Vo l u m e V • I s s u e 2 • F a l l 2 0 0 6
Such events marked the first stages of is creating another branch on the tree of
DEAN’S MESSAGE
Full Circle
This September I had the pleasure of
welcoming NASA astronaut and alum-
nus Stephanie Wilson ’88 back to Har-
vard. Stephanie has come a long way—
from a kid dreaming about touching the
stars while looking up at the night sky
in Pittsfield to a traveler actually sailing
among them. She often cites her family,
mentors, and the prior generation of
astronauts as her inspiration. In many
ways, her journey and return parallels
where we find ourselves today at DEAS.
Back to the future
In this issue of the newsletter we revisit
our institutional and intellectual pro-
genitor, the Lawrence Scientific School,
formed in 1847 (page 6). During that
time, mechanical, agriculture, and in-
dustrial engineering were considered
trades or labor rather than academic
fields. Benefactor and textile magnet
Abbott Lawrence, however, realized the
importance of creating an institution
that would offer advanced training to
students in science and engineering.
In fact, as Harvard was establishing the
School the entire scientific landscape
in the country had begun to change
radically. The Smithsonian was formed
in 1846; two years later the Ameri-
can Academy for the Advancement
of Science was established—as was
its magazine we now know as Science.
a transformation of science from solely
a pure pursuit, seeking truth about the
natural world, to one with practical ap-
plication.
It’s hard to imagine a world where tech-
nology was simple or nonexistent—
save on the factory floor—and profes-
sional education was limited to law and
medicine. Yet, as happened over 150
years ago, engineering today is undergo-
ing another major transformation. Now,
the field can be considered as much a
liberal art, in the way it interacts with
other disciplines, as a distinct profes-
sion. Moreover, science and technology
are no longer niche activities, but part
of our everyday lives.
Inspiration
as a constant
Perhaps no one at DEAS has witnessed
the changes in engineering over the
past few decades better than John
Hutchinson, who appropriately holds
a professorship named for Abbott and
James (Abbott’s son) Lawrence. Since
his arrival as a graduate student in the
1960’s, John has upheld Harvard’s grand
tradition in the theoretical and applied
sciences, putting his mark on a wide
range of modern problems and people
in the area of fracture mechanics (see a
profile on page 14).
He credits as his mentor Bernard Budi-
ansky, whose work at Harvard strongly
influenced structural engineering, ma-
terials technology, and even seismol-
ogy and biomechanics. John has in turn
passed his wisdom and enthusiasm on
to his students. DEAS faculty member
Zhigang Suo, who explores the mechan-
ics of small structures, was once a gradu-
ate student under his guidance.
Stephanie Wilson also cited John as
one of her key advisors when she was
a student, and she has stayed in touch
since graduation (even emailing him
from orbit). By touring the country, she
mentorship. At her Harvard talk I saw
dozens of kids spilling over the seats,
all eager to hear and meet someone
who had broken free of earth’s gravity.
Maybe that meeting will inspire some
of them to become space travelers. And
who knows, they might even email
Stephanie while aboard a future mis-
sion to Mars.
Completing the circle
I said to the FAS faculty in May that as
Harvard is a place of tradition, the trans-
formation in engineering and applied
sciences is not a departure from histo-
ry—in some sense, the wheel is coming
a full circle. The Lawrence School will
be reborn in a new form appropriate for
the 21st century: rooted in the Faculty of
Arts and Sciences, nimble and interdis-
ciplinary, connected to the professional
schools, and directed towards discovery,
innovation, and impact on society.
In a letter accompanying Lawrence’s
gift to form the Scientific School, he
said, “I wish to see all these branches
of science prosecuted with vigor, and
moving forward in perfect harmony at
Cambridge.”
The present moment—a time of great
excitement and potential for engineer-
ing and applied sciences at Harvard—is
also the best time for us to remember
such intentions and to give thanks to
those who helped get us here. Going
forward, acting upon such wisdom,
and continuing to mentor those who
will come after will allow us to leave a
legacy we can all take pride in.
InMay,theUniversityannouncedaproposal
to transform DEAS into a school within the
FacultyofArtsandSciences.Assomeofyou
mayknow,whileImadeanannouncement
ofmyintentiontostepdownasdeanonJune
30;Ihavesinceagreedtostayontoguidethe
transition. J
Links and nodes
Life on &
around
Oxford Street
Even as the campus expands to Allston, engineering
will remain a core part of Cambridge.
Hands-on learning will be a key part of Harvard’s
undergraduate educational planning.
Stephanie Wilson ‘88 (second row, first on left)
poses with her fellow astronauts.
Fred Kavli’s foundation will support bionano science
and technology at Harvard. (photo by Mark Brande)
The new bioengineering labs in Pierce Hall
are open for business.
2 I DEAS – Fall 2006
Harvard proposes
DEAS to become
Harvard School
of Engineering and
Applied Sciences
In May, Harvard University announced a
proposal to transform its Division of En-
gineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS)
into the Harvard School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences within the Faculty
of Arts and Sciences (FAS).
As part of this transition, and to be in
the vanguard of research and teaching
in engineering and applied science, the
Harvard School of Engineering and Ap-
plied Sciences would recruit dozens of
new faculty in the coming years; DEAS
currently has approximately 70 faculty
members, but full development of a
world-class school is expected to require
a critical mass of some 100 faculty mem-
bers. Part of this proposed expansion is
already in the FAS’s growth plans, and
further joint appointments with other
Harvard schools are anticipated. There
are no plans to divide the school into
academic departments despite this fac-
ulty expansion.
The renaming, which will likely be pre-
sented for formal approval at the end
the first term, would have the Harvard
School of Engineering and Applied
Sciences function as a “school within
a school.” It would maintain close aca-
demic connections with other parts of
FAS and educate undergraduates within
Harvard College, as it does today. The
elevation of DEAS to a school will raise
the prominence of the program, both
within the University and nationally.
More information will be forthcoming
on our Website and in the Spring 2006
newsletter.
The road ahead:
University science
and engineering
planning takes root
In July, a committee of two dozen lead-
ing scientists from across Harvard Uni-
versity produced a preliminary set of
proposals for “enhancing science and
engineering at Harvard,” ranging from
continuing to invest in traditional core
disciplines to transforming the teaching
of science by implementing “hands-on
learning as a cornerstone in undergrad-
uate science and engineering educa-
tion.” Highlights include an emphasis
on hands-on, experiential learning in
the undergraduate curriculum; enhanc-
ing interdisciplinary training for gradu-
ate students; continued investment in
facilities and infrastructure; increasing
diversity at all levels; promoting collab-
orative research; and building Allston
with many key science programs, in-
cluding regenerative medicine, systems
biology, chemical and physical biology,
microbial sciences, and biologically in-
spired engineering.
The full report is available here
www.news.harvard.edu/
gazette/2006/07.20/14-sciencereport.html
Stephanie Wilson
’88 goes boldly
into space
On July 4 at 2:38 p.m., Engineering Sci-
ences concentrator Stephanie Wilson
’88 took one giant step—into orbit.
Wilson, the second African-American
female in space, was a crew member of
NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-121.
The team tested new safety equipment
and procedures for the shuttle program
and, after docking with the Internation-
al Space Station, delivered supplies and
performed some “home improvements.”
Wilson and fellow astronaut Lisa
Nowak also found time to send a shout
out to any future space aces watching
from below. Their homemade placard
reading “Robo Chicks”—the nickname
fellow astronauts bestowed on the duo
because of their operation of the robotic
arm—found its way onto NASA’s video
feed to Earth.
The shuttle returned to Earth with what
NASA officials called “a picture-perfect
landing” on the morning of July 17. In
honor of her alma mater, Wilson took
a Harvard Engineering and Applied Sci-
ences banner into space and exercised
to tunes courtesy of DEAS Research
Program Manager Lenny Solomon. His
band plays a number that Wilson hopes
will one day be more than a refrain. It’s
called: “Let’s Go to Mars.”

