Spring/Summer 2008
or scholar, with the goal of strengthening
Dean’s Message
Skipping Stones
A s readers of this newsletter know, I am
partial to using metaphors. Because
this is my last Dean’s Message, it seems only
appropriate to turn yet another phrase. For
the past few months, I’ve been telling col-
leagues that “I’m looking forward to skip-
ping stones.” I suspect many thought I was
planning to delve into the field of fluid me-
chanics. Not quite.
Consider the classic childhood game. You
fling an inanimate object into motion. Just
when you think the rock might sink, it
rises again, often repeating the cycle before
settling. The phenomenon is a marvel of
applied science (see, for example, “Secrets
of successful stone-skipping,” Clanet et al.,
Nature 427 (6969): 29, 2004) and a perfect
way to ease into a long afternoon.
At its best, skipping stones is a form of
active meditation. I’ve long enjoyed listen-
ing to the water lap back and forth, a habit
I picked up while living in Santa Barbara
and now do at my retreat on Cape Cod. The
rhythm enables my own thoughts to skip
to and fro, unfettered, before eventually
landing upon a potential idea. In fact, I owe
much of my best thinking, as a researcher
and administrator, to the right mix of tide
and time.
While the next dean will take forward the
plans SEAS has set in motion (and add new
elements), upon stepping down and return-
ing to the faculty full time I am looking
forward to dedicating myself to tackling
issues that will require many afternoons of
energetic reflection.
Improving our teaching.
We have heard from current Harvard stu-
dents and alumni how much teaching and
mentorship matter, especially in intense
disciplines like the sciences and engineer-
ing. SEAS is actively engaged in creating
new courses (a portal course for engineer-
ing; a new track on technology, innovation,
and society), building teaching labs (a space
for CAD/CAM, mechanics, and photonics is
due in September), and reconsidering what
“design” means (a committee is hard at
work). As important, I will personally strive
to find new ways to value teaching, at the
school and university levels, by providing
time, incentives, rewards, and recognition
to those who excel.
Teasing out the interfaces of technology, innova-
tion, and society.
Henry Petroski wrote that “To Engineer Is
Human.” At one level, we need to trace the
path of how technology influences our so-
ciety and economy (like digital music mak-
ing the CD nearly obsolete) and understand
how individuals and institutions push tech-
nical development (the idea marketplace).
More broadly, the decisions we make now
about what technologies to support, de-
velop, and adopt, from building nanobots
to manipulating the human genome, will
influence how we live—and even who we
will become as individuals and as a species.
I will be advocating, in word and action,
that we should not take such issues lightly.
Creating links to other parts of Harvard
This has long been a goal of SEAS—and one
that will be the most critical aspect of ensur-
ing SEAS’ long-term success. We can make
deep connections on a local level through
joint appointments. By the fall, we will
welcome new faculty members in systems
biology and environmental engineering, all
based in multiple departments and schools.
I myself plan to serve as a visiting professor
programmatic links. President Faust said
that with the launch of SEAS “we affirm
[the] power to connect, to bridge, and there-
fore to enliven and strengthen a great many
parts of our University as a whole.”
Exploring the relationships between public policy
and scientific and governmental leadership
Protecting the environment, meeting en-
ergy needs, making healthcare accessible,
and ensuring overall sustainability of the
population and planet require political,
intellectual, and engineering muscle. The
founder of Engineers Without Borders
called this “engineering as diplomacy”—
and I am more than ready to join the cause.
As a nation, we need to find ways to encour-
age positive change by working with politi-
cal, industrial, and academic leaders. After
all, it is far better for a call to action to come
from a shared desire to make the world a
better place (such as eliminating hunger) or
motivated by the sheer excitement of solv-
ing a problem (inventing a clean energy
source) than for it to come from a crisis.
For the past decade, I have been working
hard with everyone here to make these
practices ones that define SEAS. We have
progressed, thanks to all those who have
supported us. On a personal note, I am
grateful to the members of the Harvard
leadership who gave me the opportunity
to serve as dean and to the wonderful SEAS
community, which made every day such a
joy. I will always remember my friends.
In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, “As a
person puts on new garments, giving up
old ones, the soul similarly accepts new
material bodies …” Although I will keep the
same body, I will gain a new intellectual
soul. And thus, as I move into my new role,
I will remain active as a teacher, researcher,
and supporter for SEAS.
If you don’t see me in the hallway or some-
where on campus, or if my door is closed,
just remember, I’m likely near the water
somewhere, skipping stones. J
Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti
Dean, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering
and Applied Sciences, Professor of Physics
 Life On & Around Oxford Street
Links and nodes
Dean Venky to step down
in September
Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Dean of
SEAS, who for 10 years has directed the
renewal and expansion of the former di-
vision and its transition to a School, an-
nounced on February 15 his intention
to step down from his position in Sep-
tember 2008. “Venky’s leadership has
had a genuinely transformative impact
on engineering and applied sciences at
Harvard,” said Harvard President Drew
Faust. “He has in many ways been both
the architect and the chief engineer of
Harvard’s newest School, and his vision,
energy, and instinct for collaboration
have strengthened our capacity and el-
evated our sights in a vital academic do-
main. It’s been a pleasure to work with
him, and I join his many admirers in
saluting his service to the University.”
Narayanamurti, the John A. and Eliza-
beth S. Armstrong Professor of Engi-
neering and Applied Sciences, origi-
nally announced his decision to return
to teaching and research in 2005 but
agreed to stay on as dean to oversee
the SEAS transition and launch of the
new School last fall. After stepping
down, Narayanamurti will continue
to devote himself to teaching, research,
and other forms of University service. A
faculty advisory committee chaired by
Provost Steven Hyman and FAS Dean
Michael Smith has been convened
to begin the search process for a new
dean. Alumni are encouraged to email
their suggestions and thoughts to:
SEASdeansearch@harvard.edu
“Skunk works” to open
for undergrads
The venerable Pierce Hall is in the midst
of yet another round of reengineering.
A glimpse through the gaps left in the
ripped-away brickwork on the ground
floor reveals the ongoing construction
of a sizable new engineering teaching
lab. Starting with the Fall 2008 term, un-
dergraduates will be busy delving into
CAD/CAM, mechanics, and photonics
2 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008
research here. The new lab is located
alongside the “wet lab,” created primar-
ily to support courses in bioengineering.
The lab—a beautiful glass and steel fish-
bowl—will become a haven for hands-
on experimentation and research.
Welcoming Microsoft
Research to New England
The sizable new engineering teaching lab in Pierce Hall is due to
Microsoft Research, the basic research open in September 2008; undergraduates will have opportunities to
arm of Microsoft Corp., unveiled its lat- delve into CAD/CAM, mechanics, and photonics research
est lab, to be called Microsoft Research
New England and to be based in Cam-
bridge, Mass.
The new lab, due to open in July, will
enable Microsoft Research to interact
closely with the large community of
scientists in New England, notably
the faculty and students at the many
premier academic institutions in the
vicinity. It will also provide researchers
with the opportunity to interact with
The newly created Microsoft Research New England, based in Cambridge,
people in Microsoft’s incubation cen-
will forge links to local universities like Harvard and MIT.
ters and newly acquired companies in
the region.
Extensive research collaboration
with BASF established
Harvard and BASF announced an agree-
ment to jointly establish the BASF
Advanced Research Initiative. Based at
SEAS, the initiative will benefit from
strong ties with departments and
schools throughout the University. As
outlined in the agreement, BASF will On October 29 (left to right) Dean Michael D. Smith, Dr. Takao
provide direct funding (anticipated to Kuramochi, Dr. Koji Kaya, Dean Jeremy Bloxham, and Dean
Venkatesh Narayanamurti signed a Memorandum of Understanding
be up to $20 million over the next five to encourage and facilitate collaborations between Harvard
years) to Harvard researchers, initially and RIKEN researchers.
supporting 10 postdoctoral students.
Both parties plan to define and pursue
projects in areas including applied
physics, physics, applied mathemat-
ics, chemical biology, systems biology,
bioengineering, and materials science.
If proof of concept is established in a
research project, BASF will have the
opportunity to further develop dis-
coveries and innovations for possible
commercialization. Faculty investiga- Venkatesh Murthy in the Department of Molecular and Cellular
Biology and SEAS’s L. Mahadevan, created the Harvard-Bangalore
tors will have the freedom to distribute Science Initiative (HBSI) to encourage undergraduates to experience
and publish any findings arising from research and culture a world away.
the initiative’s research efforts. BASF’s Harvard and RIKEN lar and Cellular Biology, and SEAS’s L.

