MIT chemists boost the efficiency of a key enzyme in photosynthesis

During photosynthesis, an enzyme called rubisco catalyzes a key reaction — the incorporation of carbon dioxide into organic compounds to create sugars. However, rubisco, which is believed to be the most abundant enzyme on Earth, is very inefficient compared to the other enzymes involved in photosynthesis.

MIT chemists have now shown that they can greatly enhance a version of rubisco found in bacteria from a low-oxygen environment. Using a process known as directed evolution, they identified mutations that could boost rubisco’s catalytic efficiency by up to 25 percent.

The researchers now plan to apply their technique to forms of rubisco that could be used in plants to help boost their rates of photosynthesis, which could potentially improve crop yields.

“This is, I think, a compelling demonstration of successful improvement of a rubisco’s enzymatic properties, holding out a lot of hope for engineering other forms of rubisco,” says Matthew Shoulders, the Class of 1942 Professor of Chemistry at MIT.

Shoulders and Robert Wilson, a research scientist in the Department of Chemistry, are the senior authors of the new study, which appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. MIT graduate student Julie McDonald is the paper’s lead author.

Evolution of efficiency

When plants or photosynthetic bacteria absorb energy from the sun, they first convert it into energy-storing molecules such as ATP. In the next phase of photosynthesis, cells use that energy to transform a molecule known as ribulose bisphosphate into glucose, which requires several additional reactions. Rubisco catalyzes the first of those reactions, known as carboxylation. During that reaction, carbon from CO2 is added to ribulose bisphosphate.

Compared to the other enzymes involved in photosynthesis, rubisco is very slow, catalyzing only one to 10 reactions per second. Additionally, rubisco can also interact with oxygen, leading to a competing reaction that incorporates oxygen instead of carbon — a process that wastes some of the energy absorbed from sunlight.

“For protein engineers, that’s a really attractive set of problems because those traits seem like things that you could hopefully make better by making changes to the enzyme’s amino acid sequence,” McDonald says.

Previous research has led to improvement in rubisco’s stability and solubility, which resulted in small gains in enzyme efficiency. Most of those studies used directed evolution — a technique in which a naturally occurring protein is randomly mutated and then screened for the emergence of new, desirable features.

This process is usually done using error-prone PCR, a technique that first generates mutations in vitro (outside of the cell), typically introducing only one or two mutations in the target gene. In past studies on rubisco, this library of mutations was then introduced into bacteria that grow at a rate relative to rubisco activity. Limitations in error-prone PCR and in the efficiency of introducing new genes restrict the total number of mutations that can be generated and screened using this approach. Manual mutagenesis and selection steps also add more time to the process over multiple rounds of evolution.

The MIT team instead used a newer mutagenesis technique that the Shoulders Lab previously developed, called MutaT7. This technique allows the researchers to perform both mutagenesis and screening in living cells, which dramatically speeds up the process. Their technique also enables them to mutate the target gene at a higher rate.

“Our continuous directed evolution technique allows you to look at a lot more mutations in the enzyme than has been done in the past,” McDonald says.

Better rubisco

For this study, the researchers began with a version of rubisco, isolated from a family of semi-anaerobic bacteria known as Gallionellaceae, that is one of the fastest rubisco found in nature. During the directed evolution experiments, which were conducted in E. coli, the researchers kept the microbes in an environment with atmospheric levels of oxygen, creating evolutionary pressure to adapt to oxygen.

After six rounds of directed evolution, the researchers identified three different mutations that improved the rubisco’s resistance to oxygen. Each of these mutations are located near the enzyme’s active site (where it performs carboxylation or oxygenation). The researchers believe that these mutations improve the enzyme’s ability to preferentially interact with carbon dioxide over oxygen, which leads to an overall increase in carboxylation efficiency.

“The underlying question here is: Can you alter and improve the kinetic properties of rubisco to operate better in environments where you want it to operate better?” Shoulders says. “What changed through the directed evolution process was that rubisco began to like to react with oxygen less. That allows this rubisco to function well in an oxygen-rich environment, where normally it would constantly get distracted and react with oxygen, which you don’t want it to do.”

In ongoing work, the researchers are applying this approach to other forms of rubisco, including rubisco from plants. Plants are believed to lose about 30 percent of the energy from the sunlight they absorb through a process called photorespiration, which occurs when rubisco acts on oxygen instead of carbon dioxide.

“This really opens the door to a lot of exciting new research, and it’s a step beyond the types of engineering that have dominated rubisco engineering in the past,” Wilson says. “There are definite benefits to agricultural productivity that could be leveraged through a better rubisco.”

The research was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, an Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab Grand Challenge grant, and a Martin Family Society Fellowship for Sustainability.

Inspiring student growth

Professors Xiao Wang and Rodrigo Verdi, both members of the 2023-25 Committed to Caring cohort, are aiding in the development of extraordinary researchers and contributing to a collaborative culture.

“Professor Xiao Wang’s caring efforts have a profound impact on the lives of her students,” one of her advisees commended.

“Rodrigo’s dedication to mentoring and his unwavering support have positively impacted every student in our group,” another student praised.

For MIT graduate students, the Committed to Caring program recognizes those who go above and beyond.

Xiao Wang: Enriching, stimulating, and empowering students

Xiao Wang is a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. She started her lab in 2019 to develop and apply new chemical, biophysical, and genomic tools to better understand tissue function and dysfunction at the molecular level.

Wang goes above and beyond to create a nurturing environment that fosters growth and supports her students’ personal and academic development. She makes it a priority to ensure an intellectually stimulating environment, taking the time to discuss research interests, academic goals, and personal aspirations on a weekly basis.

In their nominations, her students emphasized that Wang understands the importance of mentorship, patiently explaining fundamental concepts, sharing insights from her own groundbreaking work, and providing her students with key scientific papers and resources to deepen their understanding of the field.

“Professor Wang encouraged me to think critically, ask challenging questions, and explore innovative approaches to further my research,” one of her students commented.

Beyond the lab, Wang nurtures a sense of community among her research team. Her regular lab meetings are highly valued by her students, where “fellow researchers presented … findings, exchanged ideas, and received constructive feedback.”

