Speeches
“Science, math and engineering can give you the exhilarating power to become not mere spectators or consumers, but the active explorers, makers and doers who will help invent the future.” - Susan Hockfield
October 04, 2019
I am honored beyond words by the naming of this courtyard in my honor and this celebration. I’m a bit embarrassed by all of this because I’m acutely aware that all of you gathered on this courtyard today, and many, many others who couldn’t join us, deserve all the credit for imagining the possibilities and delivering on them during my presidency. Thank you, all of you! From the bottom to the...
November 30, 2018
I am Susan Hockfield. I served as the 16th President of MIT, and it is a great, but a very sad privilege to offer a few words in celebration of the 14th President of MIT, Paul E. Gray.
I first met Paul Gray during my initial introduction to MIT. Paul served as a member of the presidential search committee that brought me to the Institute. Even among the truly impressive and distinguished...
June 21, 2018
I recently wrote a short editorial for Science in which I celebrated the science and technology golden age that we’re living through. It’s really astonishing if you think about it. Never has the pace of discovery been so rapid, the range of achievements so broad, and the changing nature of our understanding so revolutionary. Despite what one often reads in the press, and despite the way...
May 19, 2018
Thank you, my friends: Professor Donoghue, Dean Celenza, Provost Groves and President DeGioia. I could not be more honored – or more nostalgic -- to join you today to congratulate the Class of 2018!
Not so terribly long ago, I sat where you’re now sitting, here on the Georgetown campus, bedecked in cap and gown, eagerly awaiting my Georgetown degree.
Like you, I listened to the speeches (OK...
September 25, 2016
When I heard the news that the University of Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor, Andrew Hamilton, would be NYU’s next president, my first thought was, “Terrific choice!” My second thought, reflecting on NYU’s increasing excellence and prominence under John Sexton’s leadership, was, “I sure hope he has a pair of really big shoes!” And, only to briefly summarize my third through 150th thoughts: “NYU’s...
March 06, 2014
As we remember those who have left us, their faces emerge from our memory, recalling event after event and evoking wave after wave of emotion. For me, two faces of Chuck Vest bound into view: The first, his twinkling eyes over his boyish grin as he reports yet another amazing observation, “Did you know that more than 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children?” ...
May 13, 2013
It’s a great privilege to serve as a Science Envoy for the United States focused on Turkey as this country accelerates towards a knowledge-based, high-skills economy. Already on this short trip I’ve encountered dozens of far-sighted projects and programs designed to propel Turkey toward its inspiring ambition to become a top 10 global economy by 2023. It is abundantly clear that you recognize...
February 16, 2013
AAAS Fellows were instituted in the 1870s, to create a more prestigious category of "fellows" for members "professionally engaged in science" or those who "by their labors aided in advancing science." That’s you!
Congratulations on your election: You join a society of extraordinary scientists and scholars, the AAAS elite. Many of you, quite appropriately will find this honor of particular...
June 08, 2012
Welcome all: graduates and alumni, friends and family. Gathered here in Killian Court, we feel the deep currents of history. The majestic architecture of the Main Group recalls our MIT predecessors who, in 1916, erected these buildings. In their grandeur, these buildings expressed a vision and an ambition for the technological century that was about to unfold. And in the names carved above us,...
May 16, 2012
Today is a hugely exciting day for MIT. I cannot imagine anyone better prepared for the job of MIT’s president than Rafael Reif. Nor can I imagine anyone better suited to serve this community in this moment. Our president-elect is well known to many in the MIT community, but not to all. So, for those who have not had the privilege of working with Rafael, I want to give you a sense of the...
May 02, 2012
MIT is extremely excited to continue a long history of collaboration by joining with Harvard in this new partnership, a shared expedition to explore the frontiers of digital education. What we will discover together will help us do what we do, better: to more effectively and more creatively increase the vitality of our institutions, and, at the same time, to increase educational opportunities for...
February 29, 2012
Almost two weeks ago, I announced that I would be stepping down later this year as president of MIT. That decision has led me to reflect a bit on the beginning of my service at MIT, more than seven years ago, and one memory stands out from all the rest: the clear, unambiguous message from the Institute’s entire community that it was time for MIT to step up and do something serious about energy....
