In a wide-ranging live conversation, MIT President Sally Kornbluth joins Jim Brood and Margery Egan live in GBH’s studio. boston public radio On Thursday, February 5. They talked about MIT, the pressures facing America’s research enterprise, the importance of science, congressional hearings on anti-Semitism in 2023, and much more — including Sally’s experience as a Type 1 diabetic.
Reflecting on how research and innovation in diabetes treatment has led to decades of work that has led to better patient care, Kornbluth says: “It’s science!”
With new financial pressures facing universities, increased competition for talented students and scholars from outside the US, as well as unprecedented pressure on university leaders and campuses, co-host Egan asked Kornbluth what she thinks will happen in the coming years.
Kornbluth comments, “For us, one of the hardest things now is the endowment tax.” “That’s $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 on all our exciting initiatives? Yes. But we have to reconfigure things. We have to merge things. And that’s not the way we should be spending our time and money.”
see and hear full episode on youtube. President Kornbluth appears in the broadcast for one hour and seven minutes.
Following Kornbluth’s appearance, MIT assistant professor John Urschel – a former offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens – joined GBH’s latest show host Edgar B. Joined Herwick III. curiosity desk, To talk about his family, linear algebra and his love of football.
Asked how he ultimately chose mathematics over football, Urschel quipped: “Well, I hate to tell you, I like mathematics better… Let me tell you, when I started my PhD at MIT, I fell in love with this place. I fell in love with this idea of living in this environment.” [where] Everyone likes math, everyone wants to learn. I was constantly excited to perform every day.”
Professor Urschel appears in a webcast on YouTube for approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Coming to Curiosity desks later this month…
Broadcast from 1-2pm weekdays, Curiosity Desk Will welcome additional MIT guests in the coming weeks. On Thursday, February 12, Annette “Peco” Hosoi, Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Jerry Lou Mfin ’24, former MIT Sports Lab researcher, will visit. Curiosity Desk Discussing his work using AI to help Olympic figure skaters improve their jumps.
Then, on Thursday, February 19, Professors Sangeeta Bhatia and Angela Belcher spoke to Herwick about their research to improve ovarian cancer diagnosis. We learn that about 80% of the time ovarian cancer starts in the fallopian tubes and how this paves the way for an entirely new approach to diagnosing and treating the disease.
