The New Provost Institute for Economic Policy Research. thought about those qualifications, a com- He has directed both Stanford’s Center mitment to the University’s mission and Alan M. Garber ’77, Ph.D. ’82 (M.D. for Health Policy and the Center for Pri- values was central, as was personal com- Stanford ’83), now Kaiser professor and mary Care and Outcomes Research at the patibility. Beyond that, she sought some- professor of medicine and economics at School of Medicine since their founding one with “a really wide range” of interests Stanford, will become Harvard’s provost and is a staff physician at the Veterans Af- and curiosity about the broad spectrum of on September 1, President Drew Faust fairs Palo Alto Health Care System, asso- the University’s activities. It was “a high announced on April 15. Garber succeeds ciate director of the VA Center for Health priority for me to find the right person Steven E. Hyman, M.D. ’80, who has been Care Evaluation, and research associate with the first set of qualifications,” she provost since 2001; he announced last of the National Bureau of Economic Re- continued, “and, if possible, in a differ- December that he would step down at search (NBER), in Cambridge, where he ent area from my own, with science as an the end of this academic year, in June. founded and, for 19 years, directed the example,” complementing her work as an “I am humbled but extremely excited healthcare program (responsibilities that historian. at taking this important position at Har- brought him back to Massachusetts four In considering Garber’s administra- vard,” Garber said during an interview at times yearly, he reported). tive experience, she said, her conversa- Massachusetts Hall (where he appeared Garber thus straddles two very large tions with him and those who know him wearing a vintage Harvard necktie). “I academic fields within Harvard—medi- brought out the clear judgment that “he’s would be much less excited,” he said lat- cal research and practice, and the social a leader” who enjoys colleagues’ respect— er, “if this was the Harvard I knew when sciences—a particu- I was a student.” The University of the larly useful qualifi- Alan M. Garber 1970s, he explained, was extraordinary, cation for a senior “but the progress it has made since then administrator whose has been nothing short of spectacular,” responsibilities have both in the caliber of the individual fac- come to focus on in- ulties and in the ways the parts of the terdisciplinary col- institution work together; he gave par- laboration and on ticular credit to Hyman in effecting the University-wide is- latter gains. sues such as the op- In a statement accompanying the an- eration of the library nouncement, Faust cited her new col- system. (His prede- league’s “talent, range, and versatility” and cessor, Hyman, stud- said, “Alan is a distinguished academic ied philosophy and leader who brings to Harvard an extraor- the humanities at dinary breadth of experience in research Yale, became a Har- across disciplines. He has an incisive intel- vard Medical School lect, a deep appreciation for the challenges professor of psychia- facing research universities, and a loyalty try, served as found- and commitment to Harvard, where he ing faculty director has maintained strong ties since his years of the interdisciplinary mind/brain/behav- as reflected in his service on the Stanford as an undergraduate.” ior program, and in 1996 was named head committee that oversees tenured appoint- The disciplinary breadth is evident. At of the National Institute of Mental Health. ments (see below). As he returns to an in- Stanford, Garber is professor (by cour- On the day Garber’s appointment was an- stitution where he was an undergraduate, tesy) of economics, health research and nounced, Hyman joked about another sim- a graduate student, a professor acquainted policy, and of economics in the Graduate ilarity: their common “rabbinical look”— with many faculty members, and a Medi- School of Business. He is also a senior fel- although being bearded is not thought to cal School visiting committee member, low in the Freeman-Spogli Institute for be a formal qualification for the job.) Faust said, Garber “knows the geography, International Studies and in the Stanford In an interview, Faust said that as she literally and figuratively.” Garber is now a Harvard parent as well; he and his wife, Ann Yahanda (a nonprac- IN THIS ISSUE ticing oncologist), have four children, in- cluding son Daniel, a sophomore at the 54 Harvard Portrait 60 Ants through the Ages College this past academic year. 55 Fellows Three 61 Brevia 56 Lessons from Libya? 