Annual Report 2010-2011

AnnualReport

20102011Pushing the Limits

ContentsDean’s Note .................................................... 1

Financial Statements ....................................... 4

Highlights ...................................................... 12

Annual Report 2010–2011 1

Earlier in the year, IBM’s engineers had risen to a big challenge, creating Watson, an intelligent machine that competed with (and ultimately beat) the top two human Jeopardy! players.

Many said it was just a publicity stunt, but I applaud IBM’s vision.

The same artificial intelligence that went into playing the game may now be used to create smarter medical health systems and earth system simula-tions, and even teach us something about how the brain works.

As we head into a capital campaign for the University, I think all of us at SEAS, and especially our alumni, are eager to get behind something grand, life-changing, and exciting.

As the newest, nimblest, and—I think—the coolest place on campus, SEAS will commit to doing just that.

Investing in Our Future

We have to balance our aggressive ambitions, however, with financial realities. As you will read in this annual report, to maintain our momentum as the newest “start-up” school at Harvard, we are spending

down our reserves, or, as I like to think of it, investing in our future. This may strike some as risky—but it is far, far riskier not to grow to critical mass.

Over the years, my predecessors built up consider-able reserves for SEAS. Moreover, our staff and faculty continue to make wise financial decisions, building state-of the-art labs that are friendly on both the environment and the wallet, and finding innovative ways to keep overall costs under control.

I am pleased to report that the fiscal year (FY) 2010–2011 actuals were better than those originally budgeted in core expenses and on a consolidated basis (including sponsored research, gifts, and endowment income).

Looking ahead to FY12, we will continue to spend down our reserves to invest in educational programs, grow faculty research, and enhance the teaching and administrative infrastructure.

From Seeds to Fruit

Now that I’ve been dean at SEAS for two years, I am happy to report that many of the seeds sown in our academic planning process have taken root and are coming to fruition.

With our new academic structure in place, design and experiential learning are much more integrated into the curriculum. We have boosted advising, expanded our instructional lab staff and space, and,

Dean’s Note

…Playing with Potentials…

“If you are going to do something, then do something big and incredibly, if not impossibly, challenging!”

IBM’s Vice President Bernard Meyerson said, or almost roared, that directive at a global engineering conference hosted by Columbia University in June. My fellow Ivy League engineering deans and I discussed how, individually and collectively, we could enhance our global connections—and more broadly, our impact.

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences2

more recently, restructured the administration, creating the position of Executive Dean for Educa-tion and Research to oversee all of these activities.

Nearly 5,000 students across Harvard (a record high) were enrolled in a SEAS course during the past academic year. The word is getting out about SEAS. The number of prospective students inter-ested in our undergraduate programs continues to rise, and the overall student population has grown.

We also expect that as we begin to reimagine our graduate programs, create more interdisciplinary courses with the Medical School, the Business School, and others, and make joint faculty appoint-ments like those already in engineering and law, government, and public health, we will bring a more intellectually diverse graduate and professional population to SEAS.

Converging on Convergence

We are working hard to ensure that every Harvard student is profoundly touched by engineering and the engineer’s mindset, that our faculty can readily leap across intellectual boundaries, and that our alumni and the broader community are engaged.

Such convergence is happening in surprising and exciting ways, changing the way we teach and do research.

For example, one of our graduate students is using techniques she learned in astronomy to model human arteries, helping to predict and prevent heart attacks. A course we taught in the spring paired engineering students with doctors at Harvard’s affili-ated hospitals, challenging them to solve a real-world problem with a new medical device. Likewise, our faculty members work with colleagues at the Business School to understand trends in online markets; seek expertise from the Law School when exploring data security; and collaborate with neuroscientists in visualizing terabytes of data about the brain.

This September, we celebrated the Robobees project, part of the National Science Foundation’s Grand Challenges program. The success of the project,

which aims to create a swarm of tiny robotic insects, requires advances in intersecting fields, from mechanical engineering to computer science to biology. The NSF considers this ambitious endeavor a model for funding modern research.