Links and nodes

Dr. Jens Rieger, scientific director of
Polymer Research, and Harvard’s David
Weitz, Mallinckrodt Professor of Phys-
ics and Applied Physics, and George
Whitesides, Woodford L. and Ann A.
Flowers University Professor, will direct
the initiative.
Bioengineering
comes together
Harvard has created a University-wide
planning committee on bioengineering
with the goal of integrating related ac-
tivities across various schools, programs,
and departments. In the last decade,
SEAS has welcomed five new faculty
members with research interests relat-
ed to bioengineering, helped establish
the Harvard Institute for Biologically
Inspired Engineering (HIBIE), built an
undergraduate research lab for bioen-
gineering, and added more courses to
the curriculum.
look to collaborate
Officials of Harvard and RIKEN, Japan’s
equivalent of the U.S. Department of
Energy’s National Laboratories, signed
a memorandum of understanding to en-
courage and facilitate collaborations be-
tween Harvard and RIKEN researchers.
Dean Michael D. Smith; Dean Venky;
and Jeremy Bloxham, FAS Divisional
Dean for Physical Sciences, met at the
Harvard Faculty Club with a RIKEN
delegation to celebrate the signing of
the agreement. RIKEN exists to conduct
comprehensive research in science and
technology and to publicly disseminate
the results of its research.
Cambridge and Bangalore
get one step closer
After a small joint symposium held in
Bangalore in 2006, Venkatesh Murthy,
Professor of Molecular and Cellular
Biology in the Department of Molecu-
Mahadevan, Lola England de Valpine
Professor of Applied Mathematics, de-
cided to create the Harvard-Bangalore
Science Initiative (HBSI). HBSI aims to
foster collaboration in the natural sci-
ences between Harvard University and
several academic institutions in Banga-
lore, India, and provide undergraduates
with the opportunity to experience re-
search and culture a world away from
Cambridge. With support from the In-
ternational Innovation Grants Program,
HBSI awarded five Harvard College stu-
dents with a lab exchange program for
10–12 weeks last summer. The students
combined cultural sightseeing with
hard science, investigating everything
from computational biology to synap-
tic plasticity to protein folding. Both the
founders expect that the program will
continue in the coming years. J

Overheard
“I’m from Tennessee and we do a lot of fishing. You can make a
fishing lure out of it … and I’m always looking for the prefect lure, as I always want to pull in
the biggest fish I can. So one day, when I retire from Harvard, I want to be able to be able to
take these biohybrid constructs and make fishing lures out of them.”
— Kit Parker, Associate Professor of Bioengineering, in a BBC World Radio interview about his lab’s creation
of biohybrids of elastic film and muscle cells that can generate force to grip, pump, walk, or swim.

Random Bits
Love at first byte
Christopher R. Coyne ’99, Sam A. Yagan ’99, and Maxwell N. Krohn ’99 turned to their
applied math skills in creating a new online dating site. The site, OKcupid.com, which,
according to Yagan, counts over a half-million active users, is noted for its algorithm that
produces “match percentages” based on user-submitted questions on everything from
smoking habits to religion.

(left) Whether by helping couples find love or by sharing a love of literature

(above), SEAS members put an unexpected twist on the standard image of engineers.

Author, author!
A current SEAS faculty member in bioengineering, David Edwards, and a current graduate
student in applied math, Erez Lieberman, have both published works of fiction; a late
SEAS faculty member, Thomas McMahon, an expert on animal locomotion, published four
novels; the late famed author James Michener concentrated in aeronautical engineering
at Harvard. J

SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008 I 3
Recent findings
(top left) By mathematically modeling how the flipper of the humpback whale allows the massive mammal to fly through the
water, Ernst van Nierop, Silas Alben, and Michael Brenner may one day help engineers build better blades and wings; (right)
The lab of Ken Crozier demonstrated a new type of optical tweezer: (a) microfabricated Fresnel Zone Plate optical tweezers,
consisting of concentric gold rings (50-nm thick) on a microscope slide; (b) CCD camera image of fluorescent bead trapped
in zone plate focus.
A Roundup of Discoveries & Innovations
Researchers ponder whale-
inspired wings
Ernst van Nierop, a current graduate stu-
dent; Silas Alben, a former postdoc now
at Georgia Tech; and Michael Brenner,
Glover Professor of Applied Mathemat-
ics and Applied Physics, proposed a new
explanation for how the knotty bumps
(called tubercles) on humpback whale
pectoral flippers may enable the mas-
sive mammals to swim with such grace,
speed, and agility. Previous wind tunnel
tests conducted at the U.S. Naval Acad-
emy on a scale-model whale flipper re-
vealed that the bumpy design increases
lift, decreases drag, and reduces stall.
In a paper published in Physical Review
Letters, the researchers mathematically
demonstrated how the bumps modify
the flow over the whale’s flipper so that
the troughs between the bumps stall
first. A current flowing over a series of
bumps and troughs on the edge of the
flipper causes the overall loss in lift to
be much more gradual. As the ampli-
tude of the bumps is increased, the lift
curve flattens out, leading to potentially
desirable control properties.
Because whale-inspired aircraft wings
have, however, already performed ably
in tests, the researchers expect that a
fuller understanding of the mechanism
4 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008
will lead to additional practical appli-
cations. Potential uses might include
improved wind turbine or helicopter
blades, hydrofoils, or “unstallable”
wings for special-purpose aircraft.
New type of optical tweezers
developed
Researchers demonstrated a new type
of optical tweezers with the potential to
make biological and microfluidic force
measurements in integrated systems
such as microfluidic chips. The device,
consisting of a Fresnel Zone Plate mi-
crofabricated on a glass slide, has the
ability to trap particles without the
need for high-performance objective
lenses. The device was designed, fabri-
cated, and tested by postdoctoral fellow
Ethan Schonbrun and undergraduate
researcher Charles Rinzler under the
direction of Assistant Professor of Elec-
trical Engineering Ken Crozier.
The researchers note that the Fresnel
Zone Plate optical tweezers could be
fabricated on the inner walls of micro-
fluidic channels or even inside cylin-
drical or spherical chambers and could
perform calibrated force measurements
in a footprint of only 100x100um. Tradi-
tional tweezers, by contrast, would suf-
fer from crippling aberrations in such
locations. The team envisions using
their new tweezers inside microfluidic
chips to carry out fluid velocity, refrac-
tive index, and local viscosity measure-
ments. Additional applications include
biological force measurements and
sorting particles based on their size and
refractive index.
Ham lab and HMS develop
micro-NMR system
In collaboration with Hakho Lee in
Ralph Weissleder’s Group at Massachu-
setts General Hospital, Harvard Medical
School, the two engineering graduate
students who work with Donhee Ham,
John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the
Natural Sciences, built what may be the
smallest complete nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR) system to date.
NMR is the basis for most medical imag-
ing devices. The “nano-” version of the
system, about the size of a breadbox and
weighing 2kg, detects biological sam-
ples by using magnetic nanoparticles.
To do so, the diminutive device relies on
a sophisticated CMOS RF receiver chip
(like those in Bluetooth devices) and a
magnet of only 0.5 Tesla. The results are
anything but small: The system delivers
60 times more sensitivity than a 120kg
commercial machine that costs $70,000.
 Recent findings
(top left) SEAS researchers (left to right: Benjamin Lee, Mikhail Belkin, Federico Capasso)
demonstrated a highly versatile quantum cascade laser sensor for the fast detection of
chemicals; (right) By electrochemically removing hydrochloric acid from the ocean and
then neutralizing the acid by reaction with volcanic rocks, Mike Aziz and Kurt House
propose accelerating natural chemical weathering, permanently transferring CO2 from
the atmosphere to the ocean; (bottom right) Donhee Ham’s micro–nuclear magnetic
resonance system is both portable and powerful.

In addition to the obvious benefits of
being portable, Sun says that the extra
boost in sensitivity could enable physi-
cians to find pathogens much earlier, at
the first sign of a disease.
Engineered weathering could
retard global warming
Researchers at Harvard University and
Penn State University have invented a
technology, inspired by nature, to re-
duce the accumulation of atmospheric
carbon dioxide (CO2 ) caused by human-
caused emissions.
By electrochemically removing hydro-
chloric acid from the ocean and then
neutralizing the acid by reaction with
silicate (volcanic) rocks, the researchers
say they can accelerate natural chemi-
cal weathering, permanently transfer-
ring CO2 from the atmosphere to the
ocean. Unlike other ocean sequestration
processes, the new technology does not
further acidify the ocean and may be
beneficial to coral reefs.
The innovative approach to tackling
climate change is reported in the No-
vember 7 issue of the journal Environ-
mental Science and Technology by co–lead
authors Kurt Zenz House, a Ph.D. candi-
date in Harvard’s Department of Earth
and Planetary Sciences, and Michael J.
Aziz, Gordon McKay Professor of Ma-
terials Science in SEAS; Christopher H.
House, Associate Professor of Geosci-
ences at Pennsylvania State University;
and Daniel P. Schrag, Professor of Earth
and Planetary Sciences, Professor of En-
vironmental Science and Engineering
in SEAS, and Director of the Harvard
University Center for the Environment.
Lead authors House and Aziz add that
more research is needed on some of the
chemical processes’ effects on ocean bi-
ology and on improving efficiency and
scalability.
Compact QC laser’s range of
applications is huge
Engineers have demonstrated a highly
versatile, compact, and portable quan-
tum cascade laser sensor for the fast
detection of a large number of chemi-
cals, ranging from infinitesimal traces
of gases to liquids, by broad tuning of
the emission wavelength. The potential
range of applications is huge, including
homeland security, medical diagnostics
such as breath analysis, pollution moni-
toring, and environmental sensing of
the greenhouse gases responsible for
global warming.
The team is headed by Federico Capasso,
the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Ap-
plied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior
Research Fellow in Electrical Engineer-
ing, and includes graduate student Ben-
jamin Lee, researchers Mikhail Belkin
and Jim MacArthur, and undergraduate
Ross Audet. The researchers have also
filed for U.S. patents covering this new
class of laser chips.
The broad emission spectrum of the
Quantum Cascade Laser material, grown
by a commercial reactor, is designed
using state-of-the-art nanotechnology.
An array of 32 lasers, each designed to
emit at a specific wavelength, is then
fabricated on a single chip by standard
semiconductor processing techniques.
A microcomputer individually fires up
and tunes each laser in the array in any
desired sequence. This generates a broad
and continuously tunable wavelength
spectrum that can be used to detect a
large number of chemical compounds.
The team’s coauthors are research as-
sociates Laurent Diehl and Christian
Pflügl of SEAS; Doug Oakley, David
Chapman, and Antonio Napoleone of
MIT Lincoln Laboratory; David Bour,
Scott Corzine, and Gloria Höfler, all for-
merly with Agilent Technologies; and
Jérôme Faist of ETH Zurich. J

SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008 I 5
 180 Degrees: Assessing SEAS

Who are you?

