other hand, must be aware of the societal consequences of what they do and the so- cietal problems to be solved. Even the definition of a broadly edu- cated person must evolve with the chang- ing times, Venky says: “You no longer have a liberal-arts education unless you have some feeling for technology.” After a sab- batical, he expects to help develop an un- dergraduate curriculum that reflects this view. Within the sciences, it is sure to in- clude more experiential, hands-on learn- Venkatesh “Venky” ing. There may also be changes in the se- Narayanamurti quence of courses within engineering disciplines, which traditionally start with tough “rite of passage” classes. Venky be- applied mathematics and applied physics Citing two of the greatest challenges of lieves that introducing the joys of engi- to computer science and electrical, bio- the twenty-first century—promoting neering early on will help attract and re- logical, chemical, and other engineering human and planetary health—the July re- tain a broader range of students—all the disciplines. Schools and centers from port emphasized that “the future pre- more important because attrition among throughout Harvard are eager to work sents unprecedented opportunities in engineering students is a nationwide closely with SEAS; already, the school is bioengineering, which could lead to enor- problem even as engineering skills have linked in many ways to the Faculty of mous advances of potential societal and become more necessary than ever. Arts and Scences (of which it is techni- economic value,” and recommended that Harvard, Venky says, needs to attract a cally part) and administers a doctoral Harvard begin an international search dean with vision by constructing a signa- program with the Business School in sci- this September for the director for a Har- ture campus with SEAS as one of the pil- ence, technology, and management. In vard University Bioengineering (HUB) lars—a statement that says Harvard is se- view are joint appointments with the program. By next September, Harvard rious about science and engineering. School of Public Health, collaborations will have established a Ph.D. program and with the Law School on issues of privacy begun recruiting faculty members for fall and security raised by new technologies, 2010, coincident with the launch of an un- Shanghai Central and with the Medical School in bioengi- dergraduate curriculum and the enroll- neering. In part to facilitate such collabo- ment of the first class of doctoral candi- Harvard on july 1 opened the newest in rations, to enhance its role as a “linking” dates. (Although this schedule likely an expanding network of international of- school, and to strengthen the University turns on the hiring of a new SEAS dean, fices, in Shanghai, and is scheduled to as a whole, SEAS plans to grow by adding possibly delaying its implementation, launch another this autumn, in Beijing. The 10 positions in bioengineering and others Venky considers it appropriate that a outpost is intended to support faculty and in energy technologies, nanotechnologies, final resolution await his successor: student research, interns, admissions, col- sustainability, and information science. “Who knows? That person might be a laboration with local universities, and Closest to fruition is the joint program bioengineer.”) alumni relations. The o∞cial opening came in bioengineering, which a University re- Meanwhile, he will focus on curricular three months after a pan-Asian Harvard port, released in July, called “the natural reform. “I believe that the liberal-arts ed- Alumni Association conference in Shang- next step in the intellectual development ucation of the twenty-first century has to hai, keynoted by President Drew Faust, a of biology, medicine, and engineering…” be di≠erent,” he says, noting that infor- tangible sign of the University’s large and (see “On the University’s Agenda,” July- mation is no longer centered in Widener growing involvement in the People’s Re- August 2008, page 61). Bioengineering Library. “The library made Harvard—we public and east Asia (see “Connecting with plans include the creation of undergradu- have always had the rarest things, the best China,” May-June, page 67). ate and graduate curricula and the estab- repository of knowledge, [but] informa- The o∞ce (www.fas.harvard.edu/~hcf/ lishment of a “flagship” research institute tion now is digital; it is on the Web. chinaoffice.html) was inaugurated in a in biologically inspired engineering to be Widener Library is very valuable, but it is joint visit by Harvard Business School housed in the first Allston science build- almost a museum.” Social scientists, even (HBS) dean Jay O. Light and historian ing. (Bioengineering is now o≠ered to un- humanists, have to understand and ap- William C. Kirby, who is Chang professor dergraduates as a subfield within engi- preciate technology. Areas like economics of China studies, Spangler Family profes- neering science. The explosion of student and government are much more quantita- sor of business administration, director of interest is reminiscent, Venky says, of that tive and data intensive, he points out. En- the Fairbank Center for East Asian Re- for computer science a generation ago.) gineers and computer scientists, on the search—the locus for much of the Univer-

60 September - October 2008 Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News O∞ce Undergraduates from tury.” The Harvard China Fund itself the inaugural Harvard (www.fas.harvard. edu/~hcf) recently China Student Internship Program, at the made a second round of grants to support Shanghai Bund Center research on subjects ranging from village Office with staff mem- development to childrearing to the use of bers John Chen and medicines; all involve counterparts in Lillian Wei (front row, far right). China. Harvard participants come from the schools of design, education, medi- propriate to the new cine, and public health, plus the Faculty of o∞ce’s aims. With HBS Arts and Sciences. And Light noted that colleagues, Kirby has HBS would deploy a staff person affiliated sity’s research in the region—and chair of been developing a series of case studies on with its Asia Pacific Research Center, in the Harvard China Fund, a sort of acade- the evolution of rising state-owned and Hong Kong, in the Shanghai office. LILLIAN WEI mic venture-capital fund (see “Venturing private businesses in China (such as Kirby characterized the new physical into China,” November-December 2007, Wanxiang Group, now a multibillion-dol- presences in China as merely “initial page 77). lar global auto-parts supplier); the cases steps” toward further advancing Har- The multidisciplinary roles assumed by are used in a course he co-teaches, “Doing vard’s ambitious research and teaching those two Harvard representatives are ap- Business in China in the Early 21st Cen- missions in the region.

THE UNDERGRADUATE Rookie Redux by liz goodwin ’08

realized that college was over of extendable dead- when I opened up the large diploma lines. In fact, the let- case to show my family the product ter might as well of four years’ labor and found a suc- have said, “Welcome cinctI note informing me of an unpaid to the real world, debt to the University. I was still wearing kid. No excuses.” my polyester cap and gown, and had just Luckily, I made it back, walked across the stage. I saw a flicker of diploma in hand, in time alarm cross my aunts’ and uncles’ faces, as for the afternoon Com- if they were momentarily wondering if I mencement speeches. Presi- had even graduated at all. I posed for pic- dent Faust had just started tures showcasing the empty diploma speaking when I arrived, and case, trying to laugh it o≠, but spent the though my recent experi- next two hours running around campus ence did not endear to me in my billowing black robe, frantically her message about the ne- trying to get the piece of paper that cessity of Harvard’s behe- proved I was a graduate. moth endowment, I was al- The levels of bureaucracy I had to sur- ready feeling less grouchy. wise as Dum- mount in order to pay o≠ the small sum When J.K. Rowling’s turn to talk came, bledore must have seemed a harbinger of a more compli- the people around me shifted in their a great deal of wisdom herself. So I asked cated, post-college life. Harvard’s im- seats, trying to get a better look at her. myself if I had the gifts Rowling said are placable and unadvertised stance on the Her point was simple: cultivate an active the most important. Imagination? Check. collection of chump change from its grad- imagination and do not be afraid to fail. I Courage to fail? On that front, I can be uates already seemed to belong to a took her words very seriously, as I think something of a wimp. I don’t like to put di≠erent world from the last four years that anyone who can write a character as myself in positions where I look silly or

Illustration by Joan Chiverton Harvard Magazine 63