Two Caltech Alumni Receive Breakthrough Prize

Two Caltech alumni, Arthur McDonald (PhD '70) and Ian Agol (BS '92), have been named recipients of 2016 Breakthrough Prize awards. The prizes, which each carry a monetary award of $3 million, are given annually for achievements in mathematics and science to "encourage more pioneering research and celebrate scientists as the heroes they truly are," says Mark Zuckerberg, one of the prizes' founders. The 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics...

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Simon Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Barry M. Simon, the International Business Machines (IBM) Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Caltech, has been awarded the 2016 Leroy Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for his "tremendous impact on the education and research of a whole generation of mathematical scientists through his significant research achievements, highly influential books, and mentoring of graduate students and...

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Veterans Day 2015, Caltech

On Wednesday, November 11, in commemoration of Veterans Day, Caltech honored its veterans with a breakfast and panel discussion held at the Athenaeum. "I'm so happy that Caltech is recognizing veterans," said Ciro Diaz, associate director of IT support services in IMSS. The event commenced with the National Anthem sung by the Caltech chorale members in the presence of cadets from Blair High School's Junior ROTC program and color guard. After...

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Where the orthodox and unorthodox meet ( Poet and musician Alicia Jo Rabins to read and perform at Harvard Hillel)

By Sarah Sweeney, Harvard Staff Writer Alicia Jo Rabins stood looking at the girls in long skirts waiting outside the locked doors of her Barnard College dorm and wondered what was going on. It was a Saturday, Shabbat, and though Rabins was technically Jewish, she had been raised in a secular household in a Baltimore suburb, mostly clueless about her religious heritage. “Finally, I asked one of the girls, and she said, ‘Oh, we don’t use electricity...

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What’s past is prologue ( During Harvard appearance, Coates probes ongoing problems in criminal justice system)

By Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Staff Writer Ongoing racial discrimination and institutional failures to dampen such abuses are roiling many college campuses, amid the larger national conversation spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement. In the swirl, few writers have so artfully articulated their era as the influential, best-selling author Ta-Nehisi Coates. The national correspondent for The Atlantic and a 2015 MacArthur Foundation fellowship...

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New exoplanet in our neighborhood

Though likely uninhabitable, planet is rocky, Earth-sized, and near enough for study of its atmosphere. Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office November 11, 2015 Scientists have discovered a new exoplanet that, in the language of “Star Wars,” would be the polar opposite of frigid Hoth, and even more inhospitable than the deserts of Tatooine. But instead of residing in a galaxy far, far away, this new world is, galactically speaking, practically next...

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DOE’s Kenderdine outlines nation’s energy priorities

Former executive director of MIT Energy Initiative describes roadmap for averting devastating climate change. David L. Chandler | MIT News Office November 10, 2015 Melanie Kenderdine, as the first executive director of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), helped to launch an international program to increase women’s participation and leadership in the energy field called Clean Energy Education and Empowerment, or C3E, in 2012. Last Thursday, Kenderdine,...

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Streamlining mobile image processing MIT News Office

Technique for mobile image processing in the cloud cuts bandwidth use by more than 98 percent. Larry Hardesty | MIT News Office  November 13, 2015 As smartphones become people’s primary computers and their primary cameras, there is growing demand for mobile versions of image-processing applications. Image processing, however, can be computationally intensive and could quickly drain a cellphone’s battery. Some mobile applications try to...

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