Crosscurrents

Surprisingly, when it comes to academic institutions, that question may be more functional than meta-
physical. After all, prospective students and their parents want to know every last data point before
making a four-year commitment. Company executives want to know if holding a given degree will
ensure star performance at work. Alumni want to know if their alma matter is protecting its heritage
while still embracing the future.
To get past the spin cycle (what a place proclaims about itself), savvy investigators look to what others, especially those on (or
previously on) the inside, say about an institution. In fact, such an 180-degree turn allows an institution to get a bracing reality
check. Today such feedback loops (from product reviews to personal musings) are ubiquitous and nearly instantaneous, thanks to
channels of online chatter. Meaning, if an institution doesn’t assess itself, an army of virtual pundits will gladly do so.

As mentioned in the previous Fall/Winter newsletter, in the spring of 2007 Harvard’s Alumni Affairs and Development Office
asked 22,700 graduates (including 1,700 SEAS alumni across all areas and degree programs) to report on their Harvard experiences
and current attitudes toward the University. What follows is a select summary of the responses given by SEAS alumni, all taken
from the open feedback section of the survey. We hope you find the scrutiny as enlightening as we did.

Identity studies: What sets SEAS apart?

“W e are ambitiously interdisci-
plinary.” “We provide an un-
matched learning and research environ-
ment.” “We are uniquely positioned.”
Are such statements valid or vaporware?
To find out we began with a loaded ques-
tion: “What did you find most rewarding
or distinguishing about your experi-
ences as an engineering and applied sci-
ences student at Harvard?”
Nearly all the responses hit the dartboard
at approximately the same spot. Alumni
reported that attaining a broad-based
education while receiving a heavy dose
of technical and engineering knowledge,
or having the “… ability to get a broad en-
gineering education, not limited to one
engineering field, but including educa-
tion in other fields as well as in liberal
arts,” most defined their experience at
SEAS.
In a slightly more roundabout way,
an alumnus noted that SEAS students
have an advantage because “engineer-
ing doesn’t dominate” the University. In
large part thanks to the smaller scale of
Harvard’s engineering and applied sci-
ences program and its integral relation-
ship to the entire College and the Faculty
of Arts and Sciences, “Harvard engineers
are much more balanced and fully edu-
6 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008
cated than [other] engineers” who go
to technology-focused or dominated
schools. In other words, engineering, as
a discipline, is treated on par with the
rest of the liberal arts. The result of being
“part of a university with strong empha-
sis on social sciences and humanities”
means students gain “a … broader per-
spective.” Said one, “I personally believe
the greatest [advantage] I have over my
professional engineering peers is an aca-
demic background that is not entirely
dominated by engineering.”
In fact, such intellectual inclusiveness
is virtually unavoidable. Harvard engi-
neering students, undergraduate and
graduate alike, are not enrolled separate-
ly; nor do they live in separate housing.
They share much of their lives with stu-
dents from all areas, even when inside
the classroom or laboratory. In fact, for
many SEAS alumni, their top reason for
originally attending Harvard ended up
meshing with what became the making
of their fondest memories: “simply being
on the Harvard campus with amazing
students.”
Alumni pointed out that engineering,
as an academic discipline, is distinctive,
even in a liberal arts context. Moreover,
it matters how Harvard faculty approach
and teach the subject relative to their
peers. Graduates across all programs and
degrees noted the curriculum’s strong
emphasis on theory. Surprisingly, for
many that insight became apparent only
several years after leaving Harvard. One
responder wrote, “While I didn’t appreci-
ate them fully at the time, the theoretical
approaches covered were very helpful in
providing a framework that has made
absorbing/performing in a variety of ar-
eas easy to do.” Others, however, found
that stressing the basics left little room
for real-world exploration. In the words
of one alumnus, “I realize it’s important
to teach us how to think, but when you
take an Applied Math class, the problem
sets should never be entirely proofs.”
In either case, the broader emphasis on
problem-solving, a hallmark of engi-
“I personally believe the
greatest [advantage] I
have over my professional
engineering peers is an
academic background that
is not entirely dominated
by engineering.”
neering and applied sciences in general,
left a long-lasting intellectual impres-
sion: “I think my courses shaped the way
I see things, including problem-solving.
As much as I disliked CS 50 at the time,
I have a very solid understanding of how
changes can affect a system nine years
later for it”; “the greatest advantage I
have over my professional peers is that I
don’t think like someone who spent my
school years entirely thinking about lab
assignments and problem sets. (The abil-
ity to swap thought styles from very dif-
ferent disciplines into my engineering is
a huge advantage.)” Many suggested that
learning how to think was as important
as mastering the specific course content.
More broadly, an engineering degree has
a way of informing how an individual
faces an array of problems: “I learned a
new way to think—a top-down approach
that can be used to solve many problems
I face in life, personal and professional. It
is this way of thinking, rather than any
actual learned fact, that was the most
important.”

Future echoes: What should SEAS do going forward?

F rom glossy viewbooks to speeches to videos, SEAS has sketched out a vision for
the future: ways to enhance education, advance research, and better society. The
trick going forward is finding a way to maintain what alumni say sets SEAS apart
faculty member interested in exploring
various aspects of technology. That is,
teaching science engineering to nonen-
while also finding a path that enables the organization to adapt, grow, and evolve. gineers should be part of the fundamen-
For perspective, we asked SEAS graduates a critical question: As we now focus more tal mission of SEAS, if not of Harvard
resources on curricular development and advising, what two or three recommenda- itself—“I’m an entrepreneur-engineer
tions would you have? and feel that technology needs to play a
broader role in student life, in particular
Continue to teach theory how it can address the world’s problems.
“despite radical change in technology, the basics are still the same and still
important.” I am not talking about laptops for stu-
dents here, I am thinking more about
Promote entrepreneurship the need for every student to have a basic
“create a loose and flexible ecosystem for entrepreneurs.” physics and math background.”

Enhance teaching Overall, there was a sense that SEAS has

“more innovation in teaching and more care for students.” an amazing opportunity (if not obliga-
tion) to combine its intellectual and
Reward teaching as well as research research achievements with Harvard’s
“The importance of strong, innovative teaching in engineering, physical, and
worldwide presence and global reach to
applied sciences. It’s way too boring as it is, and professors need to be reward-
ed for innovative teaching, not just (or even instead of!) innovative research.” tackle the “big issues” or to “engage stu-
dents with society’s problems, especially
Push practical experience using Harvard’s global reach to connect
“more practical experience is necessary for students to consider themselves engineering to real-world need.”
engineers.”
SEAS alumni agreed that addressing “the
Create a design-centered curriculum point of the education” should be ever on
“Put design in all aspects of the courses.” the minds of administrators, faculty, and
students. What matters, said one, is “the
Attract daring students importance of producing individuals
“I am concerned that the types of student who is being accepted at top univer-
sities like Harvard are intellectually fragile thinkers who lack the creative and who care about more than personal ac-
outside-the-box thinking ability to really shape the world.” complishments and advancement, and
the role of Harvard in developing leaders
Think big who will invest their time, energy, and
“the need to have the faculty think prospectively rather than retrospectively;
talent in creating a safer, more just, bet-
to be willing to change and adapt to the world rather than to just do things as
they’ve always done them.” ter balanced, more sustainable, and more
caring society.” Similarly, an alumnus
All admitted the challenge of providing logical and quantitative analysis to prob- suggested a call to arms: “We need great
depth and breadth in terms of the aca- lems in a variety of fields.” Moreover, thinkers schooled in the liberal arts who
demic program, warning about falling integrating industry experiences either are interested in … the core questions we
into the trap of “focusing primarily on directly into the curriculum or through are grappling with that will truly affect
the accredited engineering program (B.S. internships or research opportunities our quality of life in the next century,
degrees) that don’t leave enough time was seen as essential for rounding out a such as carbon output reduction, design
for students to explore other options,” solid engineering curriculum. of cities, energy production, water re-
and instead finding ways to “focus on Alumni also broadly agreed that SEAS source management, agricultural biodi-
training people who can apply rigorous should become a hub for any student or versity …”

SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008 I 7
 Turning a corner:
Crosscurrents

How to internalize
external insights

L
ooking inward inevitably results in the desire to
put an institution in a wider context. In the case
of SEAS, one doesn’t need to look far. This year, the
National Academy of Engineering (NAE) issued its
Grand Challenges for Engineering, rallying think-
ers, researchers, politicians, and the public to work
together toward ambitious goals such as the devel-
opment of cleaner and renewable energy sources,
providing access to clean water, advancing public
health, and securing cyberspace.
Through the engineering accomplishments of the
past, the world has become smaller, more inclu-
sive, and more connected. The challenges facing
engineering today are not those of isolated locales,
but of the planet as a whole and all the planet’s
people. Meeting all those challenges must make
the world not only a more technologically ad-
vanced and connected place, but also a more sus-
tainable, safe, healthy, and joyous—in other words,
better—place.