These meetings foster collaboration, enhance communication skills, and create a supportive environment where all lab members feel empowered to share their discoveries and insights.

Wang is a dedicated and compassionate educator, and is known for her unwavering commitment to the well-being and success of her students. Her advisees not only excel academically but they also develop resilience, confidence, and a sense of belonging.

A different student reflected that although they came from an organic chemistry background with few skills related to the chemical biology field, Wang recognized their enthusiasm and potential. She went out of her way to make sure they could have a smooth transition. “It is because of all her training and help that I came from knowing nothing about the field to being able to confidently call myself a chemical biologist,” the student acclaimed.

Her advisees communicate that Wang encourages them to present their work at conferences, workshops, and seminars. This helps boost the students’ confidence and establish connections within the scientific community.

“Her genuine care and dedication make her a cherished mentor and a source of inspiration for all who have the privilege to learn from her,” one of her mentees remarked.

Rodrigo Verdi: Committed and collaborative

Professor Rodrigo Verdi is the deputy dean of degree programs and teaching and learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Verdi’s research provides insights into the role of accounting information in corporate finance decisions and in capital markets behavior.

Professor Verdi has been active in the majority of the Sloan students’ research journeys. He makes sure to assist students even if he does not directly guide them. One student states that “although Rodrigo is not my primary advisor, he still goes above and beyond to provide feedback and assistance.”

Verdi believes that “an appetite for experimentation, the ability to handle failure, and managing the stress along the way” is the kind of support necessary for especially innovative research.

Another student recounts that they “cannot think of a single recent graduate since … [they] started the PhD program that did not have Rodrigo on their committee.” This demonstrates how much students value his guidance, and how much he cares about their success.

Since his arrival at MIT, he has shown a strong commitment to mentoring students. Despite his many responsibilities as an associate dean, Rodrigo remains highly accessible to students and eagerly engages with them.

Specifically, Verdi has interacted with more than 90 percent of recent graduates over the past 10 years, contributing significantly to the department’s strong track record in job placements. He has served on the dissertation committee for 18 students in the last 15 years, which represents nearly all of the students in the department.

A student remarked that “Rodrigo has been an exceptional advisor during my job market period, which is known for its high levels of stress.” He offered continuous encouragement and support, making himself available for discussions whenever the student faced challenges.

After each job market interview, Verdi and the student would debrief and discuss areas for improvement. His insights into the academic system, the significance of social skills and networking, and his valuable advice helped the student successfully get a faculty position.

Rodrigo’s mantra is, “people won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” and his relationships with his students support this maxim.

Verdi has made a lasting impact on the culture of the accounting specialty and is an important piece of the puzzle with regard to interactions found in the Sloan school. One of his students praised, “the collaborative culture is impressive: I’d call it a family, where faculty and students are very close to each other.” They described that they “share the same office space, have lunches together, and whenever students want feedback, the faculty is willing to help.”

Verdi has sharp research insights, and always wants to help, even when he is swamped with administrative affairs. He makes himself accessible to students, often staying after hours with his door open.

Another mentee said that “he has been organizing weekly PhD lunch seminars for years, online brown-bags among current and previous MIT accounting members during the pandemic, and more recently the annual MIT accounting alumni conference.” Verdi also takes students out for dinner or coffee, caring about how they are doing outside of academics. The student commended, “I feel lucky that Rodrigo is here.”

Four from MIT named 2025 Goldwater Scholars

Four MIT rising seniors have been selected to receive a 2025 Barry Goldwater Scholarship, including Avani Ahuja and Jacqueline Prawira in the School of Engineering and Julianna Lian and Alex Tang from the School of Science. An estimated 5,000 college sophomores and juniors from across the United States were nominated for the scholarships, of whom only 441 were selected.

The Goldwater Scholarships have been conferred since 1989 by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. These scholarships have supported undergraduates who go on to become leading scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in their respective fields.

Avani Ahuja, a mechanical engineering and electrical engineering major, conducts research in the Conformable Decoders group, where she is focused on developing a “wearable conformable breast ultrasound patch” that makes ultrasounds for breast cancer more accessible.

“Doing research in the Media Lab has had a huge impact on me, especially in the ways that we think about inclusivity in research,” Ahuja says.

In her research group, Ahuja works under Canan Dagdeviren, the LG Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences. Ahuja plans to pursue a PhD in electrical engineering. She aspires to conduct research in electromechanical systems for women’s health applications and teach at the university level.

“I want to thank Professor Dagdeviren for all her support. It’s an honor to receive this scholarship, and it’s amazing to see that women’s health research is getting recognized in this way,” Ahuja says.

Julianna Lian studies mechanochemistry, organic, and polymer chemistry in the lab of Professor Jeremiah Johnson, the A. Thomas Guertin Professor of Chemistry. In addition to her studies, she serves the MIT community as an emergency medical technician (EMT) with MIT Emergency Medical Services, is a member of MIT THINK, and a ClubChem mentorship chair.

“Receiving this award has been a tremendous opportunity to not only reflect on how much I have learned, but also on the many, many people I have had the chance to learn from,” says Lian. “I am deeply grateful for the guidance, support, and encouragement of these teachers, mentors, and friends. And I am excited to carry forward the lasting curiosity and excitement for chemistry that they have helped inspire in me.”

Lian’s career goals post-graduation include pursuing a PhD in organic chemistry, to conduct research at the interface of synthetic chemistry and materials science, aided by computation, and to teach at the university level.

Jacqueline Prawira, a materials science and engineering major, joined the Center of Decarbonization and Electrification of Industry as a first-year Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program student and became a co-inventor on a patent and a research technician at spinout company Rock Zero. She has also worked in collaboration with Indigenous farmers and Diné College students on the Navajo Nation.

“I’ve become significantly more cognizant of how I listen to people and stories, the tangled messiness of real-world challenges, and the critical skills needed to tackle complex sustainability issues,” Prawira says.

Prawira is mentored by Yet-Ming Chiang, professor of materials science and engineering. Her career goals are to pursue a PhD in materials science and engineering and to research sustainable materials and processes to solve environmental challenges and build a sustainable society.

