Weekly Message to the Physics Community, Monday, January 17. 2022

Dear Physics Community,

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  I always read something he wrote on this day, today will be “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”  If you are looking for smoother way of marking the occasion, the Boston Globe has suggestions here.

IAP continues – the Department and MIT are doing okay.  Not great, but okay.  At the 8 am meeting Friday (slides here), we heard that MIT intends to continue in-person instruction into the Spring term, hopefully relaxing COVID protocols as the term proceeds.  The contingency plan consists of isolation in place, additional testing, etc. but remote learning or sending people home was not discussed.  The Deer Island, a ten day leading indicator of the case rate,  rate has plummeted, leading us to hope things improve in the coming week.  The MIT rate has also gone up, reaching over 6% positivity two weeks ago and is coming down, now at 2.5%.

So, we are doing okay.  Not great, but okay.  I think we need to be cool for another two weeks.  Then something else will happen.

This week, I learned Sav-Mor liquors on the McGrath Highway in East Cambridge will move to Assembly Square.  Sav-Mor always had a message on their sign, the last one is here.  I liked their signs, but never bought liquor there.

Peter

Announcements

  • Repperger Research Intern Program here
  • Proposals for Alumni Class Funds due January 28 here
  • Agilent Early Career Professor Award due Jan. 25, 2022 here
  • Graduate Students’ Career and Professional Development here
  • Alumni Class Funds proposals due January 28 here

Physics

  • Martin Zwierlein makes cold tornados here
  • Quantum solution to math problem in Quanta