Nancy Hopkins joined author and New York Times journalist Kate Zernike for a discussion of The Exceptions. The book tells the story of Hopkins' life and career, and of the 15 “exceptional” female scientists on the MIT faculty who joined Hopkins to document gender discrimination at MIT and fight for equality. Armed with a measuring tape, Hopkins began by quantifying the inequitable distribution of lab space among male and female faculty. Her findings would catalyze the landmark 1999 report, "A Study on the Status of Women Faculty on Science at MIT," detailing the barriers standing in the way of women who want to pursue degrees and careers in science.