More than that, though, it’s a model for the way success in one field can—and should—translate into success for another field, so that the strength of SEAS contributes to the strength of the University overall, and vice versa.

Open Access

Our investments in pedagogy and research are clearly being noticed within Harvard, but to truly be successful, we must engage beyond the campus.

At Harvard, we have an incredible opportunity—and I think an obligation—to bring together the best minds from around the world. I co-hosted a conference on genetics and data privacy in April (see our latest newsletter, Topics). An international group of lawyers, computer scientists, geneticists, journalists, and members of the Institute of Medi-cine, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences all gathered here to discuss one very complex issue.

We did that because I agree with the NAE: the engineering community needs to cultivate a culture of open access, one of inclusion.

Another way to do this is to reach people earlier. In the spring, we hosted a science and engineering fair for local 8th graders, drawing the superintendent of the Cambridge Public Schools and Harvard Presi-dent Drew Faust. The young students built a wide variety of robots, explored topics in food science, and displayed their projects publicly.

Through our Research Experience for Undergradu-ates (REU) program, more than 75 college students annually, from across the United States, work in our labs alongside faculty. Many students have reported that this experience changed not just their academic plans but their entire lives.


In research as in society, things are moving at lightspeed. It is impossible for any one person or institution to learn everything or take on every problem. It is more important to learn how to think and communicate—to determine the validity of others’ arguments or data, understand risk and probabilities, parse ill-defined problems into solv-able parts, figure out what may fit within cultural or ethical values, and recognize when you do not know something and need help from others.

That is what engineering and the applied sciences have always done. As dean of SEAS, I see my task as “leading sideways,” convincing others in disparate disciplines to collaborate and learn from each other.

Every member of SEAS has the job of helping the Harvard community, and the public, understand the profound value proposition of investing in engineer-ing and applied sciences at Harvard. Investment in SEAS is good for Harvard, good for the globe, and, in the words used in some recent TEDx talks by SEAS affiliates, just plain awesome.

Cherry A. MurrayOctober 2011

Social Networking

In October 2010, my Dean’s Advisory Group once again emphasized the need to heighten the visibility of the school.

Thanks to social networking, our accomplishments have been increasingly “going viral.” For example, when Les Valiant won the 2010 ACM Turing Award, the news went global in a matter of seconds. Some eye-catching articles about faculty research have received waves of new interest, thousands of views, months after the original release.

We are engaging members of the public through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and just about every other social site under the sun. Our new videos on YouTube let prospective applicants hear first hand about the student experience at SEAS, and through our library on iTunes U, more than 100,000 people have tuned into our Science and Cooking public lectures.

Through more conventional media relations ef-forts, our faculty and students have appeared in all forms of news coverage: CNN and MSNBC; Wired, The Guardian, and The New York Times; Gizmodo and Slashdot; and BBC Radio and NPR, to name just a few.

Integrating Innovation

So can we live up to Meyerson’s call to arms and take on something immensely important and nearly impossible? I think we can, by collaborating across all parts of the campus. And I think the University’s renewed focus on innovation will be what brings everyone together.

Thus, entrepreneurial thinking, and supporting a University-wide drive toward innovation, with focus on the Innovation Lab (i-Lab) at Harvard, will be two of my top priorities. That doesn’t mean just creating start-ups and new products, but rather encouraging social entrepreneurship and innovat-ing the way we teach and produce knowledge. SEAS will be both a leader and a connector for this push.


Financial Statements1

Introduction

In the past few months, the volatility in the financial markets serves as an important reminder of what was learned from the 2008–09 crisis. Among these lessons, is the significance of remaining nimble even while executing a financial plan carefully crafted for the long term.

In FY11, SEAS remained focused on carrying out that long-term plan:

» continuing to invest in building an exciting and world-class school of engineering, despite reductions in endowment income;

» maximizing flexibility for the long-run through the use of reserves; and

» maintaining the budget reductions and efficien-cies obtained in FY09.

