Dr Angeliki Rigos, a leadership educator at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, shared her insights with staff and students at the University of Eastern Finland.
In October 2025, Dr Angeliki Rigos, a researcher, educator and consultant at one of the world’s most prestigious universities, MIT, presented her approach to academic leadership to staff and students at the University of Eastern Finland.
Aimed at the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, the leadership training was based on MIT’s Leadership and Professional Skills and Strategies programme, LEAPS, which was co-founded by Dr Rigos and Prof. Anna Frebel (Physics), and which she continues to teach.
The LEAPS programme is built on the principle of scientists teaching leadership to other scientists. Traditional leadership training is often rooted in business models and corporate ideas, but LEAPS is different, as it is grounded in academic values.
“The programme starts from the idea that leading yourself must come before leading others. You cannot lead others if you do not know how to first lead yourself. For scientists, self-leadership is particularly challenging because it requires a great deal of self-awareness and a deep connection to our true self. A great leader must be 100 per cent authentic which requires managing one’s ego,” Dr Rigos says.
Learning to lead presents a challenge for academic staff and students, as Dr Rigos notes that most scientists tend to be introverts by nature. Nevertheless, scientists are needed in leadership roles across the various sectors of society.
“Scientists want to solve major challenges to improve people’s lives and society. We need scientists in leadership roles, not just in the labs, and we also need more women in those roles. If half of leadership roles in science and society were held by women, the world would be a better place,” Dr Rigos notes.
We need scientists in leadership roles, not just in the labs, and we also need more women in those roles. If half of leadership roles in science and society were held by women, the world would be a better place.
Angeliki Rigos
Researcher, educator and consultant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Postdocs as peer educators
Dr Rigos began her career as a researcher in physical chemistry, and she has been a chemistry professor for 28 years. She has held several leadership roles at MIT, including Director of the Tata Center for Technology and Design. The centre’s mission is to improve the lives of people in poverty through technology projects, many of them in India. Her experience in various leadership roles and her leadership training then led her to co-found the LEAPS programme.
“After serving as the President of the Faculty Senate at MIT, I was asked whether I would be interested in leadership training. I’m sure that this training would have been useful even earlier in my career. I took part in a leadership programme for senior academic women, and since no similar training was available for graduate students and postdocs, we went on to create LEAPS. Over the past six years, we’ve taught around 40 students annually in each of our two courses,” Dr Rigos explains.
The LEAPS programme relies heavily on peer teaching: each year Frebel and Rigos select 8 to 10 post docs who are trained as peer educators. This also equips them with skills for future leadership roles.
“When I’m teaching in a foreign country like Japan, for example, a Japanese scientist who has taken my course will teach alongside me. Here at the University of Eastern Finland, Dr Cristina Florea is co-teaching the course with me,” Dr Rigos says.
Dr Rigos’s connection to the University of Eastern Finland was established through Dr Florea, who defended her doctoral dissertation at the Department of Technical Physics and later worked as a postdoc at MIT. Florea proposed Dr Rigos’s leadership training to the faculty after participating in it in Spring 2020 at MIT.
Interestingly, Dr Rigos’s interest in Finland also stems from her heritage: besides having Greek, French/German and American roots, she also has some Finnish ancestry, through her American grandmother.
Leadership training by women, for women
Nowadays, Dr Rigos also gives leadership training through her non-profit organisation, Epistimi, which is Greek for science. Epistimi offers leadership training specifically for women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine, STEMM.
“I provide the same training through Epistimi as I do at MIT, but Epistimi courses are exclusively for women scientists. It’s important to offer leadership training both for women only, and for women and men together. There are some challenges that are easier to discuss among women, and when all course instructors are women, they serve as inspiring role models,” Dr Rigos explains.
Diversity is an integral part of academic leadership. When Dr Rigos was doing her PhD in chemistry at MIT, only one of the department’s professors was a woman and she was denied tenure. Today, there are 15 women professors in that department.
“If you don’t see any women professors in your department, how are you, as a woman, supposed to find a role model?” Dr Rigos asks.
