Susan Hockfield Former First Female President of MIT
Prior to serving as MIT’s first women president and first life scientist, Susan was named Yale University’s Provost, leading initiatives in science, engineering, and medicine. Not only did she pioneer the use of monoclonal antibody technology in brain research, but she also discovered the gene that has a critical role in the spread of brain cancer. Throughout her presidency at MIT, she increased the number of underrepresented minorities and women across the undergraduate, graduate and faculty populations. In 2015, forty five percent of the graduating class were women and twenty four percent were underrepresented minorities. Currently, she serves as a Professor of Neuroscience in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences as well as being a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.