Because of this management approach, our year-end results were better than expected2 in both the core unrestricted budget and on a consolidated basis.

As planned, SEAS used its reserves to cover the imbalance caused by reduced endowment income and the school’s increased investment in teaching, research, and infrastructure.

The use of reserves, $5M, however, was less than the $11M originally budgeted. Furthermore, only $3M of the total $5M came from SEAS’ unrestricted reserves. We achieved this by using first balances accumulated in restricted endowment funds before using more flexible funds. Moreover, while we are thoughtfully investing in critical areas outlined in our strategic plan (see FY09–10 Annual Report), the budget reductions realized during FY09 in

most non-salary, discretionary items have remained in effect thanks to the hard work of our staff and faculty.

The following financial report is divided into three parts:

» a summary of the FY11 results for major income, expense, and non-operating categories;

» a discussion of our investment in the academic plan and an explanation of the execution of the long-range financial plan; and

» an examination of the long-range outlook in light of the FY11 results and SEAS’ revised multi-year plan.

1 These statements present a managerial view of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ operations. They are not intended to present the financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

2 The Statement of Change in Net Assets shows a positive net change of $6.6M. This positive result is due to an $11M decapitalization of quasi-endowment funds. Without the decapitalization, consolidated net results would show a negative net change of $5M. The $5M deficit is still better than the $11M budgeted at the beginning of the year.


awards received through the American Recov-ery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in FY10.

» Undergraduate tuition income for FY11 increased by $2M to $6.3M, up 47%. Based on a tuition-sharing arrangement with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, SEAS receives a portion of total undergraduate tuition income that is proportional to the number of SEAS concentra-tors and students taking courses in SEAS. The increase in the number of students enrolled in SEAS courses from 2008 and 2011 led to the rise in tuition income.

» Endowment income declined for the second year in a row. The Corporation’s planned 12% decrease in FY11, combined with the FY10 decrease of 8%, resulted in a 23% overall reduction in endowment income over the past two years. This consecutive annual endowment income decrease was the result of the dramatic decline in the value of the endowment caused by the 2008 global financial meltdown.

Fiscal Year 2011 Results

Revenue

FY11 income, $94.4M, was slightly higher than FY10 revenues, $93.9M, resulting in a 0.6% increase.3

Sponsored research and undergraduate tuition income were higher in FY11 than in FY10 while endowment income and miscellaneous income were significantly reduced.

» Sponsored research revenues continued to increase over the previous year, $43M in FY11 versus $41M in FY10, or a rise of 5.4%.

Federally sponsored research alone grew by $4M, an 11% increase. This growth was offset, however, by a $1.1M, or 17%, decline in non-federal sponsored research. The decrease was due to the planned termination of three large research projects.

Sponsored research revenues, in fact, have remained on an upward trajectory for the past two years, increasing by 28% from FY09 to FY11. Part of the positive growth relates to

3 In reality, FY11 income decreased over the previous year by $4M; the apparent increase is due to an accounting reclas-sification of a $4.6M internal payment, which was coded as income reduction in FY10 but more correctly classified as a program expense in FY11.

These statements present a managerial view of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ operations. They are not intended to present the financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).


» Salary and fringe benefit expenses grew by 12% and 13%, respectively, in FY11. Half of the $2.6M in salary increases is attributable to salaries paid by sponsored research. The other half is due to a number of factors: an average annual salary increase of 2.25% over FY10, 3 new positions related to teaching and student affairs, 1 new FTE in direct faculty support, 3 new administrative positions, and 18 job reclassifications or equity adjustments to bring SEAS staff more in line with University salary averages.

Similarly, fringe benefit expenses were a direct result of the salary increases and were due to overall increases in fringe rates for all groups of employees: faculty, exempt staff, and non-exempt staff.

» Miscellaneous other income declined by 76% in FY11, mainly due to a decrease in the interest rate earned on reserves (from 1.05% in FY10 to 0% in FY11).

