Celebrating a landmark year for transformative, interdisciplinary research

The MIT Media Lab is proud to announce that four members of our faculty have been promoted, three to tenure, effective July 1, 2026. Together, their work spans wireless sensing technologies now deployed in hospitals, homes, under the sea, and in retail environments worldwide; conformable biomedical devices that bend and adapt to the human body for early warning and later treatment of disease; ecological engineering and biosecurity frameworks reshaping how science engages with the future of evolution and with the public; and space technology that serves as a powerful instrument for sustainability and justice on Earth. Each represents the kind of rigorous, bold, and impactful scholarship the Media Lab and the Media Arts and Sciences program exist to cultivate and inspire, and each demonstrates a deep commitment to science, technology, art and design that serves the public good.

Dr. Canan Dagdeviren Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Canan Dagdeviren, founder and director of the Conformable Decoders research group, has built a research program around the idea that the human body continuously produces coded physical patterns — through motion, pressure, sound, electrical activity, and biochemical change — that carefully designed materials and devices can decode to improve human health. Her group develops technologies that bend and conform to the body, including a wearable ultrasound breast patch for more frequent and accessible cancer screening, and ImPULS, an implantable piezoelectric ultrasound stimulator for deep brain stimulation. Dr. Dagdeviren also serves as faculty lead of the Media Lab's WHx Women's Health Program, which this year became an official program of the MIT HEALS Initiative — a significant institutional recognition of her commitment to addressing longstanding gaps in women's health through bold, cross-disciplinary research.

Dr. Kevin Esvelt Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Kevin Esvelt, who leads the Sculpting Evolution research group, invents new ways to study and influence the evolution of ecosystems, addressing some of humanity's most difficult ecological and public health challenges with a commitment to openness and humility. His community-driven "Mice Against Ticks" project, featured in a landmark 60 Minutes segment in September 2025, is engineering Lyme-immune mice on Nantucket to stop the disease at its source. Dr. Esvelt has also emerged as one of the nation's leading voices on biosecurity, with research exposing the dangers of AI systems capable of generating biological weapons information — highlighted by The New York Times in April 2026 — and a Policy Forum piece in Science on mirror life that has advanced critical public conversations about the governance of emerging biotechnologies. His work on CRISPR gene drives, RoboPace, and "daisy drives" has reshaped global conversations about the future of evolution.

Dr. Danielle Wood Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Danielle Wood, founding director of the Space Enabled research group, has spent her career proving that satellite technology can be a powerful instrument for justice on Earth. Holding a joint appointment in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and serving as MIT's Faculty Lead for African and African Diaspora Studies, Dr. Wood has developed the EVDT framework — Environment-Vulnerability-Decision-Technology — a systems approach applied successfully in countries including Ghana, Angola, and Brazil. Her impact extends well beyond the lab: she received the 2026 Paul Gray Faculty Award for Public Service and the 2025 Letten Prize, and has served multiple times as a Private Sector Advisor to the US Delegation to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Dr. Fadel Adib Promoted to Full Professor

Fadel Adib, founding director of the Signal Kinetics research group, was promoted to full Professor at MIT, effective July 1, 2026. Holding a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Professor Adib has spent his career expanding the frontiers of wireless sensing, developing technologies that locate hidden objects, navigate indoor environments, and detect contaminants in food and water. Since receiving tenure in 2022, his group has integrated generative AI with wireless vision, enabling robots to interact with objects blocked entirely from view. His spinoff Cartesian Systems is now deployed in more than 700 stores across 55 countries. Professor Adib was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2024 and received the Great Arab Minds Award in Engineering and Technology in 2023.

These four scholars exemplify the Media Lab's enduring commitment to transformative research that integrates scientific excellence with ethical commitment, technical originality with human purpose, and disciplinary depth with the courage to ask hard questions. We congratulate Drs. Dagdeviren, Esvelt, Wood, and Adib, and look forward to their continued contributions for many years to come.