“One.MIT,” a new art installation at MIT.nano, displays a 6-inch silicon wafer depicting an image of MIT’s Great Dome. The image was formed by etching the names of the more than 270,000 people associated with the Institute from 1861 to spring 2018.”

“One.MIT” creates a monument — at the smallest scale | MIT News.

MIT.nano is a natural convening space. The Institute’s newest laboratory facility, devoted to nanoscale research, sits in the very center of campus as an open toolset available to researchers from across MIT and beyond. Its public spaces are frequently crowded with students huddling over problem sets and steady flows of visitors peeking through the building’s glass walls and windows to get a glimpse of the wonders of modern science and technology in action.  

When the building opened last fall, its inaugural faculty director, Vladimir Bulović, decided to take this convening power a step further. “MIT.nano sits in the shadow of MIT’s Great Dome, and our responsibility is to enhance the work and aspirations of the entire campus,” says Bulović, the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Professor in Emerging Technology. “We wanted a way to celebrate all of us instead of just a few — a monument to the MIT community made using the tools of nanoscale research.”

The result is “One.MIT,” a mosaic depicting the MIT Great Dome formed by etching more than 270,000 names on a 6-inch-diameter silicon wafer. The image attempts to include the names of all the individuals associated with MIT between its founding in 1861 and Spring 2018 — every student, alumnus/a, professor, president, lecturer, lab assistant, staff member, custodian, administrator, and anyone else who has been a member of the MIT community. 

Now on display in the MIT.nano first-floor gallery, the “One.MIT” wafer hangs alongside a 6-foot diameter enlargement as a permanent installation celebrating the many generations of MIT that are the foundation and inspiration for the research that will take place inside MIT.nano. Because the names are too small to see with the naked eye, a new website, onemit.mit.edu, enables anyone to search for a name and find its location in the mosaic.

Read more. If you are associated with MIT from 1861-2018, your name is one of 270,000 etched in nanoscale on a six-inch wafer at the MIT.nano building. Find your name on this new website search for names here. Video above, our Ladyada – Limor Fried.