SEAS Celebrates First Year

As the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences marked its first anniversary last weekend, it also saw interim dean Frans A. Spaepen step to the helm after veteran outgoing dean Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti announced he was stepping down last spring.

With “a foot in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences connected to Harvard College and a foot in the University connected to professional schools” SEAS hopes to bridge the gap between basic science research and the real world, Venky said.

The nascent school is already attracting attention after a year, but according to Venky it will be a decade-long project to transform Harvard into a preeminent engineering school.

FROM DREAM TO REALITY

When Venky arrived at Harvard over a decade ago as dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, he realized DEAS was a “hidden jewel.”

“We had some great faculty and great students—Bill Gates and Steven Palmer went here—but we were not known,” Venky said.

DEAS was not seen as on par with rival engineering powerhouses and did not enjoy the same prestige as Harvard’s other divisions, like the Medical School or the Business School

“MIT does technology and Harvard does not,” said Venky of the prevailing attitude of the time. “I had the feeling that Harvard would no longer be great in science unless it had a great engineering school and to change the perception that engineering was viewed in I felt it was important that engineering be named a school.”

After he won over faculty and administrators, the proposal to transform the division into a school was approved by University administrators, and SEAS officially came into being on Sept. 20, 2007.

“I convinced Larry Summers to not only venerate Einstein, but also Edison,” Venky said. “This was a visible commitment by Harvard that engineering had come of age.”

STEP BY STEP

With the change from division to school, SEAS now deals directly with the central administration in regards to financial matters and has access to more revenue, according to Harry E. Dumay, SEAS’ chief financial officer.

“SEAS students are still FAS students so the income from student tuition goes to FAS,” Dumay said. “This year we negotiated a way for SEAS to have access to tuition income.”

Dumay said that SEAS has not had seen an increase in donations in the past year but noted that the future is promising. Indeed, administrators have long said that big gifts for applied science are in the works.

Before his resignation, former University President Lawrence H. Summers had reportedly negotiated gifts with two $100 million gifts to fund the sciences, and many expected that these gifts would eventually come through once Harvard had permanent leadership again.

“It takes a while for good will to materialize in donations, but we’re seeing a lot of excitement about SEAS being the expression of Harvard’s commitment to science and engineering,” Dumay said.

SEAS has also seen an increase in its graduate applicant pool and has increased the size of its Ph.D. classes.

The school has also seen a slight increase in the percentage of undergraduates interested in engineering—from 9.5 percent to 11 percent just in the past year—according to Venky.

Being able to offer undergraduate degrees was one of the main reasons SEAS wanted to stay connected to FAS, and SEAS is now developing two new undergraduate concentrations, one in Science, Technology, and Society, and one in Bioengineering.

NEW PROMINENCE

Eventually, SEAS will have about 100 full-time faculty, making it a medium-sized engineering school. By contrast, MIT has about 300 engineering faculty.

In the past year, SEAS also finalized three joint appointments with FAS and one with the Harvard School of Public Health, an interdisciplinary trend that Spaepen said “there is definitely a need for.”

Spaepen added that working with other schools felt extremely natural, and Venky said he expects these links to “flower” in the coming year.

The growth in SEAS faculty from about 70 professors to 100 will bring in more “sponsored research”—where professors fund their own work through grants—which Dumay said will be one of SEAS’ main sources of revenue.

The research at SEAS will focus on key areas including energy, bioengineering, and nanoscience, according to administrators.

“I think there has been a greater recognition of the importance of these disciplines,” Venky said. “Engineering now figures prominently—from the University Web site to the planning in Allston.”

THE OTHER SIDE OF MASS. AVE.

It has not escaped anyone’s notice that SEAS is just a mile upriver from MIT, which Venky describes as “one of the greatest technological institutions on the Earth.”

But both he and Spaepen believe that SEAS will complement MIT and maintain good ties.

“It’s wonderful to have MIT down the road,” Spapen said. “Our challenges are different from what they have and we would like to see undergraduates take advantage of that.”

At the formal launch of SEAS last year, both Charles Vest, former president of MIT, and Subra Suresh, dean of the School of Engineering at MIT, addressed the attendees. In fact, Vest delivered the keynote address.

While Venky acknowledges that the two schools will compete in some areas, he hopes that MIT administrators will realize the mutual benefits of having a different kind of engineering school nearby.

“We are surrounded by professional schools, social scientists, and humanists so we’ll have a different character—more about broader education, and on the research front focusing in very selected areas,” Venky said.

—Staff Writer Alissa M. D’Gama can be reached at adgama@fas.harvard.edu.

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