A new school of engineering, especially at an insti-

tution with the resources and reputation of Har-
vard, will likely be judged in terms of how well it
contributes to such grand challenges by those both
within and outside. (NAE’s Grand Challenges.)

In fact, the American Society for Engineering Edu-

cation (ASEE), in the February 2008 issue of its
PRISM magazine, boasted: “With the rare opening
of a new school, Harvard restores engineering to its
once-prominent spot.”

Even Dean Venky, who will step down in Septem-

ber, plans to remain engaged and watchful. He said
in a press release, “… I believe SEAS is exceptionally
well positioned for the future. I will watch from
the sidelines with great interest as it continues to
develop and take its place among the great Schools
of Harvard.”

As SEAS evolves, the questions about its identity

and purpose will remain. Assessments of success,
however measured, will also be ever-present. Said
one sage alumnus, “Right now a Harvard-trained en-
gineer is somewhat of an unknown quantity. That
can be changed.” J

8 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008


SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008 I 9
Faculty News
(top) The February issue of ASEE’s PRISM magazine took more than a full spread to cover the launch of the School of Engineering and Applied sciences.
Nota Bene
Turing Corners … The February issue of
the American Society for Engineering
Education magazine, PRISM, covered the
launch of SEAS, proclaiming, “With the
rare opening of a new school, Harvard re-
stores engineering to its once-prominent
spot.” We will, of course, do our best to
live up to such lofty claims. In addition,
the April 2008 issue of IEEE’s Spectrum
investigated how to engineer the Harvard
engineer, dedicating nearly 4,000 words
to the topic.
Open books … The New York Times, Bos-
ton Globe, Chronicle of Higher Education,
Bloomberg, and others covered Stuart
Shieber’s proposal, passed by the mem-
bers of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, to
post scholarly research online for free.
The editors of Nature chose papers by
Erez Lieberman (pictured) and Lene Hau
as among their favorites for 2007.
10 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008
Follow your heart … Technology Review
followed postdoctoral student Adam
Feinberg and faculty member Kit Parker in
their quest to engineer heart tissue. BBC
Radio’s World Service also interviewed
Parker and Feinberg (see page 3). In ad-
dition to forseeing use of the engineered
tissue, which can contract like muscle
tissue, in drug screening and implantable
devices, Parker expressed his desire to try
it out as the ultimate fishing lure.
Fly art … The Museum of Modern Art in
New York (MOMA) displayed the robotic
fly, created by Rob Wood, as part of its
Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition in
February. Wood himself authored “Fly,
Robot, Fly” for the March issue of IEEE’s
Spectrum.
Cold comfort … Lene Hau discussed pos-
sible applications from the coldest frontier
in applied physics on NOVA’s “Absolute
Zero.”
Friendly press … FAS’s Fall/Winter 2008
issue of The Yard highlighted the SEAS
launch and the Center for Research on
Computation and Society (CRCS). The
Winter 2008 Radcliffe Quarterly profiled
Radcliffe fellow Christine Mummery’s
collaboration with Kit Parker to find a
way to put new heart cells into damaged
hearts. The November/December issue
of Harvard Magazine highlighted Colleen
Hansel’s studies of microbial interactions
with metals, part of the Microbial Sciences
Initiative.
Favorite things … The editors of Nature
chose papers by SEAS graduate student
Erez Lieberman (applying evolutionary
models to linguistic standardization) and
faculty member Lene Hau (converting light
into matter, then back into light) as among
their favorites for 2007.
Radio waves … NPR reporters chatted
with bioengineering faculty member
David Edwards about his new book and
Le Laboratoire, his creative space in Paris
(see below), and with Steven Wofsy, who
monitors carbon activity, as part of a
profile of Harvard’s 3,000-acre forest
laboratory.
ArtScience … Bioengineer David Edwards
wrote an editorial in Nature about his Le
Laboratoire project, the first experiment-
driven art and science incubator opening
in Paris. His book on the topic, ArtScience:
The writing is on the wall. MOMA in New York displayed Rob Wood’s robotic fly as part
of the “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibit.
Creativity in the Post-Google Generation,
ranked #4 on The Boston Globe’s February
list of bestselling books. President Faust’s
new book about the Civil War grabbed the
top spot.
Industry meets ivy … In Chemical and
Engineering News Shriram Ramanathan
discussed making the transition from cor-
porate life to the halls of academia and the
distinctive skill set former industry experts
have to offer. In a different issue, SEAS’s
new research partnership with BASF (see
p. 2) made the cover, showing how SEAS
is forging new relationships with industry
partners to further research with techno-
logical and commercial promise. Last but
not least, FAS Dean Mike Smith, SEAS
Dean Narayanamurti, and former Associ-
ate Dean Seltzer explained the business
sense needed to be a good administrator
in The Crimson. J
 Awards
Barbara Grosz, Higgins Professor of
Natural Sciences and Interim Dean of
the Radcliffe Institute; Frans Spaepen,
John C. and Helen F. Franklin Professor
and Director of the Rowland Institute at
Harvard; and Zhigang Suo, Allen E. and
Marilyn M. Puckett Professor of Mechan-
ics and Materials, were elected to the
National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
They are among 65 new members elected
to the NAE in 2008. Election to the
NAE is among the highest professional
distinctions accorded to an engineer.
Academy membership honors those who
have made outstanding contributions
to “engineering research, practice, or
education, including, where appropriate,
significant contributions to the engineer-
Much-admired mentor, teacher, researcher, Henry Ehrenreich passed away in early 2008.
ing literature,” and to the “pioneering of
new and developing fields of technology,
Remembrance making major advancements in tradition-
al fields of engineering, or developing/
Henry Ehrenreich, Clowes Professor of Science, Emeritus, a pioneer in semiconductor implementing innovative approaches to
materials, and a Harvard professor for more than four decades, died on January 20, a few engineering education.”
months before his 80th birthday. He also served as the University’s first Ombudsman and
Lene Hau, Mallinckrodt Professor of
extended his academic interests to government and public policy, spending a year working
Physics and of Applied Physics, was
with the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House and
elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of
serving on several national and international panels.
Sciences for her experiments on the ma-
Ehrenreich received his B.A. (1950) and his Ph.D. in the emerging field of semiconduc- nipulation of photons. The Academy is an
tor physics (1955) at Cornell, where he also met and married Tema, his wife for almost independent organization whose overall
objective is to promote the sciences and
55 years. He spent the next eight years at the General Electric Research Laboratory in
strengthen their influence in society.
Schenectady, N.Y., then a hub for scientific research. In 1963 he was appointed a professor
in what was then Harvard’s Division (now School) of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Todd Zickler, Assistant Professor of Elec-
trical Engineering, was named a 2008
In addition to educating and mentoring students in his research specialty, Ehrenreich de-
Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. The award recog-
veloped courses for students at all levels that covered topics ranging from the physics,
nizes exceptional faculty who are early in
chemistry, and policy aspects of materials and devices to energy and the environment,
their research careers.
even to ones that touched on his personal interests in history and music. Ehrenreich, a
skilled pianist, developed his love of music early, thanks to his father, a choral conductor The National Science Foundation (NSF)
and music critic. awarded 2008 CAREER awards to Ken
Crozier, Assistant Professor of Electrical
“An enormous number of colleagues, friends, and students at Harvard and throughout the
Engineering, for his work in near-field
world have benefited from their interactions with Henry as well as from the papers and
optical forces, and Vinothan Manoha-
reports he wrote and the volumes he edited. His insights, wisdom, and thoughtfulness
ran, Assistant Professor of Physics and
will be sorely missed,” said Paul Martin, John H. Van Vleck Professor of Pure and Applied
Chemical Engineering, for his work on
Physics at Harvard.
imaging colloidal self-assembly. The
In addition to his wife, Tema, Ehrenreich leaves a daughter, Beth; two sons, Paul and honor is considered one of the most
Robert; and 10 grandchildren. J prestigious recognitions of rising stars
in science and engineering. The Fac-
ulty Early Career Development (CAREER)
Promotions and Appointments Program is a Foundation-wide activity
that offers the National Science Founda-
tion’s most prestigious awards in support
Fred Abernathy, Gordon McKay Profes- Long-time SEAS staff members Sandra of the early career development activities
sor of Mechanical Engineering and Ab- Godfrey, Academic Programs Adminis- of those teacher-scholars who most ef-
bott and James Lawrence Professor of trator, who helped ensure that countless fectively integrate research and education
Engineering, and Paul Martin, John H. undergraduates made it through their
within the context of the mission of their
degree programs on time (and with their
Van Vleck Professor of Pure and Applied organization.
sanity still intact), and Ralph Generazzo,
Physics and former Dean of Engineering Robert Wood, Assistant Professor of
Director of Procurement, the consum-
and Applied Sciences, will become emeri- Electrical Engineering, won both the
mate Red Sox fan who likely knows the
tus professors in June. Both received their whereabouts of every stapler and every Conference Best Paper Award and the
Ph.D. degrees from Harvard, in 1959 and laser ever purchased by a member of Best Video Award at the International
1954, respectively. (See p. 14) SEAS, retired in June. Conference on Intelligent Robots and
Faculty News
Systems (IROS 2007) sponsored by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics En-
gineers (IEEE) in San Diego in November.
In fact, Harvard researchers were authors
of three of the four finalists for the best
paper award, out of 681 accepted papers.
Shriram Ramanathan, Assistant Profes-
sor of Materials Science, is among the
recipients of the Air Force’s Young Inves-
tigator Research Program. The program
fosters creative basic research.
Daniel Jacob, Vasco McCoy Family Pro-
fessor of Atmospheric Chemistry and
Environmental Engineering, and Steven
Wofsy, Abbott Lawrence Rotch Profes-
sor of Atmospheric and Environmental
Science and Associate Dean of FAS, are
among the participants in the Inter-
governmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) report, an assessment of climate
change research, for which the 2007 No-
bel Peace Prize was awarded.
Howard Stone, Vicky Joseph Professor
of Engineering and Applied Mathemat-
ics and Associate Dean for Academic
Programs, has been selected as the first
winner of the G. K. Batchelor Prize for
Fluid Mechanics for research published
over the past 10 years.
Eric Mazur, Balkanski Professor of Phys-
ics and Applied Physics, was elected a
Fellow of the Optical Society of America
for his “pioneering contributions to op-
tical waveguiding at the nanoscale level
and to understanding the interaction of
ultrashort laser pulses with materials.”
Dave Mooney, Gordon McKay Professor
of Bioengineering, won the 2008 Clem-
son Award in Biomaterials. Awardees are
selected by the Society for Biomaterials
Awards, Ceremonies and Nominations
Committee, and confirmed by the Presi-
dent of Clemson University.
Bob Westervelt, Mallinckrodt Professor
of Applied Physics and of Physics, was
named a 2007 American Physical Society
fellow for “seminal contributions to our
understanding of the quantum behavior
of electrons inside nanoscale semicon-
ductor structures, including imaging the
coherent flow of electron waves. Fellow-
ship is therefore a distinct honor signi-
fying recognition by one’s professional
peers.”
Peter Rogers, Gordon McKay Professor of
Environmental Engineering, was awarded
the 2008 Warren A. Hall Medal to rec-
ognize his accomplishments in the water
resources field. The award was instituted
in 1992 by the Universities Council on
Water Resources. J
SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008 I 11
Student News
Graduate
Honorable Fellows
M icrosoft Research named two
SEAS graduate computer science
students as Research Fellows in 2008:
Ece Semiha Kamar, advised by Barbara J.
Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sci-
ences and Interim Dean of the Radcliffe
Institute, and Rohan Narayana Murty,
advised by Matt Welsh, Associate Profes-
sor of Computer Science. This marks the
first time any Harvard student has been
selected for the prestigious honor.
Upon hearing the news, Margo Seltzer,
Herchel Smith Professor of Computer
Science, emailed, “Yesterday at a faculty
meeting, several people were basking in
the afterglow of having Microsoft award
two of their 12 Ph.D. Fellowships to Har-
vard students. This is an incredible statis-
tic: 1/6 of a prestigious fellowship being
12 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008
awarded to a tiny place like ours! This
wonderful news coupled with the new
Cambridge lab seems like an omen—we
should shout this from the treetops.”
Competition is especially fierce for the
fellowships—and for good reason. Fel-
lows receive support for two years—a
stipend covering 100 percent of tuition
and living expenses, a conference al-
lowance, a salaried internship, and, of
course, a Tablet PC loaded with the latest
software. And then there’s that dinner
with Bill Gates, at his home.
Murty, a voracious reader who tracks
his literary progress online, grew up in
Bangalore, India. After attending Cor-
nell University as an undergraduate
and spending his summers pursuing
research at Caltech, he settled into
Ece Semiha Kamar (front right) and Rohan Narayana
Murty (behind left), both Ph.D. candidates in computer
science at SEAS, were among the 2008 Research Fellows
sponsored by Microsoft Research. The prestigious honor
recognizes graduate students who are considered among
best and the brightest in North America.
SEAS to focus on designing multiagent
decision systems. While a passionate
“academic at heart,” Murty has already
interned twice with the Microsoft Re-
search branch in India.
Kamar also crossed the ocean to pur-
sue her Ph.D. She completed her un-
dergraduate studies at the Faculty of
Engineering and Natural Sciences of
Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey. At
SEAS she focuses on “how people make
decisions—especially the problem of in-
terruption management, or when a com-
puter agent interrupts you by sending
you a message or asking for your prefer-
ences.” She wants to answer a seemingly
simple question: When is the best time
to butt in on a user?
While practical, both Kamar and Murty’s
research is forward-looking and moves at
a decidedly academic pace. So why would
a company facing competition from all
sides in business moving at the speed of
an instant message stop and smell the
ivy? Kamar says the organization, to bor-
row a friendly phrase from a competitor,
thinks different. “Microsoft Research
is really doing research, which is often
surprising to outsiders. They publish a
lot. Their measurement mechanism for
how good they are is how much they
publish,” she says.
Murty, in fact, authored part of what
will become his thesis while interning
at Microsoft Research. He says of the re-
lationship, “It is helpful because when I
am there I work on a very practical and
immediate problem, and when I come
back here, I work on an extension of that
that sort of looks five to 10 years ahead. It
lets a company experiment with an idea
in an academic setting before they push
ahead and test it in the marketplace.”
That such a balance works for both
achieving profitable quarters and com-
pleting academic theses definitely
seems worth, to modify Seltzer’s phrase,
shouting from skyscrapers and ivory
towers alike. J
Undergraduate SEAS Grads’ Primary Occupations, Post-Harvard