Kavli Institute
for Bionano Science
and Technology
established
The Kavli Foundation and Harvard
University have agreed to establish
the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science
and Technology (KIBST). The $7.5 mil-
lion endowment from the Foundation
will help to enhance the University’s
research efforts at the interfaces of biol-
ogy, engineering, and nanoscale science.
George Whitesides, Woodford L. and
Ann A. Flowers University Professor,
and David Weitz, Mallinckrodt Profes-
sor of Physics and of Applied Physics,
will serve as the founding directors
for the KIBST. The institute, which is
expected to reside in either the future
Laboratory for Integrated Sciences and
Engineering or Northwest buildings,
will complement Harvard’s existing
centers dedicated to small-scale sci-
ence. Look for additional details at
www.kavli.harvard.edu.
“Just because a person is studying engineering does not exclude
them from pursuing a side interest in Japanese history or Nordic
folklore. The first academic paper I ever presented discussed
possible inspirations for several songs from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The
Lord of the Rings trilogy at a folklore and mythology symposium,
an experience I could not have had at almost any other school,
especially as an engineer.”
random bits
Two classics were
re-engineered this
past summer:
the soda fountain
and the yo-yo.
HUCE Names Fellow
The Harvard University Center for
the Environment named its inaugural
2006 Environmental Fellows this past
May; two of the fellows will work with
Engineering and Applied Sciences fac-
ulty. Peter Huybers, an expert in ice ages
and global climate change, will work
with Eli Tziperman, Pamela and Vasco
McCoy, Jr., Professor of Oceanography
and Applied Physics. Alex Johnson will
use his experimental and theoretical
skills to design, build, and test a new
generation of fuel cells that might be
used to power portable electronics
or cars. He will work with Assistant
Professor of Materials Science Shriram
Ramanathan.
‘CONSTRUCTIVE’
RESEARCH CONTINUES
The ground floor of Pierce Hall now
has a cool and clear (thanks to the glass
walls) new edition: a dedicated under-
graduate teaching lab for bioengineer-
Candy-coated
Engineering
DEAS Research Associate Dan Blair
appeared on New England Cable News
to explain what happens when Mentos,
those tiny candy mints, meet Diet Coke.
The visual result of this unusual com-
bo—a spectacular fountain of carbon-
ated sugar water catapulting into the
sky—has become a phenomenon on the
Web. Although perhaps lacking in any
true application, the simple event may
inspire the next generation of scientists
and engineers or confection makers. If
you want to see more, visit Youtube.
com and search for Mentos.
Links and nodes
ing. The heavy gray entry doors feature
porthole windows hinting at the pos-
sible new worlds lying at the interface
of engineering and biology—and sug-
gesting that everyone keep their heads
above water.
Close to Pierce, new construction con-
tinues in earnest. The pearly white
LISE building, an above-ground cube
that seems to float in midair, will par-
tially open in the fall/winter semester,
offering a big welcome for small-scale
researchers.
Further down on Oxford Street, a net-
work of I-beams has revealed the L-shape
of the massive Northwest building, an
open, interdisciplinary research facility.
At 60 Oxford, new bioengineering labs
and dedicated space for the Initiative for
Innovative Computing now occupy the
fourth floor. J
Overheard
—Belle Koven ’06,
Engineering Sciences
Yo! I graduated; toon Network–inspired Website called
Toonami Digital Arsenal. Tom, the
serving up the computer-animated host (he’s an an-
World Cup; droid), introduced a segment featur-
summer in the city ing undergraduates from the Harvard
College Engineering Society battling it
At graduation last June, many of the
out in Atlanta. The relentless summer
freshly minted PhDs in engineering
heat in Boston meant that iced coffee
and applied science showed off some
slightly edged out iPods and laptops as
tricks with their red and black DEAS-
the most popular sidearm on campus.
logo yo-yos, a popular giveaway. The
Sources expect digital media devices to
new social space/café in Maxwell
once again gain the upper hand in the
Dworkin has become the in place for
fall/winter. J
faculty and student meetings and,
briefly, served as the de facto World
Cup HQ for the north end of campus.
The “other” World Cup—for robotic
soccer—received a plug from the Car-
DEAS – Fall 2006 I 3
Recent findings

A roundup of discoveries An illustration of a fleet of aquatic robots (below),

which are designed to make detailed and efficient

& innovations
observations of the ocean. The numerical model-
ing for the project was performed in part by Pierre
Lermusiaux and his colleagues at Harvard.

Faculty members Federico Capasso and Ken Crozier

and graduate students Ertugrul Cubukcu and Eric
Kort demonstrate a plasmonic laser antenna; the
device could lead to higher-density optical storage.

New laser could
lead to higher-density
optical storage
Research groups led by Federico Capas-
so and Ken Crozier have demonstrated a
new photonic device with a wide range
of potential commercial applications,
including dramatically higher-capacity
optical data storage. Termed a plasmonic
laser antenna, the design consists of a
metallic nanostructure, known as an op-
tical antenna, integrated onto the facet of
a commercial semiconductor laser.
“The device could be integrated into op-
tical data storage platforms and used to
write bits far smaller than what’s now
possible with conventional methods.
This could lead to vastly increased stor-
age capacities for computers and video
players,” says Crozier.
The new device integrates an optical an-
tenna and a laser into a single unit, con-
sists of fewer components, has a smaller
footprint (takes up less space), and ben-
efits from an improved signal-to-noise
ratio relative to previous approaches.
With further development, the inven-
tors expect its wide adoption and use in
academic and research settings as well
as in the high-tech commercial sector.
“Eventually, we envision the laser inte-
grated into new probes for biology, like
optical tweezers, which can manipulate
objects as small as a single atom,” says
Crozier. “It could also be used for inte-
grated-circuit fabrication or to test im-
purities during the fabrication process
itself. One day, consumers might be able
to back up three terabytes of data on one
disk or receive 1000 movies on a single
disk in the mail from Netflix.”
The findings were published in the
August 28 edition of Applied Physics Let-
ters. The researchers have also filed for
a provisional U.S. patent covering this
new class of photonic devices. Crozier
and Capasso’s co-authors are graduate
students Ertugrul Cubukcu and Eric
A. Kort. All are members of Harvard’s
Division of Engineering and Applied
Sciences. The research was supported
by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scien-
tific Research and the National Science
Foundation.
Undersea robots Help
monitor the ocean
Monterey Bay, California was invaded
by an entire fleet of undersea robots in
August. Part of a multi-university, DOD/
ONR-sponsored project called ASAP
(Adaptive Sampling and Prediction),
the friendly prowlers worked together
without the aid of humans to make
detailed and efficient observations of
the ocean. Pierre Lermusiaux, Patrick
Haley, Wayne Leslie, and Oleg Logutov
at Harvard (all part of Gordon McKay
Professor of Geophysical Fluid Dynam-
ics Allan R. Robinson’s, group), as well
as other collaborators, are performing
part of the numerical ocean modeling.
Thanks in part to the Crimson Grid
(see right), the oceanographic model-
ers collect and evaluate all the ocean
measurements to predict future ocean
conditions. Lermusiaux explains that
one of the most innovative aspects of
the project is the ability for researchers
to access and share real-time data via a
Web portal. “We run ocean models for
a large-scale region of 150 by 230 kilo-
meters and a nested small region of 50
by 70 kilometers,” he says. “The models
for the two regions run in parallel on
the grid and communicate via message
passing.”
The two lead PIs for the larger project,
Naomi Ehrich Leonard of Princeton
University and Steven Ramp of the Na-
val Postgraduate School, say the study
may have broad implications, leading

4 I DEAS – Fall 2006

 Recent findings
Through DEAS IT (pictured left are Joy Sircar
and Aaron Culich), the Harvard research
community now has access to a Blue Gene
system from IBM, a supercomputer optimized
for bandwidth, scalability, and the ability to
handle large amounts of data while consum-
ing a fraction of the power and floor space
required by today’s fastest systems.

