Dear Physics Community,

I read this article in Universal Hub today that I found somewhat reassuring.  As I have mentioned before, I do not generally believe the pandemic forecasts and this one is no exception.  However, this one does have an error band (a factor of two) and the Baker administration is using it to predict what medical resources they will need in the worst case.  From the story and reporting in the Globe, they are some of the ways of acquiring the resources they need for the citizens of Massachusetts.  Data-informed decision making like this should be the rule, not the exception.  Maybe it is in the Baker Administration – I have to confess I have not paid much attention to them until this week.

Physics Department Events

• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 4-5 pm – Colloquium – Prof. Alan Guth, MIT, “Inflation”
• April 1-3, Admitted Graduate Student Open House, details to come.
• Wednesday, April 1, 4-5 pm – Office Hours for Undergraduates with Peter Fisher and Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “How we are doing with Remote Teaching So Far?”
• Wednesday, April 8, 4-5 pm – Office Hours for Graduates with Peter Fisher and Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

Physics Department

Open House – starts tomorrow and goes through Friday.  If you are involved, you should have the schedule information from Cathy and Syd.

Alumni – Quanta has an article about a new paper by Steve Weinberg resurrecting an old idea about why in the Standard Model, things come in threes.  Weinberg is one of the architects of the Standard Model wrote his famous paper while on leave from Berkeley at MIT. Following his leave from Berekely, he was a professor at MIT 1969-1973.

Theorist Phillip Anderson passed away on Sunday.  Anderson was a major figure on condensed matter physics but his ideas spanned all of physics.  I first heard of him when I read his paper called, More is Different, an attack on reductionism.  Many in our Department knew him well.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Advisories

• TA tipsheet – Teaching Remotely
• Community support in the time of COVID-19
• Thesis submission guidelines
• Securing zoom – here is why you should

Academic Council parked itself on top to the 8 am meeting, so they left me to run the meeting, so I queried those remaining (staff and Department Heads) about how the first day of remote learning went and how everyone was thinking about exams.

I also queried Physics instructors about the first day of remote instruction went.  I’d say everyone succeeded in getting their classes up and running.  Other Departments had similar experiences.  There were technical glitches and everyone is still learning how to pace themselves – I think everyone is finding it takes 50% longer to do anything online.  I did not hear of anything that crashed and burned.  Emma Tang reported that 65 online language class in her Department all went well.

Janet Rankin of TLL had a lot of advice about pacing, breaking things up with concept questions and other activities, breaks, etc.  TLL does a great job with this – for instructors, there is teachremote.mit.edu and students learnremote.mit.edu.  They also run online seminars and videos.    TLL also sent out some tips for TA from MechE, posted above.

Following the 50% rule, many classes are removing some assignments and, if the syllabus has changed, the new syllabus has to be out by the end of the week.

Micheal Fee of BCS mentioned that he hung around for a time on zoom after his lecture ended and had a very productive talk with the student in his class about other things.  If students and faculty have time, it might help everyone to have a little hung out time before or after lecture.

Jacob White of EECS reported that he sent his students home with a bag of parts and they have a final project to make something and demo it, in lieu of a final exam.

On the subject of online exams, it appears many classes will just do without exams entirely or make their exam open book due 24 hours after it is assigned.  Some classes are using the MITx system that allows entering of equations and automatic grading.

In all this, keep in mind it was a small sample of instructors.

By the way,

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

Remote teaching got off to a good start, at least according to my first-year advisees.

Physics Department Events

• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 4-5 pm – Colloquium – Prof. Alan Guth, MIT, “Inflation”
• April 1-3, Admitted Graduate Studnet Open House, details to come.
• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “How we are doing with Remote Teaching So Far?”
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

All events are open to the entire Physics Community.  The zoom link for all lunches is https://mit.zoom.us/j/514440037.

Physics Department

DOE Office of Science  – “Dancing electrons solve a longstanding puzzle in the oldest magnetic material headlined” on University Research News from Nuh Gedik, Carina Belvin and Eduardo Baldini.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Zoom security – MIT’s approach is different than other places:

• By default, restrict the meeting to members of the MIT community with Touchstone
• Otherwise leave zoom mostly open
• Miscreants will be dealt with by COD or HR processes, as appropriate.

