In a lively, wide-ranging conversation, MIT President Sally Kornbluth joined Jim Braud and Margery Egan in GBH’s studio Boston Public Radio On Thursday, February 5th. They talked about MIT, the pressures facing America’s research establishment, the importance of science, a congressional hearing on anti-Semitism in 2023, and more — including Sally’s experience as a type 1 diabetic.
Reflecting on how research and innovation in diabetes treatment has advanced over decades of work, resulting in significantly better patient care, Kornbluth exclaims: “This is science!”
With new financial pressures facing universities, increased competition for talented students and scholars from outside the United States, as well as unprecedented pressures on university and campus leaders, co-host Egan asks Kornbluth what she thinks will happen in the coming years.
“For us, one of the hardest things right now is the endowment tax,” Kornbluth says. “That means $240 million a year. Think about how much science you can get for $240 million a year. Are we managing it? Yes. Are we still moving forward with all our exciting initiatives? Yes. But we had to reshape things. We had to merge things. And that’s not the way we should be spending our time and our money.”
Watch and listen to Full episode on YouTube. President Kornbluth appears one hour and seven minutes into the broadcast.
Following Kornbluth’s appearance, MIT Assistant Professor John Urschel — also a former offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens — joined forces with Edgar P. Herwick III, host of GBH’s newest show, office curiosity, To talk about his love for his family, linear algebra, and football.
Regarding how he chose mathematics over football, Urschel joked: “Well, I hate to break it to you, I love mathematics more… Let me tell you, when I started my PhD at MIT, I fell in love with the place. I fell in love with the idea of being in this environment (where) everyone loves math, and everyone wants to learn. I was constantly excited every day I showed up.”
Professor Urschel appears approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes later Webcast on YouTube.
Coming to Curiosity Desk later this month…
It airs weekday afternoons from 1 to 2 p.m Office of curiosity He will welcome additional guests from MIT in the coming weeks. On Thursday, February 12, Annette “Pico” Hosoi, the Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Jerry Lou M. Finn ’24, a former researcher at the MIT Math Lab, visited Office of curiosity To discuss their work using artificial intelligence to help Olympic skiers improve their jumps.
Then, on Thursday 19 February, Professors Sangeeta Bhatia and Angela Belcher spoke with Herwick about their research to improve ovarian cancer diagnosis. We learn that about 80% of cases ovarian cancer begins in the fallopian tube and how this paves the way to a completely new approach to diagnosing and treating the disease.
