Vo l u m e I I I • I s s u e 2 • F a l l 2 0 0 4
develop on their own terms, unfettered trative staff. From the macro—keeping
Dean’s Message
Emergence
I nterdisciplinary research. Integration
across disciplines. Balancing theory,
experimentation, and practice. Educat-
ing broad-minded students. As you read
about the progress we’ve made at the
Division, you will discover how actions
and applications can emerge from these
powerful ideas. Emergence—or a sud-
den, often unexpected arrival—has
various connotations. In economics,
emerging markets refer to areas of high-
growth potential.
In my own field of condensed matter
and materials physics, the detection of
emergent phenomena has transformed
research and led to many inventions.
While often unanticipated, break-
throughs, such as high-temperature
superconductivity and quantum trans-
port involving fractional charges in
layered semiconducting systems, de-
manded the combined efforts and open
minds of physicists, chemists, materials
scientists, and engineers.
Likewise, novel research and unantic-
ipated collaborations often arise at the Di-
vision in ways that we could never engi-
neer or predict. Consider a few examples:
quantum control and quantum informa-
tion processing, coupling CMOS circuits
with microfluidic channels, and DNA se-
quencing using nanopores. But this does
not mean that we can simply let nature
take its course and expect integrative re-
search to happen on its own. Connections
and innovations are emerging precisely
because the Division’s dynamic environ-
ment allows problems and answers to
by fields.
Progress
I am pleased to start the 2004–05 aca-
demic year by reporting that the Divi-
sion remains as vibrant as ever.
Faculty. Five new members arrived this
fall, with interests ranging from under-
standing visual and auditory perception
to studying how cells communicate.
Space. We are developing and refurbish-
ing our campus—such as the new labs
at 40 and 60 Oxford Street—to provide
the best facilities for experimenters.
Curriculum. This past year, undergrad-
uates in ES96 assessed the functional
and spatial requirements of our library.
Along with courses on “real world” en-
gineering, we are expanding entrepre-
neurship opportunities at TECH with
support from Altran Technologies, and
broadening our ties with institutions
like the Boston Museum of Science.
Engineering. Whether studying com-
munication networks or how informa-
tion moves, systems research is a criti-
cal part of engineering. Concepts from
these areas have become important in
the emerging fields of systems biology
and systems neuroscience. Now we also
have a stronger presence in enabling
technologies like sensor networks and
expertise in novel device design and
bioengineering.
Scientific concepts and new tools. From
understanding the behavior of materi-
als to investigating the chemical origins
of life, fostering fundamental explora-
tion remains an essential part of our
mission. Physics, applied physics, and
engineering are key disciplines for de-
veloping new tools, such as scanning
microscopes and magnetic imaging de-
vices, to explore previously unobserv-
able phenomena.
Praise
Progress is not possible without a strong
basis to sustain it. With that in mind, I
want to extend my deep appreciation
to our excellent support and adminis-
the halls clean and bright—down to
the micro level—ensuring that the
computers and phones work—they
keep things running smoothly. I also
want to acknowledge the key role of our
enhanced Division offices, including
contracts and grants, human resources,
academic/student affairs, communica-
tions, and development. These improve-
ments have created a stronger commu-
nity at all levels.
I am equally grateful for the continued
generosity of our donors and corpo-
rate sponsors, and the enthusiasm and
participation of our graduates. Science
and technology have flourished at the
Division and at Harvard because of
your willingness to share in our vision.
Thank you for rising to the challenge.
Opportunity and obligation
Of course, none of what emerges mat-
ters if we do not use our findings for
the betterment of society or apply them
to further our understanding of the
world. The Division has an exceptional
opportunity—and an obligation—to
become a resource for Harvard and for
anyone confronting the rapidly evolv-
ing scientific and technological land-
scape.
With careful planning, a team of tal-
ented people, and continued flexibility,
we are poised to emerge as one of the
leading places in the world for doing
integrative science and collaborative
research. J
What’s inside ...
Crosscurrents 2
Faculty News 6
In Medias Res 10
Student News 12
In Profile 14
Outside the Yard 16
Alumni Notes 18
Connections 20
Crosscurrents

Net gains:
A typical setup for a sensor network consists of numerous small,
low-powered, wireless “motes” (specially designed data collectors
from microphones to pulse monitors). Each device, smaller than a bar
of hotel soap, has limited computation, sensing, and communication
abilities. But when properly networked and supported with the right
software, the system can gather and transmit a wealth of informa-
tion—such as the rumblings of an active volcano or the rhythm of a
patient’s heart—to a central hub such as a laptop or PDA. We hope
our “sensor net” of information gives you a glimpse into some of the
exciting activities and connections emerging at the Division.

Emerging connections. Making house calls

Emerging expertise.
Emerging strength.
Over the last five years, a surge of new
faculty hires has revitalized the Division (see
page 6). Research in applied mathematics,
applied physics, and materials and environ-
mental sciences continues to flourish. At the
same time, we are building a strong founda-
tion for invention-oriented disciplines such as
computer systems research and increasing
our collaborations in broad fields like electrical
engineering. The development of enabling tech-
nologies like sensor networks and next-genera-
tion labs to foster new tools and techniques will
help expand our presence in multidisciplinary
areas like small-scale science and bioengineer-
ing. As we drill down from micro to nano and
uncover new worlds, we must never forget to
reach out and take a macro-level view. Connecting
engineering, applied science, and technology with
society and educating future scientists remains—
in fact, keeps us—vital.
Vital Dust, implementing sensor net technol-
ogy designed under Matt Welsh’s supervision, is
powered by two AA batteries. The sensor includes
an embedded microprocessor, memory, and wire-
less communication interface. When the motes
are attached to a patient, the device can monitor
heart rate and oxygen levels in the blood and send
the information to a PDA or a central computer
so hospital staff can see individual patient data
as well as data from all monitored patients. The
device allows patients to roam freely but remain
a heartbeat away from assistance if something
goes awry.
Systems research allows
us to go from what is
theoretically possible
to what can actually be
implemented.
— Matt Welsh, Assistant Professor
of Computer Science

2 I DEAS – Fall 2004

 Crosscurrents
Nature doesn’t divide
Systems research and itself into disciplines,

electrical engineering so why should we?

— Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace
Professor of Applied Physics and Vin-
ton Hayes Senior Research Fellow
All systems go Fresh gear
Systems research focuses on the underlying software As research goes increasingly small-scale (see page 20), new devices
that drives many of the new applications of com- have become even more critical for sustaining advances across all
puter technology, from digital devices like iPods or of science. Not surprisingly, Division members are actively taking
cell phones to next-generation search engines and tools to the next level. Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineer-
e-commerce systems. Common problems being tack- ing Navin Khaneja and his colleagues are using methods from opti-
led by Division members include how to best perform mal control theory to improve the sensitivity of nuclear magnetic
large-scale parallel processing (analyzing data from the resonance (NMR) spectroscopy devices. Environmental engineers
Human Genome Project) and how to effectively share like Daniel Jacob, Gordon McKay Professor of Atmospheric Chemis-
data (integrating environmental data from remote try and Environmental Engineering (see page 10) and Steve Wofsy,
monitoring stations). The ultimate goal is to make Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental
systems smaller, faster, more power-effi- Science, rely on developing and using
cient, and wireless, so they can be embed- The way great things get advanced instrumentation to measure
ded in the physical world, from shopping atmospheric trends like CO2 levels over
centers to volcanoes. discovered is by having long periods of time. Dean Venky, whose
own research relies on scanning tunnel-
At the interface great people working ing microscopy (STM) and ballistic elec-
The Division has come a long way, with tron emission microscopy (BEEM), puts
new faculty and facilities (see pages 4-5),
freely on whatever they it elegantly: “You discover a new star by
toward bolstering electrical engineering. building a better telescope and seeing
find interesting. something you’ve never seen before.”
However, Federico Capasso, Robert Wal-
lace Professor of Applied Physics and — Vahid Tarokh, Gordon McKay Professor
Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in of Electrical Engineering and Vinton Natural rhythms
Electrical Engineering, considers himself Hayes Senior Research Fellow
How do a swarm of bees cooperate to
both a physicist and an engineer and build a hive? How do ants forage large
doesn’t like to dwell on a particular field. spaces? While these questions may
For him, the most interesting research lies at the interfaces of sev- seem more suited for entomologists, Assistant Professor
eral areas. Capasso is known for his pioneering research on band- of Computer Science Radhika Nagpal plans to explore
structure engineering of artificially structured semiconductors and such topics in her new course, CSS266, Biologically
devices. The work, which culminated in the invention of quantum Inspired Distributed and Multi-Agent Systems.
cascade lasers, has opened up new directions in materials research,
mesoscopic physics, photonics, electronics, and nanotechnology. She’s interested in applying some of the elegant solu-
Moreover, he considers the border between applied and basic re- tions from biology to help design novel computing
search more fluid than firm. A case in point: Capasso and colleagues systems. How, for example, can vast numbers of decentral-
showed how the Casimir Effect, the attractive force between metal- ized digital components learn to ‘communicate’ on their
lic surfaces in a vacuum, can both illuminate fundamental prop- own and recover if one node, for example, goes blank in
erties in the quantum realm and play a the middle of the night? Nature’s figured out a way to
role in controlling the motion of ensure a restful sleep. If a few bees, or even several dozen,
future nanomechancial devices. find themselves at the end of a flyswatter, the rest of the
“What makes the Division special drones continue to complete the hive without missing a
is having people willing to look beat. Likewise, imagine creating an intelligent computer
beyond the titles on their CVs network responsible for monitoring the individual tem-
and go wherever the research peratures of thousands of priceless works of art inside
takes them,” says Capasso. museum. Ideally the system could adapt and react—on
its own – during unforeseen events, such as when some-
one leaves the window open or when half the system
goes off-line because of a virus. While bits and
biology may seem worlds apart, Nagpal intends
to show how being digital may bring us closer
to nature in ways that we never expected. J