Despite the optionality expressed in the security instructions here, the Administration has asked Department  Head to tell their communities that they MUST either,

• Restrict zoom access using Touchstone, or,
• Using password access for people outside the MIT community to join zoom sessions.

Student events – are restarting: I did not get all of them, but two are:

• Career Fair – April 8
• Nick Roy from the Quest is getting Minecraft servers for each Department for community building (literally, I guess) but each Department needs a moderator.  If you are interested in serving as the moderator for Physics, please mail me.

Cambridge – MIT and Cambridge are working on how to help each other as the crisis persists.  Several agreements are in the works.

Access – here is a note about the idea behind the access plan.

• If you want to reserve a quiet space in E17 to prepare or record a lecture, details are here.
• If you need one-time access and are not on the list, please go here and fill out the request.

Advisories – for graduate students – how to submit your thesis – yay!

Please do not try things like this.  (Thanks to Scott Hughes).

Peter

Dear Physics Community,

Another quiet day, MIT-wise.  I was cleaning the bathroom today thinking about the first time I heard about MIT.  I remember loitering in the College of Marin Library and seeing Technology Review.  The cover article was incredibly intriguing and I thought, “Main, that is where I want to go to school…

…I was not admitted either as an undergraduate or graduate student.  No matter, I got here anyway.  Many paths.

Physics Department Events

• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 4-5 pm – Colloquium – Prof. Alan Guth, MIT, “Inflation”
• April 1-3, Admitted Graduate Studnet Open House, details to come.
• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “How we are doing with Remote Teaching So Far?”
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

All events are open to the entire Physics Community.  The zoom link for all lunches is https://mit.zoom.us/j/514440037.

Physics Department

Remote learning starts tomorrow – I wish the best to our students, instructors, and staff who will make it all go.  Please let me know of any problems you can encounter I can help with or anything you did that went well.  We will have the faculty-staff-student lunch Thursday devoted to seeing how we are doing.

Zoom – Krishna and Mark Sillis have a message about zoom security here, mainly about setting to prevent outside zoom-bombing.

I looked up the word “dongle” which first heard about 10 years ago.  The etymology is not surprising:

Peter

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here and I have been accumulating useful links that have gone by here. In particular, I am trying to keep a list of MIT policy communications.

Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.

Dear Physics Community,

Pretty quiet today, which is good.

I read a new paper on the reverse Janssen effect. The Janssen effect is the support of grain in a silo by the wall of the silo – when you add up the force acting on the base of the sile, F, then mass m=F/g is less than the mass of grain in the silo because the wall of the silo carries some of the weight of the grain, about 10%.  The author of the paper shows that when the filling height is about 15-20 times the grain size, the walls of the silo actually push down on the grain, increasing the force on the bottom.  I suspect knowing this will be useful someday. If you are just starting out in physics, I recommend reading the PRL – it is well written and short.

There was also a good story and animation on how black holes image the entire universe for the Event Horizon Telescope, along with a good animation here.

Vladan Vuletic made a Public Service Announcement about exponentials and epidemics here (file downloads, click to play) which I quite liked.

Physics Department Events

• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 4-5 pm – Colloquium – Prof. Alan Guth, MIT, “Inflation”
• April 1-3, Admitted Graduate Studnet Open House, details to come.
• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “How we are doing with Remote Teaching So Far?”
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

All events are open to the entire Physics Community.  The zoom link for all lunches is https://mit.zoom.us/j/514440037.

Zoom – as we start remote instruction the day after tomorrow, you may want to watch this zoom tutorial.  It is an hour and pretty basic but has some worthwhile things in it.

Peter

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here and I have been accumulating useful links that have gone by here. In particular, I am trying to keep a list of MIT policy communications.

Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.

Dear Physics Community,

Adjusted Syllabus – Cathy Modica sent this story about a professor adjusting his syllabus for remote instruction.  Here is the syllabus itself: 

Grades – MIT is getting some good press in the Globe for going to PE/NE/IE grading.

The are many efforts going on around MIT to collect and donate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), make and sterilize N95 masks and face plates, and build ventilators.

