Hockfield chairs the Forum Academy, the Forum's online learning initiative. She served as President of MIT from 2004 to 2012, and was the first life scientist, and the first woman, to do so. Her presidency coincided with the most successful period of fundraising in the university’s history. In 2012, she assumed the Marie Curie Visiting Professorship at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government.

Her scientific research has focused on the development of the brain and on glioma, a type of brain tumour. Before joining MIT, Hockfield was a member of the faculty at Yale. She served as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for four years before becoming Provost, Yale’s second-highest office. She holds honorary degrees from numerous universities internationally, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Hockfield serves as a director of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the boards of General Electric and Qualcomm. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra