Fall/Winter 2007
Transcript from Sept. 20, 2007
L
Moving ForwardThanks to the support of countless individuals,
the celebration and launch of the Harvard School of Engineering and
Applied Sciencesnearly 160 years in the makingwent off without a
hitch. In the days following the event, the entire planning team
told me how much they would miss the weekly meetings, the frantic
phone calls, the countless emails, and the early mornings and late
nights. Its like the strange regret students have when they bind
their theses or the silent sadness a researcher experiences when a
paper goes to press or a patent finally gets filed. In the spaces
between big events or projects we are faced with the inevitable
question: Now what? As a newly christened School we face that same
question. As an answer, I am presenting an abbreviated version of
the dinner speech I gave on the evening of the launch. The wheel
has indeed come full circle; the trick now is to keep itand
usmoving forward.
tion. Now engineers and applied scientists often are leaders and
shapers of societies. et me tell you, today has proven to me The
present age also underscores the beyond any possible doubt that you
engineers role in the advancement of are never too old to be
excited by the first knowledge, which stands to benefit global day
of school. Its a unique kind of energy, eco-human welfare in isnt
it? If we could bottle it wed solve our ...in challenge lies
opportunity. SEAS fundamental and often unpredictable ways. energy
crisis and many of the worlds other intends to lead the way as a
model of At the same time, solving complex real-world problems,
too. engineering research and education problems is a direct serBut
I imagine we are vice to society and will all feeling some varia-
for the 21st century and the way an always be central to the tion
of the same mix of engineering school should connect to engineering
enterprise; emotions that students technologies developed of all
ages feel across and serve the wider world. by engineers have
concampuses everywhere tributed immeasurably to human well-beeach
September. We feel pride in our past ing, although humanity still
is faced with accomplishments that helped bring us to enormous
challenges. this moment, and we feel gratitude to those The
hyperspecialization of fields, which who helped us achieve them.
helps us add to, and sort through, the Of course, we feel
excitement for all the abundance of knowledge, also demands
promising possibilities that lie ahead, and that we go beyond a
stovepiped world. We we feel trepidation about both our ability
must collaborate, integrate, and synthesize to meet the tests we
know are coming and to solve problems that transcend narrow to
ready ourselves for the unknownthose knowledge domains. inevitable
pop quizzes. This changing context in turn demands We feel a sense
of belongingto an instituthat we prepare our students for this tion
and tradition that is much bigger than shiftfrom professionals to
leaders, from we are and that compels us to expect more providers
of service to creators of value, of ourselves. Veritas unites and
elevates us. from expert guides and master builders Engineering
joins the other great schools to explorers, discoverers,
synthesizers, and of Harvard in the pursuit of truth, defined
innovators. here by what workswhat can be designed But as they say,
in challenge lies opportunifrom the truth of science and crafted
within ty. SEAS intends to lead the way as a model the truth of
culture, laws, and marketplace of engineering research and
education for to serve the true needs of society. the 21st century
and the way an engineerWe feel humility at the realization that the
ing school should connect to and serve the institution is counting
on us to carry it on, wider world. to reinvent it and continually
bestow it As we do all this, one of our great challengwith meaning
in the midst of change. The es is that neither the education of
students creation of the Lawrence Scientific School nor the
advancement of research nor the at Harvard in 1847 at the early
stages of application of knowledge through entrethe Industrial Age
marked and catalyzed preneurial endeavors can possibly be done a
change in the perception of an engineer: in isolation. We each have
a role to play, from tinkerer to educated professional. and to play
together. J With the development since of fields, standards,
societies, awards, and much else, the professionalization of
engineering was well accomplished and the professional engineer
gained status as a provider of excellent technical service. In
2007, we find ourselves in the midst of another marked shift with
the advent of the Digital Age and a knowledge revoluFor complete
transcripts from the launch, see:
www.seas.harvard.edu/highlights/celebration.html
Deans Message
Venkatesh Venky Narayanamurti Dean, Harvard School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong
Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Professor of
Physics
Life On & Around Oxford StreetCelebrating past, present, and
futureOn September 20, Harvards School of Engineering and Applied
Sciences hosted Engineering a Renaissance: A Celebration of the
Past, Present, and Future and the Launch of the Harvard School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences. Over 600 students, staff, alumni,
and faculty gathered on the Pierce Hall lawn to usher in the first
new school at Harvard in seven decades. In addition to lunch under
the big top (the huge white tent seated more than 500 guests),