Physics Department Events

• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 4-5 pm – Colloquium – Prof. Alan Guth, MIT, “Inflation”
• April 1-3, Admitted Graduate Studnet Open House, details to come.
• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “How we are doing with Remote Teaching So Far?”
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

All events are open to the entire Physics Community.  The zoom link for all lunches is https://mit.zoom.us/j/514440037.

Physics Department

Cecilia Stuopis, Head of MIT Medical, has been talking about using more empathetic language as we begin to know people who have COVID-19.  I exchanged emails with her with a couple of examples:

1. Upon hearing that a colleague has COVID-19: “I am so sorry that you have contracted this disease.   I know you must be concerned about how this might affect you.  If you’d like to talk please let me know.”
2. A colleague expressing fears at contracting the disease: “I know you are scared and worried about how this might affect you and your family.  The best thing you can do is to follow the guidelines about hand washing and social distancing.”

You get this idea – acknowledge the person’s (and your own) fears rather than telling them it is unlikely they come to harm.  While the latter may be an attempt at reassurance, we cannot know what is going to happen and should honestly face the reality of this situation.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Advisories

• Welcome back message to undergraduate students
• Welcome back message to graduate students
• Academic and personal support
• Tenure policy – I have heard from junior faculty in the Department that more useful than a tenure clock extension would be additional teaching relief to finish papers, gives talks, etc.  I hear you and agree this could be valuable.  This is something we can do at the Departmental level and we will see what we can do to help.

Zoom – three questions about zoom and privacy have come up:

1. Can zoom sell my data? No – the MIT site license does not allow this.  Thank you Mark DiVincenzo and the OGC.
2. Who can see videos on the zoom cloud? Only those allowed by the poster, also part of the site license.
3. How do I prevent “zoom bombing”? Zoom bombing is distributing a zoom session by rude comments, gestures, etc.  MIT has set up zoom so by default, only those with MIT Touchstone credentials can connect.  If you want to use zoom to connect with people outside MIT, you have to turn this off, as shown here (fourth button) in the session setup.  If the zoom bombers are within the MIT community, the proper course is the COD or HR.  Details to follow soon.

State of Emergency – the State has not declared a State of Emergency, a.k.a. a lock-down and does not plan to.  If this were to happen, access would be further restricted to those keeping animals alive, maintaining irreplaceable equipment, and carrying out COVID-19 research with near-term application.  Facilities are starting to build these lists, just in case.

Note: there are no planned Academic Continuity Meetings planned for the weekend.

I have received heartfelt thanks from many of you for these messages and I really appreciate it.  In the early days, I felt the best thing I could do to lower the stress level is to tell everyone as simply as I could what is going on and answer any questions I can.  I’m glad it has helped you and I will continue to write these until it is time to stop. Comments always welcome.

Peter

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here and I have been accumulating useful links that have gone by here. In particular, I am trying to keep a list of MIT policy communications.

Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.

Dear Physics Community,

Today I reading Science about planting sentinel trees to identify insect invaders and it reminded me of a great book I just read called The Overstory.  A good thing to curl up with in these difficult times.  One of the very best book I have ever read.

In the last week’s, things have been frantic and everyone has faced the mortality of ourselves and those we love and care about.  At the same time, we have had to shop, some have had to move, prepare lectures, care for kids and so on.  And, the banal has not stopped – robo-calls, spam, and other demands on our time.

Some of these come from people just like us who, just like us, are doing their (new) jobs in adverse circumstances.  They make work for a professional society and have a deadline for a statistical story on the field, so they send us a survey to fill out.  Others are responsible for property management and need to know what lab something is in, so they ask by email.  And so on.

At this time of maximum stress, these demands can the focus of our fury – unable to control big parts of our lives all of the sudden, we may be tempted to lash out over some small thing.  These come from people just like you trying to do their job, just like you.  With this in mind, consider both sides of the equation:

• Is now really the best time to ask someone to do something?  Could it wait a day, a week, or a month?
• If you are a recipient of a request that you do not feel appropriate, could you just reply, “My life is unsettled right now and I cannot do what you ask.  Please try again in a day, a week, or a month.”

Things need to get done, but we are all uncertain and operating at about 50% capacity, so it is good to recognize and respond with that in mind no matter which side of the request you may find yourself on.

