![]() ![]() In 1973, Hopkins became an assistant professor at MIT’s Center for Cancer Research, which would later become the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. ![]() “My entire research career has been spent measuring very, very precise distances.” As a result, Mavalvala was fascinated with one particular incident from Hopkins’ career, which is chronicled in chapter 15 of “The Exceptions.” “I’m an experimental physicist,” she explained. After welcoming attendees, both in-person and virtual, she shared an anecdote about the tools that scientists use to measure things. The discussion, which fittingly took place on International Women’s Day, began with an introduction from Nergis Mavalvala, the Curtis and Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics and dean of the School of Science, who sponsored the event with the Department of Biology. Kate Zernike, now a correspondent at The New York Times, was a reporter at The Boston Globe at the time and was the first to break the story of MIT’s historic admission. As a result of their work, in 1999 MIT publicly admitted to discriminating against its female faculty, a move that forced academic institutions across the country to reckon with pervasive sexism in science. “The Exceptions” centers on Hopkins’ remarkable life and career and tells the story of 16 “exceptional” female scientists on the MIT faculty, who, with Hopkins as their unlikely leader, became heroes in the fight for gender equality. The topic of discussion was Zernike’s book, “The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science,” which made its official debut at the end of February. On a recent evening at MIT, over a hundred people gathered at Boynton Hall for a conversation with Amgen Professor of Biology Emerita Nancy Hopkins and journalist Kate Zernike. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |