Speaker: Andrew Hanlon (Dartmouth College)Title: The Cox category and homological mirror symmetryAbstract: In recent joint work with Ballard, Berkesch, Brown, Cranton Heller, Erman, Favero, Ganatra, and Huang, we introduced the Cox category of a toric variety in order to realize a modification of King's conjecture. I will explain how this construction relates to homological mirror symmetry and Fukaya categories.

2025 James R. Killian, Jr. Award and Lecture Series by: John D. Joannopoulos; Working at the Speed of Light Francis Wright Davis Professor of Physics Director, Institute for Soldier NanotechnologiesLecture will begin at 4 pm in 10-250, followed by a reception in The Nexus, MIT LibrariesJohn Joannopoulos, an innovator and mentor in the fields of theoretical condensed matter physics and nanophotonics, has been named the recipient of the 2024-2025 James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award.Joannopoulos is the Francis Wright Davis Professor of Physics and director of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. He has been a member of the MIT faculty for 50 years.Read more on MIT NewsAbout the James R. Killian Faculty Achievement Award and Lecture Series: The purpose of the Killian Award is to recognize extraordinary professional achievement by MIT faculty members and to communicate their accomplishments to members of the Institute community. The recipient of the Killian Award holds the title of Killian Award Lecturer for the following academic year and presents, during that time, one or more lectures to the MIT community on his or her own professional activities. The Killian Award selection is made by faculty members elected by vote of the Faculty from a slate prepared by the Faculty Nominations Committee. Visit the Killian Award and Lecture site.■ ■ ■The Killian Lecture is open to all members of the MIT community. No registration is required, but we do suggest arriving a few minutes early to ensure a seat. Live Streamtext captioning will be available via mobile devices.This lecture will not be webcast, but it will be recorded and posted on the Killian Lecture website in the days following.Questions? Contact Photo credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT

Bristol-Myers Squibb Lectures with Matthew S. Sigman (University of Utah) and Denise Grünenfelder (Bristol-Myers Squibb)Sigman Talk Title: TBABMS Talk Title: TBAhttps://www.sigmanlab.com/

As part of MIT's Day of Climate, this professional development session is for Earth Story: Building With The Ground We Walk On For Climate Resilience.Globally, construction accounts for nearly 40% of annual carbon emissions. At the same time, many cities need to grow rapidly to provide equitable housing for their inhabitants. The project will build a hands-on curriculum focused on exploring and creating new innovation in the critical area of low-carbon, low-cost housing. It will engage 3D printing with locally sourced materials to rapidly prototype structures with students that speak to a climate-resilient future of building and design.To make the curriculum more broadly accessible, lesson plans and web based tools will be produced to allow students of all ages and subjects to engage with the research to understand climate change and the work being done to create resilient cities.Register for this in-person professional development session.

Recreational swims provide a fun and engaging way for children and parents to practice new skills, stay active, and enjoy quality time together in the pool with the MIT community.No Z Center (MIT Recreation - Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center) membership is required to participate.A parent or caregiver must accompany children in the water. Per Z Center policy, each adult may supervise up to two children at a time.Children must be at least 6 months old to join. If younger, they must be able to hold their head up comfortably. Registration is here. Only for MIT Spouses and Partners Connect members.

Davide Viviano (Harvard University)

Speaker: Shivam Nadimpalli (MIT)Title: Gaussian Polytope ApproximationAbstract: We study the approximability of high-dimensional convex sets by intersections of halfspaces, where the approximation quality is measured with respect to the standard Gaussian distribution and the complexity of an approximation is the number of halfspaces used.We establish a range of upper and lower bounds both for general convex sets and for specific natural convex sets that are of particular interest. We rely on techniques from many different areas, including classical results from convex geometry, Cramér-type bounds from probability theory, and—perhaps surprisingly—a range of topics from computational complexity theory, including computational learning theory, unconditional pseudorandomness, and the study of influences and noise sensitivity in the analysis of Boolean functions.Based on joint work with Anindya De and Rocco Servedio: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.08575. ;

Sequentially Optimal Pricing Under Informational Robustness | Xiaosheng Mu (Princeton)

Speaker: Jörn Dunkel (MIT)Title: Model inference for active matterAbstract:Recent advances in live-imaging techniques provide dynamical data ranging from the cellular to the organism scale. Notwithstanding such experimental progress, quantitative mathematical models often remain lacking, even for moderately complex classes of biological systems. Here, I will survey our ongoing efforts to implement computational frameworks for inferring predictive dynamical equations from multi-scale imaging data. Example applications range from cell locomotion and neuromechanical control to collective swarming behaviors in animal groups.--*Tea will be at 4:00 pm in the 553 Lake Hall