» Current-use gift income remained relatively flat at $4.5M in FY11 versus $4.4M in FY10; 80% of current-use gifts received by SEAS directly supported faculty research.

Overall, for FY11 the increases in sponsored research revenue ($2.3M) and tuition income ($2M) were offset by the larger decreases in endow-ment income (−$4.1M) and miscellaneous income (−$2.0M), resulting in a net decrease in total revenue of $1.8M.4

Expenses

On a consolidated basis, FY11 operating expenses (excluding depreciation) were higher than the previous year by $12M. Sponsored research expenses grew commensurately with the increase in sponsored research income (see the Revenue section). Salaries and fringe benefits, internal transfers, purchase of services, and interest expenses accounted for the majority of expense increases.

4 This net decrease is not evident on the Statement of Change in Net Assets because of the reclassification of internal transfers as expenses rather than income reducing items in FY11.



» Internal transfers, which are transfers of funds to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the University, grew by $4.7M in FY11. A large portion of the growth is related to the classifica-tion of SEAS’ $4.3M cost-share of the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS) as an expense item in FY11. Previously, support for CNS was classified as an internal income-reducing transfer. There was, nonetheless, a $2.2M increase in SEAS’ CNS cost-share in FY11, reflecting the fact that SEAS’ cost-share was applied to the whole year instead of only half of the year in FY10.

» Purchased services grew by $1.5M, or 43%, in FY11, due to payments on three large subcontracts from federal grants received by SEAS faculty.

» Interest expenses increased by 22% year-over-year to reach $2.8M in FY11. The increase is due to the addition of $9.5M in closed capital projects during the previous fiscal year.

SEAS Payments and Contributions to Other Harvard Entities » Numbers in millions of dollars

FY 2011 FY 2010 FY 2009Harvard Central Administration

Endowment assessment 3.7 3.5 5.1

Annual assessment 2.1 2.0 2.0

Academic initiative fund 0.6 0.6 0.6

Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Administrative support assessment 1.7 1.9 2.1

Cost-share of Center for Nanoscale Systems 4.7 2.1 0.0

Total Contributions 12.8 10.2 9.7

Overall, the total increase in expenses was distrib-uted over all funding sources. Unrestricted expenses grew by $7M. Of such expenses, $4.3M resulted from the classification of the CNS cost-share as an expense item. The additional $2.6M in unrestricted expenses was because unrestricted funds were used to cover more expenses as a result of the decrease in endowment income. Finally, sponsored research expenses increased by $2.5M and endowment expenses increased by $1M.

Non-operating activities

In FY11, SEAS decapitalized $11.6M from its quasi-endowment. This measure was adopted to reduce SEAS’ financial risk. SEAS and the Central Adminis-tration jointly decided to transfer a portion of these assets, which were invested in the endowment, to risk-free cash reserves. Thus, these funds’ exposure to capital market volatility has been reduced, in light of SEAS’ near-term plan to use them to invest in the academic plan.



Investments in the Academic Plan

Investments to support the academic plan in FY11 took the form of both non-capital and capital items.

Non-capital items

For FY11, SEAS focused on making investments in teaching staff and supporting interdisciplinary research.

» We hired two Assistant Directors of Undergradu-ate Studies to better support and advise students in our most popular concentrations: Applied Mathematics and Biomedical Engineering. In addition, we brought on board two Design Preceptors to help integrate design and expe-riential learning throughout the engineering curriculum.

» In collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, SEAS continued to support inter-disciplinary research by sharing the expenses required to maintain the instrumentation facility at the Center for Nanoscale Systems.

These non-capital investment items totaled approxi-mately $5M in FY11.

Capital items

Capital investments were made in equipment for research, laboratory fitouts, and facilities upgrades.

SEAS initiated the purchase of a $1.25M Helionix Ion Beam for the Center for Nanoscale Systems.

In addition, a $1M laboratory for Assistant Professor Chad Vecitis was completed. Graduate student space for Professor Kaxiras’ Institute for Applied Compu-tational Science was also completed at a budgeted cost of $1M.