DEAS – Fall 2004 I 3

Crosscurrents

A nyone who takes a walk down Oxford Street, the

road that borders Harvard’s evolving north campus
and runs parallel to the Division’s main buildings, may
leave feeling like they’ve completed a civil engineering
course. Finding space, especially for experimenters,
continues to be one of the Division’s greatest challenges.
Several key faculty recruits—Greg Morrisett and Radhika
Nagpal in Computer Science; Ken Crozier, Todd Zickler,
and Patrick Wolfe in Electrical Engineering; and David
Mooney in Bioengineering—will need significant new
laboratory facilities to support their research.
As the Division continues to expand its reach—from
enhancing administrative and student services to
increasing collaborations with other faculty to fostering
emerging areas—its existing spaces must also be cleverly
refurbished. Building in semi-residential areas of historic
Cambridge always requires a great deal of finesse and
North/West Building
Still in the early design phase is the North/West science
laboratory, with completion scheduled for 2007. It was
originally conceived as two separate buildings, but in
consultation with the architects, nearby residents and
faculty members opted for a single facility. The more than
400,000-square-foot structure, more than half of which
will be below-grade, will run almost parallel to Oxford
Street. North/West will include extensive teaching
laboratory space, classrooms, research laboratories, and
room for collections. The Division will gain space for
bioengineering and related areas, and faculty will benefit
from their proximity to efforts in systems neuroscience
and systems biology, facilitating collaboration and
multidisciplinary investigations.

ingenuity, not to mention patience. For more information

and up-to-date photos of progress, visit
http://construction.fas.harvard.edu/

The Laboratory for Integrated Sciences Engineering (LISE)

The facilities that support advances in materials and small-scale science—CIMS, the two Harvard NSF-funded research
centers, and FAS departments like physics and chemistry—are in multiple buildings throughout the Harvard campus. When
the stunning new LISE building is completed in the fall of 2006, faculty, students, and the cutting-edge tools for research will
all be under one roof. “Every doorway, every corridor of this building has been thought about from the point of view of bring-
ing people together,” says Charlie Marcus, Professor of Physics, who has been heavily involved in planning for the new space.
The 135,000-square-foot LISE building will bridge the gap between McKay, Pierce/Maxwell Dworkin, Cruft, Lyman, Jefferson,
and the Science Center, better integrating the scientific communities in each. Extensive landscaping work, including level-
ing the slope behind the Science Center and adding a small outdoor theater, will transform the entire area. Designed by the
celebrated Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, the structure will feature a pearlescent façade that changes subtly with the day’s
light, an underpinning of sculpted pedestals that preserves campus walkways, and an underground area designed to receive
natural light. Partially wrapped by a 10-foot parapet, the building will rise to 117 feet.
Instead of individual rooms, the upper floors will support flexible spaces that adapt as experiments evolve in unexpected
ways. The building’s heart, its three underground levels, will house a shared cleanroom (for microlithography and nano-
fabrication), facilities for materials synthesis, and a microscopy suite. The spacious ground floor lobby and café, which will
replace an unattractive back lot, have generated particular excitement among faculty and students.
“Right now, faculty members stand in the parking lot and are at risk of being hit by a car while having a conversation!” says
Marcus. “It was so obvious that if there were a café, a patio, and chairs, instead of a lot, then physicists, biologists, chemists,
and engineers would all come together. It’s almost as if the stars are aligned to pin them there anyway. I think LISE will really
become a beacon.”

4 I DEAS – Fall 2004

 Crosscurrents
40 and 60 Oxford Street
The Engineering Sciences Lab (ESL), also known as 40
Oxford Street, has long provided an infrastructure for
experiments that require chemical facilities. The fourth
floor has undergone extensive renovations, including the
addition of HVAC infrastructure and a major electrical
upgrade, to house three experimenters: David Edwards,
Kit Parker, and David Mooney. The Division is now consid-
ering changes to additional floors of ESL to meet the needs
of Professor Scot Martin in environmental chemistry.
Less than a half-block away, 60 Oxford Street—a spacious
building designed to blend into the Agassiz residential
neighborhood—houses University Information Systems
(UIS) on its first two floors. This green facility, notable
for its rooftop garden, large windows, and shieldlike steel
scrim, will soon provide an additional 8,000 square feet for
the Division. Labs and classrooms on the third and fourth
floors are due to open in the late fall of 2004.

Pierce Hall
Pierce Hall, the red brick centerpiece built in 1901, has
undergone extensive renovations this summer and fall.
The third floor has been remodeled to make room for
more offices to accommodate new hires in applied math-
ematics and bioengineering. Over the next year, the first
and second floors will undergo a similar transformation
with the additional aim of creating instructional labs. The
third-floor space that currently houses the Gordon McKay
and Blue Hill libraries may also be reassessed to provide a
more functional design without limiting services. J

DEAS – Fall 2004 I 5

Faculty News

New arrivals
The Division is pleased to welcome five new faculty
members this fall. To see complete research profiles
of the Division’s new faculty and extensive bios of all
members, visit: www.deas.harvard.edu/directory

Kenneth Brian Crozier

Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
Background: B.Eng. (1995) and B.S. (1996) in Electrical
Engineering and Physics, University of Melbourne,
Zickler (Australia); M.S.E.E. (1999) and Ph.D. (2003) in Electri-
cal Engineering, Stanford University
Areas of Focus: Optics, electromagnetics, and light-
matter interactions; photonics and optical devices

David J. Mooney
Mooney Gordon McKay Professor of Bioengineering
Background: B.S. (1987) in Chemical Engineering,
University of Wisconsin at Madison; Ph.D. (1992) in
Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical
School (1992–1994). Before coming to the Division,
Mooney spent ten years conducting research and
teaching at the University of Michigan.
Areas of Focus: Biophysics; biomechanics; cell and
tissue engineering

Radhika Nagpal
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Wolfe
Background: S.B. and S.M. (1994) and Ph.D. (2001) in
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before coming
to the Division, Nagpal spent a year as a research
fellow at the new Department of Systems Biology at
Harvard Medical School.
Areas of Focus: Distributed and multi-agent systems;
biologically inspired programming paradigms;
systems biology

Patrick J. Wolfe
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
Background: B.S. (1998) in Electrical Engineering
and B.Mus. (1998), University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign; Ph.D. (2003) in Engineering, University
of Cambridge (U.K.)
Areas of Focus: Communications and signal processing;
stochastic systems
Crozier
Todd Zickler
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
Background: B.Eng. (1997) in Electrical Engineering,
McGill University (Montreal, Canada); M.S. (2001) and
Ph.D. (2004) in Electrical Engineering, Yale University
Nagpal
Nagpal
Areas of Focus: Computational vision and control J