We are pleased to invite you to join us for our Case Medical School Webinar for MIT Pre-Medical Students on Thursday, March 13th at 5pm eastern time.During the webinar, you will:Hear more about the application process and timelinesGet tips, tricks and recommendations to applying to medical schoolLearn about the student experience and our brand new Health Education CampusFind out what Cleveland, OH has to offerPicture yourself as a Case Medical Student, and learn all the ins and outs of applying to medical school

The question of "What's next for me?" can be a hard question for students and professionals at any career stage. The upcoming session in the coaching series offers tools and frameworks to guide you through the process. This is where you will gain tools, clarity and confidence to design a career that fulfills you, not just another job that pays for the bills.

This event is presented in collaboration with Cambridge Arts, Arts & Cultural Planning Director for the City of Cambridge, and Arts at MIT.Connect with artists and creatives in and around Cambridge and MIT to build your professional network. During this 45-minute informal speed networking activity, you will make numerous contacts in a short period of time, with an opportunity to exchange contact information if desired.People of all ages, backgrounds, and industries are warmly welcomed. If you’re able, please download the LinkedIn app and have your QR code pulled up and ready to share when you arrive. If you prefer to keep it old-school, business cards are also welcomed!

Iyengar yoga is Hatha yoga as taught by BKS Iyengar and develops strength, coordination, and flexibility of the body and mind. Participants learn how to use their embodiment as an anchor - a way to find peace and inner strength during busy and difficult times.Every class is different with a unique sequence based on the theme of the class and the needs of the students. Using physical alignment as a starting point, Iyengar yoga encourages the spread of intelligence throughout the body, the growth of self awareness and asana as a form of meditation.As a Certified Iyengar Teacher (CIYT) who has studied with renown teachers Patricia Walden and Jarvis Chen for over 16 years, Ashley uses individual pose modifications, props, and hands-on adjustments to support participants of all body types, ages and abilities.Iyengar yoga is truly for everyone - stiff bodies welcome!Registration is required on our wellness class website. If you do not already have an account on this website, you'll need to create one. This is fee-based class and open to the entire MIT community.

This March we're offering a special edition of our popular After Dark event in collaboration with MIT's Artfinity Festival of the Arts.As part of Artfinity, this month's After Dark will celebrate the artistic and cultural community at MIT and is free and open to adult members of the public (18+).Enjoy a variety of hands-on making demonstrations, conversation, and interactive play accompanied by live music and a pop-up cash bar. Come explore, create, and connect; whether you're an artist, a tech enthusiast, or simply curious, there's something there for you.Don't miss this expanded celebration of art in all its forms, including activities available in the museum throughout the evening.Live DJ setsFood and drink available for purchaseThe galleries are open, including two exhibitions of work by MIT faculty.Rania Ghosn's Cosmograph: Speculative Fictions for the New Space Age, and exhibition that brings art and science together to examine possible futures where outer space is both a frontier for human exploration and a new territory for exploitation and development by private enterprise.Professor and Director of the Art, Culture and Technology program, Azra Akšamija's Hallucinating Traditions is a 5-channel video installation that utilizes AI to envision future iterations of traditional fashion. Akšamija's speculative designs blur cultural and temporal boundaries, prompting viewers to reconsider the notion of "traditional" as a construct of the imagination.Engage in a unique drawing experience with a Flash Portrait Session! You'll be paired with a stranger to carefully observe and draw them without looking at your paper or lifting your pencil. This will provide a preview of MIT Face to Face, a collective event and pop-up exhibition inspired by Congregation, an artwork by Es Devlin, the 2025 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts recipient.Challenge traditional ideas of solo artistry by embracing play and co-creating new forms alongside artist and MIT graduate student Coco Allred.Design textile patterns inspired by plant intelligence and explore how plants adapt to climate change, pollution, and migration with MIT Future Heritage Lab's Telltales of Tide and Terra co-creation project.Join us in creating climate critters as we think about sustainability with Interwoven, a data visualization exercise with Sara Wilson, Supreetha Krishnan, and Marwa AlAlaw.Take a closer look at Gaze to the Stars by award-winning designer Behnaz Farahi and her team at the Critical Matter Group at the Media Lab, which transforms the MIT dome into a living canvas that reflects the resilience and aspirations of those who have shaped, and been shaped by, the MIT experience. Join Farahi to explore how she is using technology in critical and transformative ways—sparking the imagination, provoking conversation, enhancing perception, augmenting social interaction, and empowering voices that have not been heard. The talk will be introduced by MIT Director Michael John Gorman.No registration necessary; admission is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Space is limited.Please note that backpacks and large bags are not permitted. A limited number of free lockers are available on first-come, first-served basis.

