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Reif iced for a good cause

President L. Rafael Reif accepts ice bucket challenge to benefit ALS research.
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MIT President L. Rafael Reif accepted a double Ice Bucket Challenge from Harvard President Drew Faust and the MIT Edgerton Center. The ice bucket challenge is raising funds to help scientists research the causes of and potential treatments for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
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Caption: MIT President L. Rafael Reif accepted a double Ice Bucket Challenge from Harvard President Drew Faust and the MIT Edgerton Center. The ice bucket challenge is raising funds to help scientists research the causes of and potential treatments for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Credits: Melanie Gonick/MIT
Phi Delta Theta created a dousing contraption that filled a bucket via tubes. Lou Gehrig was a member of this fraternity when he was a student at Columbia University.
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Caption: Phi Delta Theta created a dousing contraption that filled a bucket via tubes. Lou Gehrig was a member of this fraternity when he was a student at Columbia University.
Credits: Melanie Gonick/MIT
Pi Lambda Phi created a catapult for the Ice bucket challenge, which soaked President Reif a second time.
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Caption: Pi Lambda Phi created a catapult for the Ice bucket challenge, which soaked President Reif a second time.
Credits: Melanie Gonick/MIT
President Reif invited the MIT community to participate, and he dedicated the event to Karolina Fraczkowska '01, whose husband recently died of the disease.
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Caption: President Reif invited the MIT community to participate, and he dedicated the event to Karolina Fraczkowska '01, whose husband recently died of the disease.
Credits: Melanie Gonick/MIT

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MIT President L. Rafael Reif accepted a double Ice Bucket Challenge from Harvard President Drew Faust and the MIT Edgerton Center. The ice bucket challenge is raising funds to help scientists research the causes of and potential treatments for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Caption:
MIT President L. Rafael Reif accepted a double Ice Bucket Challenge from Harvard President Drew Faust and the MIT Edgerton Center. The ice bucket challenge is raising funds to help scientists research the causes of and potential treatments for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Credits:
Melanie Gonick/MIT
Phi Delta Theta created a dousing contraption that filled a bucket via tubes. Lou Gehrig was a member of this fraternity when he was a student at Columbia University.
Caption:
Phi Delta Theta created a dousing contraption that filled a bucket via tubes. Lou Gehrig was a member of this fraternity when he was a student at Columbia University.
Credits:
Melanie Gonick/MIT
Pi Lambda Phi created a catapult for the Ice bucket challenge, which soaked President Reif a second time.
Caption:
Pi Lambda Phi created a catapult for the Ice bucket challenge, which soaked President Reif a second time.
Credits:
Melanie Gonick/MIT
President Reif invited the MIT community to participate, and he dedicated the event to Karolina Fraczkowska '01, whose husband recently died of the disease.
Caption:
President Reif invited the MIT community to participate, and he dedicated the event to Karolina Fraczkowska '01, whose husband recently died of the disease.
Credits:
Melanie Gonick/MIT

MIT President L. Rafael Reif has accepted ALS Ice Bucket Challenges from Harvard University President Drew Faust and the MIT Edgerton Center. The Ice Bucket Challenge is raising funds to help scientists research the causes of and potential treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. 

Reif invited the MIT community to participate with him on Killian Court this morning. He dedicated the event to Karolina Fraczkowska '01, whose husband recently died from the disease.

The challenge, which has gone viral on social media, has raised more than $40 million to date. Those who are called out are asked to pledge either to donate $100 to ALS research or to be doused with ice water. In recent weeks, people have taken to doing both, as President Reif did today.

In true MIT fashion, Reif was doused by student-built contraptions — one for each of his challenges. Members of the Phi Delta Theta and Pi Lambda Phi fraternities brought forth the dousing machines with less than 24 hours’ notice.

Reif now challenges Shruti Sharma, president of the MIT Undergraduate Association; Kendall Nowocin, president of the MIT Graduate Student Council; Thomas Rosenbaum; president of the California Institute of Technology; Christina Paxson, president of Brown University; and Nicholas Dirks, chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley. They each have 24 hours to respond.

Watch President L. Rafael Reif accept the ice bucket challenge.

Update: Challenge response videos are now available from Caltech's Thomas Rosenbaum; Brown's Christina Paxson; and UC Berkeley's Nicholas Drake.

Press Mentions

Slice of MIT

The MIT Alumni Association’s Slice of MIT blog features highlights of MIT President L. Rafael Reif’s Ice Bucket Challenge. “MIT President L. Rafael Reif is the Institute’s 17th president, but he is almost surely the first MIT president to publicly dump a bucket of near-freezing water over his head,” writes Jay London. 

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