Dear Physics Community,

I listen to the MIT Wind Ensemble practice various pomp and circumstance marches out in Killian Court.  Hooding will be tomorrow, Friday will be Commencement, and then Saturday will be a Celebration for the classes of 2020 and 2021.  We have traveled a long road to get here: the pandemic started for me on March 12, 2020, when our wonderful staff put to gather a short ceremony for our seniors as we all left to begin working from home.  Here is a picture from that day:

We have something to celebrate that we can all gather again for commencement — things did not have to turn out this way.  It feels good to hear them practicing that dopey “Hail to MIT” piece that ends Commencements.

See you there,

Peter

Above the Fold

• MIT News Story about Pablo Jarillo-Herrero’s election to the National Academy of Science
• What the hell is the commencement schedule?  Cathy Modica’s summary here, Thanks, Cathy!

Announcements

• DoD paid internships from ORISE
• NSF Addresses the Helium Shortage, helps for PIs

Physics

• Haystack Observatories observations of our weird black hole from Quanta and MIT News
• Two black holes merged and got kicked out of their galaxy from Salvo Vitale.