MIT Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics | October 2025 | | Happy Halloween, Course 16! It looks like everyone had a great time at the AIAA + GA^3 Halloween party. Check out these gourd-geous costumes: | | |
In his 30-year career at MIT, groundskeeper Danny Gilligan’s hands have touched some 73 thousand square feet of green space and 76 thousand square feet of hardscape, most of it on or near AeroAstro’s corner of campus. His colleagues called him the “Mayor of Mass Ave” because he has always been chatty, friendly and loves to help out.
We celebrated Danny’s upcoming retirement this month. AeroAstro gifted him a piece of the building’s original stairs – a fitting thank-you for someone who’s been a true cornerstone of our community.
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Spot Awards: Hats off to Janine Liberty and Karen Bruce, our October Spot Award recipients! Have someone you would like to recognize? Submit a nomination any time.
Staff Spotlight: Congratulations to Esther Allen on her promotion to Senior Administrative Assistant.
The MIT Excellence Awards and Collier Medal are among the highest of MIT staff honors, and one of our most important ways to recognize employees for their contributions and celebrate their accomplishments. The 2026 nomination window is open now through December 5, 2025 at 5 p.m. Nominate a colleague today!
November is National Career Development Month. Learn new skills with expert-led online video tutorials via LinkedIn Learning, or participate in upcoming MIT workshops that will help you strengthen your skills, expand your knowledge, and advance your career.
AeroAstro job postings
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The AeroAstro Comm Lab provides 1-1 peer coaching sessions for all forms of technical communication. Make an appointment to improve the effectiveness of your next paper, poster, presentation and more!
Check out our new digital resources:
Upcoming events:
| | The Aerospace Physiology Lab and Massachusetts General Hospital held the inaugural Boston Human Spaceflight Symposium (BHSS). The two-day event featured panel discussions, poster sessions, and presentations from Profs. Lonnie Petersen, Oli de Weck, and Jeff Hoffman. | | AeroAstro students and faculty were out in force at this year’s International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, Australia. Students and faculty presented research spanning sustainable rocket design, lunar recycling systems, mission architecture, and virtual reality tools for aerospace education. | | |
Prof. Danielle Wood is among the MIT community members featured in The Genius Within, a new public art installation in Kendall Square that honors diverse innovators who were active in the Cambridge community and helped Kendall Square become known as the most innovative square mile on the planet.
Prof. Oli de Weck and María Vázquez Sánchez gave an MIT xTalk on how to leverage student feedback to create a flipped classroom structure and organize resources for easy access on Canvas.
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Yana Charoenboonvivat (ESL) attended the STAR☆FIRE 2025 Summer Workshop, hosted by Idaho National Laboratory. The workshop included a tour of the National Criticality Experiments and Research Center (NCERC), a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the facility located at the Nevada Test Site in the Mojave Desert.
| | Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion | | |
Best practices:
Mary Golda Ross, aerospace engineer, educator, and advocate
November is National Native American Heritage Month, also known as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. This month, we celebrate the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories of Native peoples and recognize their many enduring contributions to our nation. It’s also a time to reflect on the resilience, creativity, and leadership of Native communities and continue learning from their stories and perspectives.
DEI Committee Meeting
Thursday, 11/6 at 1:30 pm
Room 33-116 or join the meeting via Zoom
Feedback:
aa-diversity@mit.edu
| | Dimensionless learning based on information | Yuan Yuan and Prof. Adrian Lozano-Duran use ideas from information theory to improve dimensional analysis, discovering the most important dimensionless variables directly from data. | | | | |
