Event Highlights

Saturday, December 5 -- National Cathedral Tour, featuring the glorious stained glass windows.

Wednesday, January 6 -- MIT Professor Ernie Moniz, one of our most entertaining and informative speakers, will talk on an energy-related topic. In response to requests from alums south of the river, this talk will be held at a Virginia location, the Indigo Landing restaurant in Alexandria.

Saturday, January 16 -- Constant State of Panic, a play by MIT alum Patrick Gabridge '86, directed by Gary Raymond Fry, Jr. This darkly comic love story follows two people trying to stay together despite the insanity of the world around them. Join us for the play and an after-play discussion with Gabridge and the Playhouse.

Second Tuesdays, October through March -- Seminar Series -- Hand-held Communicators: The Defining Technology for the Twenty-first Century

Save the Date

The events listed below will graduate to the "Event Highlights" section above when details are finalized and registration opens.

Tuesday, January 26 -- Annual Gala of the MIT Enterprise Forum -- Co-hosted by the MIT Club, this popular event is sure to appeal to all entrepreneurial alums as well as hi-tech investors.

Thursday, March 25 -- Annual Career Workshop -- Again this year the MIT Club will organize its popular workshop focusing on career development. It will be moderated by Ken White '69, an experienced CEO who, for the last several years, has been serving as alumni career counselor at the MIT Sloan School. A panel of experts from corporate and recruitment organizations knowledgeable about the local employment situation will also be featured.

More Events in the Works

The following events are in the works and will graduate to the "Save the Date" section as soon as the date is firm.

February -- A panel discussion with top scientists and researchers in international cancer research, including Dr. Christine Berg of the National Institutes of Health.

Late March or April -- Embassy of the United Arab Emirates -- A meeting at the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates is in the active planning stages. Depending on when some ongoing construction is completed, the meeting would be in late March or April. In addition to food and beverages, this event will feature discussion of the significant academic and research collaboration between MIT and the Masdar Institute for Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi. Speakers are expected to include the UAE Ambassador, Professor Fred Moavenzadeh, Director of the MIT Program, and the Director of the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi.

April -- Roger Lewis -- A talk on pending major changes in master plans for the Washington DC suburbs and their impact on future development of the area.

As a follow-on to our November meeting with Dr. Robert Urban, we are continuing the series of discussions on cancer research with a symposium on cancer research being done internationally. More info will be posted here soon.

We are actively pursuing an event with Professor Simon Johnson, Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, Professor of Global Economics and Management, MIT Sloan School of Management (mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail.php?in_spseqno=198). Among his many accomplishments include an assignment as the Chief Economist of the IMF and the co-founder of one of the most widely cited websites on the global economy, BaselineScenario.com.

Also in the works is an event with behavioral economist Professor Dan Ariely, a professor at Duke University and MIT. His bestselling book Predictably Irrational and blog, www.predictablyirrational.com, provides insights into why we often do not make rational choices when given a set of options.

Terra Cotta Warriors -- We're working on a tour of this National Graphic exhibition.

White House Tour -- We have requested another ever-popular White House tour. As soon as we have a firm date, we'll update this web page and send an e-mail to area alums. To ensure that you receive the e-mail announcement, you must be registered on the Infinite Connection. If you aren't you should register for the Infinite Connection. Or if your e-mail address has changed you should update your Infinite Connection account.

Partners & Patrons Appreciation Event -- This year's dues-paid Partners and Patrons will be invited to a springtime reception and talk with Regina Duggan, the new head of DARPA, at a private home in Potomac.

Recent Events

November 16 -- Embassy of Israel -- A capacity crowd attended the first MIT-Technion club event at the Israeli Embassy.  The program celebrated the 85th anniversary of Technion's founding and featured a presentation by the Embassy’s commercial attaché, Ohad Cohen, on Israel's advances in sustainable high-technology.  The program also highlighted remarks by Asher Epstein, managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, and Dr. G. Anand Anandalingam, dean of Maryland's Robert E. Smith School of Business, who spoke about their efforts to teach entrepreneurial skills to American and Israeli exchange students.   Israel's newly appointed Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, closed the program with a note of thanks and a nod to his boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is an MIT alum.  In closing the event, program chair Hershel Lipow presented a gift to the Ambassador and Mrs. Sally Oren, in hopes that the special relationship between Israel, MIT, and Technion will continue to flourish.   

