Chandrakasan honored

March 18, 2009  PAGE 3

MIT Tech Talk

u

 NEWS

Anantha Chandrakasan, director of 

MIT’s Microsystems Technology Labora-

tories, last week received the Semiconduc-

tor Industry Association (SIA) University 

Researcher Award.

Chandrakasan, the Joseph F. and Nancy 

P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engi-

neering, was honored for his work in 

micro-power design, wireless micro-sensor 

arrays and ultra-wideband radios. 

Chandrakasan recently completed a joint 

project with Texas Instruments to design a 

micro-controller that uses only one-tenth 

the power of a conventional TI micro-

controller. His group has also recently 

demonstrated ultra-low-power video archi-

tectures, energy-efficient ultra-wideband 

wireless circuits, energy scaveng-

ing systems and a sensor system 

using carbon nanotubes.

Hector Ruiz, chairman of SIA, 

said that Chandrakasan’s work 

addresses the significant chal-

lenges faced by the semiconduc-

tor industry today.

“The ‘crown jewel’ in the 

U.S. innovation ecosystem is 

our network of world-leading 

research universities,” Ruiz 

said in a statement announcing 

the award to Chandrakasan. “America’s 

research universities attract the best and 

brightest students and teachers from 

around the world. University 

researchers do the fundamental 

research that has enabled U.S. 

chipmakers to lead the world in 

developing innovative products 

and solutions.”

The SIA University Research-

er Award was established in 1995 

to recognize lifetime research 

contributions to the U.S. semi-

conductor industry by univer-

sity faculty. This year, Kang 

Wang SM ’66, PhD ’70 was also 

honored. The awards were presented at 

the annual SIA conference in Washington.

MTL Director Chandrakasan 

honored for semiconductor work

Anantha

Chandrakasan

As spring break approaches and 

members of the MIT community make 

plans for international travel, MIT recom-

mends that they review the MIT Travel 

Risk Policy at http://informit.mit.edu/

epr/3.1travel_risk.html. 

While community members are free to 

travel on personal business to any location 

they choose, the Institute restricts official 

MIT travel to certain countries based on 

the U.S. State Department’s assessment 

of safety conditions. In addition, the State 

Department’s web site provides extremely 

useful and specific information on condi-

tions in every country of the world. See 

http://travel.state.gov/ for information on 

health risks, violence, political upheaval 

and security concerns, availability of 

consular assistance, and unusual visa or 

internal transportation issues.

Both the MIT policy and the State 

Department information are updated 

regularly in response to changing condi-

tions. Currently, students on MIT 

business — those taking part in an MIT 

program or using MIT resources — are 

prohibited from traveling to 20 countries 

deemed high risk and face travel restric-

tions in 17 additional countries consid-

ered moderate risk. Faculty and staff are 

advised to consider the risks involved in 

these two sets of countries and to take 

appropriate precautions. MIT advises all 

members of the community to heed these 

warnings and to be as well-prepared as 

possible when undertaking international 

travel. 

Medical and security evacuation services 

are available to faculty, staff and students 

traveling abroad on MIT business. MIT 

has contracted with International SOS, 

a travel assistance provider, to make 

available to MIT community members 

its 24-hour Alarm Centers, a listing of 

international clinics and remote-site 

medical facilities, and online resources. 

Travelers are encouraged to review the 

International SOS web site, https://vpf.

mit.edu/site/insurance/policies_proce-

dures/international_sos, prior to travel to 

obtain country-specific information and to 

register their trip. Prior registration is not 

required in order to obtain coverage but is 

useful in case of an emergency. 

For further information, please contact 

Richelle Nessralla, associate counsel, at 

[e-mail]; Regina Dugan, insurance 

manager and associate counsel, at dugan@

mit.edu; or Brian Wahl, assistant dean for 

global education, at [e-mail].

A reminder on international travel this spring break

An MIT ocean microbiologist and a 

Caldecott Award-winning author and illus-

trator have teamed up to produce a lavishly 

illustrated children’s book that explains 

how the sun creates life on Earth through 

photosynthesis.

Penny Chisholm, the Lee and Geraldine 

Martin Professor of Environmental Studies 

in the Department of Civil and Environ-

mental Engineering, provided the science 

background for “Living Sunlight: How 

Plants Bring the Earth to Life,” which was 

co-authored and illustrated by Molly Bang. 

The book is designed to help children 

grow up with a better understanding of 

how plants use the sun’s energy to photo-

synthesize, turning water and carbon 

dioxide in the air into carbohydrates and 

releasing the oxygen that makes it possible 

for humans — and countless other crea-

tures — to exist.