63 Mentoring and Moral Experience Garber’s dual interests in economics 57 Yesterday’s News 65 The Undergraduate and medicine emerged early. He recalled in 58 Marc Hauser’s Return 67 Sports his class’s twenty-fifth anniversary report 58 From Our Website 67 Alumni (a member of the class of 1977, he earned 59 University People 72 The College Pump his A.B. in 1976, and an A.M. in his fourth Photograph by Justin Ide/Harvard News Office Harvard MaGazine 53 JOHN HARVard’s JOURNAL year), “As a freshman, I was a reluctant and HARVARD PORTRAIT ambivalent pre-med. After Ec 10 exposed the latent economist in me, I switched my concentration from biochem to econom- ics. That decision led to a Ph.D. in econom- ics at Harvard and a simultaneous M.D. at Stanford, and eventually to a career that combined the two interests.” His disserta- tion was titled “Costs and Control of Anti- biotic Resistance.” His research has focused on improving healthcare delivery and financing, especial- ly for the elderly. According to his Stanford biography, Garber has “developed methods for determining the cost-effectiveness of health interventions” and studied “ways to structure financial and organizational in- centives to ensure that cost-effective care is delivered. In addition, his research explores how clinical practice patterns and health- care market characteristics influence tech- nology adoption, health expenditures, and health outcomes in the United States and in other countries.” In deciding now to turn from research and—at least initially—teaching, Garber said that he had probed the challenges facing Harvard’s faculty and students, and higher education, “But overwhelm- ingly, my impression has been that this is an amazing institution that is well posi- tioned” to maintain and sustain its preem- inence [in the future]. He is looking for- ward, he said, to “assisting Drew in easing that path to the future.” Peter Der Manuelian One of the things that made him excited about taking the post, he said, was “the In fourth grade, the lure of ancient Egypt grabbed Peter Der Manuelian ’81, King people I’ll be working with,” particularly a professor of Egyptology. “I think it strikes everybody—and they grow out of it. I team of deans whom he described as effec- just didn’t. For most people it’s mummies. For me, it was the grandeur and scale of tive collaborators and visionary leaders of the monuments and architecture, the beauty of Egyptian art, the fascinating code of their individual schools. In the provost’s hieroglyphs.” Manuelian is Harvard’s first full-time Egyptologist since 1942. (He previ- office, he said, he would be making the ously taught at Tufts.) His life’s work has centered on the pyramids at Giza, built in the transition from a professor, with all the third millennium B.C. In 1977, he finally got to Egypt, as a teenager doing epigraphy— academic autonomy that implies, to a “role producing publishable facsimile line drawings of tomb wall scenes and inscriptions of service to the University.” The change, for Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). (He’s since become a graphic designer who he said, is “dramatic,” but “the mission is has designed 30 Egyptological monographs, his own included.) After concentrating in compelling.” Near Eastern lan guages and civilizations at Harvard, Manuelian earned his Ph.D. at the At Stanford, Garber was elected to, and University of Chicago in 1990. He has published four scholarly books and three for chaired, a committee “with no Harvard children, including one that teaches kids how to draw hieroglyphs. An MFA curator analog,” the University Advisory Board, since 1987, he has directed its Giza Archives Project since 2000—gathering, digitizing, which makes the final decision on all fac- and cross-referencing all archaeological mater ials on the pyramids. He’s also working ulty and tenure appointments. That expe- with iPad apps to teach hieroglyphs interactively, and gearing up to write a biography rience, he said, exposed him to “the work of George Reisner (1867-1942), his predecessor as Harvard’s resident Egyptologist. of tremendously talented people” who do A squash player, Manuelian and his wife, writer Lauren Thomas, live in the Back Bay “extraordinary work” in fields ranging with four cats. A recent Newsweek essay he wrote on the Egyptian protests was un- from studio art to engineering to English characteristic. “I usually don’t write about A.D. things,” he says. “I stick to B.C.” to physics. That appreciation for how fac- ulty members in different fields view their 54 July - AuGust 2011 Photograph courtesy of Peter Der Manuelian work should serve Garber well in one of centralization as about what you can accom- growing breadth and excellence of universi- the Harvard provost’s key responsibilities: plish” academically, he pointed out, citing ties in other countries, and the general eco- leading the ad hoc committees that make collaborations such as the Harvard Stem nomic “uncertainty.” In light of the latter, he the final decisions on appointments to Cell Institute and the associated depart- said, “Every major university has to be pre- tenured professorships—a role the presi- ment of stem cell and regenerative biology.