Moreover, SEAS funded the transfer of the Northwest Annex and assumed responsibility for that space at a cost of $4.9M. The fitout cost for transforming the space into the machine shop, administrative offices, and a microrobotics lab was roughly $4.3M. This project allowed SEAS to free up space for faculty offices in Pierce Hall and to accommodate the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in Cambridge.



Future Outlook

To best plan for the continued evolution and growth of SEAS, we recently updated the school’s multi-year financial plan. Key objectives include:

» Reaching critical mass in key areas in the faculty by replacing retiring faculty and incrementally bringing new faculty members on board.

» Increasing the graduate student population in concert with the rise in the faculty.

» Educating more undergraduate students—both concentrators and non-concentrators alike—by developing an even more exciting and innova-tive curriculum and providing faculty with first-class teaching support.

» Achieving a sufficient staffing level to meet the increasing complexity of supporting teaching and research (prompted by the growth in fac-ulty, undergraduates, and graduate students).

» Creating new teaching labs and student spaces that can accommodate a larger student body and meet the needs of the evolving hands-on courses and activities.

» Investing systematically and regularly in main-taining and renewing the physical plant.

To accomplish these objectives, SEAS has laid out a financial strategy to modify slightly its current capital structure. This plan, which will require Corporation approval, includes:

» Utilizing flexible reserves through FY16 to support annual investments in the academic and administrative goals (stated above).

» Decapitalizing selectively from SEAS endow-ments to build new faculty, classroom, and student spaces.

» Beyond FY16, undertaking further targeted decapitalization of the endowment to maintain the investment in the key academic and administrative goals until the effects of the capital campaign and tuition income from new master’s and executive education programs bring the school’s finances back into balance.

To achieve the right income-expense balance in the long run will require a more diversified source of revenues. The capital campaign will offer SEAS’ alumni and friends a great opportunity to invest in the success of the school through current use and endowment gifts. In addition, student demand for SEAS’ programs at the undergraduate and master’s levels will generate additional tuition income.

If the excitement by students for SEAS’ new academic offerings and the enthusiasm by alumni and friends are any indication, the long-range outlook is quite positive for SEAS. With thoughtful, bold leadership and careful oversight of the school’s financial resources, SEAS is poised to flourish in the coming years.


Statement of Change in Net Assets1 » For fiscal year ending June 30» Numbers in millions of dollars

2011 2010 2009Revenues

Sponsored research 44.6 42.3 34.7

Endowment income 30.7 34.8 39.9

Gifts 4.5 4.4 11.6

Compact transfers 11.7 9.8 10.1

Other 2.9 2.6 1.6

Total Revenue 94.4 93.9 98.0

Operating Expenses

Salaries & benefits 51.3 47.6 45.8

Financial aid 8.6 8.4 6.9

Supplies, materials, & equipment 6.0 5.7 6.0

Space & occupancy 9.2 8.2 7.5

Interest, services, & other expenses 9.5 7.8 8.3

Transfers 4.2 1.6 1.9

Total Operating Expenses 88.8 79.3 76.3

Other Expenses

Nonoperating activities—general 6.0 8.5 7.9

Decapitalization2 −11.6

Program investments3 4.7 2.2

Total Other Expenses −0.9 10.7 7.9

Total Expenses 87.9 90.0 84.2

Result of operations before program investments 11.3 6.0 13.7

Result of operations before decapitalization −5.0 3.8 13.7

Total Change in Net Assets 6.6 3.8 13.7

1 This statement presents a managerial view of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ operations. It is not intended to present the financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). A presentation in accordance with GAAP would include, for example, depreciation expenses and higher endowment.

2 SEAS decapitalized $9.3M out of the quasi-endowment in order to increase the amount of cash reserves; several other spend-down endowment funds were also decapitalized to support faculty start-up expenses.

3 Program investments are major expenses (other than salaries or supplies) for new faculty and new initiatives; in FY11, they included expenses associated with the Center for Nanoscale Systems.