“Receiving the prestigious title of 2025 Goldwater Scholar validates my current trajectory in innovating sustainable materials and demonstrates my growth as a researcher,” Prawira says. “This award signifies my future impact in building a society where sustainability is the norm, instead of just another option.”

Alex Tang studies the effects of immunotherapy and targeted molecular therapy on the tumor microenvironment in metastatic colorectal cancer patients. He is supervised by professors Jonathan Chen at Northwestern University and Nir Hacohen at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

“My mentors and collaborators have been instrumental to my growth since I joined the lab as a freshman. I am incredibly grateful for the generous mentorship and support of Professor Hacohen and Professor Chen, who have taught me how to approach scientific investigation with curiosity and rigor,” says Tang. “I’d also like to thank my advisor Professor Adam Martin and first-year advisor Professor Angela Belcher for their guidance throughout my undergraduate career thus far. I am excited to carry forward this work as I progress in my career.” Tang intends to pursue physician-scientist training following graduation.

The Scholarship Program honoring Senator Barry Goldwater was designed to identify, encourage, and financially support outstanding undergraduates interested in pursuing research careers in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. The Goldwater Scholarship is the preeminent undergraduate award of its type in these fields.

QS ranks MIT the world’s No. 1 university for 2025-26

MIT has again been named the world’s top university by the QS World University Rankings, which were announced today. This is the 14th year in a row MIT has received this distinction.

The full 2026 edition of the rankings — published by Quacquarelli Symonds, an organization specializing in education and study abroad — can be found at TopUniversities.com. The QS rankings are based on factors including academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty, student-to-faculty ratio, proportion of international faculty, and proportion of international students.

MIT was also ranked the world’s top university in 11 of the subject areas ranked by QS, as announced in March of this year.

The Institute received a No. 1 ranking in the following QS subject areas: Chemical Engineering; Civil and Structural Engineering; Computer Science and Information Systems; Data Science and Artificial Intelligence; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Linguistics; Materials Science; Mechanical, Aeronautical, and Manufacturing Engineering; Mathematics; Physics and Astronomy; and Statistics and Operational Research.

MIT also placed second in seven subject areas: Accounting and Finance; Architecture/Built Environment; Biological Sciences; Business and Management Studies; Chemistry; Earth and Marine Sciences; and Economics and Econometrics.

Eight with MIT ties win 2025 Hertz Foundation Fellowships

The Hertz Foundation announced that it has awarded fellowships to eight MIT affiliates. The prestigious award provides each recipient with five years of doctoral-level research funding (up to a total of $250,000), which gives them an unusual measure of independence in their graduate work to pursue groundbreaking research.

The MIT-affiliated awardees are Matthew Caren ’25; April Qiu Cheng ’24; Arav Karighattam, who begins his PhD at the Institute this fall; Benjamin Lou ’25; Isabelle A. Quaye ’22, MNG ’24; Albert Qin ’24; Ananthan Sadagopan ’24; and Gianfranco (Franco) Yee ’24.

“Hertz Fellows embody the promise of future scientific breakthroughs, major engineering achievements and thought leadership that is vital to our future,” said Stephen Fantone, chair of the Hertz Foundation board of directors and president and CEO of Optikos Corp., in the announcement. “The newest recipients will direct research teams, serve in leadership positions in our government and take the helm of major corporations and startups that impact our communities and the world.”

In addition to funding, fellows receive access to Hertz Foundation programs throughout their lives, including events, mentoring, and networking. They join the ranks of over 1,300 former Hertz Fellows since the fellowship was established in 1963 who are leaders and scholars in a range of technology, science, and engineering fields. Former fellows have contributed to breakthroughs in such areas as advanced medical therapies, computational systems used by billions of people daily, global defense networks, and the recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.

This year’s MIT recipients are among a total of 19 Hertz Foundation Fellows scholars selected from across the United States.

Matthew Caren ’25 studied electrical engineering and computer science, mathematics, and music at MIT. His research focuses on computational models of how people use their voices to communicate sound at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) and interpretable real-time machine listening systems at the MIT Music Technology Lab. He spent several summers developing large language model systems and bioinformatics algorithms at Apple and a year researching expressive digital instruments at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. He chaired the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Undergraduate Advisory Group, where he led undergraduate committees on interdisciplinary computing AI and was a founding member of the MIT Voxel Lab for music and arts technology. In addition, Caren has invented novel instruments used by Grammy-winning musicians on international stages. He plans to pursue a doctorate at Stanford.

April Qiu Cheng ’24 majored in physics at MIT, graduating in just three years. Their research focused on black hole phenomenology, gravitational-wave inference, and the use of fast radio bursts as a statistical probe of large-scale structure. They received numerous awards, including an MIT Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award, the MIT Barrett Prize, the Astronaut Scholarship, and the Princeton President’s Fellowship. Cheng contributed to the physics department community by serving as vice president of advocacy for Undergraduate Women in Physics and as the undergraduate representative on the Physics Values Committee. In addition, they have participated in various science outreach programs for middle and high school students. Since graduating, they have been a Fulbright Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, where they have been studying gravitational-wave cosmology. Cheng will begin a doctorate in astrophysics at Princeton in the fall.

Arav Karighattam was home schooled, and by age 14 had completed most of the undergraduate and graduate courses in physics and mathematics at the University of California at Davis. He graduated from Harvard University in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and will attend MIT to pursue a PhD, also in mathematics. Karighattam is fascinated by algebraic number theory and arithmetic geometry and seeks to understand the mysteries underlying the structure of solutions to Diophantine equations. He also wants to apply his mathematical skills to mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss. At a recent conference at MIT titled “Mordell’s Conjecture 100 Years Later,” Karighattam distinguished himself as the youngest speaker to present a paper among graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members.

