Fall Welcome

Hello, everybody!

I just wanted to offer a quick message to welcome all of the new members of our MIT community and to welcome back those of you who took some time away from MIT for the summer. 

September has given us so many perfect back-to-school days! For me, that’s meant lots of impromptu conversations, from convocation to the ice cream social. People seem excited to be here and so glad to see each other!

And there’s a wonderful sense of momentum! Our new provost, Anantha Chandrakasan, has hit the ground running, and we’re making excellent progress in our searches to fill two key roles: the vice president for resource development and vice president for government affairs. Our presidential initiatives are funding their first round of faculty projects and fellowships. I have a new crop of wonderful students on my Presidential Advisory Committee. And the music building has become a new center of energy for the whole community.

But of course, the world outside of MIT is still very complicated for us; no one can predict what’s coming at us next.

So I’d like to offer a brief reflection on what we’re here to do together.

We live in an age of distraction – but the work we do at MIT requires focus.

For MIT’s senior leaders, our focus is on doing everything we can to navigate a constantly changing landscape. Federal science funding. Research policy. A huge new tax burden. Threats to visas. Executive orders – everything.

I’m frequently down in Washington with other MIT leaders, meeting with members of Congress and the administration to argue for the value of what we do here. (Incidentally, if you have a compelling story about what the nation gains from MIT research and education – and what it stands to lose if they’re threatened – please do write and let me know!) 

At the same time, back on campus, we’re working hard to prepare the Institute for significant new financial pressures. 

Last spring, I asked Executive Vice President and Treasurer Glen Shor and the provost to set up a group to consider a variety of financial scenarios and how we might respond. In the coming weeks, Glen and Anantha will share more about the scope and severity of the challenges, and how you can provide feedback on possible paths forward. 

So, in addition to ensuring the success of the exciting things I mentioned, dealing with financial realities is our focus.

But I hope that, for the rest of you – whatever your role – it’s still possible to focus on the vital work you came here to do.

The most important thing we can do to protect the Institute’s great mission in the long run is to do our best work: To provide and engage in the distinctive rigor and challenge of an MIT education. And to pursue the kind of daring discovery and invention that the public counts on from MIT. 

I want to close by offering a tribute to two scientific giants the world recently lost: MIT Professor Emeritus Rai Weiss, and David Baltimore, president emeritus of Caltech, who spent many years on the faculty here.

Rai was an experimental physicist, David a biologist focused on molecular biology, immunology and virology. Both had their pioneering work recognized with a Nobel Prize.

But I mention them not only for their accomplishments, but because they embodied the essence of MIT's culture and values. They were fair, generous, candid, bold. They held themselves to the highest standards of scientific inquiry. And their life’s work was to advance knowledge and educate students, by unraveling the great mysteries of nature.

I hope we can all take inspiration from their example, as we focus on our own work now.