“当我来到麻省理工学院时，真正让我震惊的事情，并且每天都让我震惊的是， 这里发生的事情是令人惊奇的。科学, 工程… 每天我都会听到一些让我下巴掉下来的东西,” 主席 Sally Kornbluth 在与 Lizzie O’Leary of Slate的 “What Next: TBD” 播客的现场讨论中说道。
“The thing that really struck me when I came to MIT and strikes me every single day is the stuff that的 going on here is amazing. The science, the engineering… every day I hear something that makes my jaw drop,” remarked President Sally Kornbluth during a live discussion with Lizzie O’Leary of Slate’s “What Next: TBD” podcast.
Kornbluth 谈到了从好奇心驱动的科学的重要性以及为什么基础科学对我们国家的未来, 到人工智能和教育, 至关重要的一切内容，甚至勇敢地与 O’Leary 一起演唱了威廉姆斯学院的歌曲, “The Mountains,” 以纪念他们共同的母校。
Kornbluth spoke about everything from the importance of curiosity-driven science and why basic science is critical to our nation的 future, to AI and education, and even bravely joined O’Leary in a rendition of the Williams College song, “The Mountains,” in honor of their shared alma mater.
“我们正处于这个充满不确定性的时期,” Kornbluth 在谈到高等教育和科学研究资金的现状时说道。 “我们正在努力做的是保持科学的稳健性。”
“We are in this time of incredible uncertainty,” said Kornbluth of the current state of higher education and funding for scientific research. “What we are trying to do is keep the science robust.”
回想起她在杜克大学的时光以及她对大学篮球的热爱,，当试图解决人们对华盛顿特区高等教育的怀疑, D.C.时，她指出’是区域覆盖和盯人防守的结合。她强调: “A是世界顶级机构之一，’是我们阐明科学重要性的责任的一部分。在幕后, 我是 – 以及许多其他 [university] 校长 – 我现在一直在华盛顿。我想向国会议员和女性, 参议员, 行政部门人员解释我们正在做的事情的重要性。”
Bouncing back to her time at Duke and her love of college basketball, she noted it的 a combination of zone coverage and man-to-man defense when trying to address skepticism about higher education in Washington, D.C. She emphasized: “As one of the top institutions in the world it的 part of our responsibility to articulate the importance of science. Behind the scenes, I am – along with many other [university] presidents – I am in D.C. all the time now. I want to speak to Congressmen and women, Senators, people in the executive branch to explain the importance of what we are doing.”
科恩布鲁斯强调，来自美国大学的基础科学人才储备是我们国家的重要资产,，并警告说，继续使这一人才储备紧张可能会对美国产生巨大的负面影响。
Kornbluth emphasized that the pipeline of basic science that flows from U.S. universities is a critical asset for our country, cautioning that to keep straining this pipeline could have enormous negative ramifications for the U.S. down the line.
“如果你考虑在这个国家完成的研究,，它’是在大学完成的,，它’是在国家实验室完成的,，它’是在工业界完成的,”，Kornbluth说。大学是大多数科学的起点，影响, 的影响之路漫长，需要耐心,。她以30-40年前开始的癌症,免疫治疗基础研究,为例。随着该管道的耗尽, 新的癌症疗法或新的人工智能和量子技术的未来会怎样?
“If you think about research done in this country, it的 done in in universities, it的 done in national labs, and it的 done in industry,” said Kornbluth. Universities are where most of the science with a long pathway to impact, requiring patience, starts. She pointed to immunotherapy for cancer, which began 30-40 years ago in basic immunotherapy research, as an example. With that pipeline being drained, what does the future hold for new cancer therapies or new AI and quantum technologies?
Kornbluth 还强调，不确定性和资金损失正在对人才管道产生 �%9 巨大影响,” 深入研究大学在培养下一代科学研究人员的研究生, 方面发挥的独特作用。 “我们听说, ‘哦，如果研究更多地在工业界就好了。 我说, ‘你会和从未飞过的飞行员一起乘坐飞机? 他们认为人们如何学习如何进行研究? 我们正在培训下一代… 和我们正在失去对他们的资金。” 她补充说: “I 认为，如果我们不 纠正这个问题，我们将看到数十年的影响。”
Kornbluth also underscored that uncertainty and lost funding are having a “huge impact on the talent pipeline,” delving into the unique role universities play in training graduate students, who are the next generation of scientific researchers. “We hear, ‘Oh it would be okay if research was more in industry. I say, ‘Would you fly on a plane with a pilot who had never flown? How do they think people learn how to do research? We are training the next generation… and we are losing funding for them.” She added: “I think we are going to see reverberations for many decades if we don’t rectify that issue.”