Student News
Computer software, hardware, systems 23%
Career finder Other 18%

A nthony Arcieri, Assistant Director for Careers in Science Banking, finance, communications 11%
and Technology at the Office of Career Services (OCS), Engineering and science 11%
arrived in the spring of 2007 with some compelling words of Education 8%
wisdom—an entire book’s worth, in fact. The author of Major- Full-time student 7%
ing in Success: Building Your Career While Still in College has been Law 6%
dedicated to increasing students’ access to—and awareness Consulting 6%
of—options: career options, graduate school options, support
Medicine, healthcare, public health 5%
and counseling options, and perhaps most important, the op-
Arts, government, politics 5%
tion to connect with alumni and begin developing networking
skills. We asked Anthony for some highlights of his career- * Data from 2007 Alumni Survey.
building efforts over the past year and about ways companies Who is hiring? Technical employers continue to show an in-
and alumni can get involved. terest in recruiting Harvard students, with Google leading the
What’s happening? In September the annual Career Forum in- pack of the most popular employers for students to interview
cluded a variety of employers seeking to recruit SEAS students with. Others, including Facebook, Microsoft, NASA, Meebo,
as well as an expert panel focused on Careers in the Life Sciences Symantec, and NVIDIA, provided plentiful internship and
(which particularly appealed to Biomedical Engineering con- full-time opportunities for interested students through the On-
centrators). October found SEAS students attending programs Campus Recruiting program, the Career Forum, and listings on
on Applying to Graduate School in the Sciences and on Work- the OCS Website.
ing Beyond the Bench. Spring saw an equal flurry of activity, How can alumni get involved? This year, OCS organized topi-
with students participating in both the Engineers Week Career cal panels of invited guests, including alumni, to speak about
Fair in Boston and the All Ivy Environmental Career Fair in New their career paths and provide advice to students and also
York City in search of jobs and internships. OCS also cospon- hosted alums for intimate “career chats” with current students.
sored a new Science, Technology, and Society Career Chat Se- Anthony invites alumni of SEAS and those in related graduate
ries, which kicked off with a discussion about careers in science engineering fields to connect with current students by becom-
policy and will continue with an upcoming chat on science and ing involved with some of these career programs or by posting
democracy, with particular focus on the changing landscape for internship and full-time opportunities with OCS on behalf of
science funding. Future career programming will include on- their employers. If you are interested in participating, please
demand chats on topics such as the environment and energy. contact Anthony Arcieri at arcieri@fas.harvard.edu. J

Student Awards
On behalf of the New York City Post of the
Society of American Military Engineers
(SAME), Harvard College senior Connie
Cheng ’08 has been awarded the 2007
Colonel and Mrs. S. S. Dennis III Scholar-
ship in recognition of her hard work and
dedication to research. At a ceremony in
Pierce Hall, Venkatesh Narayanamurti,
Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences, presented her with a
certificate of accomplishment and a schol-
arship check for $1,000 from SAME.
Jessica Shang ’08 (Engineering Sciences)
has been awarded a Gates Cambridge
Scholarship. The program enables non-
U.K. students to study at the University
of Cambridge. According to her biosketch,
she worked with faculty member Rob
Wood “developing a microrobotic drag-
onfly as part of my honors thesis to gain
insight into the dynamics and evolution
of insect flight. This research will aid the
development of highly maneuverable,
autonomous vehicles useful in search
and rescue missions. At Cambridge, I will
pursue an M.Phil. in Engineering to more
deeply explore my research interests be-
fore Ph.D. studies.”
Xuanhe Zhao, a Ph.D. candidate in Zhigang
Suo’s group, won the American Academy
of Mechanics Founder’s Prize for his essay
on soft active materials.
Two doctoral students in computer science,
Rohan Narayana Murty and Ece Semiha
Kamar, were named 2008 Microsoft Re-
search Fellows (see page 12).
Undergraduate Ahmad Khairi ’08 (En-
gineering Sciences) and postdoctoral
student Jian Han from Donhee Ham’s lab
received the 2008 Analog Devices, Inc.,
Outstanding Student Design Award.
The Crimson named concentrator Jackie
Stenson ’08 (Engineering Sciences) one
of the 15 most interesting seniors in the
class of 2008. Stenson, a globetrotter
by nature, “said her senior project, the
equivalent of a senior thesis for engi-
neering science concentrators, came from
her experience traveling in South Africa.
She is currently designing a chimney for
thatched-roof huts that would provide
heat and reduce the indoor air pollution
that results from using wood fires to cook
food indoors. And in addition to project
ideas, Stenson returned home with a cu-
rious souvenir: dreadlocks, courtesy of a
South African salon.”
Several robotics researchers were recog-
nized for outstanding work at the IEEE
International Conference on Intelligent
Robots and Systems (IROS 2007) in San
Diego in November. Postdoctoral fellows
from Robert Howe’s Harvard BioRobotics
Lab, Riichiro Tadakuma and Mahdi Tava-
koli were finalists for the Conference Best
Paper Award. In addition, Harvard under-
graduate Dan Kettler ’07 (Engineering Sci-
ences), now a Ph.D. student at MIT, was
one of four finalists for the Best Student
Paper Award, for work from his senior
design project on new instruments for
beating-heart surgery.
Shayak Sarkar ’07 (A.B. in Applied Math-
ematics and a Master’s in Statistics) and
Sammy K. Sambu ’08 (Engineering Sci-
ences), representing Kenya, were selected
as Rhodes Scholars. A biomedical science
and engineering concentrator and a resi-
dent of Leverett House, Sambu plans to
conduct research at the Oxford Institute
of Biomedical Engineering on improving
vaccine delivery technology. Sarkar, having
served the homeless, refugees, and low-
income youth through various public ser-
vice organizations while an undergraduate,
is now interested in applying his analytic
skills in mathematics, statistics, and eco-
nomics to addressing problems associated
with poverty, especially affordable housing
and education reform.
Yuancheng was selected as a Computing
Research Association (CRA) Outstanding
Undergraduate Award finalist. CRA’s pro-
gram recognizes undergraduate students
in North American universities who show
outstanding research potential in an area
of computing research. J

SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008 I 13
 Fred Abernathy and Paul Martin
In Profile
The Changing of the Guards
I nstitutional memory resides in individuals. Those wanting a firsthand account of the mod-
ern journey of engineering and applied sciences at Harvard need only a quick word with Paul
Martin or Frederick “Fred” Abernathy. Over the past five decades, Martin, the John H. Van Vleck
Professor of Pure and Applied Physics, and Abernathy, the Gordon McKay Professor of Mechani-
cal Engineering and Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Engineering, have played critical
roles in shaping the lives of students, faculty, and staff. Both will become nonteaching faculty
members at the end of the 2007–2008 term. Those at SEAS, however, know that the lessons
taught by these two will continue to help illuminate (in an energy-efficient way, of course) the
path forward.
Paul Martin: Student leader, administrative shaper
T he top shelf of Paul Mar-
tin’s bookshelf is reserved
for the dissertations of his
the former dean of the then
Division of Engineering and
Applied Sciences, is more
to have unusually gifted stu-
dents at a time when we had
lots of interesting problems
graduate students, many of comfortable talking about his for them to tackle,” he says.
whom, he proudly tells, have past students’ accomplish- He and his students had
made significant contribu- ments than his own. countless discussions and
tions to the field of theoreti- Martin joined the faculty in scratched innumerable equa-
cal physics. Recounting his 1957 and worked closely with tions on blackboards, many
career at Harvard, where he graduate students for the next in the same Lyman Labora-
has been “forever,” Martin, two decades. “I was fortunate tory office where the disser-
tation-adorned bookshelf
now resides. They introduced
methods now widely used
in statistical and condensed-
matter physics and used
them to study the properties
of magnetic systems, super-
conductors, superfluids, and
the general features of phase
transitions, chaos, and turbu-
lence.
Following in the footsteps of
his two predecessors, theo-
retical physicists John Van
Vleck and Harvey Brooks,
Martin became dean of the
Division in 1977. At the time,
the Division of Engineer-
ing and Applied Physics was
facing some financial (and
philosophical) issues. The
faculty had voted to change
the name to the Division of
Applied Sciences, suggesting
a commitment to engineer-
Paul Martin held was dean of DEAS for 22
years, the longest deanship held to date.
14 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008
ing was ambivalent at best.
“The steadfast contributions
of a few faculty, including
Fred Abernathy and Vic Jones,
were critical in reversing this
trend,” says Martin.
Under Martin’s leadership,
the Division recruited key
faculty—especially in com-
puter science, material sci-
ences, and atmospheric
sciences. During his dean-
ship the construction of the
hallmark Maxwell-Dworkin
building was begun. By serv-
ing concurrently as an Asso-
ciate Dean, he worked closely
with three deans of the Fac-
ulty of Arts and Sciences on
science planning, research,
and research policy to help
strengthen connections be-
tween disciplines.
“The Division has tradition-
ally been the hub of multidis-
ciplinary research activities
in the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences and of joint pro-
grams with Harvard’s other
Schools,” he explained. “We
also were the home of two
major programs across New
England—the New England
Consortium for Undergradu-
ate Science Education, which
sponsored and nurtured proj-
ects and programs at 12 New
England colleges and four
universities, and the north-
eastern home of the National
Institute for Global Environ-
mental Change.”
In recent years Martin has
enjoyed teaching graduate
students again, in the areas of
dynamical systems, electro-
magnetic theory, many-body
theory, and solid-state phys-
ics. As he takes on the next
phase of his academic career,
Martin will leave the office
that holds decades of memo-
ries of academic discovery to
move one floor up, “closer to
heaven” —but still grounded
at Harvard.