Benjamin Lou ’25 graduated from MIT in May with a BS in physics and is interested in finding connections between fundamental truths of the universe. One of his research projects applies symplectic techniques to understand the nature of precision measurements using quantum states of light. Another is about geometrically unifying several theorems in quantum mechanics using the Prüfer transformation. For his work, Lou was honored with the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. Lou will pursue his doctorate at MIT, where he plans to work on unifying quantum mechanics and gravity, with an eye toward uncovering experimentally testable predictions. Living with the debilitating disease spinal muscular atrophy, which causes severe, full-body weakness and makes scratchwork unfeasible, Lou has developed a unique learning style emphasizing mental visualization. He also co-founded and helped lead the MIT Assistive Technology Club, dedicated to empowering those with disabilities using creative technologies. He is working on a robotic self-feeding device for those who cannot eat independently.

Isabelle A. Quaye ’22, MNG ’24 studied electrical engineering and computer science as an undergraduate at MIT, with a minor in economics. She was awarded competitive fellowships and scholarships from Hyundai, Intel, D. E. Shaw, and Palantir, and received the Albert G. Hill Prize, given to juniors and seniors who have maintained high academic standards and have made continued contributions to improving the quality of life for underrepresented students at MIT. While obtaining her master’s degree at MIT, she focused on theoretical computer science and systems. She is currently a software engineer at Apple, where she continues to develop frameworks that harness intelligence from data to improve systems and processes. Quaye also believes in contributing to the advancement of science and technology through teaching and has volunteered in summer programs to teach programming and informatics to high school students in the United States and Ghana.

Albert Qin ’24 majored in physics and mathematics at MIT. He also pursued an interest in biology, researching single-molecule approaches to study transcription factor diffusion in living cells and studying the cell circuits that control animal development. His dual interests have motivated him to find common ground between physics and biological fields. Inspired by his MIT undergraduate advisors, he hopes to become a teacher and mentor for aspiring young scientists. Qin is currently pursuing a PhD at Princeton University, addressing questions about the behavior of neural networks — both artificial and biological — using a variety of approaches and ideas from physics and neuroscience.

Ananthan Sadagopan ’24 is currently pursuing a doctorate in biological and biomedical science at Harvard University, focusing on chemical biology and the development of new therapeutic strategies for intractable diseases. He earned his BS at MIT in chemistry and biology in three years and led projects characterizing somatic perturbations of X chromosome inactivation in cancer, developing machine learning tools for cancer dependency prediction, using small molecules for targeted protein relocalization and creating a generalizable strategy to drug the most mutated gene in cancer (TP53). He published as the first author in top journals, such as Cell, during his undergraduate career. He also holds patents related to his work on cancer dependency prediction and drugging TP53. While at the Institute, he served as president of the Chemistry Undergraduate Association, winning both the First-Year and Senior Chemistry Achievement Awards, and was head of the events committee for the MIT Science Olympiad.

Gianfranco (Franco) Yee ’24 majored in biological engineering at MIT, conducting research in the Manalis Lab on chemical gradients in the gut microenvironment and helping to develop a novel gut-on-a-chip platform for culturing organoids under these gradients. His senior thesis extended this work to the microbiome, investigating host-microbe interactions linked to intestinal inflammation and metabolic disorders. Yee also earned a concentration in education at MIT, and is committed to increasing access to STEM resources in underserved communities. He co-founded Momentum AI, an educational outreach program that teaches computer science to high school students across Greater Boston. The inaugural program served nearly 100 students and included remote outreach efforts in Ukraine and China. Yee has also worked with MIT Amphibious Achievement and the MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs. He currently attends Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School, where he plans to leverage the gut microbiome and immune system to develop innovative therapeutic treatments.

Former Hertz Fellows include two Nobel laureates; recipients of 11 Breakthrough Prizes and three MacArthur Foundation “genius awards;” and winners of the Turing Award, the Fields Medal, the National Medal of Technology, the National Medal of Science, and the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award. In addition, 54 are members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and 40 are fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hertz Fellows hold over 3,000 patents, have founded more than 375 companies, and have created hundreds of thousands of science and technology jobs.

Using AI to explore the 3D structure of the genome

Inside every human cell, 2 meters of DNA is crammed into a nucleus that is only one-hundredth of a millimeter in diameter.

To fit inside that tiny space, the genome must fold into a complex structure known as chromatin, made up of DNA and proteins. The structure of that chromatin, in turn, helps to determine which of the genes will be expressed in a given cell. Neurons, skin cells, and immune cells each express different genes depending on which of their genes are accessible to be transcribed.

Deciphering those structures experimentally is a time-consuming process, making it difficult to compare the 3D genome structures found in different cell types. MIT Professor Bin Zhang is taking a computational approach to this challenge, using computer simulations and generative artificial intelligence to determine these structures.

“Regulation of gene expression relies on the 3D genome structure, so the hope is that if we can fully understand those structures, then we could understand where this cellular diversity comes from,” says Zhang, an associate professor of chemistry.

From the farm to the lab

Zhang first became interested in chemistry when his brother, who was four years older, bought some lab equipment and started performing experiments at home.

“He would bring test tubes and some reagents home and do the experiment there. I didn’t really know what he was doing back then, but I was really fascinated with all the bright colors and the smoke and the odors that could come from the reactions. That really captivated my attention,” Zhang says.

His brother later became the first person from Zhang’s rural village to go to college. That was the first time Zhang had an inkling that it might be possible to pursue a future other than following in the footsteps of his parents, who were farmers in China’s Anhui province.

“Growing up, I would have never imagined doing science or working as a faculty member in America,” Zhang says. “When my brother went to college, that really opened up my perspective, and I realized I didn’t have to follow my parents’ path and become a farmer. That led me to think that I could go to college and study more chemistry.”

Zhang attended the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, China, where he majored in chemical physics. He enjoyed his studies and discovered computational chemistry and computational research, which became his new fascination.

“Computational chemistry combines chemistry with other subjects I love — math and physics — and brings a sense of rigor and reasoning to the otherwise more empirical rules,” he says. “I could use programming to solve interesting chemistry problems and test my own ideas very quickly.”

After graduating from college, he decided to continue his studies in the United States, which he recalled thinking was “the pinnacle of academics.” At Caltech, he worked with Thomas Miller, a professor of chemistry who used computational methods to understand molecular processes such as protein folding.

For Zhang’s PhD research, he studied a transmembrane protein that acts as a channel to allow other proteins to pass through the cell membrane. This protein, called translocon, can also open a side gate within the membrane, so that proteins that are meant to be embedded in the membrane can exit directly into the membrane.

