New MIT professor Thomas Rose died Wednesday from injuries sustained in an Aug. 21 collision at Memorial Drive and Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, where he was riding a bicycle, according to the school’s news service.
The Berlin-born Rose, 37, educated at schools in Europe, joined MIT in January and was still setting up a lab for his studies of ancient metallurgy, the school said.
The incident that killed him is under investigation. “Cambridge Bike Safety had been pushing on this exact intersection with a campaign this summer,” said Chris Cassa, a volunteer with the organization. “We have a petition, and banners up right now trying to get people to sign. This is a known, statewide crash cluster.”
The death resulted from a collision with a heavy-duty-style pickup truck at around 6 a.m. Aug. 21, and the victim was alert and didn’t appear to be facing life-threatening injuries when he was taken to a hospital, the Middlesex district attorney said after the MIT news report, with detail added by state representative Mike Connolly.
Connolly said he spoke with spoke with state police, the district attorney and top administrators at the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation and Cambridge transportation department to try to learn more about what happened and to “call for accountability for the automobile driver and for an immediate assessment of this intersection.”
Though the intersection is outside his 26th Middlesx District, Connolly said he attended a vigil at MIT “where those who knew professor Rose were clearly distraught and overcome with grief.”
Death on Memorial Drive now seem to be “one every couple of years,” Cassa said. The most recent previous death in the area was cyclist John Corcoran, who was struck by a car and killed on Sept. 23, 2024. Rose and Corcoran join a grim history the group has been tracking since 2014 of incidents along Memorial Drive. Along with more than 400 people who have been injured, according to Cambridge Bike Safety, have been the deaths of pedestrian Mark C. Keiser, 50, on Aug. 19, 2014; pedestrian Molly Doub, 31, on May 14, 2017; and pedestrian Juzhen Feng, 74, on March 1, 2020.
“We are heartbroken by the death of professor Thomas Rose. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, students and colleagues. No one should lose their life while bicycling through our community,” the group said in an official statement Thursday, noting the intersection’s 61 reported bicycle crashes. “We are calling on our state agencies to make major, permanent safety improvements now.”
The bike group believed Cambridge was working with DCR to make improvements at the intersection, in the MIT neighborhood known as Area II, but didn’t have details – and the city and its police department were also taken by surprise by news of the death Wednesday. State police hadn’t included the city in its investigation of the incident, said a city spokesperson, Jeremy Warnick.
Two voice mails and an email were left Thursday with state police asking about the silence around the Aug. 21 incident that led to Rose’s death. Trooper Brandon Doherty, of the state police office of media relations, referred questions to the Middlesex district attorney’s office.
Bicyclists talking in online forums expressed frustrated over the lack of information. They feared Rose was another in a series of riders killed by cars or trucks. “That intersection is horrific with cars using the on- and off-ramps like a highway. They never look for cyclists or peds,” one user said in a discussion on Reddit.
This post was updated Sept. 4, 2026, with information from the Middlesex district attorney. It was updated Sept. 5, 2026, with information from state representative Mike Connolly.