6 I DEAS – Fall 2004

 Faculty News
Collaborations
Computation for the social good gets a boost

A classic, yet campy science fiction

plot shared by the 1927 classic
Metropolis and the more recent I, Robot
“While a lot of initiatives have been
launched throughout industry and
academia to study the intersection of
an online medical record, provided the
data was not available to other prying
eyes. A complete solution would take
makes even technophiles shudder. Well- technology and society, they typically more than developing a novel algo-
meaning engineers build a machine so look at the effects of information tech- rithm; ethical, legal, and access issues
sophisticated that it learns to think, and nology on society or study ways to use (who can see what, and when) abound.
even feel, on its own. As the conscious existing technologies to solve societal Once up and running, the Center will
circuitry, originally meant to serve and problems,” says Stuart Shieber, Harvard bring computer scientists together with
help humanity, begins to desire free- College Professor and James O. Welch, economists, psychologists, legal schol-
dom from its astonished creators, philo- Jr. and Virginia B. Welch Professor of ars, ethicists, neuroscientists, and other
sophical havoc ensues. Computer Science. Shieber is one of the academic colleagues. The team will
Well outside of Hollywood, what’s be- creators of the initiative, made possible delve into funda mental computational
come more important is how to think by an innovation fund (see page 19). problems that cross disciplines, like
about and best use the machines that “Our approach is different and more privacy and security, digital copyrights,
have pervaded our lives, not neces- forward-looking,” explains Shieber. and file sharing, and use their expertise
sarily how to make ones that require “We want to support research on inno- to create new technologies that incor-
Asimov’s famed three laws of robotics vative computer science and technol- porate tech, as well as social, savvy. J
for safe operation. Can we develop a new ogy informed by societal effects, not For more information, visit
generation of digital merely examining
“We want to support research on www.crcs.deas.harvard.edu
technologies suited the effects of ex-
to address some of innovative computer science and isting technology
society’s most vex- on society.” For in-
technology informed by societal
ing problems, and stance, what scien-
not end up slaves to effects, not merely examining the tific and technical
the machine? Dur- breakthroughs are
effects of existing technology
ing a spring work- required to create
shop on privacy on society.” a device or pro-
and security jointly gram that includes
sponsored with the Radcliffe Institute, strong cryptography and ensured per-
the Division announced the launch of a sonal protection, but, when appropri-
large-scale effort, the Center for Research ate, could be accessed by authorized
on Computation and Society (CRCS), in- individuals? A patient might be willing
tended to do just that. to let doctors or nurses have access to Stuart Shieber, along with his fellow
Computer Science faculty members,
plans to use the new Center to attract a
broad range of expertise to the Division.

Safeguarding an electronic medical

record requires technical savvy. But
legal, ethical, and social questions
must also be addressed, such as:
Who owns the information?
Who can change the information?
When can the information be
released or deleted?

DEAS – Fall 2004 I 7

Faculty News

Harvey Brooks, who served

as Dean of the Division
from 1957 to 1975 and was
a professor at Harvard for
nearly three decades, passed
away on May 28, 2004. He
was a pioneer in connecting
science with public policy.

Links & nodes Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Scientist, scholar, citizen
W e noted with fondness the pass-
ing of Harvey Brooks on Friday,
May 28, 2004, at the age of 88. At the time
of his death, he was Benjamin Pierce Pro-
fessor of Technology and Public Policy
Emeritus, at Harvard’s Kennedy School
of Government, and Gordon McKay
Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics,
in the Division of Engineering and Ap-
plied Sciences at Harvard. Brooks served
as Dean of the Division from 1957–1975.
His research was in theoretical physics
and spanned diverse areas such as solid-
state physics, underwater acoustics, and
nuclear engineering. In 1976 he found-
ed and became the first director of the
Program of the Kennedy School’s Belfer
“Harvey Brooks not only played a criti-
cal role leading the Division during his
Center for Science and International twenty years as Dean, but was a true
Affairs. He remained in that position un- public intellectual,” said Venkatesh Na-
til his retirement in 1986. rayanamurti, Dean of Engineering and
Applied Sciences and Dean of Physical
Joseph Nye, Kennedy School Dean, said,
“We have all profited from Harvey’s
books, his lectures, his case studies, and
Sciences. “During his tenure as Dean,
the Division underwent major renewal
in terms of its faculty and in its relation-
his collegiality. We also remember him
ships with other parts of the University.
as a wonderfully warm human being
His ability to translate his gifts as a re-
in his roles as teacher, colleague, and
searcher into insights about science and
family man.”
technology policy was rare and wonder-
A native of Cleveland, Harvey Brooks ful. He will be greatly missed.”
attended Yale University, where he grad-
A memorial service was held on Octo-
uated in 1937 with a degree in math-
ber 1 at Memorial Church, Harvard Yard.
ematics. He began his doctoral work at
To make a remembrance, please con-
the University of Cambridge, England
tact Sharon Wilke, Kennedy School
and relocated to Harvard to work with
of Government, the Belfer Center,
the acclaimed physicist, Nobel laure-
617-495-9858. J
ate, and former Dean of the Division,
J. H. van Vleck.

Awards 2003 he received the Paris

Kanellakis Award on behalf
Vadhan has received one
of three Alpha Iota Prizes
Fellow ... Academy awards
... Charles Lieber has been
of the Association for Com- for Excellence in Teaching. elected to the National
With merit … David Mooney
puting Machinery (ACM) for Vadhan also won a 2004 Academy of Sciences ...
received a MERIT Award
his role in fostering public Outstanding Young Investi- Guggenheim glories ...
from the National Advisory
key cryptography and gator Award from the Office Michael Brenner has been
Dental and Craniofacial Re-
demonstrating the power of of Naval Research ... Alma named as a 2004 Gug-
search Council for his novel
randomized algorithms ... mater ... Faculty member genheim Fellow ... When in
research on biomaterials ...
Dual processor ... Barbara John Hutchinson received Rome ... Federico Capasso
The exact stuff ... Michael
Grosz will be named as an an honorary Doctor of En- won the 2004 Caterina
Rabin won the prestigious
ACM Fellow and become an gineering degree from his Tomassoni and Felice Pietro
2004 EMET Prize for Exact
American Academy of Arts alma mater, Lehigh Univer- Chisesi Prize, awarded by
Sciences; he will travel
and Sciences Fellow in 2004 sity ... Real praise ... Stuart the Physics Department of
to Israel in November to
... A Kapstone accomplish- Shieber has been named as the University of Rome–La
accept the accolade from
ment ... Associate Professor a 2004 American Associa- Sapienza. J
the Prime Minister. In early
of Computer Science Salil tion of Artificial Intelligence

8 I DEAS – Fall 2004

 Faculty News
Nota bene quoted by several sources,
including the Aug. 5, 2004,
thing else. I also received
an outpouring of support
a book review of a work by
Thomas McMahon, a former
Christian Science Monitor from the Harvard alumni Division faculty member
Research rumblings ... The
and, Aug. 9, 2004, Boston community, which was a who passed away in 1999.
Harvard Faculty of Arts
Globe, about his role in complete surprise. Har- His posthumous novel, Ira
and Sciences Communica-
monitoring pollution levels vard alumni veterans were Foxglove, the story of a bro-
tions Office issued a press
in New England (see page quick to step up to sup- ken-hearted engineer cross-
release on the work of
10) ... Scholar and soldier port me upon my return, a ing the Atlantic in a zepplin,
Matt Welsh and colleagues:
... Kit Parker, a bioengineer community I never really was published in 2004 and
Computer scientists at
and an ac- even knew about until they received a full-page review
Harvard, have teamed up
tive Army sought me out last fall. in The New York Times Book
with seismologists at the
reservist So, yes, I have been really Review. In addition, the
University of New Hamp-
who served fortunate to be welcomed magazine included briefs
shire and the University
in Afghan- back with open arms” ... on Charles M. Lieber and
of North Carolina to fit an
istan, was Small media ... Howard Michael P. Brenner in the
Ecuadorian peak with a
featured in Stone was quoted in the Brevia section ... Interactive
wireless array to monitor
a Chronicle July 21, 2004, Technology fiction ... In the May/June
volcanic activity. The sen-
of Higher Review for a piece about 2004 issue of The Ameri-
sors should help research-
Education cover story, nanoscale motion ... A look can Scien-
ers, officials, and local resi-
“When Professors Go to at the obvious ... The July tist, Stuart
dents understand and plan
War,” and took part in a 19, 2004, online issue of Shieber of-
for eruptions of Tungura-
live online chat about the the Harvard Gazette fea- fered his take
hua, one of Ecuador’s most
topic. In response to one tured a profile of Laksh- on Turing: A
active volcanoes in recent
of the online queries about minarayanan Mahadevan Novel About
years (see page 14) ... Hot
how the Harvard/Division and his fascination with Computation,
type ... Daniel Jacob, a
community reacted upon the seemingly mundane by fellow
member of
his return from Afghani- ... Novel computer
the Inter-
stan, Parker said, “Upon research ... scientist Christos H. Pa-
national
my return, I was warmly The July/Au- padimitriou. The MIT Press
Consortium
welcomed. I think that is a gust issue published Shieber’s own
for Atmo-
reflection of the culture in of Harvard look at Turing, The Turing
spheric
the Division of Engineering Magazine Test: Verbal Behavior as the
Research on
and Applied Sciences here included a Hallmark of Intelligence, in
Transport
at Harvard more than any- story on and the late summer of 2004. J
and Transformation, was

