Robert E. Cohen, the Raymond A. (1921) and Helen E. St. Laurent Professor of Chemical Engineering, Emeritus, whose pioneering research helped shape the fields of polymers and soft matter while inspiring generations of students, passed away peacefully on July 9 following a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 79. "Bob Cohen was an innovator in every sense of the word: in his research, his approach to mentorship, and in every aspect of our community at MIT," says Kristala Prather '94, the Arthur D. Little Professor and head of the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChemE). "Bob combined extraordinary intellect with remarkable humility. As a teacher, colleague, advisor, and friend, he had a gift for making people feel respected, valued, and heard. That generosity shaped every part of his work and inspired everyone fortunate enough to know him." During more than four decades at MIT, Cohen continually reimagined how chemical engineering students should be educated. Recruited for his expertise in polymer science, he brought to MIT the polymer laboratory course he had developed during his postdoctoral work at the University of Oxford, establishing class 10.467 (Polymer Science Laboratory). The rigorous undergraduate course introduced generations of students to polymer synthesis, physical chemistry, and the evaluation of mechanical properties through hands-on experimentation....

A physician and neuroscientist who studies how anesthesia affects the brain; a leader in aerospace engineering, policy, and education; and the founding head of MIT's Department of Biological Engineering have been awarded MIT's highest faculty honor: the title of Institute Professor. The appointments, which took effect July 1, were announced today in an email to the faculty from Sally Kornbluth, MIT's president; Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT provost; and Roger Levy, chair of the faculty and a professor of brain and cognitive sciences. 'It's a pleasure to know that your colleagues hold you in such high esteem and that the work that you're doing is valued,' says Brown, who is the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience, an investigator at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. 'When you look down the list of people who have had this title, it's an amazing group.'...

The full 2027 edition of the rankings ' published by Quacquarelli Symonds, an organization specializing in education and study abroad ' can be found at TopUniversities.com. The QS rankings are based on factors including academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty, student-to-faculty ratio, proportion of international faculty, and proportion of international students. The Institute received a No. 1 ranking in the following QS subject areas: Chemical Engineering; Civil and Structural Engineering; Computer Science and Information Systems; Data Science and Artificial Intelligence; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Engineering and Technology; Linguistics; Materials Science; Mechanical, Aeronautical, and Manufacturing Engineering; Mathematics; Physics and Astronomy; and Statistics and Operational Research. MIT also placed second in seven subject areas: Architecture/Built Environment; History of Art; Biological Sciences; Economics and Econometrics; Marketing; Natural Sciences; and Statistics and Operational Research....

In 2026, MIT granted tenure to 10 faculty members across the School of Engineering. This year's tenured engineers hold appointments in the departments of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) ' which reports jointly to the School of Engineering and MIT Schwarzman College of Computing ' and Mechanical Engineering, as well as within the Institute for Medical Engineering and Sciences (IMES). 'I'm delighted to congratulate the 10 newest tenured faculty members in the School of Engineering. This major career milestone reflects not only their impact and excellence in research, but their deep commitment to education and mentoring the next generation of engineers. I am so excited to see what new developments, innovations, and technologies will come next from this incredibly accomplished group,' says Paula T. Hammond '84, PhD '93, dean of engineering, Institute Professor, and professor of chemical engineering. Jacob Andreas is an associate professor in EECS and is affiliated with the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). His work is in natural language processing, and more broadly in AI. He aims to understand the computational foundations of language learning, and to build intelligent systems that can learn from human guidance....