Maurice Smith (above, using a robot-controlled joystick that measures

motion of the hand while applying predictable force patterns) and
Garrett Stanley (right), both exploit engineering methods to better
understand how we learn to move and see. The colorful block diagram
(to the left of Stanley) shows the evolution of a spatial receptive field
of an LGN X cell over several seconds of exposure to a visual stimulus.

to the development of robot fleets that
forecast ocean conditions and better
protect endangered marine animals,
track oil spills, and guide military op-
erations at sea. The mathematical sys-
tem that allows the undersea robots to
navigate might one day power other
robotic teams that could explore not
just oceans, but deserts, rainforests, and
even other planets.
Bioengineers
probe the brain
All that hand and arm waving by babies,
starting at around three months old,
turns out to have a purpose other than
simply getting a toy or attention. The
infant’s brain may be systematically fig-
uring out how to refine motor control.
Assistant Professor of Bioengineer-
ing Maurice Smith and his co-authors
discovered that two distinct learning
processes, occuring simultaneously
throughout motor learning but with dif-
ferent time courses, may be responsible
for short-term motor skill acquisition.
To understand how the brain might
learn to control an arm, Smith and his
team had participants use a manipu-
landum—a robot-controlled joystick
that measures motion of the hand
while applying unusual but predictable
force patterns.
Graduate student Nicholas Lesica, As-
sociate Professor of Bioengineering Gar-
rett Stanley, and their colleagues have
further investigated ways in which neu-
rons in the early visual pathway of the
brain may encode visual information to
respond dynamically to common visual
scenes, such as a tiger’s tail emerging
from tall grass. The team showed that
in addition to encoding the details of
the visual scene, the neurons often
operate in a mode that serves to detect
change or movement (such as that wav-
ing tail), which they hypothesize could
be used to direct the animal’s attention
to a particular area of the natural visual
landscape. Both papers appread in PLoS
Biology.
The grid gets in gear;
access granted to ibm’s
Blue Gene
Starting in 2004, Joy Sircar, Director of
Information Technology at Harvard’s
DEAS, began to lay the groundwork
for a campus-wide grid computing in-
frastructure, dubbed the Crimson Grid.
Grid computing taps data and comput-
ing resources from different comput-
ing systems and makes them available
when and where they are needed. In the
past year, the grid has grown, silently
humming along, with 21 faculty groups
and 59 participating students now on
board. “The early use and success of the
Crimson Grid among interdisciplinary
and collaborative researchers suggests
new possibilities for the Harvard cam-
pus technology environments,” says
Sircar.
More recently, DEAS helped to usher
in a new era of high-performance com-
puting at Harvard with the acquisition
of the largest Blue Gene computing
system (from IBM) in academia. Blue
Gene boasts 4096 processors and can
calculate an astounding 11 teraflops,
making it among the top 50 most pow-
erful supercomputers in the world. The
machine will be a boon to investigators
across Harvard, from fields spanning
environmental to genetic modeling,
whose research requires intense com-
putational resources. J

DEAS – Fall 2006 I 5
Crosscurrents

Hard Hands &

Hard Materials
The founding of practical science at Harvard
Part 1: Abbott Lawrence

Abbott Lawrence (right), upon providing the funds to

establish what would be known as the Lawrence Scientific
School at Harvard offered a pragmatic explanation for why
he believed training in advanced science and engineering was
necessary, writing: “Hard hands are ready to work upon our
hard materials; and where shall sagacious heads be taught to
direct those hands?” He also financed the school’s original
building (opposite page), which once stood where the
Harvard Science Center stands today.

The original seal created for the

Harvard Engineering School, designed
in 1936. The “ragged cross” references
the Lawrence family’s coat of arms.

A red lion in midroar. A keep of a castle. Three tightly bound bunches

of … asparagus? The images on the seals of some of Harvard’s ingly, Lawrence decided on a similar
approach for his ambitions at Harvard.
professional schools seem ripe material for a Da Vinci Code sequel. He provided more than his money and
The “veritas” of the matter reveals a simpler explanation: the symbols name to the Scientific School—he de-
refer to the coat of arms of a given school’s founder, a tradition vised a complete road map.

borrowed from Oxford. The original idea for a Harvard school

dedicated to advanced education in

T he seldom seen (and likely never

officially used) seal of the Harvard
Engineering School (1917/18–1946) is
no exception. The “ragged cross” (see
Figure above) honors Abbott Lawrence,
for whom the Scientific School, the
predecessor of the many iterations of
Harvard’s programs in engineering and
applied sciences, was named. Decipher-
ing the signs might not require a full-
blown quest, but it does invite inquiry:
Who was Lawrence? What were his mo-
tives? What role did he play in founding
the school?
Abbott Lawrence (1792–1855) was
a self-made industrialist and politi-
cian—not the sort of person likely to
have mounted the family coat of arms
above the mantle. The intricate seal of
the city that still bears his name, Law-
rence, Massachusetts, sums up his char-
acter and accomplishments far better
than any ancient heirloom. The town’s
circular icon shows a shield depicting a
river, textile mills, and church, all lit by
a rising sun; on either side, two proud
workers stand, and above, a bee quietly
hovers.
A. Patricia Jaysane, Executive Director of
the Lawrence History Center, explains:
“The name of the town honors not just
Abbott Lawrence but his two brothers,
Samuel and Amos, as well.” All three,
along with Harvard graduate Charles
Storrow, were involved in the creation of
Lawrence, the “immigrant city,” one of
the first and most thoroughly planned
industrial sites in America. Not surpris-
the practical sciences did not, however,
come from Lawrence. Scholar Mary Ann
James provides an excellent overview of
the early history of the Scientific School
and rightly suggests that the date of its
founding (1846/7) did not represent
its birth but its middle years. Harvard
Professor and well-known mathemati-
cian Benjamin Peirce had sketched out
a plan for advanced scientific education
as early as the 1830s.
Peirce envisioned a “professional pro-
gram in civil engineering, drawn along
the rigorous lines of the Ecole Polytech-
nique [in France], offering a thorough
mathematical education and a solid
grounding in theory ….” His bold pro-
posal involved a realignment of the
existing Harvard science faculty to sup-