Physics Department Events

• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 4-5 pm – Colloquium – Prof. Alan Guth, MIT, “Inflation”
• April 1-3, Admitted Graduate Studnet Open House, details to come.
• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “How we are doing with Remote Teaching So Far?”
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing”, David Kaiser and Julie Shah
• Thursday, April 16, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – “Grading and Exam Guidelines for the Spring Term”, Nergis Mavalvala
• Thursday, April 23, 2020, 12-1:30 pm – Nikta Fakhri

All events are open to the entire Physics Community.  The zoom link for all lunches is https://mit.zoom.us/j/514440037.

Physics Department

Guidelines for doctoral requirements for the Spring 2020 semester – Many thanks to Nergis, Cathy, and the Education Committee for working these out.

Some remarks about remote instruction – We launch into this new world on Monday.  I am not an expert, but I have two thoughts.

1. I’d suggest thinking about having the first week or two of lectures be asynchronous (i.e. posted recording that students can download and what when they wish) rather than synchronous.  Get used to using zoom for recitations, help sessions, and office hours.  If that goes well, try synchronous lectures in a week or two.
2. My Daughter Olympia started online learning Monday.  She is working very long hours – everything takes twice as long for her.  She is used to working a lot with classmates, as I expect MIT students do.  Group projects seem especially tricky.  I would keep this in mind when considering assignments.

Zoom – I took their webinar and learned a lot.  Part of the deal is the video, which is here. It is about an hour and well worth it, even if you have used zoom a lot.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Campus – the first day of limited access mostly worked but had some problems with people not being on access lists.  Krystyn and Joe are working to sort it out.  If you have problems getting on campus for a critical task, please let me or your PI know.

Advisory messages – came out today.  Of interest:

• For students, support for online learning: learnremote.mit.edu
• Ian Waitz has reached out to other Ivy+ leadership about developing a statement for our websites regarding graduate admission next year.  Different universities chose different grading policies in response to the COVID-19 crisis and the statement says that will be taken into account in next year’s admissions decisions.  Stay tuned.

Community Continuity Working Group – a new group working on establishing an MIT wide community in the virtual world.  Led by John Dozier and Maryanne Kirkbride

Gifts for COVID-19 – MIT has established three gift funds to support MIT COVID-19 related activities

1. Fund for immediate institutional needs, such as supporting PPE donations to local hospitals.
2. COVID-19 related research
3. Student life and wellness support fund

We had a great talk at lunch today from Arup, Jeff, and Ibrahim, moderated by Mehran.  We will post a link to the video when it is ready.  Our first colloquium from Scott Gaudi also went well – a good talk and questions after.  Well done!

Peter

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here and I have been accumulating useful links that have gone by here. In particular, I am trying to keep a list of MIT policy communications.

Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.

Dear Physics Community,

I was really happy today to see that MIT will no longer require SAT subject exams. I have always been concerned these exams are highly biased and not well regulated.

Physics Department Events

• Thursday, March 26, 2020 ,12-1 pm – Faculty-Staff lunch, our biophysicists will tell us about viruses, how they are transmitted, and how to limit epidemics
•  Thursday, March 26, 2020, 4-5 pm – Colloquium – Prof. Scott Gaudi, Ohio State, “The Demographics of Exoplanets”
•  Thursday, April 2, 2020, 4-5 pm – Colloquium – Prof. Alan Guth, MIT, “Inflation”
• April 1-3, Admitted Graduate Studnet Open House, details to come.
• Thursday, April 9, 2020, 12-1 pm – Faculty-Staff-Student lunch, “How we are doing with Remote Teaching So Far?”

All events are accessible by zoom.  The ID will be sent by email to the community mailing list.

Physics Department

Embryos start as a single cell, that divides and divides,…8,16, 32,…  At some point structures form.  How does the embryo “know” to start the head and the opposite end from the feet.  MIT News has a story on  Prof. Nikta Fakhri and her group’s work to find out how this works.

Graduate student office hours – Nergis, Cathy, Syd, and I had an hour with our graduate students to answers questions and see how everyone is doing.  The top concerns were grading and graduate exams.  The Education Committee, led by Nergis, will work through this and we will have clear guidance Friday.

