US academics call for greater diversity in postdoctoral studies on 150th anniversary of MIT’s first woman graduate

At an event in Hong Kong to mark the 150th anniversary of MIT’s first woman graduate, academic luminaries underscored the need for greater gender diversity in postdoctoral studies

MIT President Sally Kornbluth said there’s ‘great risk to closing off interactions’ amid the current complex geopolitical environment

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MIT President Sally Kornbluth speaks at the event organised by the MIT Club of Hong Kong via video link on Tuesday. Photo: Handout

Published: 11:28am, 4 Oct 2023Updated: 8:36pm, 4 Oct 2023

Keeping lines of academic dialogue open despite the US and China’s increasingly bitter geopolitical rivalry will benefit both countries and the world, according to the head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Speaking at an event organised by the MIT Club of Hong Kong, the university’s President Sally Kornbluth stressed the importance of maintaining free scientific exchange while remaining mindful of the “complex geopolitical environment”.

“There’s a lot of political rhetoric on both sides of the aisle,” she said in a remote address on Tuesday to a crowd that included a number of notable MIT alumni from Hong Kong. “But what I think is most important for MIT and the world is to keep the pipeline open between Asia and the US so that we can benefit from the best talent.”

The Great Dome on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Boston, US. Photo: Shutterstock

There had been “a lot of conversation” in the United States about national-security issues, Kornbluth said, while also cautioning that “there is a great risk to closing off interactions”.

“We have to balance opportunity and risk here,” she said. “I would hope that our interactions at an academic level will continue as they have for many, many years.”

Kornbluth also spoke about the importance of providing young girls with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) role models at the event, which was held in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Ellen Swallow Richards’s graduation from the university.

Richards – the first woman ever admitted to MIT – received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1873, 12 years after the university was established.