John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Type Private
Established 1847, as the Lawrence Scientific School
Endowment US$990.9 million (as of 1 January 2015)[1]
Dean Francis J. Doyle III
Students 366 undergraduate; 383 graduate[2]
Location Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Campus Urban
Website seas.harvard.edu

The John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), a school within Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), serves as the connector and integrator of Harvard's teaching and research efforts in engineering, applied sciences, and technology.

Overview

Engineering and applied sciences at Harvard began with the creation of the Lawrence Scientific School in 1847 (named for donor Abbott Lawrence). The structure to support faculty and research in engineering applied sciences underwent several reorganizations (ranging from a school, department (several), and division) and names (from DEAP to DAS to DEAS) during the 19th and 20th centuries.

In February 2007, the Harvard Corporation and Overseers voted for the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences change its name to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).[3][4] In September 2008, "Engineering a Renaissance,”[5] was held to mark the creation of Harvard’s first new school in seven decades.

This change in status recognizes the renewal and growth of engineering and applied sciences during the past decade and highlights the University’s increased emphasis on technology and the practical consequences of discovery. SEAS has close ties to the College[6] and the undergraduate programs,[7] the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,[8] and increasingly strong links across the physical and life sciences.[9] James Emmanuel Jr. was the first dean of engineering and applied science at the Harvard School of Engineering and applied sciences.

On March 10, 2009, Cherry A. Murray, a former executive at Bell Laboratories and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,[10] was appointed dean of Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), effective July 1, 2009. She also became the John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences.[11] In October 2014, after the death of her father, it was announced that Murray would resign as Dean and return, after a sabbatical, to teaching.[12] She was reappointed as Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy and Professor of Physics in the SEAS.[13]

On June 3, 2015, the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences was renamed to the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, following a $400 million gift by Harvard Business School alumnus John A. Paulson.[14][15]

On May 14, 2015, Francis J. Doyle III, a distinguished scholar in chemical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and director of the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, was appointed as Dean, effective August 1, 2015. Doyle succeeded Harry Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, who had served as interim dean since Cherry Murray's resignation at the end of 2014.[16]

Academics and research

Undergraduates can pursue programs in Computer Science (AB and as a secondary field), Engineering Sciences (AB and SB, both of which are ABET accredited), and Applied Mathematics (AB and as a secondary field).

At the graduate level, the Division offers SM, ME, and PhD options covering interdisciplinary research areas including: Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Computational Science and Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering. In addition graduate students may pursue collaborative options: Engineering and Physical Biology (with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences); Science, Technology and Management (joint with the Harvard Business School); Medical Engineering and Medical Physics; (Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology); and Systems Biology (with Harvard Medical School).

Faculty number approximately seventy (73 FTEs) who account for nearly $40M in annual research funds (2007/8 figure). These faculty members have particularly close ties (and there are multiple joint appointments) with the departments of Physics, Earth and Planetary Science, and Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The facilities provide 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of interconnected labs, classrooms, clusters, and offices in six buildings.

Areas of particular research focus at SEAS include Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics, Bioengineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

Renewal and growth

Faculty – SEAS has expanded its faculty from around 50 in academic year 1998 to more than 70 in 2008 (with 87 total participating faculty).[17] This was directed at renewing and strengthening traditional and foundational disciplines such as applied mathematics and applied physics; building capacity in areas such as electrical engineering and computer science; and nurturing emerging areas such as bioengineering and nanotechnology. SEAS has also significantly increased faculty diversity in terms of both racial and ethnic background as well as country of origin.

Education – Over the past decade, undergraduate enrollments in SEAS’s three concentrations—Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering Sciences—have ranged from 300 to 400. . The graduate student population grew from ~150 to over 350 during 1998–2008. The number of applications to graduate level programs has nearly tripled over a shorter period, from 454 in 1997–1998 over 1300 in 2007–2008. Among all national graduate engineering programs, SEAS has become one of the most selective, admitting about 13 percent of applicants.

Research – Sponsored research has increased more than 60 percent from fiscal year 1998 ($20.6M) to FY 2007 ($37.5M). Grants have ranged from government awards for interdisciplinary initiatives, such as the NSF-sponsored Materials Research Engineering Center (MRSEC) and the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), to Harvard-initiated efforts like the seed-funded Center for Research on Computation and Society (CRCS). Recent foundational gifts include those from the Gates Foundation in 2005 ($7.6M) to support research on needle-free vaccination and from the Kavli Foundation in 2006 (over $7M) to support an initiative in bionano science and technology.

Industry and entrepreneurship – Monies generated from partnerships with industry have increased from slightly over $100,000 in 1998 to ~$2.5M in 2007. Several faculty-based start ups, including SiEnergy, a spin-off that aims to commercialize solid oxide fuel technology, received initial funding. In 2007 the BASF Advanced Research Initiative (more than $20M over five years) was established to pursue projects in areas such as materials science. Finally, the SEAS-based Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) sponsored its first university-wide entrepreneurship competition.

Development and infrastructure – Pledges, outright gifts, and matches to SEAS from alumni, friends, and support from corporation and foundations, have totaled nearly $100M over the past decade. Of particular note was the completion of the $45M SEAS Challenge Fund in 2005-6. The current SEAS endowment stands at $1 billion. Today the SEAS campus comprises almost 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of classrooms, teaching and research labs and research centers, and administrative space—approximately double the amount of a decade ago. The 95,000 sq ft (8,800 m2) Laboratory of Integrated Science and Engineering (LISE), completed in the fall of 2007 and the 500,000+ sq. foot Northwest Building (due for occupancy in the fall of 2008), both have strong ties to SEAS-related activities.

