Sally Kornbluth’s charge to the Class of 2026

莎莉·科恩布鲁斯致麻省理工学院2026届毕业生的寄语

Technically, as MIT’s president, it’s now my job to deliver a “charge” to the graduates. But this year, I faced that assignment with a serious case of humility. You’re entering a world that I’m certain you’ll navigate better than I could. 作为麻省理工学院校长，我现在的职责是向毕业生发出“寄语”。但今年面对这个任务，我感到格外谦逊：你们即将进入的世界，我确信你们会比我更好地应对。

So, for your “charge,” I decided to draw on a special resource: the collective wisdom of our alumni. I talk with a lot of MIT graduates — around the world, across the country, on our faculty. They each put it their own way. But nearly all of them talk about how MIT changed their lives. It wasn’t a subject they studied, or a skill they acquired. It was the whole MIT experience! Of living and working here, together, and of belonging to a community with our distinctive passions and values. 因此，我决定借助一项特殊资源：校友们的集体智慧。我与世界各地、全国各地以及本校任教的许多麻省理工毕业生交谈过。他们的说法各不相同，但几乎所有人都会谈到麻省理工如何改变了他们的人生。这不是他们学过的一门课，也不是获得的一项技能，而是完整的麻省理工体验：在这里共同生活、共同工作，归属于一个拥有独特热情与价值观的社区。

So, as you go out into the world, I want to emphasize a few of those values that will serve you wherever you go. The banners in Lobby 7 feature our whole MIT Values Statement. Let’s focus first on the two words at the top: Excellence and Curiosity. 走向世界时，我希望强调几项无论身处何方都能帮助你们的价值观。7号大厅的旗帜展示了完整的麻省理工价值观宣言。让我们先关注最上面的两个词：卓越与好奇心。

Now, “excellence” is an easy thing to say. Most companies claim it. Probably every university too. But I have never seen a community live its commitment to excellence the way it’s done at MIT. “卓越”很容易说出口。大多数公司都会宣称追求卓越，大概每所大学也是如此。但我从未见过哪个社区像麻省理工这样践行对卓越的承诺。

It’s easy to measure in the outward accomplishments of our faculty and graduates: the prizes, the discoveries, the inventions. The architecture and the industries. The companies and 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. 卓越可以从师生的外在成就中衡量：奖项、发现、发明，建筑与产业，公司与疗法。但你也能在这里的每一天感受到它：走廊里遇到的每个人，都想告诉你他们正在做什么，而那往往令人惊叹。

As members of this community, we strive to hold ourselves to “the highest standards of intellectual and creative excellence.” Just as important, we inspire each other to reach for those standards too! (As one timely metaphor: This week 400 of you apparently felt that earning a degree from MIT wasn’t hard enough – so you also had to jump out of a plane!) 作为这个社区的成员，我们努力达到“最高水平的思想与创造性卓越”。同样重要的是，我们也互相激励，朝着这些标准努力！（这是一个应景的比喻：本周有400位同学似乎觉得获得麻省理工学位还不够困难，于是又去跳伞了！）

As an institution, we support these standards of individual excellence with a systematic focus on merit. For instance: No legacy admissions. No back-door admissions for donors. Because we value “potential over pedigree.” A long-ago colleague had a sign in his office. It said, “If you take a lick of the lollipop of mediocrity, you will suck forever.” 作为一个机构，我们通过系统性重视能力来支持个人卓越。例如，我们没有校友子女优待录取，也没有给捐赠者的后门录取，因为我们重视“潜力胜过门第”。一位多年前的同事在办公室挂着一句话：“如果你舔上一口平庸的棒棒糖，就会永远吮吸它。”

Now, let me be clear — I’m talking about self-discipline, not self-regard. In the work we do, a conscious commitment to excellence is not the same as arrogance. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite. 我要说清楚：我谈的是自律，不是自负。在我们的工作中，有意识地追求卓越并不等于傲慢；事实上，它恰恰相反。

The American poet Walt Whitman captured this idea. As he wrote: “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: This … keeps the way beyond open [and] … gives the whole man a chance to try over again.” 美国诗人沃尔特·惠特曼写道：“我喜欢科学精神——保持克制，确信但不过分确信；当证据与自己的想法相悖时，愿意放弃它。这让通往未知的道路保持开放，也让人有机会重新尝试。”

So I hope, wherever your life and work lead you, that you’ll strive to sustain our MIT standards of excellence. And I also hope, in the spirit of Whitman, that you’ll “accept the risk of failing as a rung on the ladder of growth.” Because, in all the fields you’ve studied, the willingness to try, and fail, and try again is the golden path to breakthroughs! 所以，无论生活和工作把你们带向何方，我都希望你们努力保持麻省理工的卓越标准。我也希望你们秉持惠特曼的精神，“接受失败的风险，把它当作成长阶梯上的一级台阶”。在你们所学的所有领域，愿意尝试、失败、再尝试，是通往突破的黄金道路！

