There were all these great discoveries at the time that were just changing the way we understood cells. And you know, he gave the most incredible course. And I had a question after one class, and I went to see him and in the course of talking to him, I confessed that I was supposed to go to medical school, but I had a lot of reservations. And he looked at me in a way that I will never forget. And he pointed at me, said, "You should get a job in a lab." I thought... I said, "Okay, how would I do that?" And he said, "Well, there's a medical school across the way. You just go over there and see if someone will hire you." So I foolishly said, "Okay." So I went wandering around the medical school and by, I don't know whether it's by the great vast intention of the universe or why, I was wandering the halls of the Anatomy Department. And I would just kind of ask whoever I ran into, whether there might be a way to get a job there. And my goodness, I got a job! I got a half-time lab tech job, and I graduated – I was graduating in January, so half a semester, a semester early, started the job. And again, I remember the day I walked into that lab the first time and I just felt this explosion inside me of, oh my goodness, this is what I've been looking for.

My first real job, my first post-college job.

Which changed your life?

Changed my life. I loved it. My assignment was to learn how to do electron microscopy. There was a whole group of technicians. So there was a community of people who were doing the kinds of things that I did. There were some seminars. The whole thing was just beyond fun. It was the most wonderful thing that I had imagined.

Susan Hockfield is a neuroscientist whose research focuses on brain development and glioma, pioneering the use of monoclonal antibody technology demonstrating that early experience results in lasting changes in the molecular structure of the brain. She is a Professor of Neuroscience and President Emerita at MIT. She was the first woman and life scientist to serve as MIT’s sixteenth president from 2004-2012.

Hockfield earned her B.A. in biology from the University of Rochester (1973) and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University at the School of Medicine (1979). In 1980, Hockfield completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco. She then joined the scientific staff at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York where she ran her own lab for five years. She also served as director of the Summer Neurobiology Program from 1985 to 1997. In 1985, Hockfield became the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology at Yale University. She went on to serve as the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 1998-2002, and Provost from 2003-2004.

In December 2004, Hockfield assumed office as the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She held this role until June 2012 and continues to hold a faculty appointment as professor of neuroscience and as a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

Hockfield has received numerous awards including the Charles Judson Herrick Award from the American Association of Anatomists, the Wilbur Lucius Cross Award from the Yale University Graduate School, the Meliora Citation from the University of Rochester, the Amelia Earhart Award from the Women’s Union, and the Yale Science and Engineering Association 2021 Award for Distinguished Service to Industry, Commerce or Education.

She also holds honorary degrees from Brown University, Duke University, Georgetown University, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York University, Northeastern University, Tsinghua University (Beijing), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, University of Edinburgh, University of Massachusetts Medical School, University of Rochester, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory School of Biological Sciences.