Trustee Susan Hockfield has served as the sixteenth president of MIT since December 2004, the first life scientist and the first woman to head the Institute. Under her leadership, MIT has embarked on a campus-wide initiative to pioneer a clean energy future, and has expanded its work at the interdisciplinary crossroads of the life, physical, and engineering sciences in fields as diverse as cancer research and novel battery technologies.
In this interview Dr. Hockfield discusses her thoughts on becoming the Institute’s president; multidisciplinary research groups studying complex clinical and scientific problems; how neuroscience grapples with questions in the sciences and humanities; and reflections on the progress of the MIT Energy Initiative.