03-17. and MIT Public Service Center.MIT Public Service Center. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.MIT Outreach Database. Retrieved on 2006-10-07. Summer programs like MITESMinority Introduction to Engineering and Science Program and the Research Science InstituteResearch Science Institute encourage minority and high school students to pursue science and engineering in college. Project Interphase accelerates incoming freshman whose educational backgrounds did not fully prepare them for MIT coursework.Project Interphase. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
The mass-market magazine Technology Review is published by MIT through a subsidiary company, as is a special edition that also serves as the Institute\'s official alumni magazine. The MIT Press is a major university press, publishing over 200 books and 40 journals annually emphasizing science and technology as well as arts, architecture, new media, current events, and social issues.History - The MIT Press. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.
Barker Library, inside the Great Dome
In the 2008 US News and World Report (USNWR) rankings of national universities, MIT\'s undergraduate program was #7.America\'s Best Colleges 2007: National Universities. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. The MIT Sloan School of Management is ranked #2 in the nation at the undergraduate level and #4 among MBA programs by USNWR\'s 2008 rankings.America\'s Best Colleges 2007: Best Undergraduate Business Programs. U.S. News & World Report.America\'s Best Graduate Schools 2008: Top Business Schools. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. MIT has more top-ranked graduate programs than any other university in the 2008 USNWR survey and the School of Engineering has been ranked first among graduate and undergraduate programs since the magazine first released the results of its survey in 1988.USNWR\'s Best Graduate Programs in the Sciences. Retrieved on 2006-12-21.USNWR\'s Best Graduate Programs in Engineering. Retrieved on 2006-12-06.MIT grad programs rank highly. According to Architect Magazine, MIT has been ranked #2 among graduate schools of architecture in the United States in 2008, reflecting the school\'s significant revitalization of its design programs in recent years[1].
Among other outlets in the world university rankings, MIT is ranked #1 in the Globe by Webometrics,Webometrics Top 4000 World Universities. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. #1 in technology, #2 in citation, #4 overall, #5 in natural science, and #11 in social science among world universities by the THES - QS World University Rankings,Wikipedia\'s summaries: Top universities overall (worldwide); Top universities worldwide for technology; Top universities worldwide for science2006 The Times Higher Educational Supplement ranking of world’s research universities. Retrieved on 2007-08-05. in the top tier of national research universities by TheCenter for Measuring University Performance,The Top American Research Universities: 2006 Annual Report. TheCenter for Measuring University Performance. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. #5 among world universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University\'s 2006 Annual Rankings of World Universities,Academic Ranking of World Universities 2006. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. and #1 by The Washington Monthly\'s rankings of social mobility and national service in 2005 and 2006.The Washington Monthly College Rankings: National Universities. Retrieved on 2007-05-18. The National Research Council, in a 1995 study ranking research universities in the US, ranked MIT #1 in "reputation" and #4 in "citations and faculty awards."Diamond, Nancy and Hugh Davis Graham (1995), How should we rate research universities?
MIT has 998 faculty members, of whom 188 are women and 165 are minorities.MIT Facts 2007: Faculty and Staff. Retrieved on 2007-02-14. Faculty are responsible for lecturing classes, advising both graduate and undergraduate students, and sitting on academic committees, as well as conducting original research. Many faculty members also have founded companies, serve as scientific advisers, or sit on the Board of Directors for corporations. 25 MIT faculty members have won the Nobel Prize. 61 MIT-related Nobel Prize winners include faculty, researchers, alumni and staff. Among current and former faculty members, there are 51 National Medal of Science and Technology recipients, 80 Guggenheim Fellows, 6 Fulbright Scholars, 29 MacArthur Fellows, and 4 Kyoto Prize winners.MIT Facts 2007: Faculty and Staff. Retrieved on 2007-02-14. Faculty members who have made extraordinary contributions to their research field as well as the MIT community are granted appointments as Institute Professors for the remainder of their tenures.
For fiscal year 2006, MIT spent $587.5 million on on-campus research. Brown Book (Annual Report of Sponsored Research). Retrieved on 2006-10-07. The federal government was the largest source of sponsored research, with the Department of Health and Human Services granting $180.6 million, Department of Defense $86 million, Department of Energy $69.9 million, National Science Foundation $66.7 million, and NASA $32.1 million. MIT employs approximately 3,500 researchers in addition to faculty. In the 2006 academic year, MIT faculty and researchers disclosed 523 inventions, filed 321 patent applications, received 121 patents, and earned $42.3 million in royalties.TLO Statistics for Fiscal Year 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-07.
In electronics, magnetic core memory, radar, single electron transistors, and inertial guidance controls were invented or substantially developed by MIT researchers. Harold Eugene Edgerton was a pioneer in high speed photography. Claude E. Shannon developed much of modern information theory and discovered the application of Boolean logic to digital circuit design theory. Marcia McNutt is one of the world\'s most influential ocean scientists.Adam, John (June 2001). Piloting through Uncharted Seas. Scientific American. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
The GNU project and free software movement originated at MIT
In the domain of computer science, MIT faculty and researchers made fundamental contributions to cybernetics, artificial intelligence, computer languages, machine learning, robotics, and public-key cryptography. Richard Stallman founded the GNU Project while at the AI lab (now CSAIL). Professors Hal Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman wrote the popular Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs textbook and co-founded the Free Software Foundation with Stallman. Tim Berners-Lee established the W3C at MIT in 1994. David D. Clark made fundamental contributions in developing the Internet. Popular technologies like X Window System, Kerberos, Zephyr, and Hesiod were created for Project Athena in the 1980s. MIT was one of the original collaborators in the development of the Multics operating system, a highly secure predecessor of UNIX.