Now, for curiosity. A few months ago, I was interviewed by a journalist who understands the current challenges for higher education. He described me as “inexplicably ebullient.” (He doesn’t see me every day!) But honestly, if I’m ebullient in leading this community, it’s entirely explicable! 再说好奇心。几个月前，一位了解高等教育当前挑战的记者采访我。他形容我“莫名地兴高采烈”。（他没有每天和我见面！）但说实话，如果我在领导这个社区时兴致高昂，那完全可以解释。

MIT is custom-made for people whose curiosity never sleeps. Which describes our faculty, our staff, our alumni — and every one of you. Feeding that curiosity is an incredible source of pleasure. You don’t need me to encourage you in this life-long feast! But I do hope I can count on you to help the world understand that curiosity is also our intellectual rocket fuel — and that this fact is enormously important for our society as a whole. 麻省理工是为好奇心永不止息的人量身打造的。这形容我们的教师、员工、校友，也形容在座的每一位。滋养好奇心是一种巨大的快乐。我不需要鼓励你们享受这场终身盛宴！但我希望你们帮助世界理解：好奇心也是我们的智力火箭燃料，而这对整个社会极其重要。

At MIT, we know that curiosity-driven science is the path to new knowledge – the kind that spawns world-changing innovations. Curiosity is the force that transforms deadly cancers into treatable conditions, that turns fusion energy from a dream to a reality, that uncovers new ways to grow more food using less of every resource. We like to say that science is curiosity on a mission. 在麻省理工，我们知道由好奇心驱动的科学通向新知识，进而催生改变世界的创新。好奇心能把致命的癌症变成可治疗的疾病，把核聚变从梦想变成现实，也能发现用更少资源种植更多食物的新方法。我们常说，科学就是“以使命为导向的好奇心”。

But we also know that the “curious” path to those deep discoveries can look like a wandering road. (Years ago, after a long conversation about my PhD work, my own grandmother once asked, “Wait, you’re not trying to cure cancer in humans, you’re trying to give it to chickens?”) 但我们也知道，通往深层发现的好奇之路看起来可能像一条迂回的道路。多年前，在听我讲完博士研究后，我的祖母曾问：“等等，你不是要治愈人类的癌症，而是要让鸡得癌症吗？”

Luckily, over eight decades, the United States had the foresight to see the value of discovery science. It invested public money with steady patience, knowing that the “practical payoff” could be 20, 30, 40 years away. Today – as many of you know from experience in your own labs — US investment in curiosity-driven science is in sharp decline. 幸运的是，过去八十多年里，美国有远见地认识到发现性科学的价值。它持续、耐心地投入公共资金，因为知道实际回报可能要等二三十年，甚至四十年。如今，正如许多人在实验室里的经历所显示的，美国对好奇心驱动科学的投入正在急剧下降。

The tragedy here is that shrinking the pipeline of basic discovery research means choking off the flow of future solutions, innovations and cures – and shrinking the supply of future scientists. So I hope you will join in a great shared effort to sustain the work of scientific curiosity — on a mission to serve. 悲剧在于，基础发现研究管线的收缩，会掐断未来解决方案、创新和疗法的流动，也会减少未来科学家的供给。因此，我希望你们加入一项伟大的共同努力，维护以服务为使命的科学好奇心。

A final thought: Every one of you here possesses uncommon talent. And with great talent comes great responsibility. I have no doubt that, like our alumni, you will be top-flight performers in your fields: Innovators. Engineers. Scientists. Doctors and designers. Entrepreneurs, investors and astronauts. Pioneers in whatever realm you chose. 最后想说：在座每个人都拥有非凡才能，而非凡才能伴随着重大责任。我毫不怀疑，你们会像我们的校友一样，在各自领域成为顶尖人才：创新者、工程师、科学家、医生和设计师，企业家、投资者和宇航员，以及所选择领域的先驱。

I mentioned Excellence and Curiosity, two of MIT's core values. 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. 我提到过卓越与好奇心这两项麻省理工核心价值。但我希望我们也共同坚持另一项核心价值：始终以伦理、诚信和对他人的体谅行事。

After more than six decades on Earth, I know that living up to this standard requires constant reinforcement and awareness! You will face many temptations, and opportunities to lose focus on that north star. And you simply have to resist. 在地球上生活了六十多年后，我知道达到这一标准需要不断提醒自己并保持警觉！你们会面对许多诱惑，也会有偏离那颗北极星的机会。你们必须抵抗。

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. 我毫不怀疑，凭借你们非凡的才能，你们能够做到！只要始终记住这个目标，我相信你们会为世界创造伟大的事业。

Congratulations — and warmest best wishes to you for a happy life and fulfilling career! 祝贺你们！衷心祝愿你们生活幸福、事业充实！