6 I DEAS – Fall 2006

Lawrence saw advanced scientific training as
necessary for his own business and the country’s
industrial sector to thrive.
The Lawrence Scientific School
was established during the brief
presidency of Edward Everett
(1846-1849). Prior to his role
as president Everett served as a
professor of Greek literature and
an overseer of the University.
port a distinct program that would par-
allel the well-established professional
schools, such as law and medicine. Be-
cause of tradition and politics (many in
academe viewed engineering and other
practical sciences as “dirty” trades), it
took nearly 20 years and two Harvard
presidents (John Quincy and Edward
Everett) before the Harvard Corporation
adopted a proposal for the formation of
an advanced Scientific School.
The first public announcement of the
School appeared in the second edition
of the 1846–47 Harvard University
Catalogue. Because the endeavor was
new, lacked a clear source of funding,
and had no dedicated physical facilities,
the catalog devoted a scant two pages to
the nascent institution. But something
monumental happened soon after the
ink dried.
Lawrence donated $50,000, an unprec-
edented sum at the time, to fund the
institution. He might have missed the
birth by a few decades, but he didn’t hes-
itate to offer a means to raise the child.
Hard hands &
hard materials
Lawrence achieved his fame and fortune
without a Harvard—or, in fact, any—
degree. He had, however, been actively
following and, in small ways, funding
academic scientific work at Harvard
through his relationship with natu-
ralist Louis Agassiz. More important,
Lawrence and Harvard’s then-president,
Edward Everett, were lifelong friends.
Although his personal ties likely con-
tributed to his decision to fund a new
school at Harvard, his true motivation
did not lie hidden: He saw advanced
scientific training as necessary for his
own business and the country’s indus-
trial sector to thrive. In a June 7, 1847,
letter to Samuel A. Eliot, Treasurer of
Harvard College, Lawrence laid out a de-
tailed plan for a school “for the purpose
of teaching the practical sciences” and
committed to fund the effort with addi-
tional money (on which he made good
with a later gift of an additional $50,000
to support a new building). He opened
The seal of the town of Lawrence,
Massachusetts (above), named after
Abbott Lawrence and his brothers,
conveys a “sunny” and optimistic view
of the American Industrial Revolution.
The design of the original building (no
longer extant) that housed faculty and
students from the Lawrence School
echoes Pierce Hall (built at the turn of
the 20th century).
with a direct challenge to educational
and government institutions as well as
to fellow industrialists to solve what he
viewed as a dire problem:
But where can we send those who intend
to devote themselves to the practical
applications of science? How [sic] educate
our engineers, our miners, machinists,
and mechanics? Our country abounds
in men of action. Hard hands are ready
to work upon our hard materials; and
where shall sagacious heads be taught to
direct those hands?
Quite simply, as a businessman, he
could not find the type of individuals
he needed for his mills and envisioned a
system that, like medicine, law, or divin-
ity, could produce a stream of practical
scientists, all similarly trained. He wrote:
“It seems to me that we have been some-
what neglectful in the cultivation and
encouragement of the scientific portion
of our national economy.” In much the
same way that the founders of Harvard
worried about the moral state of the
country without a well-read and well-
DEAS – Fall 2006 I 7
Crosscurrents
educated clergy to guide it, Lawrence
worried about the country’s economic
state without well-trained scientists
and engineers to fuel its growth.
Let theory be proved by
practical results
Although the original catalog text never
concretely specified the type of students
the new school sought to train or what
they expected them to do with their
education, Lawrence did:
We need then, a school not for boys, but
for young men whose early education is
completed, either in college or elsewhere,
and now intend to enter upon an active
life as engineers or chemists, or in
general, as men of science, applying their
attainments to practical purposes where
they may learn what has been done at
other times and in other countries, and
may acquire habits of investigation and
reflection, with an aptitude for observing
and describing.
The school for “boys” referenced tradi-
tional classical education wherein, as
at Harvard, science was taught along-
side Greek literature and language and
religion. Lawrence, however, does not
dismiss the importance of the liberal
arts but instead makes an insightful
suggestion about its proper role in the
education of a practical scientist. Learn-
ing from the past and from the world
at large would serve as a way to ensure
that future engineers would not repeat
mistakes and would broaden their un-
derstanding beyond provincial models.
(We, in fact, espouse similar principles
today at DEAS.)
Despite never being taught by a profes-
sor himself, Lawrence also recommend-
ed a new breed of instructor critical for
making the new entity a success. He
praised Harvard for appointing Euro-
pean-educated Eben Norton Horsford
as the Rumford Chair of the Application
of Science to the Useful Arts. Horsford
was best known for formulating and
patenting the first calcium phosphate
baking powder. Lawrence expected that
the school’s faculty should “number
among its teachers men who have prac-
ticed and are practicing the arts they are
called to teach. Let theory be proved by
practical results.” In other words, just as
8 I DEAS – Fall 2006
Learning from the past and
from the world at large would
serve as a way to ensure that
future engineers would not
repeat mistakes and would
broaden their understanding
beyond provincial models.
Harvard used lawyers and physicians to
teach in its schools of law and medicine,
the same should be the case with practi-
cal scientists.
The letter that accompanied Lawrence’s
gift was not an afterthought, but a
manifesto; he even made arrangements
for versions of the letter to appear in
leading national science journals such
as the American Journal of Science (the
predecessor to Science Magazine). Most
surprising, Lawrence, although an
outsider, exerted great influence over a
traditional, close-minded, and inwardly
focused institution. In fact, the Corpora-
tion explicitly agreed in writing to the
terms in Lawrence’s letter: “Your exam-
ple shall be followed …”
Even Treasurer Eliot might not have re-
alized how deep a change (and division)
introducing a school for practical sci-
ences at Harvard would bring, despite
saying, “The knowledge acquired will
be found to be applicable, not only in
the ways and on the subjects which are
now known to be open to its use, but in
a multitude of directions … to which its
importance cannot be at presence ap-
preciated, nor even foreseen.”
Perfect harmony
at Cambridge
During the first several decades of the
Lawrence Scientific School, a diverse
group of thinkers and profession-
als—astronomers, architects, natural-
ists, engineers, mathematicians, and
even philosophers—passed through its
doors. Other institutions, like the Uni-
versity of Washington, saw it as a model
for their own schools of advanced and
practical science. The harmony that
Lawrence hoped for (“ … I wish to see
all these branches of science prosecuted
with vigor, and moving forward in per-
fect harmony at Cambridge”) would not
last, however. An article dated February
15, 1887, in the Crimson explained the
situation this way:
During the last twenty years, while, in
most colleges scientific studies were find-
ing their place, the Lawrence Scientific
School has been steadily losing ground.
It has been overshadowed by its sister
across the street. When the school was
founded by the bequest of the Lawrences
our college was narrow and saw no
propriety in allowing a wide variety of
study to the undergraduate … That it
occupied a front rank among its fellows
can be seen by referring to the earlier
catalogues where the names of our lead-
ing scientists of to-day will be found
registered as students.
At the end of the 19th and turn of the
20th centuries, the temper of the coun-
try changed; the Gilded Age came to
a close and industrialists lost some of
their influence to the progressive move-
ment. The Lawrence School became
doubly constrained by the conflicting
views about its role and status by then
Harvard President Charles Eliot. As
Another industrialist and donor,
Gordon McKay, carried on Lawrence’s
tradition.
early as the 1870s, Eliot began discuss-
ing plans to “merge” Harvard with MIT.
These attempts ultimately failed, but as
a result the Scientific School suffered
(leading to its dissolution in 1906). It
would take a controversial and posthu-
mous donation by another industrial-
ist named Gordon McKay, who made
his fortune from the manufacture and
leasing of shoe machinery, to revive the
practical sciences at Harvard. J

Awards
L. Mahadevan (1), Gordon McKay
Professor of Applied Mathematics and
Mechanics, was awarded a Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation Fellowship for
2005–06. He also won Harvard’s
George Ledlie Prize for his dedication to
examining the physics and engineer-
ing of everyday life. The Ledlie Prize is
awarded every two years to someone
affiliated with the University who, “since
the last awarding of said prize has …
made the most valuable contribution
to science, or in any way for the benefit
of mankind.” Mahadevan will spend the
spring term 2007 in residence at the
University of California, Berkeley, as a
Visiting Miller Professor in Chemical
Engineering … James Rice (2), Mallinck-
rodt Professor of Engineering Sciences
and Geophysics, was awarded a Shimizu
Faculty News
New arrivals
Marko Loncar
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
Background:
Diploma (1997)
in Electrical Engineering,
University of Belgrade,
Serbia and Montenegro;
MS (1998) and PhD (2003)
in Electrical Engineering,
California Institute of Technology
Areas of focus:
• Nanophotonics;
• quantum cascade lasers;
• nanofabrication
http://people.deas.harvard.edu/~loncar/
Visiting Professor Fellowship from the
Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at Stanford University. He
will spend the spring term 2007 in
residence there … Assistant Professor of
Bioengineering Maurice Smith (3) was
awarded a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation 1.
Early Career Award to support research
on error feedback control dysfunction
as a measure of the progression of
Huntington’s disease … Frans Spaepen
received the Heyn Medal of the German
3. 4.
Society for Materials Science in May
2005 … Howard Stone (4) became chair
of the American Physical Society’s Divi-
sion of Fluid Dynamics … Vahid Tarokh
(5) was named one of the “Top 10 Most
Cited Authors in Computer Science,” a
list compiled by the ISI Web of Science.
5. 2.
DEAS – Fall 2006 I 9
Faculty News
Nota bene
A warm glow ... IEEE Spectrum
highlighted the potential applications of
stopping light, a breakthrough technique
first conducted by applied physicist
Lene Hau and her colleagues in 2001.
“Separate groups in the United States
and Europe say that they have built
and successfully tested more compact,
rugged, and efficient means of delaying
the pulses. Their work seems to clear the
way for the kinds of applications fore-
seen by the Harvard pioneers, including
not just those in optical switching and
quantum communications but also
others in network synchronization, radar,
and even computer memory.”
Computer scientist Matt Welsh was
nearly blown away while gathering
records of seismic activity on
Reventador, an active volcano located
in northern Ecuador. (Photo by Rose
Lincoln/Harvard News Office)
10 I DEAS – Fall 2006
Bioengineer Kit Parker takes a novel
approach to “sports medicine”, using
engineering to investigate the cause
of injury.
Cover shot … The Gates Foundation-
sponsored research of bioengineer
David Edwards (including a photo of his
very likeness) was featured as part of a
cover story, “Injecting New Ideas into
Vaccines,” in the May 12 issue of the
Chronicle of Higher Education.
Hotwired … Computer scientist Matt
Welsh found another mountain to
climb. Network World reported on Welsh
and his team’s blow-out as they were
gathering records of seismic activity on
Reventador, an active volcano located in
northern Ecuador. The group deployed a
wireless sensor mesh network to collect
their data, which, as they found out,
is not without its risks when a volcano
decides to blow its top.
Good sports … SouthCoast Today
reported on Kit Parker’s work with
faculty and students from Greater New
Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical
High School’s Engineering Technology
program. The team fabricated six plastic
“membrane stretchers” to be used in
Lene Hau’s technique of stopping light has become a common starting point for
other investigators in applied physics. (photo by Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office)
experiments to investigate why certain with ease, as their latest Nature paper,
athletes fall victim to Commotio Cordis “The emergence of geometric order
(the condition that occurs when a hit in in proliferating metazoan epithelia”
the chest from a puck or baseball causes attests. A review of the paper in Cell put
immediate death by heart attack). it this way: “[the authors] have enabled
Fast track … MIT’s Technology Review us to appreciate a pattern where none
reported on Harvard researchers who was previously apparent, and their result
have shown that nanowire transistors is elegant in its simplicity.”
can be at least four times speedier than Zipped Media ... The premier issue of
conventional silicon devices. 02138 <http://www.02138mag.com>, a
non-affiliated alumni magazine covering
Contact … The April 12 Boston Globe
the “Harvard lifestyle”, proclaims Bill
reported on a new telescope that will
Gates COL ‘77 as # 1 in its list of the 100
scan the universe for signs of life on
most influential Harvard affiliates. In a
other planets. The high-tech scope was
separate article, 02138 features Gregg
developed by Physics/DEAS faculty
Favalora ‘97 <http://www.02138mag.
member Paul Horowitz. Applied Physics
graduate student Curtis Mead helped com/magazine/article/951.html> (S.M. in
ES), a founder of Actuality Systems who
design the scope’s camera, and a team
of graduate and undergraduate students “proudly stands in the nerd phalanx.” J
built a computer to process a trillon bits Computer scientist Radhika Nagpal
of information per second. explores her “other” side, biology,
in a recent Nature paper.
Boxed out … The Exponent, Purdue
University’s student newspaper, covered
a recent talk there by Dean Venky
encouraging engineers to invent outside
the box: “Sahil Shah, a junior in the
School of Industrial Engineering, said he
agrees with Narayanamurti that scientific
research should be applied to the real
world. ‘I thought it was very good
exposure listening to him. It broadens
your view,’ Shah said.”
A Model Computer Scientist … Radhika
Nagpal and colleagues walked the line
between computer science and biology
 Faculty News
The Boston Globe reported on a new telescope set up by Paul Horowitz and his graduate students
(pictured are Andrew Howard and Curtis Mead), that will scan the heavens for signs of life. Despite
its lofty mission, the scope is housed in a simple shed 30 miles outside of the city of Boston.

