Howard University President Ben Vinson III to present March 17 Compton Lecture

To the members of the MIT community:

I hope you will join me on Monday, March 17, as Dr. Ben Vinson III, distinguished historian and president of Howard University, delivers the Karl Taylor Compton Lecture.

AI in an Age After Reason: A Discourse on Fundamental Human Questions
Monday, March 17 
4:00–5:00 p.m. ET
Light refreshments to follow.
Samberg Conference Center 
Please register to attend.
Accessible seating, live captioning viewable from your personal device, and ASL interpreters will be available during the lecture. If you need any alternate accommodations, please contact events-www@mit.edu.

Since the first Compton Lecture in 1957, the series has highlighted leaders noted for their universality of thought and their influence on human values.

Dr. Vinson became the 18th president of Howard University in September 2023 and has made it a priority to increase research opportunities for faculty and students. This year, Howard achieved the prestigious R1 designation – the highest classification for research excellence and an indication of the university’s position at the forefront of innovation and impact. Dr. Vinson previously held several important academic leadership roles: as provost and executive vice president of Case Western Reserve University, dean of George Washington University's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, and vice dean for centers, interdisciplinary studies and graduate education at Johns Hopkins University.

His scholarly work centers on the African diaspora with a focus on Latin America history and culture, and he received the 2019 Howard F. Cline Book Prize in Mexican History for his book “Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico” (2018). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and president of the American Historical Association.

If you would like to submit a question for Dr. Vinson, please fill out this Qualtrics survey by 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday, March 10. I hope you will join me and the Compton Lecture Series Advisory Committee in welcoming Dr. Vinson to campus.

Sincerely,

Sally Kornbluth