“It’s really a remarkable protein, but it wasn’t clear how it worked,” Zhang says. “I built a computational model to understand the molecular mechanisms that dictate what are the molecular features that allow certain proteins to go into the membrane, while other proteins get secreted.”

Turning to the genome

After finishing grad school, Zhang’s research focus shifted from proteins to the genome. At Rice University, he did a postdoc with Peter Wolynes, a professor of chemistry who had made many key discoveries in the dynamics of protein folding. Around the time that Zhang joined the lab, Wolynes turned his attention to the structure of the genome, and Zhang decided to do the same.

Unlike proteins, which tend to have highly structured regions that can be studied using X-ray crystallography or cryo-EM, DNA is a very globular molecule that doesn’t lend itself to those types of analysis.

A few years earlier, in 2009, researchers at the Broad Institute, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, MIT, and Harvard University had developed a technique for studying the genome’s structure by cross-linking DNA in a cell’s nucleus. Researchers can then determine which segments are located near each other by shredding the DNA into many tiny pieces and sequencing it.

Zhang and Wolynes used data generated by this technique, known as Hi-C, to explore the question of whether DNA forms knots when it’s condensed in the nucleus, similar to how a strand of Christmas lights may become tangled when crammed into a box for storage.

“If DNA was just like a regular polymer, you would expect that it will become tangled and form knots. But that could be very detrimental for biology, because the genome is not just sitting there passively. It has to go through cell division, and also all this molecular machinery has to interact with the genome and transcribe it into RNA, and having knots will create a lot of unnecessary barriers,” Zhang says.

They found that, unlike Christmas lights, DNA does not form any knots even when packed into the cell nucleus, and they built a computational model allowing them to test hypotheses for how the genome is able to avoid those entanglements.

Since joining the MIT faculty in 2016, Zhang has continued developing models of how the genome behaves in 3D space, using molecular dynamic simulations. In one area of research, his lab is studying how differences between the genome structures of neurons and other brain cells give rise to their unique functions, and they are also exploring how misfolding of the genome may lead to diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

When it comes to connecting genome structure and function, Zhang believes that generative AI methods will also be essential. In a recent study, he and his students reported a new computational model, ChromoGen, that uses generative AI to predict the 3D structures of genomic regions, based on their DNA sequences.

“I think that in the future, we will have both components: generative AI and also theoretical chemistry-based approaches,” he says. “They nicely complement each other and allow us to both build accurate 3D structures and understand how those structures arise from the underlying physical forces.”

New molecular label could lead to simpler, faster tuberculosis tests

Tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest infectious disease, is estimated to infect around 10 million people each year, and kills more than 1 million annually. Once established in the lungs, the bacteria’s thick cell wall helps it to fight off the host immune system.

Much of that cell wall is made from complex sugar molecules known as glycans, but it’s not well-understood how those glycans help to defend the bacteria. One reason for that is that there hasn’t been an easy way to label them inside cells.

MIT chemists have now overcome that obstacle, demonstrating that they can label a glycan called ManLAM using an organic molecule that reacts with specific sulfur-containing sugars. These sugars are found in only three bacterial species, the most notorious and prevalent of which is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the microbe that causes TB.

After labeling the glycan, the researchers were able to visualize where it is located within the bacterial cell wall, and to study what happens to it throughout the first few days of tuberculosis infection of host immune cells.

The researchers now hope to use this approach to develop a diagnostic that could detect TB-associated glycans, either in culture or in a urine sample, which could offer a cheaper and faster alternative to existing diagnostics. Chest X-rays and molecular diagnostics are very accurate but are not always available in developing nations where TB rates are high. In those countries, TB is often diagnosed by culturing microbes from a sputum sample, but that test has a high false negative rate, and it can be difficult for some patients, especially children, to provide a sputum sample. This test also requires many weeks for the bacteria to grow, delaying diagnosis.

“There aren’t a lot of good diagnostic options, and there are some patient populations, including children, who have a hard time giving samples that can be analyzed. There’s a lot of impetus to develop very simple, fast tests,” says Laura Kiessling, the Novartis Professor of Chemistry at MIT and the senior author of the study.

MIT graduate student Stephanie Smelyansky is the lead author of the paper, which appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Other authors include Chi-Wang Ma, an MIT postdoc; Victoria Marando PhD ’23; Gregory Babunovic, a postdoc at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; So Young Lee, an MIT graduate student; and Bryan Bryson, an associate professor of biological engineering at MIT.

Labeling glycans

Glycans are found on the surfaces of most cells, where they perform critical functions such as mediating communication between cells.In bacteria, glycans help the microbes to enter host cells, and they also appear to communicate with the host immune system, in some cases blocking the immune response.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a really elaborate cell envelope compared to other bacteria, and it’s a rich structure that’s composed of a lot of different glycans,” Smelyansky says. “Something that’s often underappreciated is the fact that these glycans can also interact with our host cells. When our immune cells recognize these glycans, instead of sending out a danger signal, it can send the opposite message, that there’s no danger.”

Glycans are notoriously difficult to tag with any kind of probe, because unlike proteins or DNA, they don’t have distinctive sequences or chemical reactivities that can be targeted. And unlike proteins, they are not genetically encoded, so cells can’t be genetically engineered to produce sugars labeled with fluorescent tags such as green fluorescent protein.

One of the key glycans in M. tuberculosis, known as ManLAM, contains a rare sugar known as MTX, which is unusual in that it has a thioether — a sulfur atom sandwiched between two carbon atoms. This chemical group presented an opportunity to use a small-molecule tag that had been previously developed for labeling methionine, an  amino acid that contains a similar group.

The researchers showed that they could use this tag, known as an oxaziridine, to label ManLAM in M. tuberculosis. The researchers linked the oxaziridine to a fluorescent probe and showed that in M. tuberculosis, this tag showed up in the outer layer of the cell wall. When the researchers exposed the label to Mycobacterium smegmatis, a related bacterium that does not cause disease and does not have the sugar MTX, they saw no fluorescent signal.

“This is the first approach that really selectively allows us to visualize one glycan in particular,” Smelyansky says.

