No life sciences dean at Harvard

Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers has said publicly that he places great importance on the life sciences. But Harvard's Life Sciences Division has been without a dean to champion its interests for nearly a year, as Harvard has tried and failed to fill the position.The university last week chose stem cell researcher Douglas Melton—an internal candidate—to lead a "Life Sciences Council." With that decision, which took effect June 1, life sciences remains the only one of four academic divisions within Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences without a dean. Deans for the other three divisions—social sciences, humanities, and physical sciences—were named in July 2003. In a speech last year, Summers called the life sciences "as important as any other issue facing the university." "The choices we make in the life sciences are as central as any choices that we will make as a university in the decade ahead," Summers said in the speech, at the dedication of a new Harvard Medical School building in September 2003.Andrew Biewener, chairman of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and a member of the Life Sciences Executive Committee that was put in place last year in the absence of a dean, said Harvard interviewed three outside candidates for the life sciences dean, without success. "The difficulty one has with this sort of thing is if a person in the administrative role of a dean has to give up and sacrifice their own research program," Biewener told The Scientist.At least two of the candidates—Randy Schekman from the University of California at Berkeley and Gerald F. Joyce, from the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, Calif.— visited Harvard, Biewener said, but it was not clear if they were offered the post. A spokesman for William C. Kirby, dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, did not return E-mail and phone messages, and neither candidate would confirm or deny an offer when contacted by the Harvard Crimson.Biewener said the appointment of a dean would not benefit the life sciences if the wrong person were chosen. He said the new council will have the power to negotiate appointments and other powers normally given to a dean. "We don't necessarily need a dean," he said. "All the things a dean might have in terms of resources and the power to influence academic goals and planning are embedded within this."As Life Sciences Council chairman, Melton will help recruit new faculty, improve the undergraduate curriculum, and encourage collaborative funding proposals among life science researchers at Harvard. Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, had served as chairman of the nine-member Life Sciences Executive Committee, which was composed of the chairmen of the life sciences departments and representatives of related scientific initiatives.Catherine Dulac, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, said Melton's selection was warmly received. She said despite the lack of a dean to promote the division's interests, the mood among life sciences faculty was upbeat. "We are all absolutely ecstatic that Doug will head the Life Science Council," she told The Scientist. "As the search for a dean of life science started, it soon became very clear that Doug was by far the best possible candidate to coordinate new efforts and initiatives in the life sciences at Harvard."Natural sciences professor J. Woodland Hastings agreed. "The announcement was received with pleasure," he said. "The mood is optimistic."Melton, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences, joined the Harvard faculty in 1981. He recently announced that he had derived 17 new human embryonic stem cell lines for use by researchers worldwide. Harvard officials said Melton would continue his research work as chairman of the Life Sciences Council. "Over the past year, the chairs of the life science departments and I have been given significant authority to work across departmental boundaries to improve our teaching and research," Melton said in a statement. "The members of the Life Sciences Council and I look forward to continuing our work in the future."Melton could not be reached for comment.

No life sciences dean at Harvard

Despite importance placed by school's president, position difficult to fill

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