attendees heard remarks from two past presidents of the Harvard
Board of OverseersThomas E. Everhart 53, former president of the
California Institute of Technology and Professor of Electrical
Engineering and Applied Physics, Emeritus, and Susan Graham 64,
Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeleyas well
as Dean Venky and President and Lincoln Professor Drew Faust. After
two banners with the new SEAS seal were unfurled, Peter Gomes,
Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the
Memorial Church, conveyed a blessing upon the school. The launch
was followed by symposia held in Sanders Theatre. Charles Vest,
former President of MIT and President of the National Academy of
Engineering; H. Vincent Poor, Dean, Princeton School of Engineering
and Applied Science; and Subra Suresh, Dean of the School of
Engineering, MIT, all offered a mix of practical advice for
managing the newly christened school as well as a broader
perspective on the state of engineering and applied sciences across
the globe. Harvey Fineberg 67, 71, 72, 74, 80, President of the
Institute of Medicine and former Harvard Provost; Paul M. Horn,
Senior Vice President and Director of Research, IBM; and John
Holdren, Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at
the John F Kennedy School of Govt; Professor of Environmental
Science and Public Policy, tackled the big three topics: using
advances in engineering to make a meaningful impact on medicine,
business, and energy and the environment. At the evening gala
dinner, where much of the talk was where did you get that handsome
SEAS tie (ties along with custom-made scarves were later given to
many of the guests), a video, Engineering a Renaissance, which
traces the history of engineering and highlights those instrumental
in the creation of the SEAS, made its debut. In the video, Steve
Hyman summed things up beautifully: Having an engineering school is
absolutely critical to any vision for a successful Harvard in the
21st century.Dean Venky, whom President Faust called a rock star,
takes in some applause. (Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons.)
Links and nodes
Former Associate Dean for Computer Science and Engineering,
Michael D. Smith, acclimates to his new University Hall environs
and role as Dean of FAS. (Photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News
Office.)
Engineering is everywhere at HarvardIn keeping with SEASs
mission to be a connector and integrator, faculty and
administrators with roots in engineering and applied sciences have
played an increasingly strong role in filling highly visible and
influential positions throughout the University. One, Michael
Smith, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
and former Associate Dean at SEAS, has settled into his new role as
the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In a Boston Globe
article, Harry Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Sciences,
was quoted as saying, Fausts choice is a sign that Harvard is
willing to take engineering and computer science as seriously as
more esoteric subjects. Despite his new office in the white
marble-clad University Hall, Smith has remained close to SEAS; he
still parks his car in the Pierce lot each morning. Succeeding
Smith, Greg Morrisett, Allen B. Cutting Professor of Computer
Science, was appointed as Associate Dean for Computer Science and
Engineering in July. Barbara Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural
Sciences, also settled into a newThe beautiful beams and skylights
of the Gordon McKay Library were uncovered during the
renovation.
Sandia National Laboratories has entered into a relationship
with universities, including Harvard, and industries around the
country to establish the National Institute for Nano-Engineering
(NINE).
2 I SEAS Fall/Winter 2007
role as the Interim Dean of the Radcliffe Institute. The fit was
a natural one; Grosz has long been connected with Radcliffe,
serving as its first dean of science. Former Radcliffe Dean and now
Harvard President Faust commented, Barbara has played a critical
role in almost every aspect of the evolution of the Radcliffe
Institute. She has been enormously effective as the architect of
the science programs, building a highly successful model for
science fellowships that incorporates laboratory research, fosters
engagement with the broader scientific communities at Harvard and
in Boston, and encompasses a wide range of scientific fields.
Finally, kudos to NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson 88 (S.B.,
Engineering Sciences) who was elected to the Harvard Board of
Overseers.
NINE for NanoHarvard is among the participants of the National
Institute for Nano-Engineering (NINE), a partnership among
industry, the federal government, and U.S. universities,
spearheaded by Sandia National Laboratories. The partnership is
driven by concerns over the health of Americas science and
engineering education and innovation engine, as highlighted in the
2005 report Rising Above the Gathering Storm from the National
Academies. In addition to Harvard, the initial NINE members include
Intel Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., IBM, Lockheed Martin Corp., Corning
Inc., Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Proctor and Gamble, University of
Wisconsin, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of
California at Davis, University of Florida, Yale University,
University
of Texas at Austin, University of Illinois, Rice, Notre Dame,
University of New Mexico, and Harvey Mudd College.