Better diagnostics

The researchers also showed that after labeling ManLAM in M. tuberculosis cells, they could track the cells as they infected immune cells called macrophages. Some tuberculosis researchers had hypothesized that the bacterial cells shed ManLAM once inside a host cell, and that those free glycans then interact with the host immune system. However, the MIT team found that the glycan appears to remain in the bacterial cell walls for at least the first few days of infection.

“The bacteria still have their cell walls attached to them. So it may be that some glycan is being released, but the majority of it is retained on the bacterial cell surface, which has never been shown before,” Smelyansky says.

The researchers now plan to use this approach to study what happens to the bacteria following treatment with different antibiotics, or immune stimulation of the macrophages. It could also be used to study in more detail how the bacterial cell wall is assembled, and how ManLAM helps bacteria get into macrophages and other cells.

“Having a handle to follow the bacteria is really valuable, and it will allow you to visualize processes, both in cells and in animal models, that were previously invisible,” Kiessling says.

She also hopes to use this approach to create new diagnostics for tuberculosis. There is currently a diagnostic in development that uses antibodies to detect ManLAM in a urine sample. However, this test only works well in patients with very active cases of TB, especially people who are immunosuppressed because of HIV or other conditions.

Using their small-molecule sensor instead of antibodies, the MIT team hopes to develop a more sensitive test that could detect ManLAM in the urine even when only small quantities are present.

“This is a beautifully elegant approach to selectively label the surface of mycobacteria, enabling real-time monitoring of cell wall dynamics in this important bacterial family. Such investigations will inform the development of novel strategies to diagnose, prevent, and treat mycobacterial disease, most notably tuberculosis, which remains a global health challenge,” says Todd Lowary, a distinguished research fellow at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taipei Taiwan, who was not involved in the research.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Croucher Fellowship.

The chemistry of creativity

Senior Madison Wang, a double major in creative writing and chemistry, developed her passion for writing in middle school. Her interest in chemistry fit nicely alongside her commitment to producing engaging narratives.

Wang believes that world-building in stories supported by science and research can make for a more immersive reader experience.

“In science and in writing, you have to tell an effective story,” she says. “People respond well to stories.”

A native of Buffalo, New York, Wang applied early action for admission to MIT and learned quickly that the Institute was where she wanted to be. “It was a really good fit,” she says. “There was positive energy and vibes, and I had a great feeling overall.”

The power of science and good storytelling

“Chemistry is practical, complex, and interesting,” says Wang. “It’s about quantifying natural laws and understanding how reality works.”

Chemistry and writing both help us “see the world’s irregularity,” she continues. Together, they can erase the artificial and arbitrary line separating one from the other and work in concert to tell a more complete story about the world, the ways in which we participate in building it, and how people and objects exist in and move through it.

“Understanding magnetism, material properties, and believing in the power of magic in a good story … these are why we’re drawn to explore,” she says. “Chemistry describes why things are the way they are, and I use it for world-building in my creative writing.”

Wang lauds MIT’s creative writing program and cites a course she took with Comparative Media Studies/Writing Professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz as an affirmation of her choice. Seeing and understanding the world through the eyes of a scientist — its building blocks, the ways the pieces fit and function together — help explain her passion for chemistry, especially inorganic and physical chemistry.

Wang cites the work of authors like Sam Kean and Knight Science Journalism Program Director Deborah Blum as part of her inspiration to study science. The books “The Disappearing Spoon” by Kean and “The Poisoner’s Handbook” by Blum “both present historical perspectives, opting for a story style to discuss the events and people involved,” she says. “They each put a lot of work into bridging the gap between what can sometimes be sterile science and an effective narrative that gets people to care about why the science matters.”

Genres like fantasy and science fiction are complementary, according to Wang. “Constructing an effective world means ensuring readers understand characters’ motivations — the ‘why’ — and ensuring it makes sense,” she says. “It’s also important to show how actions and their consequences influence and motivate characters.”

As she explores the world’s building blocks inside and outside the classroom, Wang works to navigate multiple genres in her writing, as with her studies in chemistry. “I like romance and horror, too,” she says. “I have gripes with committing to a single genre, so I just take whatever I like from each and put them in my stories.”

In chemistry, Wang favors an environment in which scientists can regularly test their ideas. “It’s important to ground chemistry in the real world to create connections for students,” she argues. Advancements in the field have occurred, she notes, because scientists could exit the realm of theory and apply ideas practically.

“Fritz Haber’s work on ammonia synthesis revolutionized approaches to food supply chains,” she says, referring to the German chemist and Nobel laureate. “Converting nitrogen and hydrogen gas to ammonia for fertilizer marked a dramatic shift in how farming could work.” This kind of work could only result from the consistent, controlled, practical application of the theories scientists consider in laboratory environments.

A future built on collaboration and cooperation

Watching the world change dramatically and seeing humanity struggle to grapple with the implications of phenomena like climate change, political unrest, and shifting alliances, Wang emphasizes the importance of deconstructing silos in academia and the workplace. Technology can be a tool for harm, she notes, so inviting more people inside previously segregated spaces helps everyone.

Criticism in both chemistry and writing, Wang believes, are valuable tools for continuous improvement. Effective communication, explaining complex concepts, and partnering to develop long-term solutions are invaluable when working at the intersection of history, art, and science. In writing, Wang says, criticism can help define areas to improve writers’ stories and shape interesting ideas.

“We’ve seen the positive results that can occur with effective science writing, which requires rigor and fact-checking,” she says. “MIT’s cross-disciplinary approach to our studies, alongside feedback from teachers and peers, is a great set of tools to carry with us regardless of where we are.”

Wang explores connections between science and stories in her leisure time, too. “I’m a member of MIT’s Anime Club and I enjoy participating in MIT’s Sport Taekwondo Club,” she says. The competitive aspect in tae kwon do allows for her to feed her competitive drive and gets her out of her head. Her participation in DAAMIT (Digital Art and Animation at MIT) creates connections with different groups of people and gives her ideas she can use to tell better stories. “It’s fascinating exploring others’ minds,” she says.

