Two years after admitting that its female researchers lacked administrative power, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's top management is taking on a different look. This week the renowned Whitehead Institute announced that molecular biologist Susan Lindquist of the University of Chicago will take over as director when Gerald Fink steps down in October.
CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Lindquist, a member of the National Academy of Sciences who is known for her work in heat shock proteins and fruit flies, joins a growing coterie of women in senior administrative positions at MIT. In the past year alone, the institution has promoted or plans to promote women as associate chiefs of the cancer center, electrical engineering, and computer science; associate head of chemical engineering; director of the nuclear science lab; and associate provost. "This is an astounding amount of progress in a single year in terms of diversity in the leadership--particularly of science and engineering," says MIT biologist Nancy Hopkins, a key player in the 1999 report that focused on inequities among tenured women faculty members.
