Dr. Arundhati Tuli Banerjee

“So, Mohammed Jameel and his family, they’ve had a – he’s an alumnus at MIT – and they’ve had a long relationship with MIT before I even came to MIT.  I first got to me him, in my role, when we started to talk about the potential of the Abdul Latif Jameel action lab on water and food security systems [The Abdul Latif Jameel Water & Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS)] and we got started on a journey trying to think of what ‘impact’ means in the world.

I would describe Mohammed Jameel as someone who is a man of ideas.  So he told me once that “I have a hundred ideas a week and you don’t have to take them all seriously, but I enjoy discussing these ideas with people who enjoy intellectual discussions.”  And the way it has always worked, so far as I have seen, with Mohammed and all of us at MIT, is that we start with the ‘big idea’ and then we take a look at: for this to be accomplished, what would be needed?  Who are the people?  How would this be done?  if its a question of poverty, or food and water, or health, what would be the nuances in each and every context across the different parts of the world?

And he’s always hands-on.  He likes to be in these conversations, not because he needs to have any control over these conversations, but because he enjoys the intellectual journey.  That’s how I see him.  He’s a man of ideas most of all, and someone who’s truly committed to making a difference in the world.

He loves to amplify our message in ways we may not have been able to do without him, in terms of bringing this to the attention of different kinds of people across the world.  Whether it’s governments; whether it’s non-profits; whether it’s educational institutions – he’s been very, very active.  He and Community Jameel.  I should say a word about the incredible team that’s at Community Jameel that works very closely with us as well.

I want to congratulate you, and I want to thank you Mohammed, Fady, Hassan and Community Jameel, for allowing us to be part of your family’s legacy to the world because what you do is incredible and for us to be a small part of it is just absolutely inspiring.”

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