November 12 -- Dr. Robert Urban, Executive Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research -- Cancer research at MIT has taken a bold and promising new direction with the transformation of MIT's Center for Cancer Research, founded in 1974, into the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (KI). Robert updated us on the research strategies and innovations being pursued by the KI's 25 faculty members, drawn from MIT's School of Science and School of Engineering. He discussed the way the new facility has been designed to encourage cancer biologists to collaborate with biological and chemical engineers, materials scientists, computer scientists, and immunologists to develop innovative solutions to the problems of cancer. He reviewed the Koch Institute's progress to date toward the ambitious goal of making cancer a manageable disease through the use of nanotechnology, personalized medicine, and harnessing the power of our own immune systems. Finally he gave us a quick update on the funding status of the new building and ongoing research efforts. The Koch Institute has a fantastic newsletter that people can subscribe to at web.mit.edu/ki/news/newsletter/subscribe.html. If you are interested in this topic, we highly recommend signing up.

October 22 -- Oktoberfest -- Around 80 alums and guests turned out for this annual celebration. A good time was had by all!

September 16 -- Embassy of Canada -- We began our 2009/2010 season with an evening at the Canadian Embassy. Seventy-six members and guests attended the event, and learned more about the energy interdependence between the US and Canada. After the presentation, the group adjourned to the Canada Room for a very delicious buffet dinner. Our event had a little excitement as the Canadian Prime Minister was in Washington DC for a meeting with President Obama, and visited the Canadian Ambassador at the embassy during our event. In spite of this very high profile visitor, our Canadian hosts were extremely welcoming and everyone had a wonderful evening.

Speaker Presentations

October 19 -- Bill Bonvillian (PPT 7 MB)
September 10 -- Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (PPT 2 MB)

Online Registration / Check Payments

NOTE: Online registration may be available for some events.  You can also register for any event using the registration coupon on the event page. Please review our cancellation policy before registering. When registering for multiple events, please write a separate check for each event. Also write a separate check for your dues. That way, if you cancel an event by the registration deadline, we can just shred your event check.

Don't Miss Events -- Update Your Email Address

The scheduling of some events does not allow enough lead time to publicize in our print newsletter. For these events, we rely on email and this website. Unfortunately, as of November 3, 2008, 27% of area alums and 7% percent of Club members had not registered an email address with the MIT.

If you have not already done so, register now or update your info. Don't miss out on any of our outstanding events!

Join or Renew Your Membership Now for 2009-2010!

Become a member of the MIT Club of Washington today, and receive all of these great benefits:

Tell Me More! Read about the benefits of membership. Print out the mail-in membership form.

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MIT Club of Washington Scholarship Fund

Thanks to all the members who have made contributions to the Club of Washington Scholarship Fund. You have another opportunity to do so with this year's dues payment, either by check or online via SmarTrans.

We have one of the highest scholarship funds of any MIT Club in the world. As of June 30, 2009 the book value of the Scholarship was $304,349--this is the actual amount given by the Club/members to this scholarship, and the market value was $596,901. Your scholarship donation helps MIT educate the best and the brightest from the Greater Washington DC area.

For 2008-2009, the fund is supporting two students.

Eletha J. Flores, Class of 20 I 0
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Springdale, MD

Eletha J. Flores continues as a MIT Club of Washington Scholar. Last Spring, she participated in a UROP in the Lab for Electromagnetics and Electronic Systems researching ultra capacitors and energy efficiency. During the summer, she took a position in Spain at Fatronik, where she worked on developing a robotic system to aid in post-stroke rehabilitation. At MIT, she is engaged in various community service groups, including a Latino cultural group, with which she traveled to Mexico for service at an orphanage. She resides in Spanish House and is involved with the living group, LuChA (La Union Chicana por Aztlan). Eletha's hobbies include robotics to advance healthcare, as well as teaching, traveling and learning new cultures. She is very interested in artificial intelligence and wants to further her skills in robotics to help the injured and elderly in rehabilitation. Her career objectives are to teach or to work in research and development.

Dai Minh H. Phan, Class of 2011
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Washington, DC

Dai Minh H. Phan continues as an MIT Club of Washington Scholar. During the past summer, he worked in the IT department of Asian American LEAD (Leadership, Empowerment and Development), a small non-profit in Washington DC. While a student at MIT last year, he participated in intramural hockey, basketball and football, and volunteers by reading to kids with Phi Sigma Kappa at Blackstone Elementary School. His hobbies include cycling and break-dancing. Dai Minh's career objective is to be a software programmer/engineer, and to own a business.

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