Links and nodes
Gordon McKay Library sees the lightThe light streaming in
through the Gordon McKay Librarys skylights (covered over in the
1970s) tells only half the story. Glancing down from the
beautifully restored support girders, visitors are greeted with a
granite-topped circulation area, soft yellow bamboo floors, new
shelving units, and retro-modern chairs and tables. The hallway
leading to the library also underwent a dramatic makeover during
the past year. In addition to new faculty offices and a conference
room, a student lounge with cozy couches and chairs is now tucked
into a sweeping corner. J
OverheardUpon being asked about the potential for engineering
and applied sciences to make an impact, Harvard University
President Drew Faust remarked, To study technology in an
environment where you reach beyond the simple implications or
complicated implications of the technology itself into the even
more complex social, political, and ethical questions is, I think,
essential to our advance as a human race and to our advance as
learners, and retrievers, and disseminators of information.
Random BitsSticky situationsOur grads do it all, from circuit to
dessert design. Joanne Chang 91 (Applied Mathematics), owner of
Flour Bakery, bested celebrity chef Bobby Flay in a sticky bun
throw-down. For those who are not Food Network junkies, a
throw-down is a head-to-head cooking challenge centered around a
single item. With about 90 hungry Harvard students bussed in for
the taping, the judges included Dan Andelman of Bostons Phantom
Gourmet and Larry Kessel, Executive Chef for Residential Dining,
Harvard University Dining Services. If you want to make some sticky
goodness of your own, Changs famous (and amazing) recipe is
available at the Food Network site:
www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_37125,00.html
(above and left) Joanna Chang 91 once a financial analyst,
traded her life in the financial district for one in the kitchen.
(below) While todays Engineering Society has its roots in the 19th
century, activities (such as building robots) have kept up with the
times.
Good societyThe original Harvard Engineering Society debuted in
1893 and lasted until 1967. Taken from the Crimson archives: About
sixty men interested in the new engineering society met last night
in L.S.S.1. Professor Hollis presided. It is not intended to
displace the Electric Club, but hopes to encourage it and to be the
cause of the growth of other clubs in different departments of
engineering. The new society is to be more general and is intended:
1. To promote general knowledge and discussion of engineering
subjects, and 2. To promote intercourse and acquaintance between
members of the society and professional men. The society was
reinvigorated in 2004 and is now called the Harvard College
Engineering Society.J
SEAS Fall/Winter 2007 I 3
A Roundup of Discoveries & Innovations
Recent findings
(above left, top and middle right) Researchers grew cardiac
cells on a thin plastic sheet. When stimulated the engineered
material can be made to grip, walk, and even swim. (bottom right)
Tribler, a peer to peer system, may be ideal for e-commerce.
Muscular thin films grip, pump, walk, and swimAchieving an
innovative marriage of living cells and a synthetic substrate,
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Kevin Kit Parker and
postdoctoral scholar Adam W. Feinberg have found that a rubberlike
elastic film coated with a single layer of cardiac muscle cells can
semiautonomously engage in lifelike gripping, pumping, walking, and
swimming. The tissue engineering feat was reported in the September
7 issue of the journal Science. The researchers reported that the
exact movement undertaken by these hybrid muscular thin films
(MTFs) can be tailored by controlling muscle alignment relative to
the shape of the flexible film. Some MTFs even contract
spontaneously, an intrinsic property of cardiac muscle that allows
the devices to move around without user intervention. The thin
films can be sliced into any shape with an ordinary scalpel,
hinting at the way these biohybrid materials may one day be used in
the operating room. Both the shape of the MTF and the orientation
of the sarcomeres (the basic contractile units of muscle tissue) on
the film affect the type of action per-
formed. For example, rectangular MTFs with sarcomeres arrayed
lengthwise roll up into tubes upon muscular contraction, resulting
in a pumping action. A narrower, stiffer rectangular film contracts
in a pinching motion, while a triangular MTF engages in a kind of
walking. Parker and Feinbergs coauthors on the Science paper are
Alex Feigel, Sergey S. Shevkoplyas, and George M. Whitesides of
Harvards Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Sean
Sheehy of Harvards School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The
work was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencys
Biomolecular Motors Program, the Air Force Office of Sponsored
Research, the Harvard Materials Research Science and Engineering
Center, and the U.S. Army Research Office.
lies on file uploads and downloads as a form of currency.