Wang argues that there’s a false divide between science and the humanities and wants the work she does after graduation to bridge that divide. “Writing and learning about science can help,” she asserts. “Fields like conservation and history allow for continued exploration of that intersection.”

Ultimately, Wang believes it’s important to examine narratives carefully and to question notions of science’s inherent superiority over humanities fields. “The humanities and science have equal value,” she says.

New model predicts a chemical reaction’s point of no return

When chemists design new chemical reactions, one useful piece of information involves the reaction’s transition state — the point of no return from which a reaction must proceed.

This information allows chemists to try to produce the right conditions that will allow the desired reaction to occur. However, current methods for predicting the transition state and the path that a chemical reaction will take are complicated and require a huge amount of computational power.

MIT researchers have now developed a machine-learning model that can make these predictions in less than a second, with high accuracy. Their model could make it easier for chemists to design chemical reactions that could generate a variety of useful compounds, such as pharmaceuticals or fuels.

“We’d like to be able to ultimately design processes to take abundant natural resources and turn them into molecules that we need, such as materials and therapeutic drugs. Computational chemistry is really important for figuring out how to design more sustainable processes to get us from reactants to products,” says Heather Kulik, the Lammot du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering, a professor of chemistry, and the senior author of the new study.

Former MIT graduate student Chenru Duan PhD ’22, who is now at Deep Principle; former Georgia Tech graduate student Guan-Horng Liu, who is now at Meta; and Cornell University graduate student Yuanqi Du are the lead authors of the paper, which appears today in Nature Machine Intelligence.

Better estimates

For any given chemical reaction to occur, it must go through a transition state, which takes place when it reaches the energy threshold needed for the reaction to proceed. These transition states are so fleeting that they’re nearly impossible to observe experimentally.

As an alternative, researchers can calculate the structures of transition states using techniques based on quantum chemistry. However, that process requires a great deal of computing power and can take hours or days to calculate a single transition state.

“Ideally, we’d like to be able to use computational chemistry to design more sustainable processes, but this computation in itself is a huge use of energy and resources in finding these transition states,” Kulik says.

In 2023, Kulik, Duan, and others reported on a machine-learning strategy that they developed to predict the transition states of reactions. This strategy is faster than using quantum chemistry techniques, but still slower than what would be ideal because it requires the model to generate about 40 structures, then run those predictions through a “confidence model” to predict which states were most likely to occur.

One reason why that model needs to be run so many times is that it uses randomly generated guesses for the starting point of the transition state structure, then performs dozens of calculations until it reaches its final, best guess. These randomly generated starting points may be very far from the actual transition state, which is why so many steps are needed.

The researchers’ new model, React-OT, described in the Nature Machine Intelligence paper, uses a different strategy. In this work, the researchers trained their model to begin from an estimate of the transition state generated by linear interpolation — a technique that estimates each atom’s position by moving it halfway between its position in the reactants and in the products, in three-dimensional space.

“A linear guess is a good starting point for approximating where that transition state will end up,” Kulik says. “What the model’s doing is starting from a much better initial guess than just a completely random guess, as in the prior work.”

Because of this, it takes the model fewer steps and less time to generate a prediction. In the new study, the researchers showed that their model could make predictions with only about five steps, taking about 0.4 seconds. These predictions don’t need to be fed through a confidence model, and they are about 25 percent more accurate than the predictions generated by the previous model.

“That really makes React-OT a practical model that we can directly integrate to the existing computational workflow in high-throughput screening to generate optimal transition state structures,” Duan says.

“A wide array of chemistry”

To create React-OT, the researchers trained it on the same dataset that they used to train their older model. These data contain structures of reactants, products, and transition states, calculated using quantum chemistry methods, for 9,000 different chemical reactions, mostly involving small organic or inorganic molecules.

Once trained, the model performed well on other reactions from this set, which had been held out of the training data. It also performed well on other types of reactions that it hadn’t been trained on, and could make accurate predictions involving reactions with larger reactants, which often have side chains that aren’t directly involved in the reaction.

“This is important because there are a lot of polymerization reactions where you have a big macromolecule, but the reaction is occurring in just one part. Having a model that generalizes across different system sizes means that it can tackle a wide array of chemistry,” Kulik says.

The researchers are now working on training the model so that it can predict transition states for reactions between molecules that include additional elements, including sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, silicon, and lithium.

“To quickly predict transition state structures is key to all chemical understanding,” says Markus Reiher, a professor of theoretical chemistry at ETH Zurich, who was not involved in the study. “The new approach presented in the paper could very much accelerate our search and optimization processes, bringing us faster to our final result. As a consequence, also less energy will be consumed in these high-performance computing campaigns. Any progress that accelerates this optimization benefits all sorts of computational chemical research.”

The MIT team hopes that other scientists will make use of their approach in designing their own reactions, and have created an app for that purpose.

“Whenever you have a reactant and product, you can put them into the model and it will generate the transition state, from which you can estimate the energy barrier of your intended reaction, and see how likely it is to occur,” Duan says.

The research was funded by the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Department of Defense Basic Research Office, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

Workshop explores new advanced materials for a growing world

It is clear that humankind needs increasingly more resources, from computing power to steel and concrete, to meet the growing demands associated with data centers, infrastructure, and other mainstays of society. New, cost-effective approaches for producing the advanced materials key to that growth were the focus of a two-day workshop at MIT on March 11 and 12.

A theme throughout the event was the importance of collaboration between and within universities and industries. The goal is to “develop concepts that everybody can use together, instead of everybody doing something different and then trying to sort it out later at great cost,” said Lionel Kimerling, the Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.

The workshop was produced by MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory (MRL), which has an industry collegium, and MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program.

The program included an address by Javier Sanfelix, lead of the Advanced Materials Team for the European Union. Sanfelix gave an overview of the EU’s strategy to developing advanced materials, which he said are “key enablers of the green and digital transition for European industry.”

That strategy has already led to several initiatives. These include a material commons, or shared digital infrastructure for the design and development of advanced materials, and an advanced materials academy for educating new innovators and designers. Sanfelix also described an Advanced Materials Act for 2026 that aims to put in place a legislative framework that supports the entire innovation cycle.

