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Sally Kornbluth
American microbiologist and academic administrator From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sally Ann Kornbluth (born 1960) is an American cell biologist and academic administrator. She began serving as the 18th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in January 2023.[1]
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Early life and education
Kornbluth was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey,[2] graduating in 1978 from Fair Lawn High School.[3] Her father George was an accountant[2] and her mother, Marisa Galvany, was an opera singer.[4]
Kornbluth received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in political science from Williams College in 1982 and a Bachelor of Science with a major in genetics from the University of Cambridge in 1984. She received a Doctor of Philosophy in molecular oncology from Rockefeller University in 1989.[5]
While at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, she was a Herchel Smith Scholar. She worked at the laboratory of Hidesaburo Hanafusa when at Rockefeller University,[6] and performed postdoctoral training with John Newport at the University of California, San Diego.[7][8]
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Career
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Duke University
Kornbluth joined the faculty at Duke University in 1994. Her research focuses on cell growth and programmed cell death and how cancer cells evade apoptosis.[9][10] She is interested in the role of programmed cell death in regulating the length of female fertility in vertebrates, in a mechanism regulated by caspase-2.[8][11][12]
At Duke, she received a Research Mentoring award in 2012 and the Distinguished Faculty Award from the Duke Medical Alumni Association in 2013. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2013.[13]
In 2014, Kornbluth became provost at Duke, the first woman to serve in this role.[7][14] As provost, she oversaw a leadership transition in which female Deans became a majority at Duke.[15] She is an advocate of liberal arts education and has stated that her own experience in a liberal arts school at Williams College led her to a career in the sciences.[16] She is also an advocate for online learning as a driver of pedagogic innovation.[17]
She also served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Duke Kunshan University in China,[18] overseeing the appointment of Al Bloom as Duke Kunshan University's Executive Vice Chancellor in 2020[19] and the launch of the WHU–Duke Research Institute in 2014.[20]
Kornbluth served as vice dean for basic sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine from 2006 to 2014 and as provost of Duke University from 2014 to 2022.[13][5]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In 2022, Kornbluth was selected as the 18th president of MIT, succeeding L. Rafael Reif in 2023.[21][1] At her inauguration, she outlined objectives for MIT, including accelerating work on climate change and strengthening links between engineering and life sciences.[22]
Following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel,[23] Kornbluth and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University were summoned by the United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce to testify before a congressional hearing in December 2023 about antisemitism on their university campuses.[24] When asked by United States Representative Elise Stefanik (R–NY) whether calls for "genocide of Jews" was harassment under university policies, she responded, "If targeted at individuals, not making public statements."[25][26] Kornbluth's statement has been described by Stefanik and others as antisemitic, leading to calls by some for Kornbluth's resignation.[27]
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Honors
Personal life
Kornbluth is Jewish. Kornbluth is married to Daniel Lew, a professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at the Duke University School of Medicine. They have two children.[2]
References
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