Promotions Retirements and recognition

The following faculty members received promotions during
the 2003–2004 academic year:
Scot T. Martin—promoted to Gordon McKay Professor of
Environmental Chemistry, effective July 1, 2004 (and tenure).
Martin’s research group is involved in a range of projects con-
cerned with understanding and quantifying the chemistry of
surfaces in environmental chemical systems. Over all, they are
interested in what controls the formation and reactivity of a
surface.
Salil P. Vadhan—promoted to Thomas D. Cabot Associate
Professor of Computer Science, as of July 1, 2004
Vadhan’s primary research interests are in computational
complexity theory, cryptography, randomness in computa-
tion, and the interplay between these areas.
Joost J. Vlassak—promoted to Associate Professor of Materi-
als Engineering, as of January 1, 2004
Vlassak has developed a variety of new experimental tech-
niques for studying the mechanical behavior of thin films. His
goal is to develop a better understanding of how microstruc-
ture controls their mechanical behavior.
Alfred A. Pandiscio, Senior Lecturer and Head of Instruction-
al Laboratories, whose career at Harvard spanned more than
40 years, retired in 2004. An active participant in ES96 (see
page 12) and countless other courses, he provided support and
wisdom to students in and outside of the lab.
Bert I. Halperin, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy, stepped down as Scientific Director of CIMS in
September, 2004. Under his guidance over the last five years,
the Center has become a model for conducting interdisciplin-
ary research and a catalyst for the development of new tools
and techniques. Charlie Marcus, Professor of Physics, will
become the new director of CIMS.
John W. Hutchinson, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor
of Engineering, who has ably served as Associate Dean for Aca-
demic Programs for the last five years, announced his plans
to step down and return to teaching and research. Howard A.
Stone, Harvard College Professor and Vicky Joseph Professor
of Engineering and Applied Mathematics, will assume the role
of Associate Dean for Academic Programs and work closely
with Marie Dahleh, our new Assistant Dean for Undergradu-
ate Studies/Academic Programs. J

DEAS – Fall 2004 I 9

In Medias Res
Selected articles
about the Division
Displaced tiny particles in the inner ear
(called otoconia) are believed to collect in
the back of the canals and cause a common
form of vertigo. (Figure courtesy of Timothy
C. Hain, Northwestern University.)
Rethinking vertigo
A team of engineers and physicians from
Harvard University, the California Insti-
tute of Technology, and Northwestern
University developed a mathematical
model to support a new theory on the
cause of benign paroxysmal positional
vertigo (BPPV), the most common form
of vertigo.
BPPV is a mechanical disorder origi-
nating in the vestibular system within
the inner ear, where three fluid-filled
semicircular canals detect head rota-
tion about each of three axes. Many re-
searchers believe that BPPV attacks are
triggered when calcite particles called
otoconia, which normally reside in the
inner ear, dislodge and interfere with
proper functioning of these semicircu-
lar canals.
“While BPPV is not life-threatening, it
induces disorientation that is severely
discomforting and can cause nausea
and accidents,” says Howard A. Stone,
Harvard College Professor and recently
named Vicky Joseph Professor of Engi-
neering and Applied Mathematics. “We
used hydrodynamic models to show
that if tiny particles in the inner ear
become dislodged, which researchers
have previously posited as the trigger
for BPPV attacks, the period of time
10 I DEAS – Fall 2004
for these particles to fall far enough to
adversely impact pressure within the
inner ear roughly matches the typical
lapse between a head tilt and onset of
vertigo.”
Along with Harvard undergraduate
(now GSAS graduate student) Michael S.
Weidman, Todd M. Squires at Caltech,
and Timothy C. Hain of Northwestern,
Stone examined whether this delay
might coincide with the movement
of otoconia. Hain, a medical scientist
who studies motor control of the head
and neck, originally sought Stone’s as-
sistance in studying the possible role
of fluid dynamics in BPPV. Stone says
that he, Squires, and Weidman, none of
whom are physicians, bring a different
perspective to a medical ailment that’s
largely mechanical in nature. In addi-
tion, Stone and his collaborators can
provide other quantitative insights use-
ful for characterizing BPPV.
“Because of its mechanical nature, BPPV
may be an illness that requires a degree
of cooperation between physicians and
engineers,” Stone says.
Adapted from the Harvard University
Gazette, August 9, 2004
Sampling the summer air
Hundreds of government and university
scientists from across the country and
in western Europe, including the Divi-
sion’s Daniel Jacob, sampled the quality
of the air this summer in the largest air
quality and climate study to date, as part
of the International Consortium for At-
mospheric Research on Transport and
Transformation (ICARTT). The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion (NOAA) and NASA were co-leads of
the endeavor, which began in early July
and ended in August.
A special focus of the sampling is a com-
prehensive effort to characterize air
quality in New England. The research
will help provide the solid science
needed to underpin the region’s efforts
to improve air quality. Jacob told the
An overview of the types of monitoring
equipment—including boats, planes, and
satellites—used to conduct air quality stud-
ies in North America and western Europe
in the summer of 2004. (Figure courtesy of
ICARTT.)
Christian Science Monitor that the work is
critical to setting emissions standards,
“otherwise, you could find that your
efforts are being defeated by ozone
pollution from somewhere else.”
Scientists conducted research on all
fronts—land, sea, and air—to provide
unprecedented information about the
air as it crosses the United States, leaves
New England, traverses the Atlantic
Ocean, and arrives in western Europe.
Among the U.S. partners were Harvard
University, the Department of Energy,
Brookhaven National Laboratory, and
the California Institute of Technology.
The Meteorological Service of Canada
and European scientists with the
Intercontinental Transport of Ozone
and Precursors–North Atlantic Study
also collaborated.
Adapted from information supplied by
NOAA, June 28, 2004.
Exploring the origins
of life
Scot Martin, Gordon McKay Professor of
Environmental Chemistry, and a group
of Division and Harvard collaborators
including Xiang Zhang, Henrich Hol-
land, Cynthia Friend, and Martin Schoo-
nen (SUNY–SB) presented “Mineral
Photoelectrochemistry as an Efficient
Pathway for Prebiotic Synthesis” as
part of the American Chemical Society

(ACS) meeting held in Philadelphia on
August 22–26, 2004.
In lay terms, the research team looked
at how life started on earth. Carbon
fixation, which is the conversion of
inorganic carbon sources into organic
molecules, is an important step in the
origin of life. The team’s work addresses
the possibility of a new reaction path-
way based on solar irradiation and the
photoelectrochemical properties of
metal sulfide minerals. Chemical evolu-
tion is the first stage, before Darwinian
evolution; at this stage, chemical reac-
tions that transform inorganic materi-
als such as CO2 into organic molecules
play an important role. These reactions
are often slow and need external energy
input, such as electric discharge or ther-
mal energy. The research findings dem-
onstrate an efficient pathway for these
reactions via solar energy and minerals.
Adapted from information supplied by
the ACS J
How did life begin? Scot Martin and other
“astrobiologists” are trying to go back in
time (about four billion years) by recreating
the conditions that may have led to life on
earth.
Related research at Harvard
Information exchange
between quantum dots
Scientists at Harvard have found that
the fundamental elements of a quantum
computer can exchange information
and work in tandem even when they’re
separated by a considerable distance.
The result represents the first success
at controlling the transfer of informa-
tion between quantum particles located
some distance apart, rewriting the belief
that “quantum dots” must be neighbors
to operate in unison, and advancing
scientists’ progress toward developing
massively parallel spin-based quantum
computing. Quantum computing’s
practical value would be severely lim-
ited if only neighboring dots were able
to correlate their spins.
Adapted from the Harvard University
Gazette, August 9, 2004
Quantum network
goes live
In collaboration with Harvard Univer-
sity and Boston University, BBN Tech-
nologies announced that it has built the
world’s first quantum cryptography net-
work and is now operating it continu-
ously beneath the streets of Cambridge.
Today the DARPA Quantum Network
links BBN’s campus to Harvard Univer-
sity; soon it will stretch across town to
include Boston University.
Adapted from the Harvard University
Gazette, August 2, 2004, and a BBN
Technologies press release
Nanowires and switches
Harvard scientists have taken the first
step toward making chips with billions
instead of millions of components, nano-
electronics instead of microelectronics,
making wires as thin as 3 nanometers,
tens of atoms thin. What’s more, the
nanotechnologists have built switches
right into the wires, solving the tedious
problem of connecting the switches,
amplifiers, and other devices that, in
In Medias Res
A silicon nanowire (blue) is crossed by three
nanowires of a different composition (top).
today’s integrated circuits, are so much
bigger than the nanowires. This is the
first time that bridging two different
types of materials has been done at the
nanometer level.
Adapted from the Harvard University
Gazette, July 22, 2004. Articles also ap-
peared in Nature News and Chemical &
Engineering News
Virus detectors
Harvard University scientists have
found that ultra-thin silicon wires can
be used to electrically detect the pres-
ence of single viruses, in real time, with
near-perfect selectivity. These nanowire
detectors can also differentiate among
viruses with great precision, suggesting
that the technique could be scaled up to
create miniature arrays easily capable of
sensing thousands of different viruses.
In a clinical setting, the extreme sensi-
tivity of nanowire arrays means they
could detect viral infection at very
early stages, when the immune system
is still able to suppress virus popula-
tions. It’s at this stage of viral activity
that symptoms often begin to appear,
but with viruses still present in limited
numbers, they can be difficult to detect
and treat. While there are many ways
for researchers to assay viruses, most
are laborious and appropriate only in
laboratory settings. The use of nano-
wires provides immediate verification
of a given virus’s presence without any
specialized biochemical manipulation.
Adapted from a September 22, 2004, press
release prepared by the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences Office of Communications J
DEAS – Fall 2004 I 11
Student News