MIT physicists have been instrumental in describing subatomic and quantum phenomena like elementary particles, electroweak force, Bose-Einstein condensates, superconductivity, fractional quantum Hall effect, and asymptotic freedom as well as cosmological phenomena like cosmic inflation.
MIT chemists have discovered number syntheses like metathesis, stereoselective oxidation reactions, synthetic self-replicating molecules, and CFC-ozone reactions. Penicillin and Vitamin A were also first synthesized at MIT.
MIT biologists have been recognized for their discoveries and advances in RNA, protein synthesis, apoptosis, gene splicing and introns, antibody diversity, reverse transcriptase, oncogenes, phage resistance, and neurophysiology. MIT researchers discovered the genetic bases for Lou Gehrig\'s disease and Huntington\'s disease. Eric Lander was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project.
MIT economists have contributed to the fields of system dynamics, financial engineering, neo-classical growth models, and welfare economics and developed fundamental financial models like the Modigliani-Miller theorem and Black-Scholes equation.
Professors Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle are both noted linguists, Professor Henry Jenkins is prominent in the field of media studies, and Professor John Harbison has won a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship for his operatic scores.
In 1969, MIT began the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) to enable undergraduates to collaborate directly with faculty members and researchers. The program, founded by Margaret MacVicar, builds upon the MIT philosophy of "learning by doing." Students obtain research projects, colloquially called "UROPs," through postings on the UROP website or by contacting faculty members directly.UROP homepage. Retrieved on 2007-08-05. Over 2,800 undergraduates, 70% of the student body, participate every year for academic credit, pay, or on a volunteer basis.MIT Research and Teaching Firsts. Retrieved on 2006-10-06. Students often become published, file patent applications, and/or launch start-up companies based upon their experience in UROPs.
In 2001, MIT announced that it planned to put all of its course materials online as part of its OpenCourseWare project by 2007. Building upon MIT\'s leadership in the free software movement, Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab started the One Laptop per Child initiative to expand computer education and connectivity to children worldwide. Upon taking office in 2004, President Hockfield launched an Energy Research Council to investigate how MIT can respond to the interdisciplinary challenges of increasing global energy consumption. Energy Research Council homepage. Retrieved on 2006-10-24.
MIT has been nominally coeducational since admitting Ellen Swallow Richards in 1870. (Richards also became the first female member of MIT\'s faculty, specializing in sanitary chemistry.)Chemical Heritage Foundation (2005). Ellen Swallow Richards. Chemical Achievers, The Human Face of Chemical Sciences. Retrieved on 2006-11-04. Female students, however, remained a tiny minority (numbered in dozens) prior to the completion of the first wing of a women\'s dormitory, McCormick Hall, in 1963."In 1959, 158 women were enrolled at MIT." O. Robert Simha (2001). MIT Campus Planning 1960-2000. MIT. Retrieved on 2007-04-09."When Drake arrived on campus 50 years ago, she was one of only 16 women in a class of 1,000."Lauren Clark. MIT Panel "Alumnae Through the Ages" Reflects on Changes for Women. Retrieved on 2007-04-09. By 1993, 32% of MIT\'s undergraduates were female and in 2006, the number had increased to near-parity (47.5%).EECS Women Undergraduate Enrollment Committee (January 3 1995). Chapter 1: Male/Female enrollment patterns in EECS at MIT and other schools. Women Undergraduate Enrollment in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
In 1998, MIT became the first major research university to acknowledge the existence of a systematic bias against female faculty in its School of Science and supported efforts toward corrective measures although the study\'s methods were controversial.In 1995, faculty member Nancy Hopkins accused MIT of bias against herself and several of her female colleagues. Hopkins, rather than a third party, investigated her own charges and concluded in 1999 concluded there was "subtle yet pervasive" bias against women at MIT, although no instance of intentional discrimination was found. Despite the study\'s sealed evidence and its lack of peer review, Vest approved "targeted actions" like the creation of 11 committees and 20% salary increases for women faculty.
"During Vest\'s presidency, MIT appointed its first woman department head in the School of Science, its first two minority department heads in the School of Engineering, and its first five women vice presidents."
Charles Vest to step down from MIT presidency, Has been staunch national advocate for education and research. MIT News Office (2003-12-05). Retrieved on 2006-06-28.
"Madelyn Gould, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, said these patterns showed a \'suicide contagion\' at MIT - victim begetting victim in the same small community. \'It appears there\'s a culture at MIT that has reinforced suicide and jumping as a means of escaping,\' said Gould, an authority on suicide and contagion. \'Somehow they\'ve normalized that jumping out a window is OK.\'"
Healy, Patrick. "11 years, 11 suicides—Critics Say Spate of MIT Jumping Deaths Show a \'Contagion\'", The Boston Globe, 2001-02-05, pp. A1.
