When I came to M.I.T. in 1960, only 4 percent of the students were female. Today, it's about 40 percent of undergraduates. At Lincoln Lab, they had 1,000 men and two women. But we had a very good boss, and he treated us just like everybody else.

Being a woman has helped my career more than it's hindered it.

All the leadership positions that I have had have one common denominator: none has required that I give up my science work.

I think women benefit from being in places and having positions where the quality of work is the criteria, not what you look like. Not every place is like that.

My father belongs to a different generation altogether. He has spent most of his time working hard to make our lives comfortable, and ours is more of a conventional father-son relationship rather than one of friends.

But that was war. Just about all he could find in its favor was that it paid well and liberated children from the pernicious influence of their parents.

Children do have the potential to kill art. But now I think they kill the bad art. At least that is what my son has done for me.

Growing up, I didn't come from a musical family. Neither of my parents played an instrument, sang out loud, or listened to the radio with frequency. The record collection in the living room was only about 2 feet long - and that included 4 solid inches of Neil Diamond and Herb Alpert.