Hazel L. Sive is an educator and biologist who was born in South African. She is a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, an associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and also a professor of Biology there. At MIT, she founded and directed an initiative facilitating research and collaboration with African countries and worked to increase opportunities for women and other underrepresented minorities in science.
Sive completed her double major in chemistry and zoology, Bachelor of Science with an honours degree in 1979 from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. She then graduated in molecular biology in the U.S. and received a Ph.D. in 1986 from Rockefeller University.
Sive is a pioneer in many research areas and has developed multiple techniques. These include analysis of the extreme anterior domain (EAD), an important embryonic region she named. She studies the development of the vertebrate embryo and has made unique contributions to understanding the formation of face and the development of the brain’s normal structure. Sive has been working to understand the origins of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, epilepsy, Pitt–Hopkins syndrome, and 16p11.2 deletion syndrome.
Sive served as the chair of the biology department undergraduate program at MIT for three years and the associate dean of science for seven years. She was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow for her skill and innovation as a teacher and mentor to undergraduates. In December 2019, it was announced that in June 2020 she will become the Dean of the College of Science at Northeastern University.
Hazel Sive said she was excited to become part of a university that actively thinks about the future of higher education, she was especially drawn to Northeastern University’s no boundaries innovative approach laid out in Northeastern 2025, their strategic plan to create a globally networked ecosystem for learning, innovation, research, and entrepreneurship. This concept of experiential and lifelong learning will liberate students from outdated career models and let them prosper through their lives.
Mayuri Talgaonkar