Within the halls of MIT, a particular thread of compassion weaves via the material of training. As college students modify to a postpandemic regular, many professors have performed a pivotal position by serving to them navigate the realities of hybrid studying and a quickly altering postgraduation panorama.
The Dedicated to Caring (C2C) program at MIT is a student-driven initiative that celebrates school members who’ve served as distinctive mentors to graduate college students. Twenty-three MIT professors have been chosen as recipients of the C2C award for 2023-25, marking probably the most in depth cohort of honorees to this point. These people be a part of the ranks of 75 earlier C2C honorees.
The actions of those MIT school members over the previous two years underscore their profound dedication to the well-being, progress, and success of their college students. These educators go above and past their roles, demonstrating an unwavering dedication to mentorship, inclusion, and a holistic method to scholar improvement. They purpose to create a nurturing surroundings the place college students not solely thrive academically, but additionally flourish personally.
The next school members are the 2023-25 Dedicated to Caring honorees:
- Hamsa Balakrishnan, Division of Aeronautics and Astronautics
- Cynthia Breazeal, Media Lab
- Roberto Fernandez, MIT Sloan Faculty of Administration
- Nuh Gedik, Division of Physics
- Mariya Grinberg, Division of Political Science
- Ming Guo, Division of Mechanical Engineering
- Myriam Heiman, Division of Mind and Cognitive Sciences
- Rohit Karnik, Division of Mechanical Engineering
- Erik Lin-Greenberg, Division of Political Science
- Michael McDonald, Division of Physics
- Emery Neal Brown, Harvard-MIT Program in Well being Sciences and Expertise
- Wanda Orlikowski, MIT Sloan Faculty of Administration
- Kenneth Oye, Division of Political Science
- Kristala Prather, Division of Chemical Engineering
- Zachary Seth Hartwig, Division of Nuclear Science and Engineering
- Tracy Slatyer, Division of Physics
- Iain Stewart, Division of Physics
- Andrew Vanderburg, Division of Physics
- Rodrigo Verdi, MIT Sloan Faculty of Administration
- Xiao Wang, Division of Chemistry
- Ariel White, Division of Political Science
- Nathan Wilmers, MIT Sloan Faculty of Administration
- Maria Yang, Division of Mechanical Engineering
For the reason that founding of the C2C program in 2014 by the Workplace of Graduate Schooling, the nomination course of for honorees has centered on scholar involvement. Graduate college students from all departments are invited to submit nomination letters detailing professors’ excellent mentorship practices. A committee of graduate college students and employees members then selects people who’ve proven real contributions to MIT’s vibrant tutorial group via scholar mentorship.
The choice committee this 12 months included: Maria Carreira (Biology), Rima Das (Mechanical Engineering), Ahmet Gulek (Economics), Bishal Thapa (Organic Engineering), Katie Rotman (Structure), Dóra Takács (Linguistics), Dan Korsun (Nuclear Science and Engineering), Leslie Langston (Pupil Psychological Well being and Counseling), Patricia Nesti (MIT-Woods Gap Oceanographic Establishment), Beth Marois (Workplace of Graduate Schooling [OGE]), Sara Lazo (OGE), and Chair Suraiya Baluch (OGE).
This 12 months’s nomination letters highlighted distinctive tales of how college students felt supported by professors. College students famous their mentors’ dedication to frequent conferences regardless of their very own busy private lives, in addition to their dedication to making sure equal entry to alternatives for underrepresented and underserved college students.
Some wrote about their advisors’ cautious consideration of scholars’ wants alongside their very own when confronted with skilled development alternatives; others appreciated their lively help for college kids within the LGBTQ+ group. Lastly, college students mirrored on their advisors’ encouragement for open and constructive discourse across the graduate unionization vote, exhibiting a real want to listen to about graduate points.
Baluch shared, “Working with the superb choice committee was the spotlight of my work 12 months. I used to be so impressed by the considerate consideration every nomination acquired. Choosing the subsequent spherical of C2C nominees is at all times a heartwarming expertise.”
“As somebody who aspires to be a school member sometime,” famous Das, “being on the choice committee … was an outstanding alternative in understanding the breadth and depth of risk in methods to be a caring mentor in academia.”
She continued, “It was so heartening to listen to the completely different ways in which these school members are going above and past their specific analysis and educating duties and the superb affect that has made on so many college students’ well-being and skill to achieve success in graduate college.”
The Dedicated to Caring program continues to strengthen MIT’s tradition of mentorship, inclusion, and collaboration by recognizing the contributions of excellent professors. Within the coming months, information articles will characteristic pairs of honorees, and a reception can be held in Might.
