Andrea Leszek

My life was forever changed by being a student of yours. You were one of my thesis advisors when I completed my Master’s in Linguistics in 1995. I remember your generosity with student questions when you taught our grad student seminar. You were thoughtful and encouraging to me during our meetings on my thesis, though I was tongue-tied and nervous to be meeting with you. My career and life has strayed far from linguistics since then, but you have continued to have an impact on me. The mere mention of your name opens up connections and conversations with so many people—everyone wants to know what it was like to study linguistics with the father of modern linguistics. The discipline and curiosity for learning that I developed at the MIT Linguistics department has stayed with me. For that, I owe you a debt of gratitude.

Thank you!