The Tech

This week’s issue (No. 15) is now out for distribution on The Tech website (https://thetech.com/issues/146/15/pdf).

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NEWS
• MIT GSU grapples with unfruitful negotiation (p. 1, 3)
• Transformed MIT Metropolitan Warehouse opens (p. 1)
• MIT AI report hints at Institute’s future (p. 1, 12)
• Extensive renovation of Building 39 begins (p. 2)

WEATHER
• Big nor’easter expected for this weekend (p. 2)

CAMPUS LIFE
• I was a lighthouse keeper this summer (p. 4)

ARTS
• Fall Experience: Prickly, then profound (p. 6)

SPORTS
• Sports Blitz (p. 7)

SCIENCE
• The ultimate guide to Boston bug battling (p. 8)
• The consequences of overrelying on imperfect AI (p. 9)

OPINION
• Free expression is essential to MIT’s mission (p. 11)

NEWS — Since April, MIT’s bargaining team and its graduate student union (GSU) have held multiple meetings to negotiate a second collective bargaining agreement, reaching tentative agreement on three of 26 proposed articles. The original contract expired on May 31, leaving around 5,000 graduate research assistants, teaching assistants, and Instructor-Gs working under the terms of the expired agreement.

After months of stagnant bargaining, the GSU launched a pledge on September 9 to strike if necessary. In a press release dated Sept. 11, 2026, the union announced that over 1,000 graduate workers have signed. It is not clear when exactly the GSU is planning to strike, but the last bargaining session in the month is planned for September 25.

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Geoffrey Enwere ’26 and Jada Ogueh ’29 have the story.
Photo courtesy of Lauren Chua (MIT GSU).

NEWS — MIT’s Building 39, officially known as the Gordon Stanley Brown Building, is getting an extensive renovation of its facade and interior. It is slated to finish in early 2028.

The project, part of the MIT Quantum Initiative that has secured $25 million in funding from the Massachusetts state government, also involves the installation of two new quantum computers in the building.

The renovation is being led by HGA, the same architecture firm that designed the Lisa T. Su building, which is home to MIT.nano. Construction began the week of Aug. 24.

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Samuel Yuan ’29 has the story.
Photo courtesy of HGA.

ARTS — Boston Ballet’s showings for the 2026–2027 season include full-length classical ballets like The Nutcracker, Coppélia, and Cinderella. Every year, Boston Ballet also offers Fall Experience, Winter Experience, and Spring Experience, which are contemporary programs. Classical ballet typically follows structured ballet movements, is set to classical music, and displays elaborate costumes. On the other hand, contemporary ballet may mix in unusual music or even narration, as well as modern or jazz dance styles, allowing for bold, experimental art.

This is the case for Boston Ballet’s Fall Experience, which is running from Sept. 10 through Sept. 20 at Citizens Opera House. The performance begins with an orchestra-only prelude of two movements from Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird, “Infernal Dance” and “Finale,” performed by the Boston Ballet Orchestra, followed by two performed ballets.

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Karie Shen ’27 has the story.
Photo courtesy of Theik Smith/Boston Ballet

This week’s issue (No. 14) is now out for distribution on The Tech website (https://thetech.com/issues/146/14/pdf).

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NEWS
• In Memoriam: Thomas Rose, archaeometallurgist (p. 1)
• Dimethylmercury scare closes Building 18 for four days (p. 1, 2)

WEATHER
• Weather to turn cooler as we head into fall (p. 2)

CAMPUS LIFE
• Progressively pursuing more and more painful and tedious crafts (p. 3)

SPORTS
• LA Clippers’ future in jeopardy after NBA finds $28 million no-show deal (p. 6)

SCIENCE
• Endpoints News presents ‘The China biotech debate: Boston’ (p. 7)

OPINION
• Re: MIT’s financial records contradict its claims of austerity (p. 8)

NEWS — Thomas Rose, an assistant professor of materials science, died on Sept. 2 due to injuries sustained in a bicycle accident. Rose was 37.

Rose was struck by a car on his bicycle at the intersection of Memorial Drive and Massachusetts Avenue around 6 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 21, just a couple yards from Maseeh Hall. The incident is under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police.

An archaeometallurgist who joined MIT this January, Rose was still setting up his lab. According to his colleagues in the Department of Materials Science, he was looking forward to teaching his first class at MIT, 3.984 (Materials in Ancient Societies I), this fall.