Balance Sheet4 » For fiscal year ending June 30» Numbers in millions of dollars

2011 2010 2009 Assets

Cash 0.0 0.0 0.0

Receivables 71.2 73.6 65.4

Invested funds

Endowment investments 867.6 757.8 718.8

Facilities, fixtures, & equipment (net of depreciation) 101.5 81.8 78.4

Total Assets 1040.3 913.2 862.6

Liabilities

Accounts payable 0.4 0.4 0.1

Facilities & equipment debt 56.9 46.7 45.0

Other debt owed to the University’s central bank 8.7 7.1 7.3

Total Liabilities 65.9 54.1 52.4

Composition of Net Assets

Unrestricted reserves 25.6 26.6 24.3

Undistributed income & Other 31.6 24.4 21.3

Pledge balances 5.3 7.0 13.3

Investment in facilities & equipment 44.6 35.1 33.4

Endowment & other investment funds 867 765.9 717.9

Total Net Assets 974.5 859.0 810.2

4 This statement presents a managerial view of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ operations. It is not intended to present the financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). A presentation in accordance with GAAP would include, for example, depreciation expenses and higher endowment.


Highlights

New Courses & Teaching Initiatives

New Graduate Secondary Field in Computational Science

At SEAS, we believe that computational skills are essential for the study of sciences and engineering in the 21st century. As part of an ongoing effort to expand our offerings in the field, we are introduc-ing a new secondary field in computational science, open to all graduate students in SEAS and GSAS.

The recently created Institute for Applied Com-putational Science (IACS) continues to provide additional opportunities for students to polish their computational skills. IACS hosted ComputeFest in January, a series of workshops and seminars that included tutorials on the MATLAB and Math-ematica software.

Science and Cooking Course Attracts Students Across Harvard

A new general education course titled “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter” debuted in Fall 2010 and instantly became one of the hottest courses on campus. Thanks to the dedication of SEAS’ faculty and staff, the world-famous chefs who gave inspiring weekly guest lectures, and the innovative experiments performed in a newly outfitted food-safe teaching lab, the periodic unveiling of the “equation of the week” became an event worthy of applause. The course will be offered again in Fall 2011 and for the next 5 years, as part of a long-term agreement with the Alicia Foundation, led by chef Ferran Adrià.

Expanding Our Offerings in Design and Experiential Learning

Visiting Lecturer Barry Griffin ’71 and Rob Howe, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, helped integrate a number of new hands-on approaches to our curriculum this past year. Undergraduates took on creative projects including building a balloon-supported disaster relief shelter, designing a range of promising medical devices, finding new ways

to tackle the global water crisis, and analyzing an on-campus geothermal heating system “in depth.”

Thanks to a generous donation from Warren Wilkin-son ’41, in January we opened a new microfluidics lab, a core facility for undergraduate teaching that will be managed by Anas Chalah, Director of Instructional Technology.

In the coming year, we are bringing fresh energy to our design staff with several new hires.

Nurturing Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The “Facebook Effect” describes the increased inter-est in student start-ups and innovation in light of the social networking revolution. The effect, illustrated by the growth of the introductory computer science course CS 50, is alive and well at SEAS. In fact, from 2006 to 2010, Harvard spawned 39 start-ups, 216 patents, and 1,270 faculty inventions.

With new courses like “How to Create Things and Have Them Matter” and “Commercializing Science,” entrepreneurship competitions like the Harvard College Innovation Challenge (dominated by students at SEAS), the SEAS-based Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH), Harvard Hack Nights, and the CS 50 lounge, a new student space for socializing and coding, SEAS is at the heart of innovation at Harvard.

CS 50, Introduction to Computer Science I, reached an all-time enrollment high (nearly 500), becoming the fifth most popular course in the College. Even more impressively, we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of CS concentrators, nearly 50% of whom are women.

As mentioned above, we also kicked off a new secondary field in Computational Science and Engineering.