“Photosynthesis is arguably the most 

important phenomenon on Earth,” 

Chisholm says, “Yet few people understand 

it. I’ve been on a mission [to educate the 

public about] how life works for some 

time, and decided the best way to get the 

word out — besides teaching ecology 

at MIT — is through a set of children’s 

books. Molly was eager to take on the 

challenge.”

Chisholm is well known for the 1988 

discovery, with colleagues from the Woods 

Hole Oceanographic Institution, of a tiny 

ocean microbe called Prochlorococcus, 

which is responsible for a significant frac-

tion of the photosynthesis in the oceans.   

Narrated by a wise and kindly sun, 

“Living Sunlight” explains photosynthe-

sis in pictures and words simple enough 

for young children and their parents to 

understand. Notes at the back of the book 

add details about the images and scientific 

concepts that a teacher or parent could 

use to make the book a good primer for 

older children, as well. Additional notes 

clarify that a few oversimplifications were 

necessary to help young readers grasp the 

concepts.

Bang is author and illustrator of 30 

children’s books, including award-winning 

“The Grey Lady and the Strawberry 

Snatcher,” “Ten, Nine, Eight” and “When 

Sophie Gets Angry — Really, Really 

Angry.”

“Living Sunlight” is the second in a 

Scholastic series about the sun’s energy. 

The co-authors plan at least two more 

books, which will focus on oceans and the 

Earth’s carbon cycle.

Children’s book illuminates photosynthesis

Denise Brehm

Civil and Environmental Engineering

IMAGES COURTESY OF MOLLY BANG

Pages from ‘Living Sunlight,’ a children’s book on photosynthesis that MIT ocean microbiologist Penny Chisholm co-authored.

A near 

miss, but 

no threat

Asteroid in close pass 

was smaller than thought, 

astronomer shows

On March 2, an asteroid whizzed past 

the Earth at a distance of just 41,000 

miles — a near miss by cosmic standards 

(most communications satellites orbit 

at a distance of about 22,300 miles from 

Earth). Headlines around the world 

proclaimed that Earth had dodged a 

bullet, and many mentioned that if the 

space rock had hit our planet, it might 

have packed a punch comparable to the 

Tunguska impact in 1908 that flattened 

trees over an 800-square-mile area in 

Siberia.

But some fast-tracking observations 

by MIT Professor of Planetary Sciences 

Richard Binzel proved that this rock was 

actually much smaller than that. Likely 

just 19 meters (about 60 feet) across, it 

would probably have disintegrated high 

in the atmosphere, with only a few small 

fragments making it to the ground.

Discovered just 

two days before its 

closest approach to 

Earth, the asteroid, 

called 2009 DD45, 

was initially esti-

mated as between 

20 and 40 meters 

across. At the high 

end, that would have 

made it comparable 

to the devastating 

Tunguska bolide. 

Binzel, on sabbati-

cal at the Paris Observatory, decided to 

try to make observations of the fast-

moving asteroid, aided by MIT planetary 

science alum Francesca DeMeo ’06, 

SM ’07 who is currently completing her 

doctoral research in Paris on a Fulbright 

scholarship.

The asteroid’s close pass was on the 

opposite side of the planet from Paris 

— over the Pacific Ocean. No problem 

for Binzel: He and his students have 

routinely made observations using a 

remotely controlled telescope in Hawaii. 

The telescope can be run from a number 

of different locations, including a control 

room on the MIT campus and one at the 

Paris Observatory.

But following such a nearby encoun-

ter with a large telescope is a technical 

challenge. “The object was moving about 

100 times faster than the ‘normal’ rate of 

objects we track as they cross the Earth’s 

orbit, all on account of its very close 

passage,” Binzel explains.  

Despite that challenge, Binzel says, 

“All told, we stayed on the target for 

about two hours, before sunrise in Hawaii 

brought our observations to a close.” And 

it was well worth it, because this enabled 

detailed spectroscopic measurements 

that determined the object’s composition, 

which matched that of an S-type aster-

oid — the most common type. That, in 

turn, allowed a more accurate estimate of 

how reflective it was, essential to being 

able to determine its actual size based on 

measurements of its apparent brightness.

After completing the observations 

at the observatory’s facility in the Paris 

suburb of Meudon, Binzel headed back in 

to the city. 

“Final calculations for the size were 

made on the train ride home,” he says, 

“where it occurred to me that the 19 

meter size was about the same as the train 

car I was riding in, except the asteroid 

was going much faster.”

See http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/

asteroids-tt0319.html for more on remote 

observing at MIT.

David Chandler

News Office

Richard

Binzel

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