Dr Susan Hockfield

“Mohammed Jameel has an amazing ability to see the possibility for positive change before other people recognize it.  At MIT, we have benefitted enormously from this future-vision that he has.  Perhaps one of the best examples; Mohammed was among the first to understand the power of, what we now call, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).  He quickly appreciated J-PAL’s model to understand and design viable routes out of poverty.  In Esther Duflo’s parlance, ‘he really got it’,  that by careful analysis of interventions to alleviate poverty – with controlled studies – the impact of philanthropy to improve lives, could be maximized.

I still – so vividly –  recall my early meetings with Mohammed and how Esther Duflo’s and Abhijit Banerjee’s project to understand the causes and cures for poverty profoundly resonated with him. And what a fantastic tribute to their work, and his early support, that only about a decade later, the Nobel Prize Committee recognized the value of their work too.

On my first trip to Saudi Arabia, the first of many visits, I saw first hand the depth of Mohammed and Community Jameel‘s commitment to improving lives by tackling seemingly intractable problems.  Mohammed himself, took me on a tour of Bab Rizq Jameel – the incubator he and his family initiated in Jeddah.  Oh my!  Meeting those women, for whom Bab Rizq Jameel was creating jobs, creating entrepreneurs, and providing avenues for women to participate in the economy – I just can’t describe how unforgettably moving that experience was.

And now I’m an advisor to the Jameel Clinic, and have the privilege of a front row seat on another far sighted ambition: to combine the power of computation and biomedical know-how to develop more accurate, more effective health care, for all populations, all over the world.  Already, the Jameel Clinic’s work using artificial intelligence to identify a new class of antibiotics, and to make mammography more predictive, and much much more, is already changing the future of health care.

Mohammed really understands MIT’s mission to bring our work to bear on the world’s most daunting problems.  We meet that mission through science and engineering, and also through clear-eyed analysis of economics and politics.

What a wise and generous friend we have had in Mohammed and Community Jameel and what amazing work they’ve catalyzed and accelerated.

Mohammed, Community Jameel, congratulations of 75 years of generous, insightful, philanthropy, and thank you for improving the lives of so  any, today, and tomorrow.”

Learn more about our contributor here.