Academic Continuity Meeting

Advisories

• Sponsor specific guidance for awardees and proposers for federal funds – there is a great detail of information here from NSF and DOE as well as NIH, DOD.  All have FAQ pages.
• COVID-19 page reports one MIT employee or patient in New England and 4 outside have tested positive.  Good other information on keeping safe on this page, a must-read.
• Research Administration (RAS) FAQ on allowable expenses on grants related to COVID-19.

Local area hospitals – Elezar Edelman is a professor in IMES and an ICU doctor.  He was asked what is it like in local hospitals right now?  He reported that most hospitals have a receiving tent set up outside for testing and assessment.  There is also drive through testing.  Intensive Care Units (ICUs) have been extended to receive patients – his hospital has 3 ICU areas staffed by 5 care teams working 12 h shifts.  They are preparing for a patient surge in 1-2 weeks.

The hospitals are completely mobilized around COVID-19, so do not go there unless you absolutely need to.  He said the ER will completely be packed with people waiting in the halls, which is a pretty dangerous environment.

PPE – Elezar Edelman reported the first MIT donated personal protective equipment was donated to local hospitals today.

Academic Continuity Working groups – as we move into a more stable state, some working groups are forming to make long terms plans.  Stay tuned.

Limited Access Plan – has started.  There is signage by all doors and online guidance here.  If you need to get in somewhere, please work through your PI or let me know.

Peter

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here and I have been accumulating useful links that have gone by here. In particular, I am trying to keep a list of MIT policy communications.

Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.

Dear Physics Community,

I was writing to someone today and recounted the past two weeks.  On March 9, I think, I was looking into tickets to go down to Florida and see Andy, Sarah and Philipe if the timing worked.  Then, my assistant, Christina told me I had to be on a phone call at 8:30 am, no excuses.  The Administration decided to cancel all classes of over 150 students, just as a precaution.

The timeline from for me is then is:

Perhaps the most notable event in MIT’s Commencement history occurred when there was no speaker. In 1970, during the peak of the United States’ conflict in Vietnam, the graduating class requested that then-MIT President Howard Wesley Johnson HM ’66 refrain from speaking in lieu of two minutes of silence to consider what can be done “to help resolve the conflicts which divide mankind in this country and around the world.”

Peter

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here and I have been accumulating useful links that have gone by here. In particular, I am trying to keep a list of MIT policy communications.

Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.

Dear Physics Community,

Happy Monday.  Perhaps an oxymoron for many, but Monday’s can be a day of hope for better weeks ahead.  Gov. Baker asked only essential businesses to stay open.  According to their guidelines, MIT’s delivery of online education is essential.  So are liquor stores.

Todaly’;s post is shorter than usual, reflecting planning that went on through the day.

Upcoming Departmental Events

• Wednesday, March 25, 2020, 4-5 pm EST – Graduate student office hours.  Nergis, Cathy, Syd, and I will be on hand to answer questions and see how the graduate community is doing.
• Thursday, March 26, 2020 – Faculty-Staff lunch, our biophysicists will tell us about viruses, how they are transmitted, and how to limit epidemics
•  Thursday, March 26, 2020 – Colloquium – Prof. Scott Gaudi, Ohio State, “The Demographics of Exoplanets”
•  Thursday, April 2, 2020 – Colloquium – Prof. Alan Guth, MIT, “Inflation”
• April 1-3, Admitted Graduate Studnet Open House, details to come.

Academic Continuity Meeting

New advisories of interest see here for a complete list,

• Update on efforts to provide PPE for local hospitals
• Additional webinars about teaching remotely, engaging students virtually

City of Cambridge – MIT and Cambridge are working out ways to support our students living off-campus.  News to come.

Housing – the housing situation has stabilized with about 1,300 graduates and 249 undergraduates remaining housed in Maseeh, Baker, and McCormick houses.  About 450 graduate students are planning to leave in the coming weeks.

Commencement – in-person commencement likely canceled.  Virtual replacement and in-person event later.

Physics Department

Graduate academics – we are working on policies for

• Written exams
• Oral exams
• Thesis defenses

for this term and aims to have clear guidance for the graduate community by the end of the week.  (I know I wrote before that it would be today, but today I learned the questions need to be thought through carefully.)