Fred Abernathy: Idea sower, energy saver
I n the late 1970s, after deciding to try
to help the troubled U.S. textile/ap-
parel industry, Professor Fred Abernathy
visited a suit factory and asked the plant
manager, “Do you have a book giving
the details of how to make suits?” When
Abernathy confessed that it was his first
visit to such a factory, the manager said,
“And you’re going to save our industry?”
This challenge, however unusual, was
standard for Abernathy. “It’s important
to have the courage to jump into a new
pool,” he says. “Some people are like a
record, playing the same song over and
over again, but I think it’s important to
always learn new things.”
Abernathy had served on Harvard’s fac-
ulty for nearly 20 years when he chose
to apply his mechanical engineering
background to the task of automat-
ing apparel manufacturing. This work
led to the creation of a company, [TC]2,
which Abernathy ran for three years
before determining that robotic sewing
could not compete with low-cost labor
overseas—but the nonprofit organiza-
tion still exists today, providing tech-
nical help to the textile, apparel, and
retail industries.
“If I see a job that can be done and no else
seems to do it, I’ll do it,” says Abernathy.
When the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
hit financial difficulties in the 1970s and
energy costs were at record-high levels,
Abernathy stepped in to analyze and de-
crease the University’s energy consump-
tion. Storm windows, roof insulation,
automatic lights, energy-saving devices,
and other measures decreased the Divi-
sion’s energy use by a factor of three for a
savings of more than $3 million per year
in 1979 dollars, according to Abernathy.
In fact, to this day, Abernathy makes it a
In profile
Bow-tied and bespectacled, Fred Abernathy has spent
nearly 50 years at Harvard.
habit to turn off hallway lights, replace
standard bulbs with more efficient ones,
and kindly remind people about how
to downsize their environmental foot-
print.
When not finding practical solutions to
problems at Harvard or in industry, Ab-
ernathy has taught courses on a range
of topics, including fluid dynamics, heat
transfer, applied physics, electronics,
design, and mechanics. Looking back
over his work with undergraduates,
Abernathy is particularly proud of ad-
vancing the Capstone Project. With col-
leagues Vic Jones and Woody Yang, he
implemented the seminal project course
for junior SB candidates, introducing the
element of working with outside clients.
For about 25 years he has enjoyed help-
ing students solve real-world problems
related to things as divergent as sewer
systems, cell-phone towers, library sys-
tems, and Harvard’s Allston campus.
Most of the graduate students who
worked closely with Abernathy have
gone on to have successful careers in
industry. “I always hoped to get graduate
students interested in something other
than their theses and to have the confi-
dence in their intellectual competence
to go off and do new things,” he says.
In the coming years, Abernathy plans
to continue to do research and hopes to
write a book about industrialization and
energy. As always, the challenges he takes
on will be dictated by his intuition. “I
think you ought to follow your stomach
in making decisions,” he says. J
110 years at Harvard
Martin received his A.B. in 1951 and his Ph.D. three
years later, working on quantum electrodynamics and
nuclear physics. Martin has served on the faculty for 20
years, spending three as chair of the Physics Depart-
ment. After 22 years as Dean of DEAS, Martin contin-
ued as Dean for Research and IT in FAS until 2005.
Abernathy received his B.S. in mechanical engineering
from Newark College of Engineering in 1951 and his
Ph.D. at Harvard in 1959 and thereafter joined the Har-
vard faculty. He spent a few years away to start and run
[TC]2 and to serve as director of the Engineering Divi-
sion and Energy Office of the NSF. He is now evaluating
how to increase the construction efficiency of building
single-family homes.
SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008 I 15
 Innovation in the Air
Intersections
I’s on the prize
The Technology and Entrepreneurship
Center at Harvard (TECH) launched
the inaugural Harvard College In-
novation Challenge this year in col-
laboration with its affiliated student
group, the Harvard College Entrepre-
neurship Forum, and Harvard Student
Agencies Inc.
The challenge, dubbed I3—“Imagine-
Invent-Impact”—drew 55 teams and
over 150 undergraduate participants
from over 20 different concentrations.
All three SEAS concentrations were
represented. In fact, SEAS concentra-
tors led three of the six winning teams.
Team projects ranged from local social
entrepreneurship initiatives and global
health interventions to technology
start-ups and campus service ventures.
The challenge provided students with
a centralized high-profile activity to
complement the experiential and inno-
vation education that TECH has been
developing through courses, seminars,
training, and networking opportuni-
ties. Moreover, I3 brought together the
broader Harvard community, as faculty
and alumni served as mentors, speakers,
and judges. Reflecting the spirit of inno-
vation, several members participated
from a distance via an online proposal
review platform.
SEAS received founding and lead sup-
port for the competition thanks to a gift
The Harvard Student Agencies Campus Venture Award: Rover, a customized cell-phone content delivery platform
for student travel guides. The entry of Alex Bick ‘10 (right), Winston Yan ‘10 (center), with Tom Caputo of Advanced
Technology Ventures.
16 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008
The TECH Innovative Student Startup Award for outstanding Internet venture: PaperG, a self-serve local adver-
tising network. The entry of Roger R. Lee ’08 (left) and Tyler W. Bosmeny ’09 (center) with Howard Zaharoff,
Esq.
to TECH from Tom McKinley ’74 and
Sara McKinley ’03, HBS ’07. “The McKin-
ley family has provided a tremendous
new catalyst for student innovation,”
noted Paul Bottino, TECH’s co-founder
and Executive Director who conceived
and managed the novel I3 collabora-
tion. “We are very grateful for the gift
and the vote of confidence it carries for
the efforts SEAS has made to embrace
innovation and entrepreneurship on
campus.”
Winners, announced at an April 9 gala
event, received awards worth over
$60,000 in grants and $30,000 in ser-
vices:
The McKinley Family Grant for Innova-
tion and Entrepreneurial Leadership in
Commercial Enterprise: Cookie Crumbs,
a notepad interface for cell phone users
(Jason H. Gao ’10, Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science, and Timothy H.
Hsieh ’10, Physics/Math and Computer
Science); Groupseak, a city-based online
chat network (Christopher R. Clayton
’09, Sociology, and Jovan Jester ’09, Eco-
nomics and Psychology).
The McKinley Family Grant for Inno-
vation and Entrepreneurial Leadership
in Social Enterprise: VoteGopher.com,
comprehensive monitoring of presi-
dential elections (William M. Ruben
’10, Economics, and Alexander J. Lavoie
’10, Economics).
The TECH Innovative Student Startup
Award for outstanding Internet ven-
ture: PaperG, a self-serve local advertis-
ing network (Roger R. Lee ’08, Applied
Math, and Tyler W. Bosmeny ’09, Ap-
plied Math).
The TECH Innovative Student Startup
Award for outstanding social venture:
UniThrive, a tuition lending network
that deploys peer-to-peer technology to
connect students and alumni (Joshua
Kushner ’08, Government, Nimay Meh-
ta ’09, Economics).
The Harvard Student Agencies Campus
Venture Award: Rover, a customized
cell-phone content delivery platform
for student travel guides (Alex Bick ’10,
Engineering Sciences, Winston Yan ’10,
Physics).
Additional sponsorship for I3 was gener-
ously provided by Polaris Venture Part-
ners; Morse Barnes-Brown Pendleton;
Highland Capital Partners; Advanced
Technology Ventures; DE Shaw & Co.;
and StudentBusiness.com. J
For more information see:
http://i3.seas.harvard.edu
More Bright Ideas
The Crimson named Engineer-
ing Sciences concentrator
Jackie Stenson ’08 as one of
its top 15 most interesting
seniors: “She said her senior
project … came from her expe-
rience traveling in South Afri-
ca. She is currently designing
a chimney for thatched-roof
huts that would provide heat
and reduce the indoor air pol-
lution that results from using
wood fires to cook food in-
doors.” Stenson also serves as
the founding president of the
Harvard College chapter of
Engineers Without Borders.
Ashkan Vaziri, a postdoctoral
scholar, reported on a novel
phenomenon: direct irra-
diation of an InGaN substrate
with a focused ion beam,
which provides a technique
for the fabrication of single-
crystal indium nanowires
at a rate that is much higher
than other available tech-
niques. “We envision that
these composite nanowires
will have versatile applica-
tions in electronics and opto-
electronic devices. Other uses
include building biosensors,
solar cells, electrodes, and
even memory devices. With
additional work we could
create nanoneedles and nano-
pipettes for delivering mole-
cules or drugs such as nucleic
acids in the next generation
of nanosurgery devices.”
Students in ES-147, “Idea
Translation,” presented pro-
jects to the Harvard com-
munity that tackled some
intriguing questions: Can
remote sensing elevate mu-
seum experiences? Are lumi-
nous polymers the keys to
lighting Africa? Are gourmet
aerosols the next big thing
in the culinary arts? Can
your biological information
Intersections
be used to enhance virtual
worlds? The answers may
well realized, especially since
the lighting project for Af-
rica has received seed fund-
ing. The audience, however,
seemed less than enthusiastic
about the thought of breath-
ing rather than eating their
victuals.
XEconomy.com reported on
InCytu, a firm that hopes
to make tissue engineering
succeed in the marketplace.
The startup “draws on new
technology from Harvard
bioengineer David Mooney’s
lab. InCytu is developing a
suite of ‘smart’ materials that
help the body grow new tis-
sues and repair itself—using
its own stem cells right in the
body—rather than requir-
Stephanie Wilson ’88, A veteran of two space flights, poses with the rest of the crew of
ing that cells be harvested, the STS-120.
treated in a lab, and then re-
turned to the patient … The Events
company’s initial aim is to Visit www.seas.harvard.edu/newsandevents for the latest details, dates, and times for
create simpler products such SEAS events. Here are some highlights from the past months:
as dressings that can coax The SEAS industrial partnerships program hosted a workshop on materials and struc-
new blood vessels to grow tures for energy in May. The event brought together faculty, students, and profes-
into skin badly damaged by sionals from industry and government to investigate the development and application
diabetes and injectable gels of materials designed to increase energy efficiency and mitigate the negative envi-
to help repair hernias and ronmental impact of technologies ranging from chips to laptops. Jennifer Casasanto,
perhaps even shrapnel or bul- Director of Industrial Outreach and Community Relations said, “Our goal is to find ever
more specific ways to link our research with critical, up-to-the-minute problems, like
let wounds.” J
energy consumption, that a particular industry faces.”
Jackie Stenson ’08, installing one of her
In March, famed Princeton engineering educator David Billington, Gordon Y. S. Wu
chimneys on a thatched-roof hut.
Professor of Engineering, shared tales about the design of some of the world’s most
famed bridges, such as the elegant Salginatobel Bridge in Switzerland (literally hugged
in place by two mountainsides) and Boston’s own Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge,
the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world. Billington’s aim was to illustrate the criti-
cal role of aesthetics in well-designed structures. After all, a well-built bridge will be
trod for many decades, if not centuries, to come.
In February, NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson ’88 came in for a second landing. Wil-
son, who is now a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, has completed two
shuttle flights in less than two years (rare for any astronaut). At the packed lecture,
in addition to some deeply philosophical questions (from “Do you believe there is
other intelligent life in the universe?” to “Should we go to back to the moon and on
to Mars?”—to which she answered yes both times), an audience member asked an
eminently practical, if not personal, one (“So how do you go to the bathroom [aboard
the shuttle]?” to which she answered, “It’s very similar to what happens on an air-
plane”).
In December, Kathryn Hollar, Director of Educational Programs, and Howard Stone,
Vicky Joseph Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics and Associate Dean
for Academic Programs, once again hosted the Holiday Lecture. This time they headed
into the kitchen, exploring the science behind one of America’s favorite foods: pizza.
SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008 I 17
Alumni Notes
Shih Choon Fong ’73
University 101
T ry to imagine Harvard before, well, it
was Harvard. At one point the famed
Ivy was merely the intention of a 1636
vote of the general court of Massachu-
setts (the colony, not the state) and the
famed Yard was merely an expanse of
former cow pasture interrupted by a
single house.
At least Shih Choon Fong ’73 has the
benefit of a Website (www.kaust.edu.sa)
to give form to such imaginings in his
new university. In February, Shih was
appointed as the first president of the
newly founded King Abdullah Univer-
sity of Science and Technology (KAUST)
in Saudi Arabia.
Shih earned his Ph.D. in applied math-
ematics from Harvard in 1973. After
Shih spent seven years leading Fracture
Research at the GE Corporate Research
Lab, he returned to an Ivy setting, serv-
ing as a professor at Brown University
for nearly 15 years. In 2000, he returned
home, serving as the President of the
National University of Singapore.
18 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008
Despite the awesome responsibility
of running a new university, in his ac-
ceptance letter Shih said that he plans
to keep his composure by using some
lessons from his childhood: “Early on
as a child, my greatest pleasure was to
explore the longkangs (ditches) of Singa-
pore, looking for fishes and frogs. Curi-
osity, and the joy when that is fulfilled,
has led me to a lifelong quest of pursu-
ing scientific knowledge, the interplay
of inquiry and reasoning.”
In February 2008 The New York Times
ran the following headline: “U.S. Uni-
versities Rush to Set Up Posts Abroad.”
In the 21st century, to extend their
global brands, and sometimes for rev-
enue reasons, some universities began
setting up overseas satellite campuses.
These universities often brought their
own intellectual and cultural DNA to
the outposts. Sometimes, but not often
enough, the best of the satellite cam-
puses would engage with indigenous
organizations, leading to the exchange
(left) In January 2088 King Abdullah University of
Science and Technology named Shih Coon Fong ’73
Founding President.
of intellectual and cultural DNA, thus
enriching the entire system. However,
more often than not, there was only
one-way flow to the advantage of the
parent institution, with little benefit to
the host society.
KAUST, however, is being built by and
for Saudi Arabia.
To take on the grand challenges of our
times, I believe universities in the 21st
century must engage in meaningful col-
laboration in research and education
that serves society and fosters responsi-
ble global citizenship. KAUST will be re-
sponsive to the world while responsible
to Saudi Arabia, a global university with
a national character.
Do you view KAUST as rekindling
the long legacy of Arabic invention
and discovery?
Intellectual inquiry was an integral part
of the Arabic world for more than two
millennia. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul-
lah has shared his vision for KAUST as
“a new House of Wisdom, a forum for
science and research, and a beacon of
knowledge for future generations” and
holding the promise of contributing to
the Kingdom’s development towards
a knowledge and innovation-driven
society. At the heart of KAUST is an
enlightened spirit, which seeks knowl-
edge not only for its own sake but also
for its promise of the betterment of the
human condition.
What is your “grandest dream” for the
influence KAUST might have across
the globe?
Like the best institutions around the
world, KAUST recognizes that the mea-
sure of global excellence in research
and education is in making a difference
to a discipline or field, in contributing
to society’s well-being, and in shaping
public opinion and policy. Working to-
wards these goals, KAUST would have
gone some way towards rekindling the
legacy of the Renaissance, which itself
was built upon the Islamic Golden Age.
What does it mean to be an engineering

