Professor praised for putting crib in his office so student can work alongside her daughter

A professor has received an outpouring of praise on social media after sharing the latest addition to his office.

Dr. Troy Littleton, who currently works as a professor of neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), recently took to Twitter to show off his latest purchase: a travel crib.

Sharing a picture of the crib next to his desk, Littleton wrote:

"My favorite new equipment purchase for the lab – a travel crib to go in my office so my graduate student can bring her 9-month old little girl to work when necessary and I get to play with her while her mom gets some work done. Win-win!!"

And it wasn't long before Littleton's gesture was noticed by fellow Twitter users, with the tweet amassing over 117,000 'likes' and more than 8,000 retweets.

And many people on the social media platform tweeted praise to the considerate educator:

One former student replied to the post by saying: "Aww, this is amazing! I had incredibly supportive advisors, but still felt too uncomfortable to take my bub into the Uni, so was restricted to daycare hrs of 8.30-4 (which are also very expensive).

"This will make all the difference to your student. Well done you!"

In an interview with GMA, Littleton revealed why he shared the tweet in the first place, explained that he shared the tweet out of the excitement of seeing his student, Karen, and her daughter, Katie, for the first time.

"That was the genesis of the tweet, not from any idea it was going to create this large discussion about the challenges mothers face in the workplace," he said. "But I'm glad it had that effect because we need to be solving these issues, both in academia and on a broader level as well. It's highlighted that this is a really important issue for our community."

In response to the outpouring of praise, Littleton once again took to Twitter to address the attention he had received - insisting that he isn't the "hero" in the situation.

"Well that little tweet blew up?!? However, I wish people were able to spot the real hero here," Littleton wrote. "It's the graduate student mom, not me.

"She's amazing to do all she has to with her daughter and still keep up her thesis project research. Happy Mother’s Day to all – they deserve it!"

The kind-hearted professor later shared a picture of him playing with baby Katie:

I have no doubt the world would be a better place if there were more Professor Littleton's in it.

Featured image credit: Philip Scalia / Alamy