Susan Hockfield

Susan Hockfield is the first woman and the first life scientist to lead MIT. Under her historic presidency, the numbers of women and underrepresented minorities at the University soared—at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty level. In addition to her steadfast commitment to diversity, Hockfield spearheaded numerous transformative projects during her tenure. She launched the wildly successful MIT Energy Initiative, which raised over 350 million dollars towards building a more sustainable future, and attracted the attention of President Barack Obama. In fact, Hockfield’s presidency was the most successful period of fundraising in MIT history, raising nearly 3 billion dollars total. She also took the lead on campus development, and, in keeping with MIT’s entrepreneurial spirit, fostered Kendall Square into what it is today—an innovation hub of labs, research centers, and corporate offices located on some of the most valuable real estate in Massachusetts.

A neuroscientist by training, Hockfield championed many breakthroughs emerging from the “convergence” of biology and technology. Under her presidency, several “convergence” institutes were founded, including the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT, the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, where she remains a member, and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, founded to accelerate progress against HIV/AIDS. Her book, The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution, explores how radical new convergence technologies—from mind-reading bionic limbs to cancer-detecting nanoparticles—will address some of the greatest humanitarian, medical, and environmental challenges of our time. More importantly, Hockfield reveals how these innovations will touch every industry, from energy and manufacturing, to healthcare, agriculture, and beyond.