Paul M. Cook

Researchers across MIT are taking on the agricultural challenges posed by climate change, from engineering plants that sound an alarm when they're under stress to making seeds more resilient to drought.

Students from Malden Catholic High School recently worked with MIT chemical engineer Ariel Furst to create electrodes for low-cost microbial fuel cells.

MIT professors Ariel Furst, Mohsen Ghaffari, Marzyeh Ghassemi, Darcy McRose, Sarah Millholland, Emil Verner, and Christian Wolf, along with 21 additional MIT alumni, are among 126 early-career researchers named 2025 Sloan Research Fellows.

MIT chemical engineers devised an efficient way to convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, which can be used to generate useful compounds such as ethanol and other fuels.

MIT Professor Benedetto Marelli develops silk-based technologies with uses "from lab to fork," including helping crops grow and preserving perishable foods.

A new metal-organic coating protects bacterial cells from damage without impeding their growth or function. The coated bacteria, which produce ammonia, could make it much easier for farmers to deploy microbes as fertilizers.

MIT Associate Professor Robert Macfarlane is uncovering design principles that allow researchers to fine-tune materials at many size scales.