当被问及她和她的同事如何努力推动研究向前发展, Kornbluth 解释说，在 MIT, “，我们试图寻找替代方法来提升科学水平。我们有一系列校长倡议，涉及健康和生命科学,量子,人文和社会科学等领域，涵盖整个校园。我们正在努力创造新的机会。”
When asked how she and her colleagues are working to keep research moving forward, Kornbluth explained that at MIT, “we have tried to find alternative ways to elevate the science. We have a series of presidential initiatives that cut across the whole campus in things like health and life sciences, quantum, humanities and social sciences. The notion is that we are trying to create new opportunities.”
尽管如此,她承认捐赠税和联邦资金减少带来的损失是痛苦的。 “目前只有四所学校需要缴纳 8% 捐赠税,，这是对我们的收入征税。对于我们, 来说，这意味着每年$2.40 亿美元加上其他赠款损失。所以, 让的 说整个事情是, 我们在$17 亿的预算上每年损失了$3 亿的预算… 这肯定对我们产生了影响。毫无疑问。 “另一件事是再次存在’所有这些不确定性。我们的研究人员正在撰写大量资助申请。他们’不知道他们’是否正在走向虚空，或者他们真的拥有他们’过去一直拥有的那种竞争机会。”
Still, she acknowledged that losses from the endowment tax and diminished federal funding are painful. “There are only four schools right now that are subject to the 8% endowment tax, which is a tax on our earnings. For us, that means $240 million dollars a year plus other losses in grants. So, let的 say the whole thing is, we budgeted for a loss of $300 million a year on a $1.7 billion budget… That has definitely had an impact on us. No question about it.
“The other thing about it is again there的 all this uncertainty. Our investigators are writing a ton of grants. They don’t know if they’re going off into the void or they really have the sort of competitive opportunities they’ve always had in the past.”
当被问及为什么大学没有预见到这一时刻的到来, Kornbluth 提出了一些想法。 “看看麻省理工学院 – 30,000家公司来自麻省理工学院。当你看到类似的东西,时，为什么你会认为任何希望本国经济繁荣的政府都会在麻省理工学院?”之后出现，她反映道。 “我们永远不会想到这一点。”
Asked why universities did not see this moment coming, Kornbluth offered a few thoughts. “Look at MIT – 30,000 companies have come from MIT. When you look at something like that, why would you think any government that wants economic flourishing in their country would come after MIT?” she reflected. “It just never would have occurred to us.”
谈到 AI, 的快速发展以及该领域如何影响教育, Kornbluth 指出，在麻省理工学院和其他大学, “我们必须关注人的因素,我们必须教育我们的学生,他们需要知道如何写作和做数学…他们必须将 AI 视为增强其能力的工具。这就是我们的想法。”
Turning towards the rapid advances in AI, and how the field is impacting education, Kornbluth noted that at MIT and other universities, “we have to focus on the human element, we have to educate our students, they need to know how to write and do mathematics…they have to view AI as a tool to augment their capabilities. That is how we are thinking about it.”
在谈话过程中, Kornbluth 还表达了她对国际学生, 的坚定支持，并指出大多数人希望在毕业后有机会留在美国并为研究做出贡献。 “通过我们的国际社区为我们带来的人才令人难以置信。我们可以吸引世界上最优秀的人才。你可以打赌，当他们谈论与中国的竞争力时,，例如,在人工智能,量子,等,，他们不会坐在中国说, ‘噢，’伟大的美国正在带走我们所有的学生。’他们’在思考, ‘’美国不想再接收那么多学生了，因为我们可以培训他们，这很好。’’这是一个我们真正应该关注的竞争问题。”
In the course of the conversation, Kornbluth also expressed her unwavering support for international students, noting that most want the opportunity to stay and contribute to research in the U.S. after graduation. “The talent brought to us through our international community is unbelievable. We can attract the very best in the world. You can bet when they talk about competitiveness with China, for example, in AI, quantum, etc., they are not sitting around in China saying, ‘Oh it的 great America is taking all our students. They’re thinking, ‘It的 great that America doesn’t want to take as many of our students anymore because we can train them. It的 a competitive issue that we really should lean into.”