Peer-to-peer systems like Tribler allow individual users to share
and download content in a manner akin to a digital swap meet. With
a decentralized structure, such systems are incredibly robust and
fast and can scale smoothly, since the software adjusts to the
number and behavior of individual users. But theres one very human
problem: People dont always play fair (taking more content than
they give) or act ethically (giving away or downloading, for
example, copyrighted materials). Thus a few big players centrally
control most file-sharing sites and e-commerce platforms, limiting
the variety of content and narrowing the means of distribution and
form of payment. As a way to break the monopoly, Parkes and his
team incorporated simple rules into the Tribler software to best
harness the power of peer-to-peer while minimizing the problems.
The more a user uploads content (i.e., earns) and the higher the
quality of those contributions, the more a user is able to download
later (i.e., spend) and the faster the download speed. Thus the ebb
and flow of bandwidth becomes a form of global currency.
Researchers aim to make bandwidth a global currencyInstead of
the usual cash or credit, imagine paying for your next purchase
with a pocketful of bandwidth. David Parkes, John L. Loeb Associate
Professor of the Natural Sciences, and colleagues have modified a
peer-to-peer video-sharing application called Tribler to explore a
model for electronic commerce that re-
4 I SEAS Fall/Winter 2007
Recent findings
(above right) Graduate student Alexander Wissner-Gross holds
some warm ice (photo by Stephanie Mitchell/ Harvard News Office);
(bottom right) Rob Woods robotic fly takes a short flight; (far
right) Howard Stone and colleagues work on controlling liquid shape
was cover-worthy.
To keep an eye on the virtual economy, the researchers envision
creating a Web of trust, a network among users to evaluate the
trustworthiness of fellow file swappersall aimed at preventing
content theft, counterfeiting, and cyber attacks. To learn more and
to download the software: http://tv.seas.harvard.edu
another group created nanoscale ice at room temperature, and
showed that this could act like unwanted glue in extremely small
devices of the future. But the new theoretical result is the first
to suggest a practical application for nano-ice.
peared in Metro UK, one of the highestcirculation papers in
Britain, and on the front page of the Washington Post Website. To
see the first flight: www.technologyreview.com/player/
07/07/19Ross/1.aspx
Applied physicists create warm iceAlexander Wissner-Gross, a
doctoral student, and Efthimios Kaxiras, Gordon McKay Professor of
Applied Physics, have developed a technique of using nanoscale warm
ice to make diamondtoughened medical implants more biocompatible.
The New Scientist reported the discovery in its September 4 issue:
The researchers arrived at their result by using a computer
simulation based on molecular dynamics. In particular, they
simulated the motion of water atoms sitting on top of a
sodium-diamond surface at different temperatures over long time
periods. The calculations show that the ice layer can remain frozen
at elevated temperatures thanks to dipole interactions between the
water molecules and the film surface. In 2001 researchers produced
tiny tubes of ice inside carbon nanotubes; last year
Robotic fly takes offWe reported on Assistant Professor of
Engineering Robert J. Woods creation of a life-sized robotic fly in
the last issue; over the summer the 60-gram bug really took off.