Student Innovations and Breakthroughs

Senior project pays off

As an undergraduate, Borna Dabiri ’07 built a specially designed blast-simulation machine for use by tissue engineers in the Disease Biophysics Group (DBG). It was his senior design project then, but over the past year it has been the crucial piece of equipment for breakthrough research into traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Led by Kevin Kit Parker, Professor of Bioengineer-ing, Dabiri (now a Ph.D. candidate) and other researchers in the DBG recently identified the cellular mechanisms of TBI, garnering major international news coverage and offering new hope to men and women in military service who may be wounded by explosions.

New student ventures win $50k

In March, student entrepreneurs competed for $50,000 in grants at the annual Harvard College Innovation Challenge (I3).

Five teams were selected as winners and runners-up from an applicant pool of 84 teams—double the number of hopefuls in last year’s contest—for projects ranging from social web applications to a new environmental engineering technology.

Sponsored by the McKinley Family Foundation, the Lumry Family Endowment for Technology and Entrepreneurship, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Wilmer Hale, the awards provide visibility, physical space, and financial support to student projects with social or commercial potential.

First, second, and third

SEAS graduate students and recent alumni swept the 2010 Collegiate Inventors awards, winning first, second, and third prizes in the graduate student division.

Alice Chen, a SEAS student in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program, won $15,000 and first prize for developing a way to implant a matrix of human liver cells into a mouse’s liver, enabling new types of drug testing and therapeutic applications.

Erez Lieberman Aiden (S.M. ’10, Ph.D. ’10) won second prize for developing a method of three-dimensional genome sequencing. Third prize went to Bozhi Tian (Ph.D. ’10) and Tzahi Cohen-Karni (Ph.D. candidate) for their work on nanoscale intracellular probes.


Cool Research

Smartphone app helps identify land mines

Computer scientists designed a system that visualizes the objects found by a metal detector, helping eliminate false alarms when searching for land mines.

New device can identify any liquid based on surface tension

Engineers have invented a small chip that changes color when wetted by a specific liquid, offering numerous applications in quality control and disposal of hazardous materials.

Bioengineers identify the mechanism of traumatic brain injury

Using innovative tissue engineering techniques, researchers have explained how the shock wave of an explosion sets off a disastrous cascade of biochemical signals within the brain’s neurons and blood vessels.

Electrical engineer improves processor efficiency by “shutting off the lights”

A new on-chip device called a multi-core voltage regulator reduces power to processors that are not in use, matching power supply to demand.

Quantitative study reveals how lilies bloom

Mathematics has revealed that differential growth and ruffling at the edges of each petal—not in the midrib, as commonly suggested—cause the lily to burst from the bud.

Scientists successfully scale up key material for alternative fuel cells

Materials scientists have created a metallic grid that supports the extremely thin films used in solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), producing the first powerful, thin-film SOFC at a scale that’s practical for use in electronics and transportation.

Ancient fungus offers new insight to King Tutankhamen’s death

Chemical and microbiological analysis of brown spots on the wall of Tut’s tomb indicate that the pharaoh was buried in a hurry.

Migrating cells flow like glass

The research in applied physics and biology advances our understanding of wound healing, cancer metastasis, and embryonic development.

Industry Collaborations

Google

Erez Lieberman Aiden (S.M. ’10, Ph.D. ’10) and Jean-Baptiste Michel (S.M. ’06, Ph.D. ’10) teamed up with researchers at Google, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and the American Heritage Dictionary, creating a powerful new approach to digital scholar-ship that they have dubbed “Culturomics.” The project mined a treasure trove of digitized books to identify cultural patterns over centuries’ worth of literature. The team’s public search tool has provided insight into topics as diverse as humanity’s collective memory, the adoption of technology, the dynamics of fame, and the effects of censorship and propaganda.

Gates Foundation

A project to use dirt-powered batteries to charge cell phones in Africa won a $100,000 grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant is part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. Drawing together students and researchers at SEAS, the Laboratory-at-Large, and Harvard Medical School, the project aims to develop a microbial fuel cell–based charger that can be readily and cheaply assembled out of basic components to increase access to health care via mobile applications in the developing world.


