I met her through the McCormick alumni dinner on Friday. She graduated from MIT in the class of 1970. She was one the few women to have gone to MIT back then, they were called coeds. We saw her freshmen class book and the coeds were in four out of forty pages placed in the middle of the book. We had a 3-hr long talk with her about a myriad of topics ranging from how she met her husband to how incredible it is to have a black American President. It was an amazing experience.
Her husband, Gerald Sussman, is currently a course VI professor at MIT, also an MIT Alum, class of 1968. He has been involved with the AI research at MIT since 1964 (quoting wikipedia). He was the maker of 6.001, the first course VI class till the new curriculum, which started with the class of 2010. Julie Sussman was an integral part of editing and correcting the book. She also edited the 6.046 book. She wrote the instructor's manual for both these classes. Being a Mathematician and the lover of logic back in the days when computers were just starting, she spent some years being a programmer. And then she subsequently took up editing books as her primary task. She is still active in this feild, starting the next one in December.
In this short encounter with her, I learnt how essential has love been in her life. She met 'Gerry' Sussman in the sophomore year at MIT and they have been inseparable ever since. He has been a constant source of support and inspiration for her, both personally and professionally. I wish someday, I could talk to someone in the same way she inspired me. Even though it was a Friday evening, she spent the whole evening with us, while Professor Sussman was waiting for her in his office, He was working as he was waiting. I absolutely admired the equilibrium as I reflected on the realtionship later.
She listened to all the hopes and aspirations I want from life and she had wonderful suggestions about what I could do in life. The best thing ever. Given my interest in so many things, different departments, in a broad spectrum of research. I don't think I will ever have enough of school, enough of learning. And she says, "It seems like you want to be a professor, with research in different fields like my husband." She asked me if I wanted to go back to India after I was done. Hearing my answer she said, "You should do your grad school here, maybe teach for sometime here, before you can go and join one of the universities there and create the faciliteis for yourself.' That is the difference that I want to create.
Afsah was also a part of this discussion. In the process we started talking about India-Pakistan relations. In this land far away from both India and Pakistan, you realise all of a sudden that we are much more similar than different in our culture. She is one of those few people I can talk to in a language other than english. I can find a comfort level with. I could not explain to myself till this day, why we were two different countries. And seriously, we would have also had the best cricket team together! Today India spends $25 billion on defence alone, majority of this being used in the western border. Pakistan spends around $18 billion on defence. On the other hand there are so many people in the two countries who don't get two square meals a day. This is such a huge loss to economies of both the countries, but then what is the alternative? I wish someday we would be a part of the same country ;).
Such were the depth of our discussions with Julie. She listened to us attentively. She was very informative and aware of the issues around the planet. We also discussed the election of Barack Obama into the president's office. She recalled, it wasn't 50 years ago when racism was at a peak in the US. Black people couldn't go to schools wthout fear. And today we have the first African-american President. She described it as an incredible feeling, parallel to the amazement as we would go through if we woke up one day to find India and Pakistan united.
This was one of the most inspirational and motivating evening of my life. Maybe some day I can be such an inspiration to someone else!
Her husband, Gerald Sussman, is currently a course VI professor at MIT, also an MIT Alum, class of 1968. He has been involved with the AI research at MIT since 1964 (quoting wikipedia). He was the maker of 6.001, the first course VI class till the new curriculum, which started with the class of 2010. Julie Sussman was an integral part of editing and correcting the book. She also edited the 6.046 book. She wrote the instructor's manual for both these classes. Being a Mathematician and the lover of logic back in the days when computers were just starting, she spent some years being a programmer. And then she subsequently took up editing books as her primary task. She is still active in this feild, starting the next one in December.
In this short encounter with her, I learnt how essential has love been in her life. She met 'Gerry' Sussman in the sophomore year at MIT and they have been inseparable ever since. He has been a constant source of support and inspiration for her, both personally and professionally. I wish someday, I could talk to someone in the same way she inspired me. Even though it was a Friday evening, she spent the whole evening with us, while Professor Sussman was waiting for her in his office, He was working as he was waiting. I absolutely admired the equilibrium as I reflected on the realtionship later.
She listened to all the hopes and aspirations I want from life and she had wonderful suggestions about what I could do in life. The best thing ever. Given my interest in so many things, different departments, in a broad spectrum of research. I don't think I will ever have enough of school, enough of learning. And she says, "It seems like you want to be a professor, with research in different fields like my husband." She asked me if I wanted to go back to India after I was done. Hearing my answer she said, "You should do your grad school here, maybe teach for sometime here, before you can go and join one of the universities there and create the faciliteis for yourself.' That is the difference that I want to create.
Afsah was also a part of this discussion. In the process we started talking about India-Pakistan relations. In this land far away from both India and Pakistan, you realise all of a sudden that we are much more similar than different in our culture. She is one of those few people I can talk to in a language other than english. I can find a comfort level with. I could not explain to myself till this day, why we were two different countries. And seriously, we would have also had the best cricket team together! Today India spends $25 billion on defence alone, majority of this being used in the western border. Pakistan spends around $18 billion on defence. On the other hand there are so many people in the two countries who don't get two square meals a day. This is such a huge loss to economies of both the countries, but then what is the alternative? I wish someday we would be a part of the same country ;).
Such were the depth of our discussions with Julie. She listened to us attentively. She was very informative and aware of the issues around the planet. We also discussed the election of Barack Obama into the president's office. She recalled, it wasn't 50 years ago when racism was at a peak in the US. Black people couldn't go to schools wthout fear. And today we have the first African-american President. She described it as an incredible feeling, parallel to the amazement as we would go through if we woke up one day to find India and Pakistan united.
This was one of the most inspirational and motivating evening of my life. Maybe some day I can be such an inspiration to someone else!
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