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Witsies with the edge
HAZEL SIVE
(BSc 1977, BSc Hons 1979)
Sive has been named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow — MIT’s highest undergraduate teaching accolade — and has twice received the MIT School of Science Teaching Prize.
Globally respected developmental biologist and educator Professor Hazel Sive will become dean of the Northeastern University College of Science in Boston in June 2020.
Sive has also been on the faculty of the MIT Department of Biology since 1991.
Sive, who is also an associate member of Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is recognised for her research in vertebrate developmental biology. Her contributions have been wide-ranging, encompassing molecular definition of anterior position, development of the brain ventricular system, and identifying novel cell biological processes, including “epithelial relaxation” and “basal constriction.”
Sive developed the zebrafish as a tool to analyse human neurodevelopmental disorders, most recently focusing on the metabolic underpinnings of disorders such as autism. She has also been a pioneer in the use of the frog Xenopus and zebrafish model systems. She created the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Course on Early Development of Xenopus — which has run for more than 25 years — and she is editor-in-chief of a new two-volume Xenopus Lab Manual.
She has taught the undergraduate introductory biology course for 18 years, co-teaches the graduate developmental neuroscience course and recently created the course Building with Cells for students.
Sive has been building connections between MIT and Africa. In 2014, she founded the MIT-Africa Initiative, where she serves as faculty director. She is founder and faculty director of MISTI-Africa Internships, which sends students from multiple African countries to MIT.
At a recent speech at MIT Africans’ Ìdàgbà Cultural Night she acknowledged her Wits roots: “For me, my belonging tree reflects the complex mix of my life. It began rooted in South Africa, but was wrenched from the ground when I left to study. Our whole lives we work to develop a sense of belonging...My belonging tree is rooted in Joburg and Cambridge. It is rooted at MIT and at Wits University, at Makerere and Njala U in Sierra Leone.”
