All events

Writing Together Online offers the structured writing time to help you stay focused and productive during the busy fall months. Join our daily 90-minute writing sessions and become part of a community of scholars who connect online, set realistic goals, and write together in the spirit of accountability and camaraderie. We offer writing sessions every workday, Monday through Friday. The program is open to all MIT students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and affiliates who are working on papers, proposals, thesis/dissertation chapters, application materials, and other writing projects.Please register for any number of sessions:Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 9:00–10:30am (EST) Tuesday and Thursday, 8:00–9:30am and 9:30-11:00am (EST)For more information and to register, go to this link or check the WCC website. Please spread the word and join with colleagues and friends. MIT Students and postdocs who attend at least 5 sessions per challenge will be entered into a gift-card raffle.

Writing Together Online offers the structured writing time to help you stay focused and productive during the busy fall months. Join our daily 90-minute writing sessions and become part of a community of scholars who connect online, set realistic goals, and write together in the spirit of accountability and camaraderie. We offer writing sessions every workday, Monday through Friday. The program is open to all MIT students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and affiliates who are working on papers, proposals, thesis/dissertation chapters, application materials, and other writing projects.Please register for any number of sessions:Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 9:00–10:30am (EST) Tuesday and Thursday, 8:00–9:30am and 9:30-11:00am (EST)For more information and to register, go to this link or check the WCC website. Please spread the word and join with colleagues and friends. MIT Students and postdocs who attend at least 5 sessions per challenge will be entered into a gift-card raffle.

On view October 1 -- December 11, 2025This exhibition draws on archival materials from the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC) to explore a century of cultural heritage preservation in Aleppo, Syria. It takes as its point of departure the work of Kamil al-Ghazzi (1853–1933), the pioneering Aleppine historian whose influential three-volume chronicle, Nahr al-Dhahab fī Tārīkh Ḥalab (The River of Gold in the History of Aleppo), was published between 1924 and 1926.Ink, Stone, and Silver Light presents three modes of documentation—manuscript, built form, and photography—through which Aleppo’s urban memory has been recorded and preserved. Featuring figures such as Michel Écochard and Yasser Tabbaa alongside al-Ghazzi, the exhibition traces overlapping efforts to capture the spirit of a city shaped by commerce, craft, and coexistence. At a time when Syria again confronts upheaval and displacement, these archival fragments offer models for preserving the past while envisioning futures rooted in dignity, knowledge, and place.

Janet Echelman's Remembering the Future widens our perspective in time, giving sculptural form to the history of the Earth's climate from the last ice age to the present moment, and then branching out to visualize multiple potential futures.Constructed from colored twines and ropes that are braided, knotted and hand-spliced to create a three-dimensional form, the immersive artwork greets you with its grand scale presiding over the MIT Museum lobby.This large-scale installation by 2022-2024 MIT Distinguished Visiting Artist Janet Echelman, was developed during her residency at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST). Architect, engineer and MIT Associate Professor Caitlin Mueller collaborated on the development of the piece.The title, Remembering the Future was inspired by the writings commonly attributed to Søren Kierkegaard: "The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have."As the culmination of three years of dedicated research and collaboration, this site-specific installation explores Earth's climate timeline, translating historical records and possible futures into sculptural form.Echelman's climate research for this project was guided by Professor Raffaele Ferrari and the MIT Lorenz Center, creators of En-ROADS simulator which uses current climate data and modeling to visualize the impact of environmental policies and actions on energy systems.Learn more about Janet Echelman and the MIT Museum x CAST Collaboration.Learn more about the exhibition at the MIT Museum.

Bartel lab I "Decoding RNAi: Sequence & structural determinants of RNA slicing by Argonaute”

Join the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative and the Sloan Energy & Climate Club for an insightful conversation with George Potts, SFMBA '22, Head of Hartree Climate Partners (part of a multi-billion-dollar proprietary trading & investment house). George will share lessons learned and observed across the evolution of climate-tech investment, from bubbles in 1.0 to 2.0, and what shape 3.0 might be taking. Drawing from deep experience, George will also spotlight emerging trends, insights, and opportunities across the energy transition.

