The ingredients for innovation in Kendall Square
- Time:
- Monday, October 12th, 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
- Location:
- La Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center. Organized by KSJ; participants register as part of Lunch With a Luminary; pick up lunch at Kresge Lobby.
- Speaker(s):
- Michelle DippChief executive officer and co-founder, OvaScience
- Johannes FruehaufCo-founder and president, LabCentral
- Maia HeymannSenior managing director, CommonAngels
- Stephen VinterSite and engineering director, Google Cambridge
This special panel is part of the Lunch With a Luminary sessions on Monday, October 12. It will be held in large Sala de Puerto Rico in the MIT Student Center. Pick up a box lunch in Kresge Lobby before proceeding to the Sala.
In 1960, the Kendall Square area bordering the MIT campus was a blighted wasteland of empty lots and outmoded warehouses and factories. Today it's home to the offices of international companies like Akamai, Amazon, Amgen, Apple, Biogen, EMC, Facebook, Genzyme, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Novartis, Oracle, Pfizer, Philips, Sanofi, Schlumberger, VMware, and Yahoo, not to mention hundreds of smaller startups and investment firms.
How did this derelict district transform itself, in just 50 years, into the world's leading cluster of biotechnology and information technology research and innovation — surpassing even Silicon Valley in density? At this special Lunch with a Luminary panel organized by Knight Science Journalism at MIT, you'll meet four key contributors to Kendall Square's innovation culture, representing the the life sciences, the information technology industry, and the world of angel and venture investing. They'll offer perspectives on what it takes to create a vital, self-sustaining innovation cluster, and how other cities and regions can learn from Cambridge's story.
Pure research has little impact until it's applied and commercialized. This panel discussion is designed for all science writers who want to understand the fundamental conditions for innovation, and get a look under the hood of what's been called "the most innovative square mile on the planet."