staff to study space planning and even how to implement new

digital publishing technologies. Abernathy points out that
the students experienced firsthand a common principle of
engineering: You often don’t know what the true problem is
until you are in the thick of things.
“Both Fred and myself have some broader experiences outside
of academia,” says Yang, who consults extensively and helped
found a start-up semiconductor design company. Abernathy
is a leading expert on the textile industry and supply chain
management. “We try very hard to bring in our experiences
from working on complex problems and stress the importance
of communication and teamwork. This is quite different from
Hitting the books the standard lecture–problem set–exam routine of most engi-
neering classes,” continues Yang.
Students develop a “2.0 version” of the The goal of the “real world” course is to better convey the com-
Gordon McKay-Blue Hill libraries plexity of engineering. Former challenges included schemes
for more efficient energy use in Maxwell Dworkin and Wil-

T he latest project for ES96, Engineering Design, assigned

annually to junior engineering students, required some
book learning. Team-taught, or as they like to say, coached,
liam James Hall and a proposal for automated garages to deal
with Harvard’s parking problem.

by Fred Abernathy, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of
Engineering and Gordon McKay Professor of Mechanical Engi-
neering, and Woodward Yang, Professor of Electrical Engineer-
ing and Computer Science, the capstone course challenged
students to envision a “2.0 version” of the Gordon McKay-Blue
Hill libraries perched on the third floor of Pierce Hall.
“Young people have grown up in the digital age,” says Aberna-
thy. “They understand the convenience of digital searches and
they tried to bring some digital search capability to the Gor-
don McKay Library.” Students worked closely with the library
“I believe that the overall concept of ‘What is engineering?’ is
quite critical and is not well addressed by the media or even
within our own academic community. Some professional
engineering societies are in fact struggling with ways to edu-
cate the overall population and improve the popular image of
engineers,” says Yang. “I think the description of engineering
as ‘solving technical problems in the real world based on
real constraints’ is an important distinguishing feature of
engineering and summarizes quite well what we are trying to
teach in ES96.” J

Their assignment
Devise a practical and
elegant scheme to better
use/reallocate library space
and enhance services for
Division members while
considering the needs of
the library itself, including
its present staff, obligation
to Harvard, and role in the
wider community. And, of
course, stay within a rea-
sonable budget and do not
violate publisher copyright
laws. Give up?
Their solution
In their nearly 350-page
final assessment, the
students concluded, “It’s
the balance of physical
space and digital space
that allows us to make the
recommendations that will
keep users of the Gordon
McKay library from feeling
a decrease in accessibility
and functionality when the
floor space of the library is
dramatically reduced.” Not
surprisingly, journals and
books take up much of the
room in the library. Rather
than figuring out a clever
scheme for how best to
stack the racks, students
investigated what on-site
publications were the most
used. In the case of jour-
nals, it turned out that two
percent of titles accounted
for almost 60 percent of
citations. Combining this
knowledge with other
usage data, the students
recommended potentially
reducing the 1,200 current
journal subscriptions to the
550 most-used.
Similarly, based on check-
out rates, the students
determined that current
books could be reduced
from 5,864 to 2,749. The
remainder could be moved
to the Harvard repository
for archival purposes and
still be accessible within
24 hours through library
loan services. Amazingly, if
the Division went through
with the students’ plans,
linear shelf space could
be reduced by 50 percent.
Further, by counting the
number of visitors and vid-
eotaping the use of study
tables, the students sug-
gested a more modular and
space-saving design that
better reflected actual use.
To ensure functionality
despite the reduced space,
the team suggested aug-
menting the library’s Web
site and virtual offerings
to provide more service
(especially outside of the
physical library environs),
and introduced two novel
digital enhancements.
Digibook, a new kind of
browsing, would offer easy
access to digital versions of
the tables of contents and
indices of books, enabling
users to search beyond the
current subject-title-au-
thor limitation of Harvard’s
online system. All the scan-
ning could be done on-site
and cheaply without bump-
ing up against copyright
issues.
The second solution, an
Article Delivery Service al-
ready used by schools such
as Princeton, would provide
easy access to virtually
any journal article online.
Faculty and students would
gain quick access to a
locally scanned online ver-
sion of a requested article
via e-mail. To preserve
the copyright obligations,
restricted file access would
be maintained through
password protection.
The Division plans to fur-
ther review how to enhance
the libraries, and in the
process consider some of
the suggestions from the
ES96 project.

12 I DEAS – Fall 2004


Stress tests
Elementary
engineering
Engineering is about build-
ing and testing, with a
lot of stressing along the
way. For their final project,
undergraduate teams in
ES120 must build a strong
structure using nothing
more than 250 Popsicle sticks
and glue. The resulting cre-
ations are then subjected to
heavy loads until they reach
their breaking point. J
(Top) Readying a bridge for
a weighty challenge; (bot-
tom left) ES120 students look
on and wait for the inevitable
crunch; (bottom right) John
Hutchinson gives a quick pep
talk on the basics of good
structural design.
Student News
Awards
A selection of recent
accolades for undergraduate
and graduate students in
the Division
Patrick Mauro ’07 has
won a Herchel Smith
Harvard Undergraduate
Research Fellowship. He
will work with the Division’s
Gu-Yeon Wei, Assistant
Professor of Electrical
Engineering, on exploring
power leakage and efficien-
cy in computer memory.
........................
Undergraduate Jinger
Zhao ’04 (who is taking
part in the Computer Sci-
ence/Mind-Brain-Behavior
program) and graduate
student Byungha Shin
(who studies the kinetics of
thin film growth) won spe-
cial distinction as teaching

Taking flight fellows.

........................

K yle Clark ’04, an Engineering Sciences concentrator, dealt

with a different set of stressors: the forces during flight.
He received praise and awe from faculty and students when
Antony Clavel (master’s
student in CS), Alan Nawoj
(master’s student in CS),
he presented his senior design project, “Design and Construc- and Hassan Sultan ’04
tion of a Dynamic Flight Simulator,” as part of the yearlong (undergraduate in CS),
Engineering Sciences 100/100hf course. won second prize in the
For-Profit Track of the 2004
Clark’s flight simulator is based on the chassis of a motorcycle Harvard Entrepreneurial
and driven by three large servomotors that are controlled Contest. They proposed
An illustration of what a
by a series of cuing algorithms written in LabView, a type of completed CyclePlane might the Harvard Translation
powerful graphical development software. The “pilot” can look like. Center, an entity that
would connect multilingual
control the simulated CyclePlane while sitting in a motor-
students with opportunities
cycle rider position. Although it is impossible to simulate for translation work.
in a confined space all the forces encountered in a real flight
........................
environment, Clark’s motorcycle design can emulate the most
Alan Nawoj, a master’s
pronounced forces felt in flight: roll, pitch, and heave.
student in Computer
“I think this could be a turning point in experimental aviation. Science at the Division,
The recent release of lightweight, super-powered sport bikes was named as one of
makes this aircraft not only possible, but fast, efficient, and three recipients of the
elegant—qualities that previous attempts lacked,” explains A computer rendering of the prestigious AFCEA Ralph
CyclePlane simulator. Shrader Master’s Degree
Clark.
Scholarship.
Professor John Hutchinson oversaw the plan for the simulator
and contributed significantly to its mechanical design. Before Did you know ...
his sabbatical, Robert Howe, Gordon McKay Professor of Engi- There are over 300
neering, was Clark’s adviser on the design and analysis of the MIT students cross-
actual plane and model. registered at Harvard,
and over 400 Harvard
Clark’s eventual goal is for the CyclePlane to become a part of students at MIT,
NASA’s Personal Air Vehicle Exploration (PAVE) initiative. The according to the MIT
space agency has long been interested in developing inexpen- Kyle Clark riding his prototype. Registrar.
(All images courtesy of Kyle
sive and easy-to-use aviation vehicles for direct point-to-point Clark.)
and local flights. J