Promotions and appointments

Donhee Ham
Promoted to Associate Professor of
Electrical Engineering, as of July 1,
2006.
David Brooks
Promoted to Associate Professor of
Computer Science, as of July 1, 2006.
Henry H. Leitner
Appointed Senior Lecturer on Computer
Science for an additional five years, as of
July 1, 2006.
Gu-Yeon Wei
Promoted to Associate Professor of
Electrical Engineering, as of July 1,
2006.
Engineering and Applied Sciences also
welcomed two faculty to the neighbor-
hood. Geophysicist Jeremy Bloxham
was named as the new dean for the
physical sciences in the Faculty of Arts
and Sciences. He is currently Harvard
College Professor and Mallinckrodt
Professor of Geophysics as well as a
Professor of Computational Science
at DEAS. Bloxham replaces Venkatesh
Narayanamurti, dean of engineering and
applied sciences, who served in a joint
capacity as the first physical sciences
dean during the past three years. Daniel
P. Schrag, Professor of Earth and Plan-
etary Sciences and director of the HUCE
now has a joint appointment at DEAS as
Professor of Environmental Science and
Engineering.

Joseph J. Harrington passes away

Joseph Harrington, Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering and Professor of
Environmental Health Engineering in the HSPH Department of Environmental Health, has
passed away. He was 69 years old.
Harrington received his Ph.D. in applied physics and engineering from Harvard. During his
42 years at the University he studied the application of systems analysis techniques to envi-
ronmental problems. Starting in 1960, he participated in the groundbreaking Harvard Water
Program, which helped guide the United States’ water resource planning nationwide. He
also served as a consultant for federal, state, and local governments, including the U.S. Public
Health Service, the National Research Council Committee on Water Supply and Wastewater
Disposal, and the EPA.
“Joe was a wonderful professor and mentor. Besides a wonder and love of statistics he instilled,
I remember so many stories. Always precise, all who knew him came away enriched and
certainly smarter,” wrote Casey Brown in an online guest book entry.
Donations in memory of Prof. Harrington may be made to Manhattan College, Office of
Planned Giving, Manhattan College Pkwy, Riverdale, NY 10471.

DEAS – Fall 2006 I 11
Student News

What I did on my R ea
l l ife
summer vacation I am
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wor
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catio o n
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12 I DEAS – Fall 2006

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Student Awards
Graduate student Marcus Roper, who
works in the lab of Michael Brenner,
Gordon McKay Professor of Applied
Mathematics and Applied Physics,
received a fellowship from the Kodak
Fellows Program. The fellowships are
given each year to one of the top gradu-
ate students, as designated by the host
program, at a few of the best schools
across the country.
Computer Science graduate student
Emanuele Viola won a Society for Indus-
trial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)
Student Paper Prize for “Pseudorandom
Bits for Constant Depth Circuits with
Few Arbitrary Symmetric Gates.” Salil
Vadhan served as Viola’s advisor.
CS Graduate student Rebecca Nesson
was awarded one of the 19 $10,000
2006 Anita Borg Scholarships spon-
sored by Google. Fellow CS graduate
student Meeta Sharma Gupta was also
recognized as one of the 28 finalists;
she will receive $1,000. The Google
Anita Borg Scholarship was formed to
further the vision begun with Borg’s
revolutionizing the way technology is
thought about. She sought to eliminate
barriers that women and minorities
face when entering the technology and
computer fields.
Engineering Sciences concentrators
Hisham Mabrook ’08, Oluwarotimi
Okunade ’07, and Amy Xu ’07 were
each awarded a Weissman Internship.
The Weissman Program, established by
Paul ’52 and Harriet Weissman in 1994,
enables students to develop a richer
understanding of the global community
in which they live and work.
Herchel Smith Undergraduate Research
Scholarship winners for 2006 included
Bradford Diephuis ES ’08, who worked
with Assistant Professor of Computer
Science David Parkes; Jie Tang CS ’08,
who also worked Parkes; Mark Wagner
ES ’08, who worked with a faculty mem-
ber at Columbia; and Can Cenick ’08
AM, who worked with a faculty member
in Cambridge, England. And kudos also
go to Hoopes Prize winner Gregory
Valiant ‘06 (Mathematics), who worked
with DEAS’s Michael Mitzenmacher. J

DEAS – Fall 2006 I 13
In Profile
Holding the Center
John Hutchinson brings the field of fractures together
“I s Professor Hutchinson still there?”
ranks as one of the most common
questions—apart from “Does Harvard
really do engineering?”—that DEAS
staff members are likely to hear. John
Hutchinson, Abbot and James Law-
rence Professor of Engineering and one
of the most distinguished researchers
in fracture mechanics, has spent the
past four decades at Harvard. In fact, he
earned his PhD and started his career in
the same building, Pierce Hall, where
he currently works. Such longevity may
explain in part why so many students
remember and ask for him, but as any-
one who has met him knows, his popu-
larity comes down to character.
Hutchinson has an ever-present ease
about him that draws in students; a
bright-eyed sense of excitement that
never wavers, whether it is his first or
fortieth commencement; and the ability
to see potential solutions to problems
where others see only dead ends. “It is
unusual to spend one’s entire career at
14 I DEAS – Fall 2006
the same institution,” he says. “For me
this has been great, since Harvard is
such a good place to work and teach.
I’ve never felt restless at Harvard, but
that can be partly attributed to the fact
that I have taken a six-month sabbatical
or leave of absence almost every three
years—to England twice, California for
a year, and to Denmark the rest of the
times.”
Because of his globetrotting, his influ-
ence extends well beyond one campus.
In 2002, when he was awarded the Ti-
moshenko Medal, considered the high-
est honor in applied mechanics, the
committee wrote: “An interesting aspect
of his personality but also of his impact
on mechanics of solids and materials be-
comes apparent if we look at the names
of some of the people with whom he has
worked.” All the researchers mentioned,
with appointments located on the op-
posite coast and the opposite side of the
world, rank as pioneers in engineering
and applied mechanics (see sidebar).
Zhigang Suo (right) and John Hutchinson stand
side-by-side as colleagues; Hutchinson advised
Suo while a graduate student at Harvard. Suo is
now a professor of mechanics and materials.
Thankfully, Hutchinson is not an aca-
demic who looks good only on paper;
he excels in the classroom as well. His
alma mater, Lehigh University, and
the University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign, in bestowing him honor-
ary degrees, both cited his dedication to
mentorship. For the latter, nominator L.
Ben Freund wrote: “His abilities as an
educator/mentor are most in evidence
through his former graduate students
who are forging distinguished careers
for themselves at Illinois, Brown, Har-
vard, and many other universities, com-
panies, and laboratories in the U.S. and
abroad.”
Hutchinson says without hesitation
that his students and collaborators,
including his one-time acolyte, now
Harvard colleague Zhigang Suo, Allen
E. and Marilyn M. Puckett Professor of
Mechanics and Materials, arrive with
“great things” already inside them. “Any
faculty advisor knows you cannot take
credit for what your students achieve,”