Ten minutes for your mind@2:50 every day at 2:50 pm in multiple time zones:Europa@2:50, EET, Athens, Helsinki (UTC+2) (7:50 am EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88298032734Atlantica@2:50, EST, New York, Toronto (UTC-4) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85349851047Pacifica@2:50, PST, Los Angeles, Vancouver (UTC=7) (5:50 pm EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85743543699Almost everything works better again if you unplug it for a bit, including your mind. Stop by and unplug. Get the benefits of mindfulness without the fuss.@2:50 meets at the same time every single day for ten minutes of quiet together.No pre-requisite, no registration needed.Visit the website to view all @2:50 time zones each day.at250.org or at250.mit.edu

Talk Title: A cognitive approach to the syntax of human languagesAbstract: One of the most celebrated features of human language is its generative power: from a restricted vocabulary of words, we can construct a vast number of new sentences, to express diverse meanings. This generative capacity is underpinned by syntax or grammar—a set of rules for how words to together. The syntax of human languages has long been argued to be complex, and even unlearnable from the input alone (Chomsky’s Universal Grammar proposal). However, the success of large language models (LLMs) has challenged this idea. In this talk, I will argue for a simple view of syntax, where the syntax of a language is just the set of dependency rules, and the dependencies are dictated by how words depend on one another for meaning. Conceptually, this simple approach obviates much of the complex machinery that Chomsky and colleagues have long postulated, including eliminating the learnability problem. Empirically, it accounts for diverse phenomena in human language processing, where non-local dependencies are costly, and explains cross-linguistic word order universals, which stem from the tendency to minimize dependency lengths. I will discuss one interesting exception to this tendency for dependency-length minimization, which is legal language (or legalese) and speculate on possible reasons for the high prevalence of long-distance dependencies in legalese. Finally, I will speculate that LLMs, similar to human children, learn the dependency grammar from linguistic patterns, leading to their impressive syntactic competence.Bio: Ted (Edward) Gibson. I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. I went to Queens University (Kingston, Ontario) for undergraduate, graduating in 1985 with a B.Sc in math and computer science. I then got an M Phil in 1986 in Computer Speech and Language Processing from Cambridge (UK), and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA) in computational linguistics in 1991. I have been a professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT since 1993. I also rowed at the 1984 Olympics, coming 7th in the coxless four for Canada. I work on all aspects of human language: the words, the structures, across many languages. I have published 100s of refereed journal articles in the top science and cognitive science journals. My main current claim is that human language is an invented communication system based on the local cultural needs of its speakers. I think that most if not all properties of human language can be explained by its use: words are invented to refer to things and properties that we need to talk about for some reason; and words are put together in a way that minimizes our cognitive resources. I am married to Ev Fedorenko, a great neuroscientist of language and cognition. We have collaborated on many projects including Lana (age 8 in 2025).http://tedlab.mit.eduFollowed by a reception with food and drink in 3rd floor atrium

Hiroaki Kaido (Boston University)

Frank Yang Harvard University (joint with Kai Hao Yang)

Join the WriteWise workshop series to master essential research and writing skills. From getting started and honing your reading techniques to using sources effectively, explaining why your work matters and crafting impactful titles, each workshop equips you with the tools needed to excel in academia and beyond.Session 1: StartWise: Starting Your Research-Based Writing Project (Thurs., Sept. 11th) Session 2: ReadWise: Effective Reading and Note-Taking (Tues., Sept. 16th) Session 3: CiteWise: Citing Sources & Avoiding Plagiarism (Thurs., Sept. 18th) Session 4: SignificanceWise: Identifying the "So What" of Your Work (Tues., Sept. 23rd) Session 5: ProcessWise: Developing Your Project and Maintaining Writing Momentum (Thurs., Sept., 25th) Session 6: AbstractWise: Writing a Strong Abstract (Tues., Sept. 30th) Session 7: PolishWise: Fine-Tuning for Clarity and Style (Thurs., Oct. 2nd) Session 8: TitleWise: Crafting Effective Titles (Tues., Oct., 7th)For more information, visit the WCC website: https://cmsw.mit.edu/wcc-workshops/.

