MIT's 18th President, Sally Kornbluth addressing the class of 2026 at their MIT Graduation
John Werner
Some of us were there taking pictures. Others were getting ready to begin careers, with all of the questions and excitement that entails. Others were impacting decades of knowledge to these newly minted grads, and our president Sally Kornbluth had some good things to say, about not just the legacy of this venerable institution, but about the feeling of living and working in the MIT community.
Amid the hubbub, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of her remarks. After all, photo-documentation preserves the day in its own way, but having a good synopsis does its own work, too.
Early in her address, Kornbluth talked about how people relate stories to her, of how MIT changed their lives.
“It wasn't a subject they studied or a particular skill they acquired,” she said. “It was the whole MIT experience of living and working here together and belonging to a community with our distinctive passions, and values.”
So what makes all of this work? Kornbluth mentioned two principles: excellence, and curiosity.
“Excellence is an easy thing to say,” Kornbluth observed. “Most companies claim it, probably every university too, but I have never seen a community live its commitment to excellence the way it is done at MIT. It's easy to measure in the outward accomplishments of our faculty and our graduates, the prizes, the discoveries, the inventions, the architecture in the industries, the companies, and the cures. But you also feel it here every day when everyone you meet in the hallway wants to tell you about what they're working on, and it just blows you away.”
There’s a commitment to that principle, she said, in practices like abolishing legacy admissions or backdoor admissions for donors.
“As an institution, we support these standards of individual excellence with a systematic focus on merit,” she said. “We value potential over pedigree.”
“I'm talking about self-discipline, not self-regard,” Kornbluth clarified. “In the work we do, a conscious commitment to excellence is not the same as arrogance.”
She cited the words of poet Walt Whitman:
“I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them.”
“MIT is custom made for people whose curiosity never sleeps, which describes our faculty, our staff, our alumni, and every one of you,” Kornbluth said. “Feeling that curiosity is an incredible source of pleasure.”
She talked about being interviewed by a journalist who found her “inexplicably ebullient.”
I liked this part of the speech, because many of us have probably had this experience. The opinions and attitudes of humans on AI are all over the board, and if someone does not share the ebullience or bullish sentiment of a colleague or someone they’re speaking to, you’re going to get a dynamic like that.
Kornbluth explicated her ebullience:
“If I'm ebullient in leading this community, it's entirely explicable,” she said. “This curiosity is our intellectual rocket fuel. At MIT, we know that curiosity-driven science is the path to new knowledge, the kind that spawns world changing innovations. I hope you all will join in a great shared effort to sustain the work of scientific curiosity on a mission to serve.”
In closing, Kornbluth had a few more words of encouragement for grads:
“I have no doubt that like our alumni, you will be top-flight performers in your fields,” she said “innovators, engineers, scientists, doctors, designers, entrepreneurs, investors, and astronauts, pioneers in whatever realm you choose.”
She also made an appeal to those who use their power to change:
“I mentioned excellence and curiosity, two of MIT'S core values,” she said, “but I hope we also hold together another core value, the commitment to always act ethically, with integrity, and with consideration for our fellow human beings. I have no doubt that with your uncommon talent, you can do it. And if you keep that goal in sight, I know you will do great things for the world.”
A rousing speech, to be sure, on an auspicious day. Stay tuned as I continue to report on everything that’s going on here at MIT and elsewhere, with the advent of more powerful AI in our lives.
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