Dear Alum,

In his video below, Tobin South sounds like he’s just returned from an amazing travel experience and couldn’t help telling everyone, given the enthusiasm with which he speaks as one of the MIT Media Lab’s “next generation of innovators.” Tobin studies how to build privacy, verifiability, and regulatory compliance into AI’s increasingly expansive reach throughout our society and its institutions. 

Tobin will tell you that the Media Lab has made him more “weird”—in a good way. At the Media Lab, his imagination and curiosity can explore multiple domains and work through prototypes, wherever they may take him. Likewise, the Media Lab is grateful to have him for his keen mind and passion.  

It's only through gifts from supporters like you, that we can give students like Tobin the opportunity to explore, create, and flourish at the Lab

In order to attract excited, creative, and aspiring students who yearn to take on some of the globe’s most complicated challenges, we must be able to offer them a place at the Lab, where their ideas and drives can grow in unbounded latitude. Fully funded graduate fellowships give students this opportunity; all of our graduate students are paid researchers while working on their master’s and/or PhD degrees. Each year we enroll talented students to pursue forward-thinking research and novel approaches to the big issues of our day: physical and mental health, dramatic changes in climate, shifting demographics due to migration, the aging of our population, how AI affects our human capabilities and its contribution to business and industry, and how, in times of great stress and complexity, creativity may empower people for life and work and new forms of expression.  

In 2025, the Media Lab celebrates its 40th anniversary and looks toward its next forty years of transformative research and real-world applications—all to enhance the joint flourishing of humanity and nature. As part of this milestone, we are raising financial support for our 40-For-40 Campaign, with a focus on two critical areas:

1. The Director’s Innovation Fund, which provides seed funding for cross-Lab collaborative innovations.
2. The Student Support Fund, aimed at attracting students of all backgrounds who show promise for out-of-the-box, multidisciplinary inquiry.

Would you please consider supporting the Media Lab today?

Your support helps ensure the Media Lab remains the most preeminent interdisciplinary research and educational institution in the world, innovating for a significant impact on people’s lives and the planet.

Join us in shaping the future.

For questions or to discuss a personalized gift, please contact David Cave, Director of Development, at development@media.mit.edu.

Thank you,
David Cave
Director of Development