Shannon Stahl - https://stahl.chem.wisc.edu/ - "Principles and Applications of Organic Electrosynthesis" Liang Zhang - AMGEN, Sr. Principal Scientist in the process development organization - "Process Innovation to Enable Scalable Commercial Manufacturing Processes"

A series of talks on OR-related topics. For more information see: https://orc.mit.edu/seminars-events/

Speaker: Roman Krutowski (University of California, Los Angeles)Title: Hecke algebras via Morse theory of loop spaces.Abstract: Higher-dimensional Heegaard Floer homology (HDHF) is defined by extending Lipshitz's cylindrical reformulation of Heegaard Floer homology from surfaces to arbitrary Liouville domains. The HDHF also serves as a model for Lagrangian Floer homology of symmetric products.In this talk, I will present a Morse-theoretic model allowing for computations of the HDHF A∞ -algebra of k cotangent fibers in the cotangent bundle of a smooth manifold. We apply this model to get an explicit computation of this A∞-algebra for the cotangent bundle of the 2-dimensional sphere. The result of this computation produces a differential graded algebra which may be regarded as the derived HOMFLYPT skein algebra of the sphere.This talk is based on joint work with Ko Honda, Yin Tian, and Tianyu Yuan.

Speaker: Arav Karighattam (MIT)Title: Lefschetz trace formula and proof of rationality and functional equationAbstract:State the Lefschetz trace formula for étale cohomology, and explain how to apply it to the Frobenius morphism to deduce the Weil conjectures, excluding the Riemann hypothesis.Reference: Milne, Lectures on étale cohomology , Section 25 and 27.

Are you looking to create a compelling cover letter that captures the attention of potential employers? Join us for this informative session where you'll learn the essential tools and techniques for writing an effective cover letter. This workshop will cover the key elements that make a cover letter stand out, including how to tailor your letter to specific job opportunities, highlight your relevant skills and experiences, and convey your enthusiasm for the role and organization.This CAPD event is open to MIT undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and alumni. Registration is required. Please register here.

Silent Meditation in the Chapel on Thursdays 6-8pm, open to everyone in the MIT Community. Some sessions include Guided Meditation at 6:30pm.

Dissolve Music @ MIT is a two-day spatial sound showcase and conference, welcoming local scholars and artists as well as others from Japan, Europe, Australia, and across the US. Held in MIT’s black box theater in Music and Theater Arts’ building W97, the event aims at community building to connect students, faculty, musicians and technologists through performances, discussions, lighning talks, and receptions.Visit spatialsoundlab.mit.edu/events for the full lineup. Free, all ages, open to the public. RESERVE TICKETS.Our goal is to explore the social, artistic and technological opportunities of creating music that comes from all directions to dissolve boundaries between sound art and music, between academic disciplines, and between audience and performers.The 2025 edition will be the fifth iteration of the event, featuring artists from MIT, Berlin, Tokyo, Melbourne, Athens, NYC and beyond. Focal themes this year include disability justice, AI and creativity, and our enduring concerns with the social possibilities of spatial sound for live performance.This event is supported by funding from the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC) with other generous support from the Global Mediations Lab MIT, MITHIC Sound Lab Unworking Group, MIT Office of the Arts, Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Music and Theater Arts, MIT Morningside Academy for Design, and the numerous artists and volunteers affiliated with the MIT Spatial Sound Lab.Special thanks to co-organizers Justin Looper and Nelly Kate.For more info, contact Prof. Ian Condry (CMSW) condry@mit.edu

We are delighted to host Japan C-function! Join hundreds of fellow Sloanies and enjoy a night with delicious Japanese cuisine, a fun cultural showcase, and dancing! Make sure to bring your US ID or passports!Hosted by the MIT Sloan Japan Club & Sloan Student Life Office