Thompson Is Named First Associate Provost

Dennis F. Thompson, a political philosophy professor and the founder of the University's interfaculty initiative on Ethics and the Professions, has been named to the newly-created position of associate provost.

A longtime friend of President Neil L. Rudenstine and a one-time leading candidate for University provost, Thompson will, in his new position, report directly to Provost Albert Carnesale.

Thompson, the Whitehead professor of political philosophy, will now split his time between administrative duties and the ethics program.

He will concentrate on academic affairs and administrative issues which concern faculty members, according to a University statement.

Thompson joins Rudenstine and Carnesale as the third academic officer in the University who is based in the central administration.

"I hope to be able to bring my perspective as a faculty member to the discussions of University-wide academic issues that Harvard is now facing," Thompson said in the statement.

Carnesale said that he is looking forward to working with Thompson.

"I am delighted that Dennis Thompson has agreed to take on this new and important role," the provost said in a statement. "He is a person of excellent judgment, keen intelligence, and unusual breadth, with a demonstrated talent for creating connections across the University."

Thompson worked with Rudenstine at Princeton University from 1968 until 1986, when Thompson came to Harvard and started the ethics program. At Princeton, he was chair of the Department of Politics.

In 1992, Rudenstine had Thompson on his list of finalists to become Harvard's first provost in nearly 50 years.

The president ultimately selected Jerry R. Green for the job, and Carnesale took over after Green resigned in April 1994.

Thompson has a long and distinguished academic record. After graduating summa cum laude from William and Mary College, Thompson won a Fulbright Scholarship to Oxford University.

He later completed a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard, where he became friends with Rudenstine, who was then a graduate student.

During his professorship at Harvard, Thompson has served on a number of University committees, including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' Committee on Affirmative Action.