In 1999 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology publicly admitted that it had discriminated against the women on its science faculty. That "extraordinary admission," as the front page of the New York Times described it, set off a reckoning across the country about the lack of women at the highest levels of science.

The MIT story started with the quiet efforts of 16 highly accomplished female scientists, led by Nancy Hopkins, a molecular biologist who had started her career 30 years earlier believing that science was a pure meritocracy and feminism was an unnecessary relic. Kate Zernike, the author of "The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins and the Fight for Women in Science" will talk about how Hopkins was emblematic of her generation, and what the next generation of scientists can learn from the experience of the women at MIT.

A book-signing event will take place immediately following the talk, at 11:00 a.m. in the Rackham Amphitheater.