Letter from the Chair

To the Faculty, Staff, Students, Alumni, and Friends of MIT,

With great pleasure, I share with you the news that the MIT Corporation voted to elect Duke University Provost Dr. Sally Kornbluth as the 18th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Kornbluth will assume her role at MIT on January 1, 2023.

A distinguished leader, researcher, and mentor, Dr. Kornbluth is the Jo Rae Wright University Professor of Biology. She has served as provost at Duke since 2014, overseeing 10 schools and six institutes. Her academic honors include membership in the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Kornbluth is an extraordinary find for MIT – an exceptional administrator who creates an environment that breaks barriers and enables every student, faculty, and staff member to contribute at their highest levels. She is known for her judgment, plain-spokenness, and integrity. Dr. Kornbluth’s leadership style is decisive, bold, and invariably informed by high moral principles. Her career has exemplified a powerful drive for excellence and a capacity to appreciate, respect, and integrate a wide array of viewpoints. Her undergraduate degree from Williams College is in political science, and she went from there to Cambridge University and then Rockefeller University, where she studied genetics and molecular oncology, respectively.

Dr. Kornbluth arrives at the Institute with a deep understanding of MIT’s strengths. She is a widely respected scientist who responds to problems with exceptional creativity and who comprehends the considerable importance of basic science, technological innovation, and entrepreneurship. Her vision and profound humanity will serve us well as MIT builds on its longstanding efforts to confront the challenges faced by our species and our world. 

You can learn much more about MIT’s 18th president and her manifold talents and accomplishments in the MIT News story announcing her election. I encourage you to read it.

Finally, please allow me to express my profound gratitude for the extraordinary efforts of the Search Committee and its chair, John Jarve, whose internal and external outreach over many, many months identified this brilliant new leader for the Institute. 

Most sincerely,

Diane Greene
Chair, MIT Corporation