For Summers, Science is Key

Scientists might look askance at the arrival of Lawrence H. Summers--an economist--as Harvard's 27th president. But University officials and those who have known Summers in government say that he understands the importance of investing in research--and has a long record of making such investment a top priority.

Because he is an economist, Summers knows that science makes money. He knows that science gets press coverage. For that matter, any university president knows that science and the technology it produces are formidable economic engines that have the potential to make money. But big science requires big money and huge organizations--two things that Harvard has in abundance.

And although academics might categorize him as a social scientist, Summers is in the best position since chemist James B. Conant `14 to understand and push the cause of scientific research at Harvard.

A Scientist's Priorities?

A Harvard president has to be a scholar.

Neil L. Rudenstine is the textbook definition of a scholar--someone whose great interests lie in the intellectual achievements of the past, someone who has read everything, or knows why he has not. In contrast, friends say Summers has an omnivorous mind--but he may not have Rudenstine's deep human understanding or endless personal library. What he does have: an extensive background in the quantitative aspect of economics. That makes Summers the most scientifically-minded man to occupy Massachusetts Hall since Conant.

Summers has been hesitant to lay out any priorities in his first few weeks as president-elect. Those who are talking, however, agree that promoting scientific research will be one of the most important and most challenging tasks facing the new president.

In October, Robert G. Stone Jr. '45, the chair of the secretive Harvard Corporation--and the head of the search committee that would eventually choose Summers--said one of the top qualifications for the president-to-be would be a familiarity with science.

"He certainly has to have-he or she-a science background, or, enough of a science background to know how important it is to really push forward in that area," Stone said at the time.

An Economist's Priorities

Stone's quote, which caused widespread speculation at the time, seemed to favor Harvard Provost Harvey V. Fineberg `67, former dean of the School of Public Health and the highest-ranking scientist in the Rudenstine administration.

But Summers got the job in the end. And although his background is in social science--albeit a kind of social science heavy on mathematics--both former colleagues and people within the Harvard faculty and administration stress that Summers can and should focus much of his attention on promoting scientific research.

"He understands that in this world the economy is being driven by science," says Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Barry Bloom. "I have a hunch he understands that very well."

According to Bloom, top priorities that Summers could help address at the HSPH include fostering a multi-disciplinary approach to public health and providing larger amounts of scholarship money to students from developing nations. With his experience in international finance, Summers is well-placed to understand the economic issues that often complicate problems of public health.

But of all the Harvard schools, HSPH may be the one that Summers has to court the most to win over the hearts and minds of its administration and faculty. For one, Fineberg, the former dean of the school and a three-decade veteran of the University, was one of Summers' final competitors for the presidency.

"There is a sense of loss in that Harvey was an extraordinary human being," says Bloom. "An awful lot of people hoped he would become president."

Not only will Summers will have to win over Fineberg loyalists, he will have to work through differences in outlook between economists and public health professors, whose work is often intertwined but whose priorities sometimes diverge.

For example, when Summers was chief economist at the World Bank, he signed off on a controversial memo--authored by a staffer--that discussed the economic utility of dumping toxic waste in poor countries. Although Summers apologized for the memo and has said it was written ironically, it has continued to dog him. Such pure economic calculations may provide cost-effective solutions, but they are distasteful to those whose primary concern is not utility but health. Bloom says that such pure economics should not dominate decisions that could affect public health.

"From my perspective, cost effectiveness analyses are effective and often essential in thinking through priorities. But there are other values, and cost effectiveness along should not determine policy," Bloom says.

Nevertheless, people who have known Summers, especially at his time in the Treasury Department, stress that while he uses economic principles to help set priorities, they do not trump other social values.

"His social values are in the right place and they temper his views as an economist," says John Podesta, who served as chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, and who worked with Summers when he was at the Treasury.

Podesta says that Summers does not subscribe to the "mercenary view" that what's good for the economy must be the right thing to do, but takes the greater good into consideration when making decisions.

Big Science, Big Money

Although Stone's comment about science could be taken as an implicit criticism of President Rudenstine, even Rudenstine has said he wished he knew more about science.

Last July, Rudenstine welcomed his last class of first-years to the College with a letter of advice and musings on his own intellectual interests. Rudenstine wrote,

"I am not a scientist, and I continue to regret that I did not press myself harder to study more science in secondary school and college."

He continued, "Mathematics and the sciences are not only deeply absorbing and compelling in themselves; they are linked in fundamental ways to the structure of knowledge and understanding in many fields of learning."

As Harvard's eminent fundraiser, Rudenstine certainly knows that in the reality of the modern university, science is what makes news and patents are what make money. Science gets people excited--and provides tangible benefits to society in the form of technology.

And Rudenstine has championed throughout his time as president the idea of "inter-faculty initiatives" that would allow faculty at different schools and in different areas to work together on problems that may be too complex--or too expensive--for any one part of the University to tackle on its own. Many of today's scientific problems, such as interpreting the just-sequenced human genome, require knowledge and expertise in fields that have historically had little crossover.

Economics is one of the fields that blends the quantitative and the qualitative, math and hard-won experience. Someone such as Summers is in a position to continue and even extend the work that Rudenstine has done on interfaculty initiatives.

Dr. Joseph B. Martin, the dean of Harvard Medical School, says he was heartened by a meeting he had with Summers two weeks ago. During the meeting, which ended with a posh dinner at the Faculty Club, the pair discussed the needs of and the challenges facing the medical school.

"I came away reassured that research, in particular inter-disciplinary research, would be high on his agenda," says Martin.

The influx of information that was brought about by the sequencing of the human genome creates a challenge for biomedical research at Harvard and all over the world, Martin says.

"All of that is going to involve a new way of doing science and it will require the close collaboration of chemists, physicists, and computer scientists," says Martin. "Harvard ought to be able to carry this forward in the best way possible. These ideas seemed to mesh with [Summers'] thoughts on science."

Explaining Imaginary Numbers

Summers' presidency will not be his first time setting priorities for scientific research. Neal F. Lane, a professor at Rice University who served as the assistant to the president for science and technology under Clinton and later took the post of Director of the National Science Foundation, says Summers was a strong advocate of giving money to scientific research while he was at the Department of the Treasury.

"He was always judicious and fair," says Lane. "I always viewed Larry as one of the champions of federal investment in science and technology."

Lane, who was trained as a physicist, says that Summers has a talent for explaining how the complex ideas of science can have real-world benefits. For example, Lane says Summers likes to explain how the idea of the square root of negative one, i--a so-called imaginary number--has had a tremendous effect on technology. i represents a point in the two-dimensional plane, and such two-dimensional numbers are used extensively in engineering and physics. Lane says Summers uses i as an example of how theoretical understanding can lead to practical benefits.

"Without going into the details of writing equations down, people see how mathematics has helped us," Lane says.

Lane says he thinks Summers has his priorities for science in the right place.

"I can't say enough about Larry Summers as an intellectual and public servant," Lane says. "He also knows how important it is to support science in the government and in our universities."

--Staff writer Jonathan H. Esensten can be reached at esensten@fas.harvard.edu.