Presenter: Susan Hockfield, President
A passionate advocate for students and an ‘astonishingly gifted teacher’ of mechanical engineering. This instructor provides ‘indispensable’ support for the course in measurement methods and experimental techniques, motivating her students with a program she calls ‘Go Forth and Measure.’ An ‘invaluable resource’ for technical advice, she invents creative ways to help students grasp the link between physical modeling and practical design. Dubbed by one nominator a ‘genius in the classroom,’ she is, in the words of one of her students, simply the most influential professor he’d ever had.
Reaching beyond her work with MIT students, she also designed a summer course -- the MIT Women’s Technology Program – designed to introduce high school girls to engineering. This small program has enormous impact; more than 30% of its graduates go on to attend MIT.
Please join me in congratulating Barbara Hughey.