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Samuel Bodman, MIT Corporation member and former U.S. Secretary of Energy,...

Samuel W. Bodman III ScD ’65, a former MIT associate professor and life member emeritus of the MIT Corporation, who served as the U.S. Secretary of Energy and in other cabinet posts, died on Sept. 7 in...

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George Hatsopoulos, senior lecturer emeritus and MIT Corporation life member...

George Nicholas Hatsopoulos, an MIT mechanical engineering senior lecturer emeritus who founded the Thermo Electron Corporation has passed away at the age of 91. Hatsopoulos '49, SM '50, ME '54, SCD...

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Professor Emeritus Bernard Burke, astrophysics pioneer, dies at 90

Bernard F. “Bernie” Burke’50, PhD ’53, the William A.M. Burden Professor of Astrophysics Emeritus and a principal investigator at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, was an...

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Celebrating the life of Colt Richter ’16

“Flying with Colt above glaciers and between mountain peaks, I understood how he fell in love with flying, and why he was so excited to share that with others.”Sam Parker ’15 wrote that about his late...

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Professor Emeritus Sylvain Bromberger, philosopher of language and science,...

Professor Emeritus Sylvain Bromberger, a philosopher of language and of science who played a pivotal role in establishing MIT’s Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, died on Sept. 16 in Cambridge,...

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Dana Mead PhD ’67, former chair of the MIT Corporation, dies at 82

Dana G. Mead PhD ’67, a prominent business leader, military officer, former White House official, and professor who served as chair of the MIT Corporation from 2003 until 2010, died on Oct. 31 in...

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Professor Emerita Catherine Chvany, Slavic scholar, dies at 91

Professor Emerita Catherine Vakar Chvany, a renowned Slavic linguist and literature scholar who played a pivotal role in advancing the study of Russian language and literature in MIT’s Foreign...

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Remembering Professor Emeritus Alan McWhorter, 1930-2018

Alan L. McWhorter, a longtime professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and an administrator and researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, has died in New Orleans,...

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Ernst Frankel, shipping expert and professor emeritus of ocean engineering,...

Ernst G. Frankel MME ’60, SM ‘60, professor emeritus of ocean engineering who served on MIT’s faculty for 36 years, passed away on Nov. 18 at the age of 95. Frankel, who was also a former professor of...

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Lisa Peattie, professor emerita of urban studies and planning, dies at 94

Lisa Peattie, a celebrated scholar and a lifelong activist who was a professor emerita of urban anthropology in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and recipient of the ACSP Distinguished...

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Professor Emeritus János Miklós Beér dies at 95

János Miklós Beér, professor emeritus of chemical and fuel engineering and a pathbreaking researcher in the field of flames, combustion, and cleaner-burning fossil fuels, died peacefully on Dec. 8, in...

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Richard "Dick" Lyon, acoustics expert and professor emeritus of...

Richard H. "Dick" Lyon PhD ’55, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, passed away on Jan. 21 at the age of 89. Lyon, who taught noise, vibration, and sound quality in MIT’s Department of...

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Professor Emeritus T. Francis Ogilvie, former ocean engineering department...

Thomas (T.) Francis Ogilvie, professor emeritus of ocean engineering, passed away on March 30, at the age of 89. Ogilvie dedicated most of his career to improving how ocean engineering and naval...

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Alexander Dingee, co-founder of MIT Venture Mentoring Service, dies at 88

Alexander L. M. Dingee Jr. ’52, co-founder of the MIT Venture Mentoring Service and a successful entrepreneur who started seven companies, died March 22, at his home in Rockport, Massachusetts, of...

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Professor Emeritus David Gordon Wilson, expert in human-powered transport and...

David Gordon Wilson, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, passed away on May 2 at the age of 91. Wilson served on MIT’s faculty since 1966 and remained an active member of the mechanical...

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Franklin Fisher, professor emeritus of economics, dies at 84

Franklin M. Fisher, the Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professor of Microeconomics, emeritus, died on April 29 at the age of 84.  Fisher was born in New York City and received both...

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James Livingston, senior lecturer emeritus in materials science and...