Please join us for an Emerson/Harris Masterclass with trombonist and composer Alan Ferber!March 13, 2025 6:00pm | Killian HallMultiple GRAMMY-nominated/winning trombonist-composer-arranger Alan Ferber has been called “one of the jazz world’s premier composers and arrangers for larger groups” by All About Jazz NY. Jazz Times magazine describes Ferber’s compositions as “inspired and meticulous” and the L.A. Weekly deems him “one of the premier modern jazz arrangers of our time.” In 2022, he was deemed the top “Rising Star Trombonist” in Down Beat magazine’s International Critic’s Poll. Ferber has been the recipient of a 2013 & 2023 New Jazz Works grant from Chamber Music America, funded by the Doris Duke Foundation. He currently serves as the Associate Director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop and has been an Adjunct Professor of jazz studies at New York University’s Steinhardt School since 2011.Ferber’s aesthetic prescribes a deep knowledge of the jazz tradition as a means toward meaningful innovation. Appropriately, the Wall Street Journal describes his music as “somehow both old school and cutting edge.” He recently released his ninth album as a bandleader in July of 2023 titled Alan Ferber Nonet: Up High, Down Low on Sunnyside Records. In a review, Stereophile magazine describes Alan as being “born to the (nonet) format” and continues with, “Ferber the bandleader has one of the world's best trombonists in his nonet: himself.”Prior to this album, he released the album Jigsaw featuring his 17-piece big band on Sunnyside Records, which was nominated for a 2018 GRAMMY award for ‘Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.’ Down Beat magazine listed it as one of the best CDs of 2017 and stated, “Ferber…demonstrates full mastery. His big band belongs in the idiom’s current top tier.” In 2016, Ferber released “Roots & Transitions,” an eight-movement original piece for his working nonet, from which his composition Flow was nominated for a 2017 GRAMMY award for ‘Best Instrumental Composition.’ Ferber’s 2013 release for his big band on the Sunnyside label, March Sublime, features original compositions and arrangements and was nominated for a 2014 GRAMMY award in the ‘Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album’ category. In 2010, Ferber released “Chamber Songs-Music For Nonet & Strings” (Sunnyside) which received a coveted 4 star review in Down Beat and was named one the magazine’s “Best CDs of the Year.”Ferber’s music draws from a broad stylistic base informed by the array of artists with whom he has closely worked. In the jazz world, he has performed and/or recorded with Best New Artist GRAMMY-winner Esperanza Spalding’s Radio Music Society, the Dr. Lonnie Smith Octet, the Ted Nash Big Band, Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors, MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenon’s Identities Big Band, the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, the Charlie Hunter Quintet, Michael Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus, the David Binney/Edward Simon Group, the Lee Konitz Nonet, John Ellis’s Double Wide, the Dafnis Prieto Big Band, the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, and Don Byron’s Mickey Katz Project.He has worked extensively in other genres as well with artists including Peter Gabriel (Live at the Ed Sullivan Theater), Paul Simon, Sufjan Stevens (Age of Adz & All Delighted People), The National (on Grammy-nominated Trouble Will Find Me), Dr. Dre, Harry Connick Jr, Michael Buble, and Beirut. His discography lists over 150 CDs on which he has played trombone and/or composed and arranged music.Ferber’s accomplishments as a writer and collaborator are equally diverse. He has composed multiple pieces for the popular video game, Valorant. He composed several arrangements for vocalist Sara Gazarek’s GRAMMY-nominated album, Thirsty Ghost as well as for her most recent EP, Vanity. He wrote all of the big band arrangements for Broadway star Shoshana Bean‘s album, Spectrum; Two big band arrangements of Joni Mitchell compositions featuring vocalist Tutu Puoane with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra on their album, We Have A Dream. Two commissions ~ Kopi Luwak and Luteous Pangolin (Ben Monder) ~ written for the Atlantic Brass Quintet (and released on their 2014 album Crossover on Summit Records); Hyperballad (Bjork), arranged for the avant-classical music outfit Bang On A Can’s Asphalt Orchestra; Farewell (Nelson Foltz) arranged for a recording with 8 trombones joined by acclaimed vocalist Rebecca Martin; nine arrangements for Korean Sony recording artist Youngjoo Song’s 2015 release, Reflection, nominated for Jazz Album of the Year at the 2015 Korean Music Awards; and worked as a producer on two GRAMMY-nominated albums (Real Enemies & Dynamic Maximum Tension) for celebrated jazz composer, Darcy James Argue.Alan currently serves as the Associate Director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop in New York City, a reputable incubator for emerging big band composers. Since 2011, he has been an Adjunct Professor of jazz studies at New York University’s Steinhardt School. Ferber also serves on the faculty at the John J Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, and has been a faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, the Eastman School of Music, and the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music. He has worked regularly on the faculties of several summer jazz programs including the Taipei International Summer Jazz Academy, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Lafayette Summer Music Jazz Workshop, Cal State University’s Summer Arts Perspectives In Jazz program, and the Maine Jazz Camp. He is currently the coordinator of New England Music Camp’s Jazz Intensive, held every summer in Maine. He has appeared as a clinician and soloist with numerous universities including the Eastman School of Music, Stanford University, the University of Oregon, Cal State Northridge, Kansas University, the University of Miami, the Lawrence Conservatory, Middle Tennessee State University, and the University of Nevada Las Vegas.The Emerson/Harris Masterclass Series is supported in part by the Robert L. Malster (1956) Fund.This project is presented as part of Artfinity, an Institute-sponsored event celebrating creativity and community at MIT. Artfinity is organized by the Office of the Arts.