DEAS – Fall 2004 I 13

 Unafraid of heights or high-tech, Assistant
In Profile
Professor of Computer Science Matt Welsh
gets down to work while perched on a
grassy spot of Volcán Tungurahua.
Code raider
Computer scientist Matt Welsh
helped a team of geophysicists
by setting up tiny wireless
sensor networks to measure
the seismic activity of an active
volcano.
W hen Assistant Professor of Com-
puter Science Matt Welsh joined
the Division, there were a few omissions
in his job description. Apparently, some-
one neglected to include the parts about
hiking, mule transport, and stubborn
cows. In July, Welsh, an expert on run-
ning Linux servers (definitely an indoor
activity), found himself high atop Volcán
Tungurahua in remote Baños, Ecuador.
Dormant for more than 80 years, the
5,018-meter volcano, primarily a lush
green pasture used by farmers for graz-
ing cattle, has begun to stir. In the early
evenings, the peak of the mountain
looks like Vulcan’s summer home,
spewing a watercolor wash of orange
ash clouds and, in the process, fueling
an outpouring of scientific research.
While not a volcanologist, Welsh
helped a team of geophysicists by set-
ting up tiny wireless sensor networks
14 I DEAS – Fall 2004
on the side of Tungurahua to measure
its seismic activity.
Bob Fisher, a former Ph.D. student of
Margo Seltzer and one-time seismolo-
gist, connected with Welsh and research
assistant Geoffrey Warner-Allen through
a different sort of networking—the
social kind. Fisher knew that researchers
at the Division had used sensor network
motes primarily in the medical field,
but he immediately saw a less obvious
application. The standard monitoring
equipment used by seismologists is
heavy, cumbersome, and definitely not
wireless. The traditional setup consists
of a removable flash memory card, two
car batteries, and a collection of other
electronic components, all housed in a
large plastic tub. Translation: Research-
ers have to lug a bulky unit up almost
1,000 meters (courtesy of 4WD vehicles,
traditional climbing when the truck
gets stuck in the mud, and sometimes
even mule transit), set it up, return to
the base camp, and then wait several
days before traveling back up and check-
ing to see whether it’s experiencing any
problems. About a week later, they haul
themselves up the mountain again to
remove the memory card and retrieve
the data.
Welsh describes the uncertainty and
hassle of this system, which he expe-
rienced firsthand: “During the first
couple of days, the researchers get very
nervous, biting their nails knowing that
they have to go back to the station to
check on things.” The alternative he’s
developing would be a big relief. “By us-
ing a sensor network, we could immedi-
ately tell if there was a problem: Did one
of the receivers go blank or did a cow
step on something—which happens a
lot. It’s all about becoming more lazy,”
Welsh jokes. “But actually the networks
are more accurate and they scale better
and are less human-involved.”
Although Wi-Fi is high-tech, it takes
well-grounded expertise to put a radio
sensor in place and to ensure that it
will work properly. Sensor network pro-
gramming is incredibly difficult due to
the limited capabilities, low energy re-
sources, and variable quality of the radio
channel signals of each node. Welsh’s
aim, whatever the locale, is to create
high-level languages for programming
diverse, distributed networks of sensors
and to simplify their design by creating
routines that can compile down to the
complex, low-level operations imple-
mented by each sensor node.
Luckily for him, however, he doesn’t
wear tweed and he’s not afraid of get-
ting his boots muddy. He and his wife,
Amy Bauer, have devoted much of their
free time to globetrotting, building an
impressive travel résumé that includes
 In Profile
Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, India, put out in the world. Part of my goal is to the real world. My ultimate goal is to
Bolivia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nepal. find interesting problems outside what get everything we do out in the real
In November and December of 2002, computer scientists typically work on.” world,” says Welsh. “I really want to try
they spent their honeymoon resting in Welsh is still working to improve data to reach people who normally wouldn’t
the tropics—sort of. collection for the volcano study—the consider studying computer science as
“Instead of going to Hawaii, traveling sensors are not as robust as the con- a field. It’s going through a little bit of a
by river to the northernmost frontier ventional wired device. Yet he’s already change, partially because of new digital
of Laos seemed more like our kind of gone a long way toward showing what’s technologies. Just consider how many
thing,” he writes on his Web travel log. possible. And with the mountain climb students come to Harvard with iPods.”
“So, we booked tickets to Luang Pra- accomplished, remote villages in Asia Welsh believes that emphasizing the real
bang, hung out with the novice monks, or Africa might be next on his agenda. world is critical for recruiting future stu-
spent nearly a week exploring the Nam With a group from the Harvard School dents and generating excitement about
Ou river, trekked out to remote villages, of Public Health, Welsh is trying to au- computer science and related fields. “I
drank a lot of Beerlao, and to top it off, tomate the tedious data collection nec- can say, ‘You can be part of a whole new
spent a few days exploring the culinary essary to study the link between health area involving medical applications’ or
mecca that is Bangkok.” problems and indoor cooking pollution. that we will get to listen to volcanoes.
While there’s no word “Reaching out into Another promising There’s the chance to get this stuff used
on whether he owns project is closer to outside of a lab setting and reach beyond
an Indiana Jones–style the physical world is home and marks the traditional confines of computer sci-
hat, Welsh has in- a change in field ence,” Welsh explains.
creasingly become an what it’s all about.” rather than location: Sensor networks are destined to end
academic adventurer, using the networks up in countless applications and may
his enthusiasm for new, far-reaching col- to monitor stroke continue to send Welsh, his laptop, and
laborations as boundless as the wireless patients at the Spaulding Rehabilitation some lucky students far beyond Cam-
technology he implements. He’s show- Hospital in Boston. bridge. He suggests that other computer
ing that computer scientists need not be While he enjoys the perk of work-relat- scientists and entire departments take
tethered to their desks or their desktops. ed field trips, Welsh emphasizes that the his and the Division’s lead in forging
Playing Tomb Raider means stepping out true adventure (and hardest climb) lies new connections. Welsh insists that
of—not further into—the screen. in what’s behind the gadgets, the chal- quality coding and basic computer
“Reaching out into the physical world is lenge of creating software that makes science remain his primary modes of
what it’s all about,” says Welsh. “A com- everything run smoothly. Furthermore, exploration, but that doesn’t mean his
puter in the classic sense is this box that his larger mission is to promote the suitcase isn’t packed, just in case. J
sits on a desk and has no connection to unique work that he and his colleagues For more on Welsh’s work and snap-
the physical world other than through in computer science do so well. “I think shots of his travels, see
a power plug and a cord to the Inter- we should show people that computer
science is not just this ‘geeky’ kind of www.eecs.harvard.edu/~mdw
net. With sensor nets and other digital
devices, we have technologies you can field where you do not connect with

The sensor nets are packed inside plastic A relay antenna is used to bounce signals down Tungurahua has a reputation for erupting with
casings for protection. the mountain to the base camp below. more than just research opportunities.