James D. Livingston, MIT senior lecturer emeritus, and his wife, Sherry H. Penney, died last week at their home in Sarasota, Florida, where they spent their winters. Married for 34 years, he was 88 and...

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Norman Phillips, former meteorology department head, dies at 95

Norman A. Phillips, head of the former Department of Meteorology during the 1970s, died on March 15 at the age of 95. His work in atmospheric science showing monthly and seasonal tropospheric patterns...

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Renowned architect I.M. Pei ’40 dies at 102

Celebrated architect I.M. Pei ’40 died on May 16 in New York City. He was 102.Over the course of a long international career, he designed notable buildings that included museums, cultural and research...

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Philip Freelon, professor of the practice and champion of diversity in...

Philip G. Freelon MArch ’77, professor of the practice in the MIT Department of Architecture, lead architect for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and a...

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Professor Emeritus Fernando Corbató, MIT computing pioneer, dies at 93

Fernando “Corby” Corbató, an MIT professor emeritus whose work in the 1960s on time-sharing systems broke important ground in democratizing the use of computers, died on Friday, July 12, at his home in...

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Professor Patrick Winston, former director of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence...

Patrick Winston, a beloved professor and computer scientist at MIT, died on July 19 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was 76.  A professor at MIT for almost 50 years, Winston was director...

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Celebrating a curious mind: Steven Keating 1988-2019

Alumnus Steven John Keating SM '12, PhD '16 passed away from brain cancer on July 19 at the age of 31.Keating received his master’s degree and PhD in mechanical engineering and was a member of the MIT...

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Professor Emeritus Samuel Bowring, pioneering geologist and expert in...

Professor Emeritus Samuel A. Bowring, a longtime MIT professor of geology, died on July 17 at age 65.Known for his exceptional skill as a field geologist and for innovatons in uranium-lead isotopic...

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Jack Kerrebrock, professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics, dies at 91

Jack L. Kerrebrock, professor emeritus of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, died at home on July 19. He was 91.Born in Los Angeles in 1928, Kerrebrock received his BS in 1950 from Oregon State...

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Marcus Karel, food science pioneer and professor emeritus of chemical...

Marcus “Marc” G. Karel PhD ’60, professor emeritus of chemical engineering, died on July 25 at age 91. A member of the MIT community since 1951, Karel inspired a generation of food scientists and...

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John Ball, longtime Haystack Observatory scientist, dies at 83

Former MIT Haystack Observatory scientist John Allen Ball died Aug. 6 at age 83, of complications resulting from Alzheimer’s disease.Ball was born in 1935 at his family’s home in Ravenna, Nebraska. He...

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David H. Koch, prominent supporter of cancer research at MIT, dies at 79

David H. Koch ’62, SM ’63, one of the most important benefactors in MIT’s modern history, has died. He was 79 years old.Koch’s willingness to back significant initiatives at the Institute was...

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Professor Emeritus Woodie Flowers, innovator in design and engineering...

Woodie Flowers SM ’68, MEng ’71, PhD ’73, the Pappalardo Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, passed away on Oct. 11 at the age of 75. Flowers’ passion for design and his infectious kindness...

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Professor Emeritus Ali Argon, pioneer in the mechanics of materials, dies at 89

Ali S. Argon SM '53, ScD '56, the Quentin Berg Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering, passed away on Dec. 21, 2019, at the age of 89. A world-leading expert in the mechanics of materials,...

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Jeanne Guillemin, biological warfare expert and senior advisor at MIT, dies...

Jeanne Guillemin, a medical anthropologist and biological warfare expert, died on Nov. 15, 2019, at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was 76.Guillemin received her bachelor’s degree in social...

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Maurice Fox, professor emeritus of biology, dies at 95

Maurice Sanford Fox, professor emeritus of biology and former head of the Department of Biology, passed away on Jan. 26 at the age of 95.Fox was instrumental in creating and revising several courses...

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Aron Bernstein, professor emeritus of physics, dies at 88

Aron Bernstein, professor emeritus of physics and longtime anti-nuclear proliferation activist, died on Jan. 14 after a short battle with cancer. He was 88.Aron Bernstein joined MIT in 1961, and taught...