Linda Zhang Presented with the Architecture and Urbanism Group Part of the MIT Spring 2025 Architecture Lecture Series.This lecture will be held in person in Long Lounge, 7-429 and streamed online.Lectures are free and open to the public. Lectures will be held Thursdays at 6 PM ET in 7-429 (Long Lounge) and streamed online unless otherwise noted. Registration required to attend in-person. Register here or watch the webcast on Youtube.

Join us for a fun Japanese cultural event on Thursday, March 13 from 7-9pm at Walker Memorial. There will be sushi and boba for only $5 (worth $20)!! RSVP: hereInterested in Japanese culture? Enjoy eating sushi? Japanese Association of MIT (JAM) is organizing a Hanami festival on Thursday, March 13 from 7:00-9:00 PM at Walker Memorial. Immerse yourself in the enchanting tradition of Hanami, which celebrates the blooming of cherry blossoms.Here’s a peek of what we offer:Awesome array of food including sushi and bobaMatcha-making (Sado)Traditional Japanese calligraphy (Shodo)Japanese Chess (Shogi)OrigamiThe food tickets will be $5 for MIT students (MIT ID required, Venmo or cash).RSVP here: https://forms.gle/UBDVWJAGZRmrxhZD7If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us: jam-hq@mit.edu

A celebration of creativity and community at MITArtfinity is a new festival of the arts at MIT featuring 80 free performing and visual arts events, celebrating creativity and community at the Institute. Artfinity launches with the opening of the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building on February 15, 2025, continues with a concentration of events February 28-March 16, and culminates with the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts public lecture by 2025 recipient artist and designer Es Devlin on May 1, 2025, and a concert by Grammy-winning rapper and Visiting Professor Lupe Fiasco on May 2, 2025. Artfinity embodies MIT’s commitment to creativity, community, and the intersection of art, science and technology. We invite you to join us in this celebration, explore the diverse events, and experience the innovative spirit that defines the arts at MIT.About the Artists Artfinity features the innovative work of MIT faculty, students, staff, and alumni, alongside guest artists from the Greater Boston area and beyond.About the Activities & Events All 80 events are open to the public, including dozens of concerts and performances plus an array of visual arts such as projections, films, installations, exhibitions, and augmented reality experiences, as well as lectures and workshops for attendees to participate in. With a wide range of visual and performing arts events open to all, Artfinity embodies MIT’s commitment to the arts and the intersection of art, science, and technology.About the Presenters Artfinity is an institute-sponsored event organized by the Office of the Arts at MIT with faculty leads Institute Professor of Music Marcus Thompson and Professor of Art, Culture and Technology Azra Akšamija. Departments, labs, centers, and student groups across MIT are presenting partners.Visit arts.mit.edu for more information about the arts at MIT.

Time: 1:00 PMLocation: Northampton, MA