Look up Stan Ovshinsky when you have time. A good man. Self made, but he was know as the man who could wangle money out of oil companies for solar research, at his own Detroit firm, and through research donations to U of Chicago and MIT. There was a “club” of men that consulted with Energy Conversion Devices. I was one of the lowly students flown around to conferences and to ECD to learn. All of them seemed honest to me at the time. The company, Energy Conversion Devices rarely made a profit, but did ground breaking work on many materials used for photovoltaics, and battery technology. Its so interesting that Ito’s mother was high up in that company, for years. I don;'t think there was a connection between Stan Ovshinksy and Jeffery Epstein, though, it not come out if there was one.
I wonder if Jeff Epstein money funded these diving expeditions?
The MIT Media lab is bizarre, is all I can say. Money was funneled into diving expeditions I bet, but all will come out soon enough. Notice “Matt” and “Marisa” must be MIT PhD students working on this dive equipment.
What this has to do with media, I don’t understand, but well, it was Ito, he could
do as he pleased , at Harvard or MIT.
https://diving.ito.com
Some women do make it big without college degrees. Sadly, the only one I can think of is Elizabeth Holmes, of Theranos infamy, who is now of course totally discredited. But, for a while there, she was riding high.
Someone help me out. Surely there are more??
Do entertainers…musicians, dancers, actors count? There are plenty of women who made it big without college degrees.
I just got back from the 4S conference in New Orleans (Society for the Social Studies of Science) and this is all anyone has talked about for the last 24 hours. Not exaggerating, half the people there have some connection - past or present - to Media Lab.
What a cluster ****
ETA: media lab isn’t actually about media. It’s kind of a black hole, anything goes, overly funded STS (science and technology studies/ science technology & society depending on who you ask) paradise. The projects they work on there are basically anything an STS researcher can dream up.
Anyone remember this?
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/4/26/mit-admissions-dean-resigns-after-fake/
I am sure MIT would like to think this is an isolated case and strive to make it just that, returning money and investigating to get to the “bottom”, etc. But I doubt it is just one-off. Probably not to this scale but I am sure there are more cases bending the ethics. Money is too enticing and the culture values success far more than decency. And if we look closely, it won’t be just MIT. We are in a prestige bubble that needs popping.
Blatant attempt to cover up Epstien’s donations. They did it knowingly, did everything to get around. I don’t care if anyone has a degree or not as far as they can do the job. But I don’t understand “professor” part. How did he become a professor without even a bachelor’s degree? Is it namely only type of thing?
Didn’t Ito get a Ph.D from a Japanese university?
I bet every once in a very long while a real genius becomes a professor without an undergrad degree. Off the top of my head, I can think of the recently departed Vladimir Voyevodsky. Failed out of undergrad for never going to class or taking the exams, invited to Harvard as a graduate student (without applying), where he was also well known for refusing to go to any classes or lectures or take any exams. He received a Ph.D in 1992, and was awarded the Fields Medal a decade later at 35 years old (the math equivalent of a Nobel Prize). Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton (same institute that employed Einstein and many other giants) until he died just a few years ago. Some people really are just that much smarter than everyone else around them.
We remember the admissions dean scandal - that was the year my son got rejected from MIT. 
We were big fans of Media Lab from the Seymore Papert days of Logo and Lego Mindstorms. Sad that they lost sight of priorities.
Well I am sure glad my son pulled his application to MIT…I really wanted him to have the rejection letter to put up with his diplomas one day… He didn’t think it was as funny as I did.
Wonder if this will go up the chain well beyond Ito. It took him a long time to resign. Determining how far the “looking the other way” went will be crucial.
Yeah @VeryHappy and @Knowsstuff, I didn’t immediately remember that admissions scandal because I’m still really bitter after all these years… really…
Anyway, more fallout:
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/09/09/university-administrator-ties-jeffrey-epstein-placed-leave/
I don’t know that taking “dirty” money is going to hurt MIT in the long run, as I don’t think most MIT or even Media lab people approved of this, and it was done on the sly by one man who resigned. At least they are apologizing. Harvard is not going to apologize. It might tarnish the Media Lab a tiny bit, but they will recover. They will continue to get thousands of PhD applications a year, and attract fantastic students.
I think Harvard has not gotten to the bottom of their Epstein money but they may not bother to figure it out. In the scheme of things is Epstein money worse than DARPA money that goes towards building better military hardware and software, used to “kill babies” in 3rd world countries like Afghanistan? GaTech and all techy schools, including Harvard and MIT, take DARPA, Air Force, Navy and many other grants related to “baby killing” too.
Other fall out at MIT includes an ethics media professor quitting.
One of these research scientists is a professor at Cornell, but visits the MIT Media Lab.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/08/22/two-mit-researchers-resign-media-lab-over-its-ties-jeffrey-epstein
Harvard continues to smugly do nothing about Epstein donations.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/harvard-has-no-business-holding-on-to-jeffrey-epsteins-millions-in-donations
Epstein started the nonlinear dynamics biophysics program at Harvard University. IT does NOT kill babies , its related to cancer research, a good thing. Can a bad man do a good thing?
Ito’s PhD was earned in 2018, seven years after getting appointed to the MIT faculty. I am sure he was under pressure to write a PhD, and thus he did that, but his hiring puzzles me. MIT is truly interested in pedigrees. Its odd that Ito did a PhD all the way in Japan while working for MIT. Why not earn one at Harvard or MIT? Is his PhD even “real”, in other words did he have to pass a general exam, take classes and write a thesis or is a sham PhD, I wonder, because he is a famous Japanese American, who is bilingual he could just “earn” a PhD based on his resume? It happens !
AT MIT, back in the 1980s, the female with a masters degree in Department of Materials Science, a well established archeologist and metallurgist of ancient cultures, got tenure but was never considered a “real professor” by other faculty in the department. MIT Department of Materials Science had faculty meeting in a MALE cigar club back in the later 1970s so she could not and was not welcome at faculty meetings as the only female in the department until Anne Mayes was tenured in the later 1990s. Degrees matter a LOT in the MIT community. After all they are in the business of granting degrees ! Usually you need a degree to get a job there! Not Ito, he was in a class of his own, elite, and smart, and connected.
Epstein got the Evolutionary Dynamics program started at Harvard University.
Its a field of study that applies to both population dynamics and cancer research.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/harvard-science-professors-kept-meeting-donor-jeffrey-epstein-despite-his-n1028536
Can a bad man do a good thing?
Professor George Church is jointly appointed at Harvard and MIT. Genetics expert, who met with Epstein, and was simply unaware that he was a pedophile.
https://www.statnews.com/2019/08/05/citing-nerd-tunnel-vision-biologist-george-church-apologizes-for-contacts-with-jeffrey-epstein/
Epstein is a complicated man. I don’t know that he is all bad. He is like any human, a mix of good and bad.
Anna Wintour (Vogue Editor) did not go to college at all
Ellen dropped out after one semester
Rachel Ray (not only did she not go to college, she did not go to culinary school either!)
Kim Kardashian (I don’t think any of the Kardashian women went to college)
Oprah dropped out (does that count?)
Of course a bad person can do good things. We’re not all black or white. Most of us are shades of gray.
??? I can rob a lot of money from an old lady at gunpoint and you knowingly take it and use it for a good cause. I am a mix of good and bad, just human.Since you took money from a human, you are as clean as a whistle. Love the logic game. This stinks almost as much as Epstein himself. This is how we incubate Epstein’s. If a shop owner takes a stolen goods knowingly, that is felony. Is MIT good boys since it is not as bad as Harvard? Is that the standard we live by these days? Or do they both leave something to be desired in the “clean” department?