he says bluntly. Nevertheless, the evi-
dence, both quantitative (number of co-
authored papers) and qualitative (praise
from students and colleagues), points
to a strong correlation: being taught by
or collaborating with Hutchison often
leads to a successful outcome.
Faculty should, he contends, provide
students with opportunities and start-
up ideas and then “set them loose.” As
evidence, Suo was only one individual
in a group of students from China, in-
cluding Huajian Gao (now at Brown),
Young Huang (now at the University of
Illinois), and Tianjian Lu (now at Cam-
bridge), who were successfully set loose.
All of them came to Harvard in the
1980s and 1990s to study solid mechan-
ics—and all but one of them worked
with Hutchinson. “These individuals,
and others among our students, had
not only risen to the top of an incred-
ibly competitive educational system in
China, but they had exceptional train-
A teacher thanking his students, a sentiment that sounds more
like a proverb rather than a practice, showcases why Hutchison
stands out.
ing in mathematics and mechanics,” he
says. “They were ready to go when they
arrived at our doorstep, and we were
very lucky to have them as students.”
A teacher thanking his students, which
sounds more like a proverb than a prac-
tice, showcases why Hutchison stands
out. He relishes the chance to work
closely with students and postdocs on
pieces of a larger puzzle in applied me-
chanics, which no doubt leaves a lasting
impression on them. He worries that
with large-scale, multiple-investigator
projects securing the majority of today’s
grants and funding, such critical rela-
tionships might suffer. He says the “jury
is out” on which is the better approach
to research, but a funding agency need
not look further than Hutchinson’s
legacies for what is possible at the small
scale or, better, simply stay tuned and
wait for what is to come. Of particular
note has been Hutchinson’s collabora-
tions with Tony Evans, a professor of
materials and mechanical engineering
at the University of California, Santa
Barbara, over the past 25 years. “Tony
is a materials engineer with an active
laboratory, and I am a mechanics theo-
retician—together we have quite broad
research interests and we continue to
work on lots of interesting technologi-
cal problems.”
“What counts is what you are doing, not
what you have done,” he explains. “Of
course, there is satisfaction in realizing
that people are using your work—there
would be little reason for doing research
without that. But it is the act of doing
that is the heart of engineering. I saw
an interview with Duke Ellington late
in his life, when he was asked which of
all the songs he had composed he liked
the best. Without hesitation, he replied,
‘The one I am working on now.’
Researchers, however, consistently cite
a particular paper Hutchinson worked
on with Suo, “Mixed-mode cracking
in layered materials,” in 1992, as their
favorite composition. The article is
among the 10 most-cited papers in the
field of engineering in the past decade.
“Zhigang was a young faculty member
at UCSB when we wrote this article, and
he claims he was a bit bored by the task,
but I had a pretty good idea it would be
a bestseller,” Hutchinson says. “While
some have termed this article as one of
the ‘bibles’ in our field, in fact most of
the papers citing it have been from out-
side our field, mainly from the electron-
ics industry, where they are famous for
getting layered materials to do excep-
tional things.”
That his work inspired researchers from
outside engineering and applied sci-
ence is yet another confirmation of why
his office is likely to remain one of the
more popular sites to visit on campus
(no rubbing of his toe permitted, how-
ever). “Like most of us, I live from day to
day. My plans are to continue working
on technical problems in my field that
I identify through interactions with
In profile
colleagues,” Hutchinson says. “As I said,
it is the problem that I am working on
now that is the most interesting. I have
no big aspirations. Any success I may
have achieved has been in small incre-
ments over long periods of time, and I
intend to continue that process for a
while longer.” J
Frequent Flier
To tackle the thorniest problems in solid mechanics,
engineering materials, and structures, John Hutchin-
son has collaborated with some of the most notable
and far-flung luminaries in the field.
“How do all these collaborations happen? Well, when
you work away steadily day after day for more than
forty years, you can’t help but interact with lots of
people,” he says. “Collaboration is unquestionably
effective in research. The synergy of multiple minds
working on a problem can be huge, especially when
the individuals bring different knowledge and skills
to the table.”
Besides his long-term collaborations with Tony
Evans, a professor of materials and mechanical
engineering at the University of California, Santa
Barbara, Hutchinson had many other fruitful collabo-
rations. For example, the committee that awarded
him the 2002 Timoshenko Medal provided the fol-
lowing (partial) list: John C. Amazigo, U. of Nigeria;
Michael Ashby, U. of Cambridge; E. Byskov, Aalborg
U., Denmark; L. B. Freund, Brown U.; Warner T. Koi-
ter, Delft U. of Technology; Robert M. McMeeking,
UCSB; K. W. Neale, U. of Sherbrooke, Canada; and
Viggo Tvergaard, Technical U. of Denmark.
His interactions at Harvard have been no less
impressive. “For the first thirty years I had one group
of colleagues: Fred Abernathy, Bernard Budiansky,
George Carrier, Howard Emmons, Tom McMahon,
Dick Kronauer, M. Krook, Jim Rice, and J. L. Sand-
ers,” he says. “They were joined by my younger
colleagues, Rob Howe and Howard Stone, over a
decade ago, and more recently by Garrett Stanley,
Joost Vlassak, Michael Brenner, L. Mahavedan, and
Zhigang Suo.”
Of his original colleagues, he notes, only Abernathy
and Rice are “still at the till.” Yet much of the group’s
academic legacy remains intact. For example, bio-
mechanics and biomechanical engineering, initiated
by the late Tom McMahon and Dick Kronauer over
two decades ago, are now growth areas at Harvard,
thanks to the infusion of new faculty members,
such as Dave Edwards, Dave Mooney, Kit Parker,
Maurice Smith, and Debra Auguste, following in their
footsteps.
“There have been many changes. Nevertheless, I am
happy that the mix of physical applied math and ap-
plied mechanics is still alive and well with the young
faculty we have added in recent years,” Hutchinson
says.
DEAS – Fall 2006 I 15
Intersections
That crimson glow
Ed Macomber accepts Harvard
A college-bound high school senior
knows the chance of getting into
Harvard is slim—nine percent and fall-
ing fast. Applying to work for the “ivied
idol” can be equally harrowing—and
competitive. Once part of the family,
employees often face their own version
of the H-Bomb. “You work where? Re-
ally? Wow, you must be smart! Did they
ask about your GPA? Hey, can you help
get my kid in?!”
Ed Macomber, a native of Acushnet,
Massachusetts, beat the odds twice. He
first made the cut as a summer scholar
for the Research Experience for Under-
graduates (REU) program hosted by
DEAS and later landed a job as a nano-
fabrication technician at Harvard’s Cen-
ter for Nanoscale Systems (CNS). Like all
the “best and brightest” who do get past
the iron gates, Macomber stood out.
Upon seeing his application to the
REU program, Director Kathryn Hollar
said she found Macomber’s practical
know-how and determination rare and
welcome. “You could tell he was going
to be someone special—a real asset for
a lab and for other students,” said Hol-
lar. Kit Parker, Assistant Professor of
Bioengineering, knew instantly that he
wanted Macomber as part of his Disease
Biophysics research group.
Technically still an undergraduate, at
age 37 Macomber offered broad experi-
16 I DEAS – Fall 2006
ence and know-how that went beyond
any transcript. “I was the old guy on the
block,” he says with a smile. “I knew that
I liked what I was learning. I liked the
community up here, so I really didn’t
bug out too much about the age thing.”
Three years earlier, Macomber, who has
been employed as everything from a
stonemason to a mechanic, decided to
earn his associate degree in engineer-
Technically still an undergraduate, at age 37 Macomber
offered broad experience and know-how that went beyond
any transcript.
ing. Despite his impressive skill set, he
felt stuck and decided a degree would
open new opportunities. While he was
attending Bristol Community College,
he chanced upon a flier for the Harvard
REU Program and decided to fill one
out, never thinking he’d get in, let alone
end up an employee.
His life in a clean-room lab did mean he
had to make some minor adjustments.
Macomber says with a pause that “there
was less emphasis on productivity and
getting the product out the door” and
more on “trying to find the right result.”
He couldn’t help noticing that compared
to a factory floor, things at Harvard were
a lot cleaner and quieter. “I worked at a
Nanotech Fabrication Technician
Ed Macomber feels at home in one of
the McKay Laboratory’s clean rooms.
machine shop for eight years—an ap-
prenticeship with a guy who was a real
old-school machinist.”. His knack for
figuring things out meant that he could
tackle any machine in the lab, even if he
had never seen it before. Broken tools
that faculty and researchers had long
since abandoned suddenly came back to
life in Macomber’s hands.
His “old-school” attitude also made it
much easier to enter the entirely new
world of the soft lithography process, a
set of micro- and nano-“printing” tech-
niques the Parker lab uses to engineer
cardiac tissue. Learning such a sophis-
ticated technique during REU helped
him to garner his next acceptance: a
technician job in the clean rooms of
the CNS. “I help install new machinery,
repair machinery when it goes down,
stock expendables in the clean rooms,
and process chemical waste—basically,
whatever needs to be done,” he says.
Macomber will also benefit from CNS’s
move to the future LISE building, which
will contain an ultra-sophisticated,
10,000-square-foot underground clean
room.
“I was intimidated by Harvard at first,
but I think I am in the swing of it now,”
he says. “I love the community. I’m re-
ally happy with my job. I like all the
people I work with.”Remaining slightly
awestruck by an institution with more
brand recognition than Disney, Ma-
comber says he’s certain of one thing:
Working at Harvard “always keeps you
on your toes .” J

