Jarillo-Herrero is co-recipient of the 2026 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience 'for foundational work that established the field of twistronics.' His co-recipients are professors Eva Y. Andrei at Rutgers University and Allan MacDonald from the University of Texas at Austin. These three physicists are being honored for the theoretical foundation and experimental validation of a new field of 'twistronics,' where superconductivity, magnetism, and other properties can be obtained by rotating two-dimensional materials such as graphene to a 'magic angle.' A partnership among the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation, the Kavli Prizes are awarded every two years to 'honor scientists for breakthroughs in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience that transform our understanding of the big, the small and the complex.' The laureates in each field will share $1 million. 'Pablo's groundbreaking research has once again been given well-deserved recognition,' says Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the MIT School of Science and the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics. 'Pablo and his co-recipients have pioneered twistronics, very fundamental scientific research that has opened up a new field with myriad possibilities for novel quantum materials.'...

Myriam Heiman, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, will become the director of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, effective July 1. She succeeds Picower Professor Li-Huei Tsai, who is stepping down after leading the institute for 16 years. Heiman, a molecular neurobiologist and geneticist, studies the neurodegenerative diseases of the brain's basal ganglia, including Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease. Using cutting-edge techniques, including single-cell genomics and a powerful transcriptomic technique she helped invent, called translating ribosome affinity purification, she aims to understand the molecular changes that eventually lead to cell death in these diseases. 'Myriam is an extraordinary scientist, a proven leader within MIT, and a deeply caring and generous mentor. Her research to determine why specific brain cell types are particularly vulnerable to diseases such as Huntington's has produced studies that are both deep in their insight and sweeping in their scope,' says Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the MIT School of Science and the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics. 'I firmly believe that Myriam will be an excellent leader during the Picower Institute's next chapter.'...

A new immersive sound installation at Oulu Cathedral, Finland, brings the research of MIT astrophysicist and associate professor of physics Kiyoshi Masui into a striking sensory form, transforming more than 4,000 cosmic signals into spatial audio. With its grand opening on April 4, 'The Logos' project invites visitors to experience deep-space phenomena not as distant abstractions, but as something immediate and resonant. The work is led by artist and creative technologist Andrew Melchior in collaboration with Masui, philosopher Timothy Morton, and cathedral dean Satu Saarinen. Together, they treat the cathedral, built in 1832, not just as a setting but as part of the instrument itself. Its stone surfaces and reverberant acoustics give physical presence to signals that have traveled from distant galaxies. At the heart of the installation are data gathered by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope, which detects fast radio bursts (FRBs). FRBs are immensely energetic flashes lasting only milliseconds and originating in distant galaxies across the observable universe. The Logos represents one of the most extensive artistic sonifications of FRB data to date. Each day at noon, the cathedral is filled with a one-hour procedural composition derived from these bursts. Some bursts are singular events, never repeating, while others pulse again and again from unknown sources. These patterns remain one of astrophysics' most compelling mysteries....

MIT Picower Professor Li-Huei Tsai, who has led The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory since 2009, will step down from the role of director at the end of the academic year in May. Her decision frees her to focus exclusively on her academic work, including her continued leadership of MIT's Aging Brain Initiative and the Alana Down Syndrome Center. Meanwhile, the search for the Picower Institute's next director has begun. 'During her exceptional 16-year tenure in the role of director, Li-Huei has led substantial growth at the Picower Institute,' says Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the MIT School of Science and the Curtis and Kathleen Marble professor of astrophysics. 'She has markedly expanded the faculty ' eight of the current 16 labs joined Picower under her directorship ' through successful recruitment of highly talented neuroscientists. She has done this, and more, all while leading one of our most productive and influential labs, working on a quintessentially grand challenge in human health: combating Alzheimer's disease.'...