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.

Talk Title: TBDTalk Abstract: TBDThis talk will not be live streamed

All kids from newborn age to 3.5 years old are welcome! You can bring siblings as well.It's a chance for kids to have fun while parents can chat, share parenting tips, and socialize.Please register if you plan to attend the group. Contact Maria at mwiegandl@udd.cl if you have any questions.This group is sponsored by the Executive Committees of Westgate and the Graduate Tower at Site 4, and MIT Spouses & Partners Connect, a dedicated network for the significant others of MIT students, postdocs, staff and faculty who have relocated to the Boston area.

Hidden within MIT’s Distinctive Collections, many architectural elements from the earliest days of the Institute’s architecture program still survive as part of the Rotch Art Collection. Among the artworks that conservators salvaged was a set of striking windows of gypsum and stained-glass, dating to the late 18th- to 19th c. Ottoman Empire. This exhibition illuminates the life of these historic windows, tracing their refracted histories from Egypt to MIT, their ongoing conservation, and the cutting-edge research they still prompt.The Maihaugen Gallery (14N-130) is open Monday through Thursday, 10am - 4pm, excluding Institute holidays.

Intersectarian and interreligious marriages often provoke strong opposition from Lebanese of all sects and faiths. In this talk, Prof. Lara Deeb (Anthropology, Scripps College) will introduce her new book, Love Across Difference: Mixed Marriage in Lebanon. Through mixed couples’ stories and the innovative ways many of them think about social difference and confront patriarchy, Deeb highlights the role of family and close social relationships in reproducing sectarianism and explores its impact on people at the personal level, outside the formal realms of law and politics.Food will be providedThis event is cosponsored by MIT Anthropology.

MIT Free English Class is for international students, sholars, spouses. Twenty seven years ago we created a community to welcome the nations to MIT and assist with language and friendship. Join our Tuesday/Thursday conversation classes around tables inside W11-190.

Ten minutes for your mind@2:50 every day at 2:50 pm in multiple time zones:Europa@2:50, EET, Athens, Helsinki (UTC+2) (7:50 am EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88298032734Atlantica@2:50, EST, New York, Toronto (UTC-4) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85349851047Pacifica@2:50, PST, Los Angeles, Vancouver (UTC=7) (5:50 pm EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85743543699Almost everything works better again if you unplug it for a bit, including your mind. Stop by and unplug. Get the benefits of mindfulness without the fuss.@2:50 meets at the same time every single day for ten minutes of quiet together.No pre-requisite, no registration needed.Visit the website to view all @2:50 time zones each day.at250.org or at250.mit.edu

Speaker: Shaowu Zhang (Caltech)

Date: Thursday, April 3 Time: 4:00pm Location: 46-3002, Singleton Auditorium (Third floor of MIT Building 46)​​​​​​​ Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89238458002Title: Human brain cell atlases powering basic and translational scienceAbstract: Single cell and spatial genomics methods are rapidly transforming our understanding of cellular diversity in the brain, and are so scalable that they are enabling the creation of comprehensive brain wide cell atlases in human and model organisms. These atlases are powerful resources akin to the human genome, and provide a unifying framework for understanding brain cellular architecture and its conservation and specialization across species. Furthermore, they can be used to identify regulatory sequences that can be used to create a new generation of cell type-selective perturbational tools to probe nervous system function across species. These tools are now proving to have immediate translational relevance, as they can be applied to identify vulnerable and affected cell populations in disease. Identifying the cellular locus of disease opens up new opportunities to selectively target those cell types as a therapeutic strategy. This talk will describe efforts in the NIH BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network to create brain wide human and non-human primate cell atlases, how they can be used to gain new insights about cellular vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease, and how cell selective genetic tools could lead to precision gene therapies for epilepsies and other diseases.Bio: Ed Lein is a Senior Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and an Affiliate Professor in the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (DLMP) at the University of Washington. He received a B.S. in biochemistry from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from UC Berkeley and performed postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Ed joined the Allen Institute in 2004 and has provided scientific leadership for the creation of large-scale anatomical, cellular and gene expression atlases of the adult and developing mammalian brain as catalytic community resources, including the inaugural Allen Mouse Brain Atlas and a range of developmental and adult human and nonhuman primate brain atlases. Particular current research interests involve the use of single cell genomics as a core phenotype to understand brain cellular organization, mammalian conservation and human specificity, define cellular vulnerability in disease, and identify regulatory elements that allow cell type-specific targeting and manipulation. He leads the Human Cell Types Department, which aims to create comprehensive cell atlases of the human and non-human primate brain, understand what is disrupted in Alzheimer’s disease, and create tools for precision genetic targeting of brain cell types as transformative tools for basic neuroscience and gene therapy. He is also a member of the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN), a member of the Organizing Committee of the Human Cell Atlas (HCA), and a CIFAR fellow. Ed's areas of expertise include developmental neurobiology, structural and cellular neuroanatomy, transcriptomics and epigenomics, comparative neurobiology, and Alzheimer’s disease. His research program work encompasses brain cell at lasing, comparative neurobiology, Alzheimer’s disease, and gene therapy.

Ruonan XuTBA

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.

Ruonan Xu (Rutgers University)

TBA | Alex Teytelboym (Oxford)

Büchi Lectures with Abigail Doyle (UCLA)Talk Title: TBAhttps://doyle.chem.ucla.edu/abby/

Speaker: Themis Sapsis (MIT)

Time: 11:30 AMLocation: Montclair, NJ

For Researchers Interested in Commercializing their New TechnologyExplore taking your new technology to the marketplace Get entrepreneurial training, support to identify customers Learn how to apply for $50,000 from the NSFIncrease your chances of receiving an SBIR/STTR awardClick here for more details

Dinner and Learn with Marcie Black.Marcie Black earned three degrees from MIT: a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (6-1), a Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (6-P), and a PhD in Electrical Engineering (EECS-Doctoral) under Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus. At MIT, she was involved in Microsystems Technology Laboratories, Phonathon Volunteer, and Varsity Women's Gymnastics (1991-1992). She was also a Baker House, East Campus, and Sigma Kappa member.Marcie is currently CEO and co-founder of Advanced Silicon Group, where she combines her expertise in team building, project management, IP strategy, and company culture with her technical background in electronic materials, optics, semiconductors, solar cells, batteries, and nanotechnology. Her impressive career includes founding Bandgap Engineering, focusing on black silicon solar cells, and working as a technical staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Earlier in her career, she worked as a device engineer at Motorola. Her achievements include an R&D 100 award in 2009 and recognition as one of Mass High Tech's "Women-to-Watch in 2010". She has authored over 30 papers and holds more than 15 patents.

Join evolutionary biologist Menno Schilthuizen to explore a new dawn of natural history, practiced by community scientists in their own urban jungle.Imagine taking your smartphone-turned-microscope to an empty lot and discovering a rare mason bee that builds its nest in empty snail shells. Or a miniature spider that hunts ants and carries their corpses around. With a team of citizen scientists, that's exactly what Menno Schilthuizen did — one instance in the evolutionary biologist's campaign to take natural science to the urban landscape where most of us live today. In this delightful book, The Urban Naturalist, Schilthuizen invites us to join him, to embark on a new age of discovery, venturing out as intrepid explorers of our own urban habitat — and maybe in the process do the natural world some good.Copies of The Urban Naturalist will be available for purchase onsite from the MIT Press Bookstore.