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Frank Press, MIT geophysicist and U.S. science adviser, dies at 95

Frank Press, a noted geophysicist and science adviser to four U.S. presidents, died Jan. 29 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was 95.Press, an MIT Corporation life member emeritus, was the chair of...

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Richard Dudley, professor emeritus of mathematics, dies at 81

Richard Mansfield Dudley, MIT professor emeritus of mathematics, died on Jan. 19 following a long illness. He was 81. Dudley served on the MIT mathematics faculty from 1967 until 2015, when he...

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Thomas Dupree, professor emeritus of nuclear science and engineering and...

Thomas H. Dupree, a professor emeritus in both the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Department of Physics, passed away on Feb. 11 at the age of 86.Focusing on theoretical plasma...

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Professor Emeritus Ulrich Becker, who made major contributions to particle...

Ulrich J. Becker, a professor emeritus in the Department of Physics, passed away on March 10 at age 81, after a long struggle with cancer.Becker became emeritus in 2011 after 42 years with MIT, but he...

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Professor Emeritus Arnold Demain, a pioneer in the development of...

Arnold Lester Demain, professor emeritus of biology, passed away on Apr. 3 at the age of 92 from complications due to Covid-19. He was just shy of celebrating his 93rd birthday.Demain advanced the...

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Remembering Kenneth Keniston, founder of the MIT Program in Science,...

Kenneth Keniston, a founder and pillar of MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society, and later of the MIT-India Program, passed away on Feb. 14 after a long illness. He was 90 years...

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Ramachandra Dasari, associate director of the GR Harrison Spectroscopy Lab,...

Ramachandra Rao Dasari, associate director of the GR Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory, which houses the MIT-Laser Biomedical Research Center, passed away peacefully of natural causes, surrounded by...

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Daniel Kemp, professor emeritus of chemistry, dies at 83

Daniel S. Kemp, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry, died peacefully and comfortably from respiratory complications due to Covid-19, after a battle with dementia, on Saturday, May 2. He...

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Yukio Okamoto, Japanese diplomat and MIT research fellow, dies at 74

Yukio Okamoto, a Japanese diplomat and fellow at MIT, died from Covid-19 on April 24 at the age of 74. The former special advisor to two prime ministers of Japan joined the Center for International...

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Paul Thomas, MIT’s “Mr. Magnet,” dies at 77

Paul Thomas, best known as MIT’s “Mr. Magnet,” passed away peacefully on May 4 at the age of 77, after a five-year battle with Parkinson’s disease.By the time he retired from MIT in 2014, the technical...

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Professor Emeritus Michael Athans, pioneer in control theory, dies at 83

MIT electrical engineering and computer science Professor Emeritus Michael Athans died peacefully on May 26 at his home in Clearwater, Florida, at the age of 83. Athans was born in Drama, Macedonia,...

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Dietmar Seyferth, professor emeritus of chemistry, dies at 91

Dietmar Seyferth, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry and pioneer in the field of organometallic chemistry, died of complications from Covid-19 on Saturday, June 6. He was 91.“Dietmar’s...

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Michael Hawley, former professor of media arts and sciences, dies at 58

Michael Hawley, a former MIT professor who was recognized globally as a modern-day Renaissance man, died on Wednesday, June 24, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after battling a long illness....

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Tunney Lee, professor emeritus of urban planning, dies at 88

Tunney Lee, professor emeritus of urban planning and former head of the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), passed away of complications from cancer treatment on July 2 in Boston. He...

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Arthur Samberg, philanthropist and MIT Corporation life member, dies at 79

Arthur “Art” Samberg ’62, a pioneer in investment management and longtime member of the MIT Corporation, died of leukemia on July 14. He was 79.Reflecting his wide-ranging interests at MIT, Samberg...

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Bill Hanson, a founder of MIT Leaders for Global Operations, dies at 80

Bill Hanson, an inspirational founding figure of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program and a mentor to hundreds of its alumni, died on July 15 at the age of 80.Hanson was senior vice...

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Louis Kampf, professor emeritus of literature and women's and gender...

Louis Kampf, professor emeritus of literature and women’s and gender studies at MIT, died in hospice care on May 30 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 91. The cause was cardiac arrest.The only...

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