President Barack Obama has nominated BETH F. COBERT ’80, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, to become deputy director for management in the Office of Management and Budget, and RICHARD STENGEL ’77, managing editor at Time magazine, to become undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department. The appointments must be confirmed by the Senate.
Two alumni made MIT Technology Review’s list of 35 innovators under 35. JOHN DABIRI ’01, of Caltech, was recognized for designing wind farms based on his research on how fish form schools. XIAOLIN ZHENG *06, a professor at Stanford, was noted for creating solar cells in the “form of flexible stickers.”
HAYLEY GORENBERG ’87 represented Garden State Equality and six gay and lesbian couples and their children in a case that challenged New Jersey’s same-sex marriage ban. A judge ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor Sept. 27, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor.