Father and son celebrate joint graduation from MIT

Dr. Michael Solomon completed the MIT EMBA program, and his son, Samuel, completed his bachelor’s degree.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 29, 2020 – While most parents attend their children’s college graduations as spectators, Dr. Michael Solomon will attend his son’s MIT commencement as both a parent and as a graduating student. On May 29, Dr. Michael Solomon will graduate from the MIT Executive MBA Program, and his son, Samuel Solomon, will graduate from MIT’s Undergraduate Program.

“I came to MIT for its unique combination of liberal arts and sciences. It provided an opportunity to explore all of the disciplines of science, which is important to me because my long-term goal is to pursue a career in aerospace and space medicine,” says Samuel.

Seeing his son flourish at MIT, Michael decided to pursue his MBA in MIT’s EMBA Program. “I had visited a lot of colleges for my three children and MIT stood out to me as a special place. It is an amazing community. Many parents have a desire for their children to attend their alma mater, but we flipped the script when I came to MIT,” he says.

Michael adds, “Sam helped me adjust to student life by loading my computer with software he felt would be helpful to me at MIT and providing notes with directions and formulas. Sam was on the MIT diving team and being on campus allowed me to watch some of his practices and cheer him on at meets. Going to the same School was a special experience.”

Samuel agrees. “It was nice to go through the experience together and know that I wasn’t alone in staying up all night to study and prepare for tests.”

About Samuel Solomon

Samuel majored in chemistry-biology and physics and is currently working as a remote research assistant at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is the founder of Mind Network, an online tutoring center for advanced classes such as quantum mechanics and nuclear fusion, and cofounder of an app designed to help people with special needs better engage in the marketplace.

Although he graduated from the Undergraduate Program, Samuel’s time at MIT is not over yet. He was accepted into MIT Sloan School of Management’s MBA Early Admissions program, designed for ambitious and forward-thinking college seniors interested in securing a seat in a future MBA class. This fall, he will begin a PhD program at Caltech in biomedical and medical engineering, and after graduation from Caltech he will matriculate into the full-time MIT Sloan MBA Program.

“I’m interested in entrepreneurship and plan to explore that more when I return to MIT Sloan for my MBA,” he says. “Then it will be my turn to follow in my dad’s footsteps.”

About Dr. Michael Solomon

Michael is a senior research physician for the Intramural Research Program at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. Through this joint appointment in the Critical Care Medicine Department (CCMD) of the NIH Clinical Center and the Cardiology Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, he provides leadership within CCMD for cardiovascular related issues in patient care, intensive care unit policy, and staff training.

“During the pandemic, I’ve been in the hospital more than ever as a critical care cardiologist. I am working in the regular and COVID-19 intensive care units. It’s is refreshing to use many of the tools I learned at MIT during the pandemic and I look forward to applying them more as we look towards the recovery,” he says.

Michael adds, “To paraphrase what my accounting professor said during our online convocation, ‘Before people care about what you know, they need to know you care.’ MIT teaches you to use your knowledge and skills to make a positive difference in the world. I’m proud that Sam and I not only shared the experience of being in school together, but we shared the MIT experience.”

About the MIT Sloan School of Management

The MIT Sloan School of Management is where smart, independent leaders come together to solve problems, create new organizations, and improve the world. Learn more at mitsloan.mit.edu.