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June 28, 2025
Greetings! The MIT Weekly will be on hiatus next week, returning July 12.

Now, here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.
 
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Systems Engineering
Renderings of satellites, engines, and a radar
      
A software platform developed by alumni-founded Nominal helps firms build and test complex systems like fighter jets, nuclear reactors, rockets, and robots. The startup is working to accelerate products critical for national security and more.
Top Headlines
MIT engineers uncover a surprising reason why tissues are flexible or rigid
Watery fluid between cells plays a major role, offering new insights into how organs and tissues adapt to aging, diabetes, cancer, and more.
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Nth Cycle is bringing critical metals refining to the U.S.
Co-founded by Professor Desirée Plata, the company is already producing nickel and cobalt from battery scrap in Ohio.
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Summer 2025 reading from MIT
Enjoy recent titles published in the past 12 months by MIT faculty and staff.
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Closing in on superconducting semiconductors
Plasma Science and Fusion Center researchers created a superconducting circuit that could one day replace semiconductor components in quantum and high-performance computing systems.
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QS ranks MIT the world’s No. 1 university for 2025-26
Ranking at the top for the 14th year in a row, the Institute also places first in 11 subject areas.
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Students and staff work together for MIT’s first “No Mow May”
With advocacy from GSC Sustain, the No Mow May project supports pollinator habitats and provides educational opportunities.
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#ThisisMIT
Thirteen members of the MIT Women’s Crew team pose for portrait on dock as they hold oars vertically beside them. Text via @‌girlsintheboat: WOW—-> HRR 2025 1 more day of training at home before this group heads to the UK to compete in the Island and Town Challenge Cups.
In the Media
HIV: Supercharged vaccine could protect well with just one dose // Newsweek
MIT researchers have developed an HIV vaccine that could offer strong protection with just one injection.
What happens when you use ChatGPT to write an essay? // USA Today
A study by MIT researchers finds individuals who relied solely on ChatGPT to write essays had “lower levels of brain activity and presented less original writing.”
Innovative once-weekly capsule helps quell schizophrenia symptoms // HealthDay
In a new paper, Associate Professor Giovanni Traverso and his colleagues highlight the results of a clinical trial that showed “a pill taken just once a week, gradually releasing medicine from within the stomach, can greatly simplify the drug schedule faced by schizophrenia patients.”
Scene at MIT
Chris and L. Rafael Reif stand beneath the entrance to a partially covered walkway labeled the L. Rafael Reif Innovation Corridor.
The open space connecting Massachusetts Avenue with Hockfield Court, in the heart of MIT’s campus, is now the L. Rafael Reif Innovation Corridor, in honor of the Institute’s 17th president. At a dedication ceremony last week, Reif’s colleagues, friends, and family (including wife Chris, pictured above) gathered to honor his legacy and unveil a marker for the walkway that was previously known as North Corridor or “the Outfinite.” “With his signature combination of new-world thinking and old-world charm, and as a grand thinker and doer, Rafael left an indelible mark on MIT,” said President Sally Kornbluth.
Lessons Learned
Caroline Boudoux PhD ’07 shares: “Twenty-five years ago, I packed my Jeep Wrangler and drove south for six hours to start a life-­defining journey: a doctoral program in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. My old ride was filled in equal parts with books and apprehensions. Soon I would discover a campus where not even the sky was the limit, and where I’d learn the name for what I was feeling: impostor syndrome. Today I mentor PhD students at Polytechnique Montréal. With them — and you — I share what I wish I had known when I first moved into Edgerton House. These are 12 things every PhD student should hear early, even if they often go without saying.”
Collegiate Collaborations
Closeup of someone’s arm wearing a gray sleeve with wires coming out of it.
MIT researchers work regularly with colleagues at universities across the U.S. to devise new solutions to complex challenges. These connections demonstrate how shared expertise can amplify discovery and accelerate solutions that benefit communities across America and beyond. One recent example of such intercollegiate collaboration was a project in which researchers at MIT, Stanford University, and the University of Houston combined machine knitting and pneumatic actuation to develop a haptic sleeve that simulates realistic touch — and could one day be used for applications such as teleoperation, navigation, and more.
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