An engineering omelet
Finding her way
O n May 3, Harvard’s DEAS took part
in Introduce a Girl to Engineering
Day, a nationwide effort in its sixth year,
which aims to do more than simply live
up to its title. Organizer Judy Nitsch,
president of Judy Nitsch Engineering
Inc., said the goal “is to reach over 1
million girls in the sixth to 12th grades”
and ultimately inspire them to study or
pursue engineering as a profession.
A panel of five female professionals,
experts in areas as various as business,
chemical engineering, and environ-
mental law, echoed that philosophy as
they explained how they were first in-
troduced to engineering. Stories ranged
from celebrity encounters (of the aca-
H
igh school students from the
newly created West Roxbury
Education Complex’s Engi-
neering School tried their best to avoid
making an omelet. In the first ever
DEAS-sponsored “egg drop,” students
used popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and
just about anything else available at the
local grocery store to protect their frag-
ile eggs’ gravity-gulping voyage from
the Gordon McKay Library on the third
floor of Pierce Hall to the ground below.
In addition to having fun, the goal was
to showcase some of the basic principles
of good engineering design. J
demic kind), a face-off with a busted
pinball machine as a teen, or even a
casual crush on another engineer. Their
tales evoked the greatest response from
the parents in the audience, many of
whom could be seen nodding in agree-
ment or whispering, “See, you can do it”
to their daughters.
“Engineering is not necessarily physi-
cal, but a way of thinking,” said As-
sistant Dean of Academic Programs
Marie Dahleh, who helped organize and
spoke at the event. “What drove many
pioneering female engineers to do what
they did was their desire to make things
better.”
The event concluded with a global po-
sitioning system (GPS)-based treasure
hunt on the paths of the wet, soggy, and
newly seeded Law School lawn. Teams
of two used either handheld Wi-Fi de-
vices or traditional maps to discover
clues that could be used to open a locked
briefcase containing prizes. The rules
of the adventure hinted that finding a
path inevitably requires going beyond
the obvious “X marks the spot” proto-
col: The groups must all work together
to solve the puzzle, and you can take
many paths to reach a goal. The event
was sponsored by the Harvard Univer-
sity Marshal’s Office and the Harvard
DEAS. J
Intersections
Events
Visitww.deas.harvard.edu/newsandevents
for the latest details, dates, and times for
DEAS events. Here are some highlights
from the past months and a list of future
opportunities.
CRCS surveys privacy;
quantum systems
find control
The Center for Research in Computa-
tion and Society (CRCS) completed
its second year with a very successful
workshop on Data Surveillance and
Privacy Protection (170 registrants and
more than 120 participants). You can
see slides from the lectures at http://crcs.
deas.harvard.edu/workshop/2006/index.
html.
In related news, this year CRCS will host
one additional postdoctoral fellow, Dr.
Ben Adida, who studies cryptographic
solutions to public policy problems.
If you want to keep tabs on the latest,
sign up to the CRCS mailing list (e-mail
maryfran@eecs.harvard.edu).
Associate Professor of Electrical Engi-
neering Navin Khaneja and An Wang
Professor of Computer Science and
Electrical Engineering Roger Brockett
hosted the Principles and Applica-
tions of Control in Quantum Systems
workshop in August. Researchers in
areas from physics to signal processing
science came together to explore how
control theory could lead to improve-
ments in state-of-the-art methods in
fields ranging from magnetic resonance
to quantum information processing.
Building Biology
The Radcliffe Institute relied upon
some expertise at DEAS for the stand-
ing-room-only Frontiers in Tissue Engi-
neering symposium held on November
3. The symposium convened leading
scientists, engineers, and clinicians in
the application of engineering design
methodologies to provide new perspec-
tives on replacements for failing organ
systems. Debra Auguste, Barbara J. Gro-
sz, David J. Mooney, and Kit Parker, were
all part of the organizing committee.
DEAS – Fall 2006 I 17
Alumni Notes
Q&A with William Peine
The human touch
Y ou are going to feel a slight bit of
pressure …” is a doctor’s polite code
for “this is going to hurt.” Imagine if the
relationship were reversed: a doctor feel-
ing the sudden pinch. With the help of
Bill Peine PhD ’99, surgeons could soon
use tactile feedback from robotic surgi-
cal devices to help them better diagnose
conditions or even make minute and
critical adjustments when operating on
tissue.
Peine, an Assistant Professor of Mechan-
ical Engineering at Purdue’s School of
Mechanical Engineering, plans to make
robotic-assisted operations more com-
mon by developing a smaller, smarter,
and cheaper class of tools for everyday
use in the OR. In addition to their bulk
and complexity, current models re-
main out of reach because of their high
cost—over $1 million. With continued
advances in technology, he envisions
future surgeons calling for their “bots”
as often as often as they now do for their
scalpels.
At Harvard, Peine was part of Gordon
McKay Professor of Engineering Rob
Howe’s close-knit Biorobotics lab, a
18 I DEAS – Fall 2006
Alumnus William Peine, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue,
operates hand controls for a surgical robot under development. The system is
designed to give surgeons the dexterity they will need for operations by mimicking
the human wrist. (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)
group focused on sensing and mechani-
cal design in motor control of robots and
humans. “Harvard definitely has a fam-
ily feel to it. As a grad student you know
most all the faculty in the department,”
Peine says. No doubt he will instill such
values into his future robots—and with
careful control, patients may never feel
the sting of the needle again.
Let’s trace your educational
trajectory. You started at Purdue as
an undergraduate.
I come from a long tradition of Boil-
ermakers [the nickname for Purdue
alumni]. My grandparents graduated
from Purdue in 1929 and 1930. My dad
graduated in 1959, and all three of my
uncles graduated from Purdue.
Then you traveled east and pursued
your Ph.D. at Harvard.
When I popped up from the T [in Har-
vard Square], I was inspired. The build-
ings, trees, and feel of the Yard were
captivating. I randomly walked into a
building and asked if they had engineer-
ing. Within minutes I was wandering
my way to Pierce Hall. The first sen-
tence in the DEAS pamphlet was “Har-
vard prides itself on multidisciplinary
research.” That was enough for me!
Then, after a period working in the
high-tech and medical industries, you
returned “home” again.
The culture at Purdue has changed since
I graduated. Opportunities for multidis-
ciplinary research are everywhere and
strongly encouraged with dollars and
upper-level support. My return to Pur-
due was motivated in large part by this.
Now that you’re settled, you are explor-
ing the boundaries of the human-ma-
chine interface. Who’s in control?
I like to say that the surgeon will always
be the primary actuator in the system.
It will be a long time before surgical
robots act like industrial robots and
process patients autonomously. A robot
may guide the surgeon’s hand and make
minor corrections, but the interaction
with the patient is still the “art.”
You certainly have mastered the art of
balancing multiple roles: researcher,
entrepreneur, and teacher.
I love being the hub of a wheel and
stretching myself to unite different
people and ideas. Given the shift to a
global economy and the rise of a better-
trained international workforce, I think