History

Abbott Lawrence

The formation of the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University in 1847 marked Harvard's first major effort to provide a formal, advanced education in science and engineering.

The school was named for Massachusetts industrialist and entrepreneur Abbott Lawrence, who donated $50,000 (an unprecedented sum at the time) to create the institution. While he never attended Harvard, he had a long personal history with key members of the faculty such as Louis Agassiz and enjoyed the pursuit of and understood the value in science and engineering. In the letter that accompanied his gift, Lawrence explained his rationale for forming a school:

But where can we send those who intend to devote themselves to the practical applications of science? Our country abounds in men of action. Hard hands are ready to work upon our hard materials; and where shall sagacious heads to taught to direct those hands?

Originally separate from the College, the School saw a diverse group of thinkers and professionals—astronomers, architects, naturalists, engineers, mathematicians, and even philosophers—pass through its doors. Simon Newcomb, Rear Admiral in the United States Navy and a leader in mathematical astronomy, graduated in 1858. Charles Sanders Peirce, who created America’s greatest legacy in modern philosophy (pragmatism), graduated in 1862. While staying for less than a year, the future doctor, psychologist, and author William James enrolled around the same time, before switching to medicine.

The School’s initial success did not escape the notice of other institutions, leading William Greenleaf Eliot, president of Eliot Seminary (later renamed Washington University) to declare in 1854:

Harvard University is, at this time, gaining more credit and accomplishing greater good, by the Lawrence Scientific School than by any other agency. We need just such a school, here. Its effect would be to elevate mechanical, agricultural, and mercantile pursuits, into learned professions. It would annihilate that absurd distinction by which three pursuits, of Law, Medicine, and Theology, are called professions, and everything else, labor or trade...

While the School initially thrived, by the latter decades of the 19th century the institution faced increasing competition from the newly formed and nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, founded in 1861) and was also constrained by the uncertain views about its role and status by the long-serving Harvard President Charles William Eliot. During his life, Eliot was involved in at least five unsuccessful attempts to absorb his former employer (MIT) into Harvard.[18] As a result of such uncertainty, the Lawrence Scientific School became less of an independent entity, losing its influence and students to other parts of College and University.

In 1891, to bolster the School and engineering and applied sciences at Harvard, industrialist Gordon McKay designated the Lawrence Scientific School his beneficiary. The American inventor, engineer, entrepreneur was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and was best known for the development of machinery that revolutionized the manufacture of footwear. But in 1906, before the first payment from his bequest arrived, the scientific and engineering programs of Lawrence Scientific School were incorporated into Harvard College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In short, the School ceased to exist as an independent entity. (McKay's gift lives on, supporting over 40 endowed professorships today).

Although the structure to support faculty and research in engineering applied sciences underwent several reorganizations and names over the next century, advances in engineering and applied sciences remained a critical part of Harvard’s success and legacy in the coming decades.

Evolving structure

Research highlights

20th century

1995 to 2006

Recent discoveries

References

  1. The Numbers | Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
  2. 2008-2009 Numbers, SEAS Academic Office
  3. https://web.archive.org/20080517010913/http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/daily/2006/05/23-deas.html. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved June 24, 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. Harvard News Office. "Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences votes to change the name Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences to School of Engineering and Applied Sciences". News.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  5. Powell, Alvin. "HarvardScience | Harvard Gazette". Harvardscience.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on June 23, 2010. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  6. "Harvard College". College.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  7. "Academics Harvard College". College.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on August 1, 2009. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  8. "Home - The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences". Gsas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  9. Harvard News Office (2006-09-14). "Bloxham named FAS divisional dean". News.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  10. Jazkarta (2009-07-01). "Cherry A. Murray — Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences". Seas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  11. Walsh, Colleen (2012-04-05). "Harvard Gazette". News.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on March 23, 2009. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  12. . Harvard Crimson http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/29/cherry-murray-seas-resign. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. Jazkarta. "Cherry A. Murray — Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences". Seas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
  14. "Harvard receives its largest gift"
  15. Lewin, T. John Paulson Gives $400 Million to Harvard for Engineering School, New York Times, June 3, 2015
  16. "A new dean for SEAS". Retrieved 2015-07-17.
  17. Jazkarta (1997-01-01). "Talking Points — Intranet". Intranet.seas.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on March 6, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  18. Alexander, Philip N. "MIT-Harvard Rivalry Timeline". MIT Music and Theater Arts News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2014-07-07.
  19. "Our Campus TEACHING, RESEARCH, AND ADMINISTRATIVE SPACES". Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. President and Fellows of Harvard College. 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  20. "Palm NMR and 1-chip NMR". IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits 46 (1): 342–352. Jan 2011. doi:10.1109/JSSC.2010.2074630.
  21. Jazkarta (2011-04-03). "Materials scientists at Harvard demonstrate the first macro-scale thin-film solid-oxide fuel cell — Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences". Seas.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on May 16, 2013. Retrieved 2012-10-18.

External links

Coordinates: 42°22′21.67″N 71°07′06.73″W / 42.3726861°N 71.1185361°W / 42.3726861; -71.1185361

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