Sanfelix was visiting MIT to learn more about how the Institute is approaching the future of advanced materials. “We see MIT as a leader worldwide in technology, especially on materials, and there is a lot to learn about [your] industry collaborations and technology transfer with industry,” he said.

Innovations in steel and concrete

The workshop began with talks about innovations involving two of the most common human-made materials in the world: steel and cement. We’ll need more of both but must reckon with the huge amounts of energy required to produce them and their impact on the environment due to greenhouse-gas emissions during that production.

One way to address our need for more steel is to reuse what we have, said C. Cem Tasan, the POSCO Associate Professor of Metallurgy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) and director of the Materials Research Laboratory.

But most of the existing approaches to recycling scrap steel involve melting the metal. “And whenever you are dealing with molten metal, everything goes up, from energy use to carbon-dioxide emissions. Life is more difficult,” Tasan said.

The question he and his team asked is whether they could reuse scrap steel without melting it. Could they consolidate solid scraps, then roll them together using existing equipment to create new sheet metal? From the materials-science perspective, Tasan said, that shouldn’t work, for several reasons.

But it does. “We’ve demonstrated the potential in two papers and two patent applications already,” he said. Tasan noted that the approach focuses on high-quality manufacturing scrap. “This is not junkyard scrap,” he said.

Tasan went on to explain how and why the new process works from a materials-science perspective, then gave examples of how the recycled steel could be used. “My favorite example is the stainless-steel countertops in restaurants. Do you really need the mechanical performance of stainless steel there?” You could use the recycled steel instead.

Hessam Azarijafari addressed another common, indispensable material: concrete. This year marks the 16th anniversary of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub), which began when a set of industry leaders and politicians reached out to MIT to learn more about the benefits and environmental impacts of concrete.

The hub’s work now centers around three main themes: working toward a carbon-neutral concrete industry; the development of a sustainable infrastructure, with a focus on pavement; and how to make our cities more resilient to natural hazards through investment in stronger, cooler construction.

Azarijafari, the deputy director of the CSHub, went on to give several examples of research results that have come out of the CSHub. These include many models to identify different pathways to decarbonize the cement and concrete sector. Other work involves pavements, which the general public thinks of as inert, Azarijafari said. “But we have [created] a state-of-the-art model that can assess interactions between pavement and vehicles.” It turns out that pavement surface characteristics and structural performance “can influence excess fuel consumption by inducing an additional rolling resistance.”

Azarijafari emphasized  the importance of working closely with policymakers and industry. That engagement is key “to sharing the lessons that we have learned so far.”

Toward a resource-efficient microchip industry

Consider the following: In 2020 the number of cell phones, GPS units, and other devices connected to the “cloud,” or large data centers, exceeded 50 billion. And data-center traffic in turn is scaling by 1,000 times every 10 years.

But all of that computation takes energy. And “all of it has to happen at a constant cost of energy, because the gross domestic product isn’t changing at that rate,” said Kimerling. The solution is to either produce much more energy, or make information technology much more energy-efficient. Several speakers at the workshop focused on the materials and components behind the latter.

Key to everything they discussed: adding photonics, or using light to carry information, to the well-established electronics behind today’s microchips. “The bottom line is that integrating photonics with electronics in the same package is the transistor for the 21st century. If we can’t figure out how to do that, then we’re not going to be able to scale forward,” said Kimerling, who is director of the MIT Microphotonics Center.

MIT has long been a leader in the integration of photonics with electronics. For example, Kimerling described the Integrated Photonics System Roadmap – International (IPSR-I), a global network of more than 400 industrial and R&D partners working together to define and create photonic integrated circuit technology. IPSR-I is led by the MIT Microphotonics Center and PhotonDelta. Kimerling began the organization in 1997.

Last year IPSR-I released its latest roadmap for photonics-electronics integration, “which  outlines a clear way forward and specifies an innovative learning curve for scaling performance and applications for the next 15 years,” Kimerling said.

Another major MIT program focused on the future of the microchip industry is FUTUR-IC, a new global alliance for sustainable microchip manufacturing. Begun last year, FUTUR-IC is funded by the National Science Foundation.

“Our goal is to build a resource-efficient microchip industry value chain,” said Anuradha Murthy Agarwal, a principal research scientist at the MRL and leader of FUTUR-IC. That includes all of the elements that go into manufacturing future microchips, including workforce education and techniques to mitigate potential environmental effects.

FUTUR-IC is also focused on electronic-photonic integration. “My mantra is to use electronics for computation, [and] shift to photonics for communication to bring this energy crisis in control,” Agarwal said.

But integrating electronic chips with photonic chips is not easy. To that end, Agarwal described some of the challenges involved. For example, currently it is difficult to connect the optical fibers carrying communications to a microchip. That’s because the alignment between the two must be almost perfect or the light will disperse. And the dimensions involved are minuscule. An optical fiber has a diameter of only millionths of a meter. As a result, today each connection must be actively tested with a laser to ensure that the light will come through.

That said, Agarwal went on to describe a new coupler between the fiber and chip that could solve the problem and allow robots to passively assemble the chips (no laser needed). The work, which was conducted by researchers including MIT graduate student Drew Wenninger, Agarwal, and Kimerling, has been patented, and is reported in two papers. A second recent breakthrough in this area involving a printed micro-reflector was described by Juejun “JJ” Hu, John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

FUTUR-IC is also leading educational efforts for training a future workforce, as well as techniques for detecting — and potentially destroying — the perfluroalkyls (PFAS, or “forever chemicals”) released during microchip manufacturing. FUTUR-IC educational efforts, including virtual reality and game-based learning, were described by Sajan Saini, education director for FUTUR-IC. PFAS detection and remediation were discussed by Aristide Gumyusenge, an assistant professor in DMSE, and Jesus Castro Esteban, a postdoc in the Department of Chemistry.

Other presenters at the workshop included Antoine Allanore, the Heather N. Lechtman Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Katrin Daehn, a postdoc in the Allanore lab; Xuanhe Zhao, the Uncas (1923) and Helen Whitaker Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; Richard Otte, CEO of Promex; and Carl Thompson, the Stavros V. Salapatas Professor in Materials Science and Engineering.