Supreme Court defers IP case
The Supreme Court has elected to defer a decision on whether to take <i>Stanford University v. Roche Molecular Systems, et al.,</i> the intellectual property case that Stanford, MIT, and scores of universities have asked the Court to hear.
Student calls for oil spill aid; gains media attention
On June 10, Nora O. Hickey ’12 sent an email to President Susan J. Hockfield and copied all the dormitory lists, urging MIT to take a more active role in the recent BP oil spill.
Corrections
In the June 11 issue, the second paragraph of a caption describing top compensation at MIT omitted a word from the definition of the “Paid compensation” column in the accompanying table. “Paid compensation” is the sum of “base compensation,” “bonus & incentive compensation,” and “other reportable compensation.” The second item was incorrectly rendered as “bonus & compensation.” The same caption omitted an explanation of “MITIMCo.” MITIMCo, the MIT Investment Management Company, manages MIT’s investments and endowment. MITIMCo employees’ compensation is linked to the performance of MITIMCo’s investments. Professor Nelson Repenning’s half-million dollar “other reportable compensation” is due to his role as faculty director of a custom executive education program called the BP-MIT Operations Academy.
Ortiz named new grad dean
Chancellor Phillip L. Clay PhD ’75 announced the selection of Christine Ortiz, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, as the new Dean for Graduate Education on June 28. Ortiz is scheduled to assume her position on August 1.
Prof speaks on China’s factory unrest
This week, the New York Times reported on escalating unrest among Chinese factory workers, who complain of long hours, miserable management and little pay. Many are striking to demand higher wages, shutting down major factories in what the Times calls a labor “contagion.”
Boston gets air of rare tornado watch
A series of powerful thunderstorms tore across Massachusetts this past weekend. Lightning and high winds caused loss of power to thousands of residents statewide. A tornado watch was put into effect on Sunday in Middlesex County, Worcester County, Franklin County, Hampden County and Hampshire County.
Corrections
An article published on June 4 about former student Lori Berenson incorrectly stated that she was married to guerilla leader Nestor Cerpa at the time of her 1995 arrest. Berenson was not married to Cerpa, but she was with his wife at the time of the arrest.
2008 Top Salaries at MIT
Because of changes in IRS regulations, this data is for calendar year 2008, but the previously reported data were for fiscal years ending June 30. As a result, this year’s CY08 12-month period overlaps by 6 months with the FY08 12-month period.
Seeking the next Dean for Graduate Education
Chancellor Phillip L. Clay PhD ’75 intends to hire the Dean of Graduate Education by July 1, filling the vacancy created by the departure of Steven R. Lerman ’72. Lerman, who held the positions of Dean of Graduate Education and Vice Chancellor, left MIT this spring to become Provost of George Washington University. In the meantime, Senior Associate Dean Blanche E. Staton will run the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education.
Nominated to lead NSF
On June 8, President Barack Obama formally nominated MIT School of Engineering dean, Subra Suresh ScD ’81, to act as the next director of the National Science Foundation.
Unraveling tenure at MIT
Usually students miss more lectures than their professors, but in week five of the spring 2010 term, Eric Hudson, popular instructor of 8.02: Electricity & Magnetism, would have given chronic class-skippers competition. “I think I’ve been gone five of the last seven weeks or something,” he said with a light chuckle, seeming awed at that fraction himself. “It’s really been terrible,” he said.
Subra Suresh nominated to lead National Science Foundation
President Barack Obama announced on June 3 that he plans to nominate MIT School of Engineering dean, Subra Suresh ScD ’81, to act as the next director of the National Science Foundation.
Wheeler ensnares campuses with ‘life of deception’
There were, in hindsight, plenty of reasons for the admissions office at Harvard to be suspicious of Adam Wheeler.
Berenson paroled in Peru
Lori Helene Berenson, a former MIT student and political activist imprisoned in Peru, was granted parole on Tuesday, May 25, 2010. Berenson, who withdrew from MIT as a sophomore in 1988, has served 15 years out of a 20-year prison sentence for aiding the leftist guerilla group Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA (Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru). She is now 40 years old.
Roche files Supreme Court brief
Biotech company Roche filed its opposition brief last month in <i>Stanford University v. Roche Molecular Systems, et al.</i>, the intellectual property case that Stanford and MIT have both asked the Supreme Court to hear. Download it from our website at <i>http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N23/scotus/05_Roche_Brief_In_Opposition_To_Cert_Petition.pdf</i>.
C-Crete Technologies wins $100K
The winner of this year’s annual MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition was C-Crete Technologies, a team of MIT graduate students and collaborators who nano-engineered a new formula of concrete that would both improve material stability and decrease carbon dioxide emissions and cost.
Chem grad student Yu-Pu shares a capella remakes with growing YouTube fanbase
“If anyone asks us what we’re doing,” said Yu-Pu Wang, a first year graduate student studying chemistry here at MIT, “just tell them the truth.”
Nick Sisler: ‘big brother’
Many MIT students are searching for a way to help others. Nick Sisler ’11, Course II, has discovered how to make a difference in the life of an 11-year old boy. Nick has been a “big brother” to Evan Wilcox for three years, and was recently selected as a finalist for the Massachusetts Bay Big Brother Big Sister of the Year award. The Big Brother Big Sister program pairs children aged 6 through 18 with older mentors to develop “positive relationships that have a direct and lasting impact on the lives of young people,” according to their website.