Past Events

The Knight Science Journalism Program is honored to host Dr. Rebecca Saxe, John W. Jarve (1978) Professor, Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Associate Dean, School of Science at MIT for a seminar on neuroscience. Please contact Learning and Events Coordinator Claire Sadar if you are interested in attending.

The Knight Science Journalism program is excited to welcome journalist Amy Dockser Marcus for a discussion of her new book We the Scientists: How a Daring Team of Parents and Doctors Forged a New Path for Medicine. Marcus, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the author of a new book called We the Scientists, spent more than a decade following a group of families whose children have the rare and fatal genetic disorder Niemann-Pick disease Type C. The…

The Knight Science Journalism program at MIT is pleased to welcome Renee J. Robins, J-WAFS Executive Director and Greg Sixt, Director of the J-WAFS-led Food and Climate Systems Transformation (FACT) Alliance, andJ-WAFS Research Manager for Climate and Food Systems for a seminar on J-WAFS and the timely work they do in water, food, climate, and the environment. The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) at MIT is an Institute-wide effort that fuels research, innovation, and cross-disciplinary collaborations focused…

The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT is excited to welcome Dr. Sarah Williams, Norman B. (1938) and Muriel Leventhal Associate Professor of Advanced Urbanism; Director, Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism; Director Civic Data Design Lab; and Associate Professor Technology and Urban Planning, MIT School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P). Dr. Williams will present a seminar based on her book Data Action: Using Data for a Public Good. Please contact Learning and Events Coordinator Claire Sadar if you…

The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT is pleased to welcome Dr. David Kaiser for a seminar on the influence of the theory of relativity on the development of GPS. For nearly a decade, beginning in the mid-1970s, a debate unfolded among physicists and engineers over how best to include effects from Einstein's general theory of relativity in the new military technology now known as the Global Positioning System (GPS). Although some exchanges were published in the open scientific literature,…

The Knight Science Journalism Program is excited to welcome Dr. Usha Tummala-Narra, Research Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the Director of Community-Based Education at the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute at Boston University, for a seminar on racial trauma and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Her presentation will focus on the experience and impact of racial trauma, with a particular focus on racism faced by South Asian Americans. Dr. Tummala-Narra will describe the mental health consequences of racism…

The Knight Science Journalism Program is excited to welcome Dr. Mauricio Santillana, Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University, Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director, MIGHTE Lab, for a seminar on machine learning and epidemiology.  Dr. Santillana will present his most recent work on the use of machine learning methods to track and forecast (endemic and emerging) epidemic outbreaks using data sources that were not conceived originally to track…

In his first "Message to the Force," delivered to all employees of the Department of Defense on March 4, 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin avowed that "we will elevate climate as a national security priority, integrating climate considerations into the Department's policies, strategies, and partner agreements.... We will bolster mission resilience and deploy solutions that optimize capability and reduce our own carbon footprint. Where possible, we will seek to lead the way for alternative climate-considered approaches for the country" (emphasis…

The Knight Science Journalism program is honored to welcome Dr. Kaarkuzhali B. Krishnamurthy, MD, MBE for a seminar on Epilepsy. Dr. Krishnamurthy is System Director, Epilepsy and System Lead, Ethics for the Steward Medical Group; Vice-Chair, Department of Neurology and Chair, Ethics Committee at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center; and Teaching Faculty, Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. Epilepsy is a common medical condition with 3-4% of the general population carrying this diagnosis.  At its core, epilepsy is about loss…