“It’s an archeological materials graduate class. With Thomas coming, we were all excited about him teaching because of his geochemistry background,” said Senior Lecturer Michael Tarkanian ’00 SM ’03, who worked closely with Rose. “We’ve had one of the biggest enrollments in recent memory, partially because people wanted to take the class with Thomas.”

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Jada Ogueh ’29 and Samuel Yuan ’29 have the story.
Photo courtesy of Gretchen Ertl.

BREAKING NEWS — Around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 26, MIT Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS), the Cambridge Fire Department, and Pro EMS responded to a report of dimethylmercury exposure in Building 18, home to the Department of Chemistry. As of the time of publication, the building remains closed for decontamination efforts, but the Institute believes the risk for further exposure is “very low.”

According to the Institute’s official emergency response, a graduate student working in Building 18 “self-reported to a local emergency room and claimed to have synthesized dimethyl mercury.” While the student is still being medically supervised, their initial blood test, received on Aug. 29, “shows no sign of exposure to mercury.”

“Emerging information calls into question whether [dimethylmercury] was in fact synthesized,” the notice adds.

Dimethylmercury is an extremely toxic substance, and exposure to low amounts of it — for instance, through inhalation or skin absorption — is known to be fatal if left untreated.

In an email to the chemistry department, professor and department head Matthew Shoulders wrote, “MIT does not allow the purchase or synthesis of dimethylmercury.”

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Grace Zhang ’28 has the story.
Photo courtesy of Boheng Cao ’28.

This week’s issue (No. 13) is now out for distribution on The Tech website (https://thetech.com/issues/146/13/pdf).

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SCIENCE
• Yulia’s Dream for Ukrainian mathematics (p. 1, 3)
• Decades-long work in HIV+ transplantation surgery achieves landmark first lung transplant (p. 3)

WEATHER
• A sunny start to the REX weekend (p. 2)

2026 SUMMER AND ORIENTATION ISSUE
• REX Events Schedule (p. 6, 23)
• Issue 10 (p. A1)
• Issue 11 (p. B1)
• Issue 12 (p. C1)

OPINION
• A review of MIT’s finances at FY2026 close (p. 25, 26)
• Bring same-day voter registration to Massachusetts (p. 26)
• A vote for Evan MacKay is a vote for justice (p. 28)

ORIENTATION ISSUE — Welcome, or welcome back, to campus. As returning students move back in and prefrosh begin finding their home at the Institute, another academic year commences.

But the world outside never truly stops. From the World Cup to groundbreaking scientific conferences on campus, there was no shortage of stories in the Boston and Cambridge area over the summer. Behind the scenes, our staff — like many other students at MIT — spent their summer around the world pursuing internships, research, and personal projects. But wherever they were, they continued production at The Tech.

With our reporters scattered across various time zones and balancing busy schedules, we shifted to a monthly, online-only publication schedule for the summer. This 2026 Orientation Issue compiles these past three months of coverage in print, offering a look back at events you might have missed before we return to our regular publishing schedule.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting The Tech. We’re looking forward to bringing you the stories that will shape the year ahead.

— Grace Zhang ’28
Volume 146 Editor-in-Chief

SCIENCE — It takes a very special group of kids to inspire math professor Pavel Etingof to impersonate a barn animal. But as the 2026 Yulia’s Dream Conference came to a close and attendees needed to smile for a group photo, that’s exactly what he did.

The Yulia’s Dream program is an offshoot of MIT PRIMES (Program for Research in Mathematics, Engineering and Science), a year-long research or advanced reading opportunity for high school students in the United States to push their limits in math and computer science. After Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Etingof, the PRIMES Chief Research Advisor, teamed up with PRIMES program director Slava Gerovitch and UMass Amherst Visiting Professor Dmytro Matvieievskyi to create Yulia’s Dream, extending the opportunities of PRIMES to Ukraine’s high school mathematicians.

“There has been great response and support for our initiative in the math department, financially and otherwise,” Gerovitch said. “For academics everywhere, there is a sense that science is universal, this unified global community of scientists and mathematicians. We all feel a certain responsibility for maintaining that community, and if a part of it suffers, we need to step in and help somehow.”

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Elizabeth Li ’27 and Veronika Moroz ’28 have the story.
Photo courtesy of Yulia’s Dream.