Graduate office hours – Nergis, Cathy, Syd, and I will be available Wednesday, 4-5 pm via zoom to answer questions and hear how our graduate students are doing.  We’d like to make this a regular event.  Questions in advance welcome.

Did you know that coffee was invented at MIT by the Dean of Science?

Peter

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here and I have been accumulating useful links that have gone by here. In particular, I am trying to keep a list of MIT policy communications.

Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.

Dear Physics Community,

For the first time in two weeks, there was no Academic Continuity phone meeting today.  They will resume tomorrow.

MIT alerts has five new documents today and I’ll highlight three:

1. Framework for managing campus access – this is important for PI’s and anyone planning to enter MIT buildings for the foreseeable future and those living in MIT housing
2. Tips for supporting and working with students – see comment below
3. Career Advising & Professional Development (CAPD) resources available 

Following on Item 2, a large part of our responsibilities is the well-being of our students.  In this unusual time, we must take care of how we interact with each other, particularly our staff.  The change in the way we have to work is a huge change in the way things we do not usually see have to take place.  These are things like purchasing, reimbursements, visa processing, course support, and so on.  The burden for these changes falls on our staff and they have to work out many, many details each day.  Changing to remote teaching is a very visible, worrisome about endeavor, as it should be, but please keep in mind our staff is, in real-time, carrying out tasks of comparable complexity and confusion at the same time, in some cases without the same level of support as what we have forof our remote teaching effort.

My experience in the last week was that I could accomplish about half the things each day that I could before COVID-19.  Maybe in the coming week that will rise to 60% or 70%.  This is the same for all of us, but the staff’s work is also highly interconnected with each other and rebuilding that connection in the remote world further reduces what the staff can carry out, especially as new policies happen in real-time.  I’d like to suggest a few things in the spirit of Item #2:

• Take time to talk to the people you interact with each and reach out to those you may not normally talk to.  Ask how things are going and if you can help in some way.
• Keep in mind the 50% rule for the next few weeks.
• Some students, faculty, and staff are alone much of the time.  Some contact will help them.
• Others have children at home that need care and attention.  Children sense their parents’ fear and react to it in all kinds of ways.  A parent working at home will put in the time, but it will be fragmented and over a longer portion of the day. Understanding is needed.
• Similarly, some may be caring for a relative who may be ill or fearful and this will be a distraction. Understanding is needed.

Knowing the Department over the last seven years, I know we will get the important stuff done.  How we get it done is what is important now.

Upcoming Departmental Events

All these events are virtual, via remote connection, and open to all the community.  As time passes and we add events, they will be more targeted to specific groups as they were before.

•  Thursday, March 26, 2020 – Faculty-Staff lunch, our biophysicists will tell us about viruses, how they are transmitted, and how to limit epidemics
•  Thursday, March 26, 2020 – Colloquium – Prof. Scott Gaudi, Ohio State, “The Demographics of Exoplanets”
•  Thursday, April 2, 2020 – Colloquium – Prof. Alan Guth, MIT, “Inflation”

Student focussed talks – Anna Frebel is organizing a weekly department-wide zoom style talk series for grad students and postdocs (and really anyone who wants to listen).

Anyone can sign up to speak! Consider presenting, if you

• Were you scheduled to give a science talk at a conference this spring but it was canceled
• Have some new and exciting science to share
• Have something else interesting to share, or a topic to discuss (can be non-science!)
• Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lvDdzVSPpPK1FoKG36QgWCFu3lwnpQmOoQSkn-xBXlc/edit
• We need two people per week (plus two backups), for <30 min each. Please consider a non-specialist audience, as this is a department-wide effort! So you may need to add or take out a slide to make it widely accessible!

Thank you Anna!

Tomorrow is Monday and we begin our second week of remote work.  We are slowly getting to something like a new normal, but we are not there yet.  For this week, keep your goals modest and attainable, take extra time for yourself and those around you, and focus on the now, which is easy to overlook.

Peter

P.S. I am posting these messages in my blog roll here and I have been accumulating useful links that have gone by here. In particular, I am trying to keep a list of MIT policy communications.

Thanks to Physics Council, Cathy Modica, Vicky Metternich and Christina Andujar for input and comments on these messages.