Tag: MIT
Four Black Students Who Have Been Awarded Rhodes Scholarships
Typically the Rhodes Trust does not reveal the race or ethnicity of scholarship winners. Of this year’s 32 Rhodes Scholars from the United States, it appears that four are Black. A year ago, six of the 32 Rhodes Scholars were African Americans. In both 2017 and 2020, there were 10 African American Rhodes Scholars, the most in any one year.
Significant Drop in Black First-Year Enrollments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced that just 5 percent of its entering class is Black. This is down from an average of 13 percent Black over the last four admissions cycles.
In Memoriam: Willard R. Johnson, 1935-2023
Dr. Johnson joined the political science faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964 as an assistant professor. He was the first Black faculty member at MIT to rise through the ranks and achieve tenure from within.
Colleges and Universities Announce the Appointments of Seven Black Administrators
Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States. If you have news for this section, please send an email to info@jbhe.com.
The First Black Dean of the Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia
Said Ibrahim has been serving as senior vice president of the medicine service line at Northwell Health, New York’s largest healthcare provider. He also serves as chair of the department of medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, and the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University. He will become dean on December 1.
Building a Next Generation Platform for Online Education at HBCUs
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is partnering with the Axim Collaborative – a joint endeavor of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – to develop HBCU Virtual, or HBCUv, a new platform to expand digital learning and equitable access to education for historically Black colleges and universities.
Two Blacks Among Three Winners of the Waterman Award From the National Science Foundation
Natalie King, an associate professor of science education at Georgia State University, and Asegun Henry is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will each receive a grant of $1,000,000 over a five-year period for scientific research or advanced study in science and engineering disciplines.
John Dozier Appointed the Twenty-First President of Columbia College in South Carolina
Dr. Dozier has been serving as community and equity officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before taking on that role in 2020, he was chief diversity officer and senior associate provost at the University of South Carolina and president of Kennedy-King College in Chicago.
Asegun Henry of MIT Wins the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation
Asegun Henry, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the recipient of the Alan T. Waterman Award from...
A Trio of Black Scholars in New Faculty Positions
William T. Brooks has been named an assistant professor of music at Albany State University in Georgia. Ericmoore Jossou will be joining the engineering faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this summer and Joan Blakey is the new director of the University of Minnesota School of Social Work.
Edward Thomas Appointed Dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics at Auburn University
Dr. Thomas has been serving as interim dean since 2021. He is the first dean of the college that also holds a doctorate from Auburn University.
Four Black Scholars in New University Teaching Roles
Taking on new teaching assignments are Ericmoore Jossou at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Audrey Sorrells at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Chaudron Carter Short at Temple University in Philadelphia, and Francis Annan at the University of California, Berkeley.
New Faculty Assignments at Colleges and Universities for Five Black Scholars
Taking on new faculty roles are Michael Carbin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Judith Casselberry at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, Yvonne Chireau at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Tesfaye Mengiste at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and Rae Shaw at San Francisco State University.
In Memoriam: Frank Sidney Jones, 1928-2022
In 1968, Frank Sidney Jones was named executive director of the Urban Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1971 he was named Ford Professor of Urban Affairs and became the first African American to achieve tenure at MIT.
A Quartet of Black Academics Who Are Taking on New Assignments
Wesley Harris a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was elected vice president of the National Academy of Engineering. Shawn Lee Williams at Alexandria Technical and Community College in Minnesota, Tiffany Steele at the University of Rochester, and Aaron Faculty at Arizonza State are taking on new faculty roles.
University of Wisconsin Scholar Confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Commerce
Michael C. Morgan is taking a leave from his faculty position to serve as assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction. In that capacity, he will serve as deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Four African American Scholars Who Are Taking on New Duties
Taking on new duties are Valerie Giddings at North Carolina A&T State University, Collin Stultz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Robin R. Davis at Virginia Union University in Richmond, and Giselle Armond Abron at the University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine.
Emery N. Brown Selected to Share the Gruber Neuroscience Prize
Awarded annually by the Gruber Foundation, the prize honors scientists for major discoveries that have advanced the understanding of the nervous system. The prize, which includes a $500,000 award, will be presented to Dr. Brown and his co-recipients on November 13 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Honors Emery N. Brown
Emery N. Brown is the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Health Sciences and Technology in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT and the Warren M. Zapol Professor at Harvard Medical School.