February 09, 2012
Let me begin this morning with a very warm thank-you to the MIT Gospel Choir for their glorious music. Shamarah Hernandez and Derek Ham, thank youfor your inspiring words and your selfless contributions to the MIT community – and thank you, in advance, for the important ways you will no doubt serve the world. I also want to thank our hosts, the Committee on Race and Diversity, for bringing us...
February 07, 2012
As I begin, I feel compelled to confess the glaringly obvious: I am not any kind of historian. I am a neuroscientist by training, but MIT’s Sesquicentennial celebrations last year deputized me as one of our official storytellers, so I have become a kind of accidental, entirely amateur historian – a dangerous pursuit. With that caveat, I very much look forward to your questions later on, and I am...
November 09, 2011
Let me start the evening off by talking a bit about America's innovation economy – how it emerged, how it's working, and some steps we can take to strengthen it. As I step into this discussion of the innovation economy, I should acknowledge the obvious: I am neither an entrepreneur nor an economist. I have no high-tech innovations up my sleeve, and bringing ideas on innovation to Silicon Valley...
July 15, 2011
In seeking a solution to America's current economic quandary, it would be hard to think of any group closer to the action than the nation's governors: You carry an extraordinary burden of leadership, both in addressing the human suffering and budget impacts of the lingering global downturn, and in trying to chart a course to a brighter economic future for your states, so I join you today with a...
June 03, 2011
Those of you graduating today will receive many different degrees in a wide range of disciplines. But, even so, you are united, as our Sesquicentennial class. The MIT150 celebrations that began 148 days ago have described the earliest dreams of our founding and produced provocative, sometimes even luminous, visions of the future. We heard Nobel Laureate-studded panels discuss the frontiers of...
April 10, 2011
We gather today to celebrate MIT's founding 150 years ago. However, I will focus my comments on our responsibilities for the next 150 years, because we come together at a precarious time for our nation and for the world: A time when the world increasingly seeks – and suffers for the lack of – safe, sustainable, clean energy, and when the climate speaks to us through rising seas and retreating...
March 04, 2011
The dedication of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, our newest hotbed of research and education innovation, falls right in the midst of 150 days of events that celebrate MIT's first 150 years. In preparing for our Sesquicentennial, we have been delving into MIT's past to find fuel for the future. In 1861, when William Barton Rogers founded MIT, he aimed to make science...
February 09, 2011
Let me begin with a welcome to everyone, and a warm thank you to the MIT Gospel Choir and to the Ettienne Group for the glorious music, and to Khalea Robinson and Pierre Fuller for their truly inspiring words. We often say how much the intelligence and ambition of our students inspires us, but every year, at this event I feel infinitely proud to play a role, no matter how minor, in helping...
September 13, 2010
Let me start by thanking the Brookings Institution for hosting this important conversation. I also want to thank Jim Simons and Math for America for bringing us together, and for Jim's phenomenal leadership in developing inspired and informed math teachers. And I know we will all miss Representative Bart Gordon, who has been a powerful force for the good through his work in Congress. Finally, I...
August 29, 2010
Welcome to the MIT Class of 2014! I also offer a very warm welcome to all of your families and friends who have come to help you settle into your new home here at MIT.
After the long months of the admissions process – more competitive than ever this year – you, our new MIT freshmen, may feel that you are lucky to be here. But let me state very clearly that we are lucky to have you join us. You...
June 23, 2010
President Zhang, thank you for your gracious introduction and for welcoming us to the campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. I want to particularly acknowledge Madame Ma, Chairperson of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Council, whom we were deeply honored to host at our campus in Cambridge just nine days ago. We look forward to a future of productive collaborations.
As student and faculty...
June 04, 2010
Today's graduates of MIT: This day is, truly, for you. Here, in the stately embrace of Killian Court, we gather to celebrate your success. You have distinguished yourselves in courses of study that stand among the most demanding in the world. For all that you have accomplished, we congratulate you.
In the midst of celebrating your achievements, our joy would be incomplete if we did not recognize...
March 22, 2010
Living amid so many treasures of the past, one great gift from Greece to the world has been the ability to take the long view, to understand that there is more to the human story than the events of the present, however overwhelming they may seem. This is surely a moment of great economic difficulty and political turmoil for many nations of the world. We all share the pressing concerns of the...