MIT Affiliate Professor Jacob Andreas of the Division of Electrical Engineering and Pc Science [EECS] and MIT Affiliate Professor Brett McGuire of the Division of Chemistry have been chosen because the winners of the 2026 Harold E. Edgerton School Achievement Award. Established in 1982 as a everlasting tribute to Institute Professor Emeritus Harold E. Edgerton’s nice and enduring assist for youthful school members, this award is given yearly in recognition of remarkable distinction in educating, analysis, and repair.
“The Division of Chemistry is extraordinarily delighted to see Brett acknowledged for science that has modified how we take into consideration carbon in house,” says Class of 1942 Professor of Chemistry and Division Head Matthew D. Shoulders. “Brett’s lab combines laboratory spectroscopy, radio astronomy, and complicated signal-analysis strategies to drag definitive molecular fingerprints out of terribly faint knowledge. His discovery of polycyclic fragrant hydrocarbons within the chilly interstellar medium has opened a strong new window on astrochemistry. Furthermore, Brett is inventing the inventive and distinctive instruments that make discoveries like this doable.”
“Jacob Andreas represents the easiest of MIT EECS” says Asu Ozdaglar, EECS division head. “He’s an progressive researcher whose work combines computational and linguistically knowledgeable approaches to construct foundations of language studying. He’s a unprecedented educator who has introduced these forefront concepts into our core lessons in pure language processing and machine studying. His means to bridge foundational idea with real-world influence, whereas additionally advancing the social and moral dimensions of computing, makes him actually deserving of the Edgerton School Achievement Award.”
Andreas joined the MIT school in July 2019, and is affiliated with the Pc Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory. His work is in pure language processing (NLP), and extra broadly in AI. He goals to know the computational foundations of language studying, and to construct clever techniques that may be taught from human steering. Amongst different honors, Andreas has obtained Samsung’s AI Researcher of the Yr award, MIT’s Kolokotrones and Junior Bose educating awards, a 2024 Sloan Analysis Fellow award, and paper awards on the Nationwide Accrediting Company for Medical Laboratory Sciences, the Worldwide Convention on Machine Studying, and the Affiliation for Computational Linguistics.
Andreas obtained his BS from Columbia College, his MPhil from Cambridge College (the place he studied as a Churchill scholar), and his PhD in pure language processing from the College of California at Berkeley. His work in pure language processing has taken on thorny issues within the functionality hole between people and computer systems. “The defining characteristic of human language use is our capability for compositional generalization,” explains Antonio Torralba, Delta Electronics Professor and college head of Synthetic Intelligence and Determination-Making within the Division of EECS. “Lots of the core challenges in pure language processing is addressed by merely coaching bigger and bigger neural fashions, however this type of compositional generalization stays a persistent issue, and with out the flexibility to generalize compositionally, the deep studying toolkit won’t ever be strong sufficient for probably the most difficult real-world NLP duties. Jacob’s work on compositional modeling attracts new connections between NLP and work in pc imaginative and prescient and physics aimed toward modeling techniques ruled by symmetries and different algebraic buildings and, utilizing them, they’ve been capable of construct NLP fashions exhibiting various new, human-like language acquisition behaviors, together with one-shot phrase studying, studying by way of mutual exclusivity constraints, and studying of grammatical guidelines in extraordinarily low-resource settings.”
Inside EECS, Andreas has developed a number of superior programs in pure language processing, in addition to new workout routines designed to get college students to grapple with essential social and moral concerns in machine studying deployment. “Jacob has taken a number one position in fully modernizing and increasing our course choices in pure language processing,” says award nominator Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Panasonic Professor within the Division of EECS. “He has led the event of a contemporary two-course sequence, which is a cornerstone of the brand new AI+D [artificial intelligence and decision-making] main, routinely enrolling a number of hundred college students every semester. His command of the realm is broad and deep, and his lessons combine classical structural understanding of language with probably the most fashionable learning-based approaches. He has put MIT EECS on the worldwide map as a spot to review pure language at each stage.”
Brett McGuire joined the MIT school in 2020 and was promoted to affiliate professor in 2025. His analysis operates on the intersection of bodily chemistry, molecular spectroscopy, and observational astrophysics, the place he seeks to uncover how the chemical constructing blocks of life evolve alongside and assist form the delivery of stars and planets. A former Jansky Fellow after which Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow on the Nationwide Radio Astronomy Observatory, McGuire has a BS in chemistry from the College of Illinois and a PhD in bodily chemistry from Caltech. His honors embody a 2026 Sloan Fellowship, the Beckman Younger Investigator Award, the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy, and the MIT Award for Instructing with Digital Know-how.
The college who nominated McGuire for this award praised his extraordinary public outreach, his rapid willingness to tackle educating class 5.111 (Rules of Chemical Science), a Common Institute Requirement (GIR) course comprised of 150–500 college students, and his service to each the MIT and astrochemical communities.
“Brett is on the very high of astrochemical scientists in his age group as a result of his discovery of fused carbon ring compounds within the chilly area of the ISM [interstellar medium], an remark that gives a route for carbon incorporation in planets,” says Sylvia Ceyer, the John C. Sheehan Professor of Chemistry in her nomination assertion. “His in depth involvement in service-oriented actions throughout the astrochemical/bodily group is very uncommon for a junior scientist, and is testomony to the worth that the astronomical group locations in his knowledge and judgement. His phenomenal organizational abilities have made his contributions to graduate admission protocols and seminar administration at MIT the envy of the division. And most significantly, Brett is an outstanding instructor, who cares deeply about college students’ understanding and success, not solely in his course, however of their future endeavors.”
“As an assistant professor, Brett volunteered to show 5.111, a big GIR course with 150–500 college students, and has obtained among the finest educating evaluations amongst all school who’ve led the topic,” says Mei Hong, the David A. Leighty Professor of Chemistry. “He has a pure expertise in explaining summary bodily chemistry ideas in an enticing method. His slides, which he ready from scratch as a substitute of modifying from earlier years’ materials from different professors, are clear, and … the mixture of lucid clarification and humor has generated nice enthusiasm and curiosity in chemistry amongst college students.”
Topic evaluations from McGuire’s programs praised his humor, the readability of his explanations, and his means to rework a lecture right into a “science present.” “I have not felt this type of want for the depth of understanding in a topic past only a straight grade [in some time],” says one pupil. “Brett positively stimulated that love of studying for me.”
“Brett is an excellent school member who is devoted to fostering pupil studying and success,” says Jennifer Weisman, assistant director of educational packages in chemistry. “He’s considerate, caring, and goes above and past to assist his colleagues, college students, and employees.”
“I’m thrilled to be chosen for the Edgerton Award this 12 months,” says McGuire. “The award is nominally for educating, analysis, and repair; MIT and the chemistry division particularly have been an unimaginable place to be taught and develop in all these areas. I’m extremely grateful for the mentorship, enthusiasm, and assist I’ve obtained from my colleagues, from my college students each within the lab and within the classroom, and from the MIT group throughout my time right here. I sit up for many extra years of thrilling discovery along with this one-of-a-kind group.”