Alumni Notes
school for the 21st century?
As Theodore von Kármán, Caltech’s
Provost during its formative years, once
said: “Scientists discover the world that
exists; engineers create the world that
never was.” Of course, the optimists
seek scientific solutions for these new
problems, as well they should; but the
realists are not wrong to wonder if even
more problems will in turn be created.
Thus, von Kármán’s statement needs
elaboration: The world that technol-
ogy has transformed begs to be shaped KAUST campus rendering. (View from under the rotunda
by values, values which can promote of the of the main entrance and Administration Building.)
What do you think has enabled your
and sustain life in the 21st century. The own success?
You’ve said that you went from being a
21st-century engineering school—in-
mediocre student to attending Harvard. I am fundamentally drawn to the chal-
deed, the 21st-century university—has
What inspired you to push forward? lenge of transforming the seemingly im-
a civilizing mission: developing indi-
Today, much of university education is possible into a possible. A curiosity for
viduals who know how, among other
driven by extrinsic factors, such as liv- how things work and a love of adventure
qualities, to mingle easily with diverse
ing out parental dreams, making lots have also driven me to seek out exciting
cultures as well as to be conversant on
of money, and going for a straight and and meaningful pursuits. At the same
global issues.
easy path to success. To do well in en- time, always in my heart are the words of
As you know, Harvard recently launched gineering, there needs to be intrinsic my devout Buddhist mother: “You must
SEAS. Do you have any advice? motivation—love of science and curios- not be so attached to something that you
ity to discover how the world works. To can’t do without it.” I think of life more
I believe that SEAS has a particular
sustain students’ interest in engineering, as a never-ending and ever-changing
responsibility because of Harvard’s
professors have a big part to play. Their journey of learning and discovery. Hu-
prominence at the forefront of global
excitement and enthusiasm can be infec- mility, humanity, and humor also make
knowledge institutions. It can offer op-
tious, drawing out a love for the subject good traveling companions. J
portunities for fruitful conversations
outside the boundaries of science and and helping students find fulfillment in Note: An unabridged version of this interview is
learning and discovery. available on www.seas.harvard.edu.
engineering in order to sharpen the in-
tellectual life and heighten the cultural
sensitivity of SEAS students. It is vital
that SEAS establishes a no-walls culture
Be part of the Renaissance...
of openness, promoting collaboration The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences thrives because of institu-
and discovery across disciplines and tional, government, industrial, and alumni support. Such financial generosity, intel-
institutions, as well as across communi- lectual guidance, and enthusiasm will enable us to continue to enhance education
ties, cultures, and continents. This is one and research and to better society.
step towards ensuring a thriving and To learn more about giving opportunities, please contact Linda Fates, Associate Dean
successful future. for Resource Development, at ord@seas.harvard.edu.

Alumni Accomplishments
Because several alumni asked
to share their successes with
the wider SEAS community,
we decided to pass along the
praise. Please feel free to send
any of your own accomplish-
ments our way: communica-
tions@seas.harvard.edu.
E. Allen Emerson ’81 (Ph.D.,
Applied Math) was among
the pioneers honored with
the 2007 A. M. Turing Award
for model checking (first de-
veloped at Harvard in 1981).
The Turing Award is consid-
ered the Nobel Prize of com-
puter science.
P.S. Krishnaprasad ’77 (Ph.D.,
Engineering Sciences), Pro-
fessor of Electrical and Com-
puter Engineering at the
University of Maryland, was
awarded the 2007 IEEE Con-
trol Systems Society Hendrik
W. Bode Prize.
The prize was developed to
recognize distinguished con-
tributions to control systems
science or engineering.
David E. Keyes ’84 (Applied
Mathematics), Fu Foundation
Professor of Applied Math-
ematics, won the 2007 Sidney
Fernbach Award.
Choon Fong Shih ’73 has been
appointed the first president
of the KAUST in Saudi Arabia
(see p. 18 and above).

SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008 I 19
 Teaching it Forward
Connections

L ynn Andrea Stein ’86, (A.B., Computer Science)

was there when the Olin College of Engineering
campus existed only as a computer-rendered fly-
through—rotund neoclassical buildings floating in
a sea of black. Among the first wave of faculty mem-
bers at Olin, Stein worked with student partners to
build the college’s curriculum from the ground up.
This past year, she brought her course reengineer-
ing skills to bear at SEAS. As a Visiting Professor of
Computer Science at SEAS she introduced CS 179,
“Design of Usable Interactive Systems.” The class,
a mix of studio (“hands-on”) elements and tradi-
1 tional seminars, focuses on understanding and
applying the lessons of human interaction to the
design of usable systems.
Stein cleverly took over a corner of the third floor
of 60 Oxford Street to form a classroom that could
go with the flow. As the photos show, students are
able to sprawl themselves—and their project ma-
terials—across any and every available surface. J

1 Brian Young ’09, Mark Van Middlesworth ’10, and-

Frances Yun ’10 present their concept for a video
rental kiosk.
2 Sabrina Chou ’09 takes notes as Lynn Stein offers
suggestions on presentation techniques.
3 3 Sally Rinehart ’09 (seated), Alex Komoroske ’08,
Matt Di Pasquale ’09, and Jana Lepon ’08 (not pic-
tured) run a usability test on an interface for grill or-
2 dering system that they will be piloting at Harvard’s
Winthrop dining hall.

Feedback loop 4 Ian Malott ’09, Randy Ryan ’09, Jacob Rus ’09, and
We welcome and appreciate your comments, Samir Paul ’10 (not pictured) use sketches to develop
suggestions, and corrections. Please send interface design ideas for their course shopping tool.
feedback to communications@seas.harvard.edu
or call us at 617-496-3815. This newsletter 5 Storyboard of a calendaring interaction for an wear-
is published biannually by the Harvard School able calendaring device being developed by Sabrina
of Engineering and Applied Sciences Chou ’09, David Kosslyn ’11, Hannah Ma ’08, and
Communications Office. Alan Ramos ’10.
Harvard School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences 6 Rachel Popkin ’08, Josh Montana ’10, Alex Komoroske
Pierce Hall ’08, Hannah Ma ’08, and Jana Lepon ’08 listen as
29 Oxford Street Liesje Hodgson ’08 poses a question to the group.
Cambridge, MA 02138

Managing Editor/Writer 4
Michael Patrick Rutter

Additional Writers
Abigail Adair; Andrew Arcieri

Designer, Producer, Photographer

Eliza Grinnell

Copy Editor
Darlene Bordwell, Ambient Light

Proofreader
James Clyde Sellman, PhD ’93

This publication, including past issues,

is available on the Web at
www.seas.harvard.edu
5 6
Copyright © 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

20 I SEAS – Spring/Summer 2008