Sally Kornbluth

President
MIT

Sally Kornbluth became MIT’s 18th president on January 1, 2023. She is a cell biologist whose eight-year tenure as Duke University’s provost earned her a reputation as a brilliant administrator, a creative problem-solver, and a leading advocate of academic excellence. Previously the Jo Rae Wright University Professor of Biology, Kornbluth served on the Duke faculty since 1994. As provost, she served as Duke’s chief academic officer. Kornbluth’s research has focused on the biological signals that tell a cell to start dividing or to self-destruct — processes that are key to understanding cancer as well as various degenerative disorders. She has published extensively on cell proliferation and programmed cell death, studying both phenomena in a variety of organisms. Her research has helped to show how cancer cells evade this programmed death, or apoptosis, and how metabolism regulates the cell death process; her work has also clarified the role of apoptosis in regulating the duration of female fertility in vertebrates. Kornbluth studied political science at Williams College. After earning her B.A. in political science, Kornbluth received a scholarship to attend Cambridge University, earning a B.A. in genetics. Kornbluth received her Ph.D. in molecular oncology from Rockefeller University, and completed postdoctoral training at University of California, San Diego. She joined Duke as an assistant professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, becoming an associate professor, then full professor in 2005. She was named vice dean for basic science at Duke School of Medicine in 2006, until being named provost in 2014.