Hauser Lab To House Other Professors

The tenth floor of William James Hall, which previously housed the research facilities of former psychology professor Marc D. Hauser, will be renovated to accommodate laboratory space for three other psychology professors.

Hauser resigned from the University last August after a three-year internal investigation found him guilty of eight counts of scientific misconduct. He used the floor as an animal cognition lab while he was a professor.

Hauser took a one-year leave of absence following the summer of 2010, when Harvard confirmed the findings of its internal investigation.

With a separate federal investigation ongoing, Hauser resigned this summer.

The Psychology Department had voted in February to bar Hauser from teaching during the 2011-2012 academic year. Some of his courses have been reconfigured and are being taught by faculty members and lecturers in the department.

The floor left available by Hauser is now under renovation to create space for psychology Professors Matthew K. Nock, Jesse Snedeker, and John R. Weisz, according to Psychology Department Chair Susan E. Carey ’64.

The renovated floor will be ready by August 6, according to Snedeker.

In the renovated space, the three faculty members will each have room for graduate students, research assistants, and in some cases postdoctoral fellows, according to Weisz.

The new space will be renovated to fit the specific research needs of the three faculty members. There will be private call areas for phone interviewing, work areas for assembling research materials, and rooms divided by one-way glass, according to Weisz.

The Psychology Department has struggled with overcrowding in William James Hall in recent years, pushing some professors to utilize space in other buildings.

Snedeker had a research lab in Shannon Hall, a building near the Divinity School.

“A lot of our participants get lost trying to find Shannon Hall,” Snedeker said. “[Lab space in William James Hall] means undergraduates won’t be wandering around.”

Snedeker, who frequently works with young children, had a second floor lab space without an elevator in Shannon Hall—a problem for her stroller-bound study participants.

Lab space in William James Hall will also allow for increased collaboration among faculty members.

The tenth floor lab space will “bring more of the people and activities of my lab together in close proximity,” Weisz wrote in an email.

“That will improve communication within the lab, link the various projects together, and create more opportunity for cross-pollination, identifying shared interests, and collaboration among folks in the lab,” Weisz wrote in an email.

The renovations will include a shared common area and a conference room.

—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Julia L. Ryan can be reached at jryan@college.harvard.edu.