Cell biologist from Duke named new president of MIT

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A cell biologist who has spent the past eight years as provost at Duke University has been named president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sally Kornbluth was elected Thursday by the MIT Corporation, the school’s governing body. She will officially take over on Jan. 1, succeeding L. Rafael Reif, who in February announced that he planned to step down after 10 years on the job. Kornbluth has been on the Duke faculty since 1994. She says one of he top attractions of MIT was helping students and faculty tackle some of the worl’s greatest problems.