DEAS – Fall 2004 I 15

Outside the Yard
Museum studies
T he complexities behind everyday
innovations often go unnoticed—
that is, until we stop to look at a PDA or
a laptop behind museum glass rather
than just tapping
at the keypad. Even
“Every week now, it seems the all of these titles. He deft-
more effective is public faces a range of new
taking that glass
away: Especially for
risks, requiring us to digest nologies like nanoshells
the under-10 set, and weigh current research
pulling and poking
findings in making everyday
at the guts of a cell
phone or the gears choices.”
of an engine may
be the best way to start learning how
things work. But these days, even the
best exhibit cannot convey the full com-
plexities involved in current science and tals emit different colors of light. While Experience for Undergraduates (REU)
technology.
Think about the post-9-11 anthrax scare,
the rising price of fossil fuels, global
warming, or the Columbia accident. We
must know more than simply how or
why these events occur, but how they
influence our world. Carol Lynn Alpert
A.B. ’77, Director of Strategic Projects
for the Museum of Science in Boston,
is working to meet this need with help
from the Nanoscale Science and Engi-
neering Center (NSEC). As she explains
in her essay, “Bridging the Gap,” fea-
tured in the book Creating Connections:
Museums and the Public Understanding
of Current Research, “Every week now, it
seems the public faces a range of new
risks, requiring us to digest and weigh
current research findings in making
everyday choices.”
Amidst the sensory overload of the
museum—alive with snaking lines
of giggling schoolkids, menacing life-
sized dinosaur replicas, and the crackle
of simulated lightning storms—rests
her solution: the Current Science and
Technology Center (CS&T). Each pre-
sentation on its open-air stage begins
like an arena rock concert. A huge block
of pulsing plasma screens descends
from steel girders hung from the ceil-
ing, while a thumping bass line begins
to play. Appearing on stage is the live
element in this virtual spectacle, a new
kind of hybrid star described by Alpert
16 I DEAS – Fall 2004
with the museum. “A relationship with
the Boston Museum of Science is valu-
able—indeed critical—for the Divi-
as the “scientist–educator–performance
artist–journalist–multimedia producer–
forum facilitator.”
sion,” he says. “We have an opportunity
to expose young people to the unending
series of questions, observations, and
Education Associate Dan Davis deserves insights that research provides.”
In addition to highlighting research at
ly distills the latest re- the Division and elsewhere at Harvard,
search on advanced tech- CS&T gives some extra attention to our
faculty and graduate students. Davis and
and nanodots, combin- fellow museum educator Joel Rosen-
ing sophisticated technol- berg spend part of their time training
ogy (including images of
participating Cambridge high-school
nanowires taken right teachers and graduate students through
from Harvard College the Cambridge-Harvard GK-12 program
Professor Eric Mazur’s and other initiatives. With Alpert’s help,
lab) with simple, handcrafted devices Davis taught undergraduate researchers
such as Styrofoam models showing how how to present information more effec-
nanometer-sized semiconductor crys- tively as part of the Division’s Research
this is heady stuff, Davis’s engaging program. Kathryn Hollar, Director of
demeanor seems to calm any fears of Educational Programs at the Division
hard science being too hard to grasp. and CS&T liaison, comments, “The re-
Davis’s presentations on “A new kind of hybrid star lationship is mu-
any given day, like much tually beneficial.
has arisen: the scientist– While we provide
of the work of the CS&T,
were likely developed educator–performance the museum access
that same morning. CS&T to the cutting-edge
artist–journalist–multimedia research going on
strives to keep pace not
just with what’s in the producer-forum facilitator.” at Harvard, the
headlines, but with what’s
going on in cleanrooms
and laser labs around
Boston. Because the cen-
ter provides live feeds to
NECN (which reaches 2.8
million homes), primary
research ends up grab-
bing some airtime even
when its applications are
not immediately appar-
ent. Together with the
live presentations and
broadcasts, supplemen-
tal multimedia displays
near the staging area and
a robust Web site (www.
mos.org/cst) enable indi-
viduals to dig into every
aspect of a new device or
emerging innovation.
Howard Stone, who has
presented at CS&T, is
excited about the Divi- Daniel Davis, Education Associate at CS&T, makes
sion’s growing involvement nanoshells visible to live and home audiences

Museum of Science’s expertise in engag-
ing the public in science and engineer-
ing is a skill that is transferred back to
our faculty, graduate students, and un-
dergraduates.”
In a short period of time, the CS&T pro-
gram has enjoyed a great deal of success.
People tend to mill around the presenta-
tion area, interact with the multimedia
displays, and ask excellent questions.
Getting access to science here and now,
up close and personal, draws people
in—Alpert reports that this section of
the museum can keep viewers engaged
for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, which is
impressive by any standards. Building
on these results, she hopes to extend
the CS&T approach to many more sci-
ence museums. “I think we’ve shown
that the model works. Science muse-
ums are in a perfect position to meet a
need,” she says.
TECH launches innovation program
T he Technology and Entrepreneur-
ship Center at Harvard (TECH)
has established an interdisciplinary
program on Innovation in Science and
Engineering with lead sponsorship
from Altran Technologies and Arthur D.
Little. The program stems from two
years of teaching and collaboration
among members of the Division, Altran,
and its affiliate company, Synectics, Inc.
Altran and Arthur D. Little, led by CEO
Michel Friedlander, will contribute
funding and services to the initiative
over the next five years, and will bring
Innovation Fellows together with win-
ners of the Altran Foundation’s Interna-
As tiny technologies become the new
standard, going from micro to nano and
the quirky quantum realm, programs
like CS&T and the involvement of re-
search institutions like the Division will
only become more essential. A group
at the museum recently joked that the
exhibit on nanoscience would simply
be an empty box. The NSEC-museum
collaboration may lead to a more per-
manent, and most definitely visible, ex-
hibit on nanotechnology that will serve
as a model for other displays on small-
scale science. Alpert hopes to establish
a Nanotech Informal Science Education
Resource Center to foster broad col-
laboration among research institutions
and science museums, documenting
and sharing the best practices in nano-
tech outreach exhibits, programs and
materials, and facilitating their further
development.
tional Innovation award and their team
of Altran advisors.
The program will support a host of new
endeavors and expand existing ones—
such as the Innovation in Science and
Engineering course that was developed
in 2003 by David Weitz, Professor of
Physics and Gordon McKay Professor
of Applied Physics; with Altran CTO
Thomas C. Esselman with help from
Paul Bottino, TECH’s Executive Direc-
tor. Through collaboration with Rick
Harriman at Synectics, TECH will now
be able to offer the same professional-
level team dynamic and innovation
training given in the course to a wide
Outside the Yard
Physicist Charlie Marcus, the new Director
of CIMS, makes the quantum world visible
by reaching out to the audience.
Of course, initiatives that bring more
current research into museums are not
intended to replace existing exhibits. At
the Museum of Science, kids and adults
can still play a game of virtual volley-
ball, take a seat in the Apollo capsule,
or watch in fear and fascination as elec-
tricity crackles between two massive
humming Tesla coils. In museums, as
in academic research, it’s the mix of the
old and the new and the appreciation
of the complexity of even the simplest
problem that makes progress possible.
Ideally, Alpert hopes that efforts like
CS&T will be an overture that ends up
supporting her much broader mission
of promoting science and technology.
“I’d make sure every youngster got to
see pond water through a low-power
microscope, got to look at plasticinated
human bodies, and got to see the mys-
tery of the origin of the universe splayed
out in the night’s sky in a place far from
city lights,” she says. “I’d teach every
child how to listen well, think critically,
question authority, and articulate clear-
ly. I’d put the values of integrity, honor,
service, courage, and compassion at the
top of the agenda.” J
For more information about CS&T and
NSEC, visit
www.mos.org/cst
www.nsec.harvard.edu
range of research and other inventive
academic groups.
“This is a great addition to the TECH
program and our efforts to advance the
understanding and practice of translat-
ing science and technology into societal
benefit,” Bottino says.
Marissa R. Olson and David S. Ricketts
were named the inaugural Innovation
Fellows for 2004. Both are pursuing
their doctorates at DEAS; in Applied
Physics, Olson is conducting opto-
electronic device research, and in Elec-
trical Engineering, Ricketts is investi-
gating soliton electronics. J
DEAS – Fall 2004 I 17
Alumni Notes
Q&A with Stephanie Wilson
The gravity of small things
“It’s all about space!” says Stephanie
Wilson S.B. ’88. While she enjoys her
ground duties at NASA, she’s eager to
break free of earth’s gravity.
L ast spring, astronaut Stephanie
Wilson S.B. ’88, visited the Division
to discuss her career and experiences at
NASA. Wilson, who earned a master’s
degree in Aerospace Engineering from
the University of Texas and held posi-
tions at the former Martin Marietta
Group and the Jet Propulsion Lab, cur-
rently works in the Astronaut Office
Shuttle Operations Branch at the John-
son Space Center. She is assigned to the
crew of STS-120, a shuttle flight respon-
sible for mounting U.S. Node 2 to the
International Space Station. Budding
space aces should take a look at NASA’s
quick guide, “How Do You Become an
Astronaut?” at www.spaceflight.nasa.
gov/outreach/jobsinfo/astronaut.html.
We have to ask. When did you decide
to become an astronaut?
I decided at 13. I’m originally from
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a small town
without a lot of city lights. I’d look up
at night in my backyard and see all the
stars.
18 I DEAS – Fall 2004
Who inspired you or
helped you along the
way?
For a high school assign-
ment, I went to Williams
College and interviewed
an astronomy professor,
Dr. Jay M. Pasachoff [A.B.
’63, A.M. ’65, Ph.D. ’69],
who happened to be from
Harvard. He taught me all
about astronomy and about
what he had a chance to
do: travel around the world
and view the heavens.
How are engineering
problems different in
zero-g versus on earth?
Gravity is the thing you
have to design in or out.
With the shuttle, the en-
gines are used to boost us
into orbit once we’re about
50 miles up. So they have to work in
both environments. You have to think of
a way to cool the fuel so you don’t starve
the engine.
Anything else?
There are challenges you might not
imagine, like eating. You must have food
that doesn’t float out of a container or
leave crumbs in the air. On the shuttle,
you’re in a small, cluttered space with
no storage.
Did being an African American woman
shape your experiences?
Not really. Here’s what I found interest-
ing and unexpected: A lot of the equip-
ment we’re given is issued from the
military—meaning that it’s all made
for a particular size. Not because I’m a
woman, but because I’m a small person,
the standard equipment doesn’t fit me,
and it costs a lot of money to modify it.
What’s it like being an astronaut work-
ing on earth with the rest of us? Do you
long to go into space?
Yeah, it’s all about space! In February
2003 we would have started our specific
mission training, but all the flights were
delayed after the Columbia accident. I
did have a chance to work at the Jet Pro-
pulsion Lab on some robotic spacecraft.
Simply seeing software and hardware
you designed actually go into inter-
planetary space and do the things they’re
supposed to do is really rewarding.
Are people different in some way when
they come back from space?
I think people are changed. The astro-
nauts I’ve known well have phenom-
enal things to say even about the littlest
things, like how vivid the colors are in
space or how their sense of taste was
different. I think that, just like on earth,
opportunity and knowledge change
people.
Do you ever think about the dangers of
space? It’s not like you can put on a life
jacket or swim to shore if something
goes wrong.
I don’t—not a lot. I was riding the shut-
tle bus to Courier House when the Chal-
lenger accident happened. I remember
being in denial and thinking, “No, this
couldn’t happen.” But it didn’t deter me
at all. It’s unfortunate, but out of tragedy
new and good things will be developed
for the future. The same with Columbia.
All we can do is execute all the training
we have received, work with the Mis-
sion Control team, and hope we catch
a problem should it occur. If not, it was
meant to be. We can use what we’ve
learned for our eventual trip back to the
Moon and on to Mars.
Speaking of Mars, should we go?
Yes. If we don’t, we might limit our
destiny. J
(Below) A computer rendering of U.S.
Node 2; it will eventually be attached to
the International Space Station (back-
ground image). Wilson is currently assigned
to STS-120, the mission responsible for
delivering and mounting the node, which
will provide attach locations for the
Japanese laboratory, European laboratory,
the Centrifuge Accommodation Module,
and later, Multipurpose Logistics Modules.
 Alumni Notes
Challenge fund update Events
In addition to almost daily seminars

