Expansion of Cross-Disciplinary Science Research Defines Hyman's Tenure

As an administrator, University Provost Steven E. Hyman has devoted himself to breaking down the academic barriers that he was able to transcend in his own education.

With a B.A. from Yale in philosophy and the humanities, an M.A. from Cambridge University in the philosophy of science, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, Hyman was appointed in 1994 to lead the University’s newly created Mind, Brain, and Behavior program, one of the five inter-faculty initiatives started by then-University President Neil L. Rudenstein.

When Hyman returned to Harvard in 2001 to serve as chief academic officer, appointed by then-University President Lawrence H. Summers, he set out to transform the provostship into a driving force for interdisciplinary reform.

Taking office “with an understanding that the job was going to change,” Hyman told The Crimson, “I understood we were...going to expand far beyond Neil Rudenstine’s five initial cross-disciplinary initiatives, and we’ve done that. Disciplinary boundaries are breaking down everywhere.”

Hyman’s efforts, though, have occasionally met with resistance from what he calls an “inward-looking, conservative” attitude to which some departments can be susceptible.

“It can be quite challenging to make appointments outside the normal boundaries of discipline-based departments, which interferes with Harvard taking leadership roles in emerging disciplines and cross-disciplinary fields,” Hyman says.

Deputy Provost for Administration Eric Buehrens ’75 says the provost’s office has evolved into “an incubator for interfaculty efforts,” such as the Harvard Stem Cell Initiative (HSCI).

The HSCI will be one of the first Harvard institutions to move across the Charles River to Allston, according to Harvard’s public plans. It will be the centerpiece of what Hyman hopes to be a “vibrant and interdisciplinary” scientific community.

Looking ahead, Hyman says that he will work to implement the recommendations of the University Planning Committee for Science and Engineering, set to be released next month.

Hyman says the preliminary proposal for University-wide departments will streamline redundant academic programs in different schools to ensure that they don’t compete with one another.

“The degree of fragmentation across the schools and hospitals is such that sometimes we’re not even the sum of our parts,” Hyman says.

—Staff writer Laurence H. M. Holland can be reached at lholland@fas.harvard.edu.