“MIT is where I learned to take big, messy problems and actually do something about them,” says Sterling Anderson SM ’09, PhD ’13. “Everything I needed was there: incredible people, freedom to explore, and a practical outlet to turn research into real-world impact.”

A new, lightweight polymer film is virtually impenetrable to gas molecules. With such a coating, “you could protect infrastructure such as bridges, buildings, rail lines — basically anything outside exposed to the elements,” Michael Strano says.

Physicists observed key evidence of unconventional superconductivity in a special form of graphene. The findings may guide the design of superconductors that work at room temperature, “which is sort of the Holy Grail of the entire field,” Pablo Jarillo-Herrero says.

As president and CEO of the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad, Caren Kraska ’77 helps Americans appreciate the role of trains in the modern economy. Now an Arkansas community leader, she says: “You take that MIT approach with you.”

In a world without MIT, radar wouldn’t have been available to help win World War II. We might not have email, CT scans, time-release drugs, photolithography, or GPS. And we’d lose over 30,000 companies, employing millions of people. Can you imagine?

​Since its founding, MIT has been key to helping American science and innovation lead the world. Discoveries that begin here generate jobs and power the economy — and what we create today builds a better tomorrow for all of us.