Tenure Appointments and Faculty Accolades

Tenure Appointments

Kevin Kit ParkerProfessor of Bioengineering

Todd ZicklerProfessor of Electrical Engineering

Major Awards & Honors

Cherry A. Murray, Dean of SEAS; John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences; and Professor of Physics, was appointed by President Barack Obama as a Member of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

Former SEAS Dean Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti has been appointed foreign secretary of the National Academy of Engineering.

Leslie Valiant, T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, won the 2010 ACM A. M. Turing Award.

Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering, won the 2010 Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics and the 2010 Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis (the future prize), and was appointed an honorary doctor at Lund University, in Sweden.

Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science, has been named a new director of The Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard. The Radcliffe Institute at Harvard has also appointed her a Director of Academic Ventures for its Science Program.

Steven C. Wofsy, Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Science, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Vahid Tarokh, Perkins Professor of Applied Math-ematics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow, won a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Hanspeter Pfister, Professor of the Practice of Com-puter Science and Director of Visual Computing, was awarded the IEEE’s 2010 Visualization Technical Achievement Award.

Vinothan N. Manoharan, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Physics, was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship.

Cynthia Friend, Theodore Williams Richards Profes-sor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science, and Robert J. Madix, Senior Research Fellow in Chemical Engineering, were named among the first class of fellows of the American Chemical Society.

Debra Auguste, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Stephen Chong, Assistant Professor of Computer Science; and Sharad Ramanathan, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and of Molecular and Cellular Biology, won the National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Shriram Ramanathan, Associate Professor of Materi-als Science, was awarded the 2011 Robert Lansing Hardy Award by the Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society.


Supporting cross-cutting research

In May, we welcomed a visit by Fred Kavli, founder and benefactor of the Kavli Foundation, which supports the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard. As a symbol of gratitude for his recent donation of a faculty chair, Dean Cherry A. Murray presented Kavli with a real Harvard-embossed hardwood chair.

The event also kicked off a new Kavli Lecture Series. The first talk, by Roger T. Hanlon, Senior Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory and Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Brown University, discussed the creation of bio-inspired nanomaterials that mimic the adaptive coloration of cephalopods like squid and cuttlefish.

Networks

Alumni, faculty, and friends of SEAS gathered in May 2011 for the annual reception series known as Networks.

The event featured a talk by Kevin Kit Parker, Professor of Bioengineering, who is also a major in the U.S. Army Reserves and has served tours of duty in Afghanistan. His talk, titled “How the Battlefield Got On My Bench,” discussed his groundbreaking research on traumatic brain injury.

Career advice and mentoring

A group of young alumni returned to campus in February 2011 to participate in a panel discussion organized by the FAS Office of Career Services (OCS).

Five recent alums shared their experiences in choosing a concentration and finding a job, taking questions from undergraduates about life after Harvard.

“What I found,” said John Thorlin ’09, “is that there is a real demand for people who have an engineering background but are doing something else. Doing engineering at Harvard signals to [employers] that you’re going to be able to pick up what they want to teach you.”

Alumni working at green-tech companies and non-profits also had a real presence at OCS’ Energy and Environment Expo in February.

Molly Bales ’10 staffed a table for Waltham-based Harvest Power, a fast-growing young company that recycles organic waste, and Jennifer Popack ’08 represented the energy efficiency company ThinkEco, having landed her job there at the previous year’s expo.

Science & Cooking for alumni

In May, the Harvard Alumni Association hosted a special two-part lecture series for alumni on science and cooking.

Presented by SEAS faculty Michael Brenner and David Weitz, the lectures provided an overview of the concepts and methods of the undergraduate “Science and Cooking” course and analyzed the effectiveness of using haute cuisine to teach soft-matter physics.

The financial generosity, intellectual guidance, and enthusiasm of our alumni and friends sustain our educational and research mission: within the classroom, across the campus, and around the world.

Support & Engagement

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Annual Report 2010-2011

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