Recent events

Meet the Next Generation: MIT — Nov. 13

Meet the Next Generation: DC — Nov. 29  

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A new program for students in science and engineering begins with  

 

An energetic encounter

at MIT with two generations

of high-tech innovators:

Dr. George Hatsopoulos

and Marina Hatsopoulos  

 

Monday, November 13, 2006
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
host: Gov. Michael Dukakis
moderator: Thalia Assuras

 

On November 13th, CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras moderated a fascinating in-depth conversation — hosted by from Initiative co-founder Gov. Michael Dukakis, and filmed before a student audience at MIT — with two of Boston’s most successful high-tech entrepreneurs: Dr. George Hatsopoulos (above right), the founder and former CEO of Thermo Electron (now Thermo Fisher Scientific), and his daughter Marina Hatsopoulos (right), founding CEO of Z Corporation.

 

The first in a series to be hosted by the Next Generation Initiative at MIT, the evening brought together science and engineering students from all over the Boston area to meet one of the foremost scientists and entrepreneurs of the 20th century — along with one of today’s most successful young women on high-tech’s leading edge.

 

A dynamic Dr. Hatsopoulos captivated students with the story of his first foray into manufacturing — building illegal radios as a teenager in Nazi-occupied Greece — then coming to America as a graduate student at MIT, and eventually turning his research into what is now a high-tech powerhouse with 30,000 employees. A once-retired CEO, Dr. Hatsopoulos made the short journey back to MIT for this special evening from the Waltham, Mass. labs of his latest start-up — where he’s working to bring his revolutionary design for a new artificial heart to market.

 

Marina Hatsopoulos shared her own remarkable story of graduating from Brown University (where she was a math and music major) and taking up a brief career on Wall Street, only to follow in her father’s footsteps by becoming an MIT engineer herself — and going on to successfully commercialize MIT research and turn it into a company that today makes the world’s fastest 3-D printers — used by Fortune 500 companies and manufacturers around the world to produce physical prototypes efficiently and inexpensively from computer-aided design (“CAD”) data.

 

Hosted by the Hellenic Student Association of MIT, Next Generation students converged on Cambridge from schools all over the Boston area — including Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, Northeastern, Tufts and  Wellesley — for a unique chance to meet the legendary Hatsopoulos family, Ms. Assuras and Gov. Dukakis at a special reception before the conversation.

 

The enthusiastic crowd of ambitious business majors, budding scientists, engineering grad students and MIT professors arrived dripping wet in their coats and ties, jeans and backpacks, and everything in between, having braved a stormy November night to sit in on the high energy conversation with the CBS White House correspondent (and Initiative board member) Ms. Assuras and two generations of the high-tech Hatsopoulos family at MIT’s 300-seat Wong Auditorium. The audience was rewarded with a rousing introduction former Massachusetts Gov. Dukakis, who arrived (by public transportation) from teaching his own class at Northeastern University.

 

For those who couldn’t attend, video highlights of the high-tech Hatsopoulos conversation at MIT will be posted online for Next Generation students and members.

 

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The next generation takes center

stage in the nation’s capital with

 

A great conversation

about public service with

Sen. Paul Sarbanes and

Rep.-Elect John Sarbanes

 

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006
George Washington University
host: George Tenet
moderator: George Stephanopoulos

 

In their first post-election joint interview, Sen. Paul Sarbanes (above right) and Rep.-Elect John Sarbanes (at right) joined ABC’s Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos on November 29th at CNN’s former “Crossfire” studios, to tape a lively conversation about politics, public service and more, before a student audience at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

 

“A Conversation with the Next Generation” — the first Washington, DC-area installment in a series created by the Next Generation Initiative to bring students together with leaders from around the country — was moderated by veteran interviewer George Stephanopoulos, a founder of the Initiative who started his own career working on Capitol Hill as a Congressional intern.

 

Eager to watch him interview the five-term Senator from Maryland and his son John, newly-elected on November 7th to the U.S. House of Representatives, the 260-seat studio audience was greeted with a surprise introduction by another former Hill intern (and also one of the Initiative’s founders), former CIA Director and current Georgetown University professor George Tenet, who started the evening by taking the stage to make a strong plea for students to engage themselves in public service and public life — a call applauded by Stephanopoulos and the Sarbanes duo.

 

This rare gathering of leaders and newsmakers attracted an audience full of college students, current Hill interns and political science majors from an array of local universities — including Next Generation students from American, George Mason, Georgetown, the University of Maryland, as well as students from as far away as Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg — all eager to meet up close with the evening’s special guests, and see for themselves the freshest face on Capitol Hill — and meet the most visible member of the Next Generation in Congress.