T o support cutting-edge research at the Division, an anonymous donor created a

$15 million Challenge Fund to establish 10 new professorships and 10 innova-
tion funds in Engineering and Applied Sciences. Since 2003, alumni have pledged or
and colloquia—from computer science
to squishy physics—the Division also
sponsors major workshops.
contributed $27.5 million toward the $45 million total goal, establishing five profes- Please visit www.deas.harvard.
sorships and ten innovation funds. edu/newsandevents/ for the latest
details, dates, and times. Graduates
We applaud these efforts to make the Division an even stronger and more vibrant are always welcome (and encouraged)
place for cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research. Contributions help shape the to attend events. Here’s a selection of
Harvard of this and the next century. what’s slated to come later this year.

Progress to date 21st Quarterly Complex

Fluids Workshop, hosted
Professorships of Engineering and Applied Sciences by Harvard University

The Case Family Foundation on behalf of Bob Case A.B. ’76, M.B.A. and Date: December 5, 2004
J.D. ’79, and Susie Case A.B. ’79, S.M. ’79, M.B.A. ’83, endowed the Robert Registration and information:
and Suzanne Case Professorship www.complexfluids.org/necf/index.php
Jean E. de Valpine A.B. ’43, J.D. ’49 endowed the Lola England Professorship ....................................

George Joseph A.B. ’49 endowed the Vicky Joseph Professorship Holiday Lecture: Polymer
Allen E. Puckett S.B. ’39, S.M. ’41 endowed the Allen E. and Marilyn M. Puckett Playground, presented by
Professorship Howard Stone

Jeff C. Tarr A.B. ’66 endowed the Tarr Family Professorship Date: December 11, 2004
Last year, Stone presented,
Innovation Funds for Engineering and Applied Sciences “A Peek at Printing: From Papyrus
John A. Armstrong A.B. ’56, A.M. ’61, Ph.D. ’61 and Elizabeth S. Armstrong A.B. ’58 to Electronic Paper.”
created the John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Innovation Fund ....................................
David B. Heller A.B. ’89 created the David B. Heller Innovation Fund Industrial Outreach Program
William Laverack Jr. A.B. ’79, M.B.A. ’85 and Cordelia Reardon Laverack created 2005 Workshop
the Laverack Family Innovation Fund
Planning for the 2005 workshop is
Thierry G. Porté A.B. ’79, M.B.A. ’82 created the Thierry G. Porté Innovation Fund under way. Watch the Division site
Gary M. Reiner A.B. ’76, M.B.A. ’80 created the Reiner Family Innovation Fund for exact dates and further details.

James F. Rothenberg A.B. ’68, M.B.A ’70 created the James F. Rothenberg
Innovation Fund
William A. Shutzer A.B. ’69, M.B.A. ’72 created the William A. and Fay L.
Shutzer Innovation Fund Innovate with us
Richard W. Smith A.B. ’74 created the Porthcawl Innovation Fund We encourage Division graduates
to get involved with the Industrial
Edward A. Taft III A.B. ’73 created the Edward A. Taft III Innovation Fund Outreach Program (IOP). Share your
An anonymous alumnus on the Class of 1968 created an Innovation Fund insights with us and learn about our
latest discoveries and opportunities
Room for growth firsthand.
IOP recently held its third workshop in
We are also pleased to report that a room in Maxwell Dworkin, which houses the spring, “Frontiers in Materials and
faculty in computer science and electrical engineering, has been named in Nanoscience.” In late October its sister
recognition of the generosity of two donors. group, the Harvard Industrial Partner-
ship (HIP), hosted its meeting on the
MD 123 is now the William Andrew Danoff ’82 and Ami Kuan Danoff ’84 Room. influence of computing and technology
on society. To learn more about IOP,
Find out more see www.deas.harvard.edu/industry
or contact
For more information about the Challenge Fund or other gift opportunities,
see www.deas.harvard.edu/alumni/challengefund.html or contact Fawwaz Habbal
Associate Dean for Research
Lisa Boudreau and Planning
617-495-5829
Director of Development and Corporate Relations
industry@deas.harvard.edu
617-495-4044 or lisa_boudreau@harvard.edu J

DEAS – Fall 2004 I 19

Connections
1 3
5 8
Feedback loop
We welcome and appreciate your
comments, suggestions, and
corrections. Please send feedback to
communications@deas.harvard.edu
or call us at 617-496-3815. This
newsletter is published biannually by:
The Division of Engineering and Applied
Sciences Communications Office
Harvard University
Pierce Hall
29 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Managing Editor/Writer:
Michael Patrick Rutter
Designer, Producer, Photographer:
Eliza Grinnell
This publication, including past issues,
is available on the Web at
www.deas.harvard.edu
Copyright © 2004 by the President
and Fellows of Harvard College
20 I DEAS – Fall 2004
The beauty of
basic research
An ongoing series of photo essays
dedicated to showcasing how DEAS
inspires collaborative work and
encourages interdisciplinary research.
T
2 he images portrayed at left provide an aesthetic
and scientific perspective on some of the research
undertaken by our faculty and students.
Engineers and scientists increasingly rely on so-
phisticated imaging, manipulation, and fabrication
techniques to investigate problems.
4 By “seeing” more, researchers can better understand
the basic properties of our world and translate what
they discover into everyday technologies and
applications—from novel microchip design to next-
generation medical devices. J
1. A light-conducting silicon wraps a beam of light
6 7 around a strand of human hair. Courtesy of L.
Tong and E. Mazur.
2. Complex microfluidic channels are created with
soft lithography techniques. Courtesy of D. Weitz.
3. Microfabrication techniques lead to new types of
structures and novel materials. Courtesy of
G. Whitesides.
4. These colorful rock-like patterns are actually
9 elemental maps taken with an Energy Dispersive
X-ray Spectroscopy System. Courtesy of CIMS.
5. An invasive glioblastoma cell (a tumor) remodels
the fibers of a gel matrix surrounding it. Courtesy
of V. Gordon, E. Filippidi, and L. Kaufman.
6. Waves injected into two resonators in a two-
dimentional electron gas (2DEG) emerge through
openings in the cavities. Courtesy of E. Heller and
R. Westervelt.
7. A slurry of small particles that oscillate up and
down and form into a crown. Courtesy of H. Stone
and Johann Schleier-Smith (a former Harvard
undergraduate).
8. Both water-in-oil-in-water (w/o/w) emulsions
and the inverse (o/w/o) form drops within drops.
Courtesy of D. Weitz.
9. Concentrated suspensions of particles with a poly-
mer present in the solution behave like pastes.
Courtesy of D. Weitz.
10. Two- and three-dimensional patterns of drops
emerge when microfluidic channels widen. Cour-
tesy of G. Crisobal-Azkarate.
11. Nearly perfect packing of nanoparticles caused by
the surface tension of a liquid. Courtesy Manouk
0 Abkarian, Janine Nunes, and David Bell.
12. An air bubble covered by polystyrene particles.
The particles adhere readily to the bubble inter-
face due to the salt present in the water.
Courtesy of R. Larsen.
13. Spherical shells of micron-sized particles can
be formed by introducing colloidal (a gel-like mix-
ture) particles to emulsion droplets. Courtesy of
M. Brenner, D. Nelson, and D. Weitz.