University of Michigan Provost Susan Collins to Lead the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
When she takes office on July 1, Susan Collins will be only the second Black president and first Black woman to head one of the 12 Federal Reserve banks in the century-plus history of the institution.
MIT Press Launches New Grant Program to Promote Diversity in Academic Publishing
The Grant Program for Diverse Voices will expand funding for new work by authors whose voices have been excluded and chronically underrepresented across the arts, humanities, and sciences.
The Inaugural Dean of Texas A&M University’s Intercollegiate School of Engineering Medicine
Roderic I. Pettigrew is the Robert A. Welch Professor in the Texas A&M University College of Medicine and professor of biomedical engineering in the College of Engineering. He will lead the new school that will allow graduates to receive both a doctorate of medicine and master’s degree in engineering in four years.
In Memoriam: Shirley Ann Mathis McBay, 1935-2021
After attending segregated public schools, Dr. McBay enrolled in college at the age of 15. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Georgia. Dr. McBay had a long career in academia at Spelman College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Three African Americans Who Have Been Assigned to New Roles Relating to Diversity
Taking on new duties relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion are Brooke Berry at Virginia Commonwealth University, Daniel Hastings at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Barbara J. Lawrence at Rider University in Lawrence Township, New Jersey.
Melissa Nobles Appointed Chancellor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Since 2015, Dr. Nobles has led the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT. Her current research is focused on building a database of racial killings in the U.S. South, from 1930 to 1954, an archival project developed with the Northeastern University Law School’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice law clinic.
Four Black Scholars Taking on New Assignments at Major Universities
The four scholars taking on new duties are Yohannes Haile-Selassie at Arizona State University, Cindy Crusto at the Yale School of Medicine, Patrick McPhail Martin at North Carolina A&T State University, and Ceasar McDowell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
University of Virginia’s School of Architecture Names Malo A. Hutson as Its Next Dean
Dr. Hutson is currently a tenured professor and director of the Urban Planning Ph.D. Program in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University in New York City. He is also the director of the school’s Urban Community and Health Equity Lab.
New Study Finds Huge Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Mortality Rates
Men are more likely to be infected by COVID-19 and have higher death rates. But that data obscures the fact that Black women are up to four times more likely to die of COVID-19 than White men and three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than Asian men.
Four African American Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Roles in Higher Education
Chanita Hughes-Halbert and Colman Domingo are joining the faculty at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Paula Hammond has been appointed an Institute Professor at MIT and Stephanie Luster-Teasley, a professor of engineering at North Carolina A&T State University, was named vice provost for undergraduate education.
Three Black Scholars Taking on New Faculty Assignments
Dionne Danns, a professor of education, was named to an endowed chair at Indiana University. Eric Mvukiyehe has been appointed assistant professor of political science at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and Ashia Wilson recently joined the department of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.
Shirley Ann Jackson Wins Award From the American Association of Physics Teachers
Dr. Jackson was chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1995 to 1999. She then left government service to take over as the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1999. She was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in any discipline from MIT.
Four African Americans Named Mitchell Scholars
The US-Ireland Alliance recently announced the 12 members of the George J. Mitchell Scholar Class of 2022. Four of the 12 Mitchell Scholars this year are African Americans.
Emery Brown Awarded the Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience
Emery N. Brown is the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also serves as the Warren M. Zapol Professor at Harvard Medical School and is a practicing anesthesiologist.
Using Virtual Reality to Examine the Racial Attitudes of Educators
The game “Passage Home” puts the player into the first-person perspective of “Ti any,” a talented and hard-working Black student who is falsely accused of plagiarism by her White female English teacher.
New Administrative Duties for Six African Americans at Colleges and Universities
Taking on new roles are Alexia Hudson-Ward at MIT, Mark Fitzgerald Wilson at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, Tiffany Lomax at Colby College in Maine, J. Mike Johnson at Texas A&M University, Joy Moore at Boston College, and Tiffany Reed at Indiana State University.
Arlie Petters to Become Provost at the Abu Dhabi Campus of New York University
Dr. Petters has been serving as Benjamin Powell Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He is the former dean of academic affairs for the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke. He will begin his new duties on September 1.
