Sally Kornbluth, the 18th president of MIT, speaks with Boston Magazine reporter Jonathan Soroff about why she is excited to lead MIT, Smoots, Boston weather and sports, and how to encourage more girls and women to pursue STEM careers.
President L. Rafael Reif, who will return to the faculty following a Sabbatical, reflects on his tenure and how his upbringing shaped his outlook on education. “For many, MIT’s reputation is one that is defined by innovative research – a technology hub built on drive and hustle,” writes Nour Saudi. “But when Rafael Reif first visited the school in the spring of 1979, he found a campus full of down-to-earth people who wanted to make the world better, something he could get behind.”
President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Tech reporters Alex Tang, Eunice Zhang and Eva Ge about his tenure as president and offers advice to MIT’s students. “I honestly think that MIT is like a playground for grown-ups. It’s a place where you can learn and do almost anything you’re interested in,” says Reif. “Undergraduates are going to be here for four years. Learn as much as you can during those four years. Experiment as much as you can. Learn from each other as much as you can.”
Duke Provost Sally Kornbluth has been named the next president of MIT, reports Paul Basken for Times Higher Education. “MIT’s announcement credited Professor Kornbluth with prioritizing investments in faculty, especially from under-represented groups, and strengthening interdisciplinary research and education,” writes Basken.
The hosts of Bloomberg Radio’s Baystate Business discussed the announcement that Sally Kornbluth has been named the 18th president of MIT. "[Kornbluth] said that she was excited for those 'global challenges,' and that is something that has been really the mantle of MIT: solving the world’s problems with technology,” reports Janet Wu. “It sounded like she wanted to be part of that.”
Forbes contributor Michael T. Nietzel spotlights how Sally Kornbluth, the provost of Duke University, has been selected as the 18th President-elect of MIT. “A highly accomplished researcher, Kornbluth is currently the Jo Rae Wright University Professor of Biology at Duke where she has been a member of the faculty since 1994, first in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at the Duke University School of Medicine and then as a member of the Department of Biology in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences,” writes Nietzel.
President-elect Sally Kornbluth discusses her hopes and aspirations for her tenure as MIT’s president with Katie Mogg of The Boston Globe. “I just want to continue the excellence of MIT,” she said. “I hope when I turn my head back down the road some years from now that this will have been viewed as a period of continued excellence, but also of the discovery, innovation, and invention of things that continue to really have a huge impact on the world stage.”
New York Times reporter Anemona Hartocollis writes that Sally Kornbluth, the 18th President-elect of MIT, will be the “second female president of the university, and will join a long list of women in its top leadership ranks. The provost, chancellor, dean of science and chair of the M.I.T. Corporation, the school’s governing body, are all women.”
Sally Kornbluth has been named the next president of MIT, reports the Associated Press. “Maybe above all, I was drawn here because this is a moment when humanity faces huge global problems, problems that urgently demand the world’s most skillful minds and hands,” said Kornbluth. “In short, I believe this is MIT’s moment. I could not imagine a greater privilege than helping the people of MIT seize its full potential.”
President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Laura Krantz at The Chronicle of Higher Education editor Laura Krantz about his time leading MIT and addresses questions about how he approached the role. “Stay in touch with faculty, stay in touch with students, find ways to hear from them directly, to be out there,” said Reif. “Don’t stay in your office waiting to hear what some people want to tell you.”
Prof. Cynthia Breazeal discusses her work exploring how artificial intelligence can help students impacted by Covid, including refugees or children with disabilities, reports Ryan Heath for Politico. “We want to be super clear on what the role is of the robot versus the community, of which this robot is a part of. That's part of the ethical design thinking,” says Breazeal. “We don't want to have the robot overstep its responsibilities. All of our data that we collect is protected and encrypted.”
Associate Provost Richard Lester and Prof. Noelle Selin speak with Tiziana Dearing, host of Radio Boston, about MIT’s Climate Grand Challenges. “To me, the Climate Grand Challenges effort really represents that we’re kind of at a frameshift when thinking about the climate problem. It’s not just a problem that some people can work on,” says Selin. “A climate challenge is a whole of society challenge, and therefore it really has to be a whole of MIT challenge.” Lester adds he hopes the challenges will “inspire a new generation of students to roll up their sleeves, put their shoulders to the wheel and help us solve this problem.”
MIT President L. Rafael Reif and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry discussed the urgency of addressing climate change during the Climate Grand Challenges Showcase event, reports Chris Lisinski for the State House News Service. “Climate change has been called a ‘super wicked’ problem. In Boston, that might sound like a local way of saying ‘really hard,’ but this phrase is actually a technical term,” Reif said. “It describes any enormously complex societal problem that has no single right answer and no clear finish line as well as multiple stakeholders with conflicting priorities and no central authority empowered to solve it.”
Bloomberg News reporter Janet Wu speaks with President L. Rafael Reif and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry during the Institute’s Climate Grand Challenges showcase event. “If you can capture the emissions -- literally, genuinely -- then you’re reducing the problem,” said Kerry of the importance of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions.
MIT announced five projects "targeting the world's toughest climate riddles" that were selected following a rigorous two-year competition, reports Benjamin Kail for Boston Business Journal. “Climate Grand Challenges represents a whole-of-MIT drive to develop game-changing advances to confront the escalating climate crisis, in time to make a difference,” says President L. Rafael Reif.