future engineers in the U.S. must have a
systems-level mindset.
Speaking of work, how have you been
influenced by the corporate world?
Having been on the “front lines” of sur-
gical robot development in industry, I
learned how to listen to the customer,
understand the economics of the prob-
lem, and appreciate the challenge of
medical device documentation and
approval. I think these experiences cer-
tainly help me focus my research, but
they also translate into my mentorship
of graduate students and my classroom
teaching. I can honestly say, “This is
what they do in the real world,” and
then explain why and give a personal
example. Students eat this up.
But doesn’t the real world get in the
way of building an android like Data
from Star Trek?
Economic justifications for robots that
look and act like humans are hard to
come by. Having said that, these ma-
chines fascinate us. I saw a NOVA spe-
cial on Mark Raibert’s running robots in
the MIT Leg Lab when I was a kid. Way
cool stuff to a 12-year-old. I since have
Alumni Notes
met Mark and worked with his com-
pany, Boston Dynamics. Truth be told,
he still inspires me.
In other words, humans, unlike the Tin
Man, still win out on having heart.
Our brain runs at 10Hz. Our individual
muscle fibers and sensory organs are
pretty crappy compared to sensors and
actuators we use in robots. Yet we can
do amazing things. We have so much to
learn about ourselves. J

Linking Back Appliance), Entrisphere, Infinera, Mu

With the DEAS challenge Fund com-
pleted in 2005, Alex Balkanski AB ‘81,
AM ‘85, PhD ‘87 was among the first to
take advantage of the new university-
wide professorship challenge.
He endowed a chair in applied physics
and physics (his field of concentration
as an undergraduate). The professorship
honors his father, a highly respected
materials physicist, and celebrates alex’s
25th reunion at the college.
Balkanski, now a member of the Silicon
Valley Team of Benchmark Capital,
previously led C-Cube (which he also
founded) and DiviCom, two pioneer-
ing companies that drove the MPEG
Alumnus Winston Chen sponsors a distinguished annual
lectureship series at Harvard. This year’s speakers included standard to dominance in consumer
applied mathematician Grigory I. Barenblatt and physicist/applied electronics and broadcasting. He also
physicist and Nobel-laureate P.G. de Gennes.
serves on the boards of Ambarella,
Aspendos, Decru (acquired by Network
Security, Newport Media, Picarro and
Xoomsys.
Other recent notable donors to engi-
neering and applied sciences include
former member of the Harvard Corpora-
tion, Richard a.Smith AB ’46, who for
his 60th reunion gave $1.5 million for a
DEAS Dean’s Discretionary Fund.
Additionally, James F. Rothenberg AB
‘68 gave a second DEAS Innovation
Fund, and Dr. Winston Chen SM ’67 PhD
’70 continued his support for equipment
in applied mathematics.
To learn more about ways to support
engineering and applied sciences at
Harvard, contact: Linda Fates, Direc-
tor of Development, DEAS and FAS
Physical Sciences (617-495-0910 or
linda_fates@harvard.edu).

An initial screenshot for a brighter, better, and more dynamic website for engi-
neering and applied sciences. Watch for the rollout in the coming weeks.

Let Us Know
What You Think
We’ve redesigned our Website, expanded
our newsletter, and tried to increase the
prominence of engineering and applied
sciences in Harvard’s various publica-
tions (check out the Fall/Winter issue
of The Yard, dedicated to science and
engineering).
We’d love to know the best ways of
keeping our alumni and friends informed
and, we hope, excited about our contin-
ued renewal and growth, especially as
we continue our transformation. Please
drop us a brief note and let us know how
we are doing: what’s right, what’s wrong,
and what else can we provide.
And for those of you who are wonder-
ing, engineering and applied sciences
branded merchandise (hats,
T-shirts, yo-yos, and Slinkys) will be
available soon! Get in touch at
communications@deas.harvard.edu
or 617-496-3815.

DEAS – Fall 2006 I 19
Connections

10:00 AM
My So-Called
Graduate Life
8:30 AM T he subtitle for Piled Higher and Deeper comics
(known on the Web as www.phdcomics.com)
reads: Life (or the lack thereof) in Academia. For those
not in the know, author Jorge Cham, who apparently
found enough life to complete his PhD in engineering
at Stanford and also become a publishing mogul, illus-
trates and writes a strip dedicated to the trials and trib-
ulations of graduate student life. USAToday.com de-
11:00 PM clared: “You’ll laugh and wince at Jorge Cham’s smart
comic strip, which feels your pain, your panic, your
coffee addition ... and your departmental politics.” But
what is the day (and night) of a modern graduate stu-
dent really like here at Harvard? We mustered up our
courage and cleaned off our camera to find out.. J
8:30am Yun-Ling “Ling” Wong starts her morning in Cam-
bridge with a sugar rush; she retrieves a box of choc-
olates (a gift for her friend in the lab) from her tiny
apartment kitchen. She bought the sweets in Belgium
while attending a conference with her advisor Profes-
sor David Edwards.
10:30 PM 12:00 PM
10:00am Inside the Engineering Sciences Lab, Ling prepares
a new batch of solution used for creating an inhaled
vaccine.

10:30am Protected by the glove box, Ling spray-dries the

vaccine into a powder form. The end result will be
packaged for delivery to the Harvard School of Pub-
lic Health (HSPH); there, researchers will analyze its
1:00 PM
bacteria content to ensure the vaccine is at the proper
strength.

11:00am Xaviere Masson, assistant to Professor David Ed-

wards, helps Ling book a flight to Paris, where she is
3:30 PM slated to give a talk later this Fall.

12:00pm Proving that Harvard grad students have some

lighter moments, over lunch Ling and her fellow lab-
Feedback loop mates—Hunter Lauten, Jarod VerBerkmoes, Andre
We welcome and appreciate your comments, Germishuizen, and Matthew Thomas—chat about
suggestions, and corrections. Please send
feedback to communications@deas.harvard.edu
which reality TV show is best and attempt to answer
or call us at 617-496-3815. This newsletter why women buy expensive handbags.
is published biannually bythe Division
of Engineering and Applied Sciences 1:00pm While the mealtime debate produced inconclusive
Communications Office. results, Ling, Andre, and Brian Pullman switch gears
Harvard University and get down to business with a conference call with a
Pierce Hall
group of the lab’s research collaborators.
29 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138 5:00 PM
3:30pm After a ride through Boston traffic to HSPH on the
Managing Editor/Writer
Michael Patrick Rutter Longwood campus, Sunali Goonesekera reports to An-
Designer, Producer, Photographer dre and Ling that enough bacteria survived the spray
Eliza Grinnell -dry process to make an effective vaccine.
Copy Editor
Darlene Bordwell, Ambient Light 5:00pm Returning back to the real world of daylight, Ling,
Proofreader sporting cool specs, and Andre walk down Huntington
James Clyde Sellman, PhD ’93 Avenue en route to Cambridge.
This publication, including past issues,
is available on the Web at 6:00pm A personal trainer guides Ling through a full-body
www.deas.harvard.edu workout. Just like research, multiple repetitions are re-
6:00 PM
Copyright © 2006 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College quired for the best results.

20 I DEAS – Fall 2006