Friday, August 27, 2004
Just a little bit of history made here at MIT yesterdy by the election of our very first female president of the Institute, Susan Hockfield, currently Provost of Yale University. Professor Hockfield is a Neuroscientist (Neurobiologist is the specific discipline) who announced that her agenda would emphasize collaborative work and interdisciplinary research and study. As Neuroscience is the current hot, developing department on campus; because MIT is dedicated to hiring more female professors and managers; and as MIT scientists have traditionally worked in isolation, fearful of collaboration--and have sometimes had difficulties adapting to the corporate or research jobs for which they are so qualified, therefore--her appointment makes a lot of sense in many areas. As far as I'm concerned, personally, the stress she placed in her acceptance speech on the importance of the arts and humanities is good news indeed.
She is not an MIT graduate, being only the second non-alum to become president. The man she succeeds was the first, Charles Vest who has become much beloved here as a person and much admired for his accomplishemnts. When Vest announced his retirement from MIT, there were calls from many in the entrenched culture here that the time had come to return an alumnus as president "because he will understand." "He" was of course a given--the entrenched were not considering a woman--and what this proposed "he" was to have understood was the entrenched culture--and therefore not try to change it.
Professor Hockfield's husband, Thomas N. Byrne, is Clinical Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Internal Medicine at Yale’s School of Medicine, and they have a daughter. Neuroscience runs in the family, obviously, but maybe their daughter will want to be a modern dancer, who knows? It would be kind of fun if she did. In any event we're going to have an interesting and stimulating introductory period to our new president. Having the 'tute shaken up every now and again is a good process.
She is not an MIT graduate, being only the second non-alum to become president. The man she succeeds was the first, Charles Vest who has become much beloved here as a person and much admired for his accomplishemnts. When Vest announced his retirement from MIT, there were calls from many in the entrenched culture here that the time had come to return an alumnus as president "because he will understand." "He" was of course a given--the entrenched were not considering a woman--and what this proposed "he" was to have understood was the entrenched culture--and therefore not try to change it.
Professor Hockfield's husband, Thomas N. Byrne, is Clinical Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Internal Medicine at Yale’s School of Medicine, and they have a daughter. Neuroscience runs in the family, obviously, but maybe their daughter will want to be a modern dancer, who knows? It would be kind of fun if she did. In any event we're going to have an interesting and stimulating introductory period to our new president. Having the 'tute shaken up every now and again is a good process.
