MIT President Susan Hockfield will give a talk on "The University and Its Responsibilities" at the annual Science, Technology and Society-sponsored Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics on Monday, Nov. 7, at 4 p.m. in Kirsch Auditorium in the Stata Center.
A neuroscientist whose research has focused on the development of the brain, Hockfield received her bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Rochester and her Ph.D. in anatomy and neuroscience from Georgetown University School of Medicine. Prior to being named the Institute's 16th president in December 2004, she was the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology and provost at Yale University.
Hockfield will speak on the complex, sometimes contradictory imperatives that universities today face -- to be at once local, regional, national and international, and to preserve academic values while engaging with industry, government and society. She will discuss the role of the modern university as well as the special responsibilities faced by educators, students and researchers in the physical sciences, the life sciences and technology.
The lecture honors the memory of Arthur Miller, an MIT alumnus (S.B. 1945) noted for his work in electronic measurement and instrumentation.
During World War II, he worked at the Radiation Lab, where he worked for several years. His medical contributions included methods to reduce shock hazards in hospital monitoring systems and designing the first commercial cardiographs that featured adequate patient circuit isolation from line and ground.
The talk is free and open to the public. For more information, call Debbie Meinbresse at x3-4062.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 2, 2005 (download PDF).