Technology Review reported, Other researchers have built robots
that mimic insects, but this is the first twowinged robot built on
such a small scale that can take off using the same motions as a
real fly. The dynamics of such flight are very complicated and have
been studied for years by researchers such as Ron Fearing, Woods
former Ph.D. advisor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Fearing, who is building his own robotic insects, says that he was
very impressed with the fact that Woods insect can fly: It is
certainly a major breakthrough. But Fearing says that it is the
first of many challenges in building a practical fly. The
broader-based media took to the story as well. A picture of the
critter ap-
Fluid experts control liquid shapeHoward Stone, Vicky Joseph
Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics, and his
collaborators ability to control liquid shape on surfaces made the
cover of the August edition of Nature Materials. The microfluidics
mavens discussed wetting on topographically patterned but
chemically homogeneous surfaces to demonstrate how to select shapes
during the imbibition of the texture the absorption of fluid by a
solid or colloid that results in swelling. They obtained different
shapes of the spreading of droplets, including octagons, squares,
hexagons, and circles, depending on the topographic features and
the liquid through its equilibrium contact angle. Applications
could include the design of self-cleaning surfaces and hydrophilic
spots to automate the deposition of probes on DNA chips. More
broadly, Stone hopes to create a designers toolbox for researchers
in wetting. J
SEAS Fall/Winter 2007 I 5
Crosscurrents
Harvard Innovations Revealed
High-quality and high-resolution cameras, day/night cameras used
for security and surveillance, and high-sensitivity detectors and
imagers for biotechnology applications could all benefit from black
silicon (pictured above).
e say it SEAS strives to find more ways to get research off the
journal page and onto the global stage. We do it in large part, by
commercializing science and technology. It sounds easylike the
flicking of a switchbut the commercialization of science is a
science in itself, as well as an art form.At Harvard the process of
commercialization applies whether faculty or students intend to
ready a product for the marketplace, share a process or device with
the potential to advance fields from physics to genetics, or
promote an open source technology for improving the health of the
population or protecting the planet. Commercializing an idea or
innovation may mean starting a new for- or not-for-profit company,
partnering with industry and government leaders, or licensing
innovations for profit and/or the public good. Increasingly, SEAS
is partnering with the Universitys Office of Technology Development
(OTD) to navigate the complexities of intellectual property
management, sponsored research, and6 I SEAS Fall/Winter 2007
W
Two Case Studies In The Commercialization And Power Of Silicon:
Sionyx And SienergyThe black silicon companypresented in
understated, lowercase type, the tagline for the startup SiOnyx
hints at a nefarious firm you might see portrayed in a conspiracy
thriller. However, the angelic subhead, Harnessing the power of
light, rapidly dispels such a notion. Started to commercialize
black silicon, a synthetic material able to efficiently absorb
light, SiOnyx is at the first stage of moving from a Eureka! moment
in the lab to a brand name in the marketplace. Eric Mazur,
Balkanski Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics,
and his students discovered the blackening process serendipitously
in the lab eight years ago. The team subjected ordinary silicon, a
material commonly used in everything from computer chips to solar
cells, to a series of very short, very intense laser pulses while
inside a halogen gas-filled chamber. In
business development. In 2005, the University appointed Isaac T.
Kohlberg as Senior Associate Provost and Chief Technology
Development Officer to reinvigorate the OTD. As quoted in the
Boston Globe, Kohlberg is not shy about his expectations: I want
people to say five years from now, even three years from now, that
Harvard has the most effective technology-transfer program in the
country. In the following pages we shed some light on the sometimes
arcane commercialization process by presenting a case study of a
startup in its early stages; highlighting the kinds of innovations
available for future development and licensing; and reporting on
two novel models for licensing technologies.
Im excited to see the results of my research begin to be
commercially developed.the presence of the laser light, the gas
reacts with the silicon surface, etching away some of it and
leaving a pattern of conical spikes behind. While normal silicon
absorbs a small amount of visible light (40 percent is reflected),
light hitting the surface of the black silicon flits between the
spikes. As a result, only 2 to 4 percent of light is reflected; the
rest remains trapped. Subsequent research revealed that, when
subjected to a magnetic field, the material also emits electrons.
It didnt take an engineer or venture capitalist to see the value in
a material that absorbed light (think of storing energy) and
emitted electronics (think of any modern communication device, from
cell phones to GPS systems). Moreover, because the spiked silicon
surfaces absorb nearly all light at wavelengths ranging from the
ultraviolet to the infrared, the material has potential use in
improving the performance of existing silicon devices. High-quality
and high-resolution cameras, day/night cameras used for security
and surveillance, and high-sensitivity detectors and imagers for
biotechnology applications could all benefit from the novel
material. Im excited to see the results of my research begin to be
commercially developed, said Mazur. SiOnyx is poised to take black
silicon to the next level.Scale of a black silicon chip shown by
comparison with a quarter.
Crosscurrents
One great appeal of solid oxide fuel cells is that they generate
electricity with very little pollution. In this process, oxygen
atoms are reduced on the porous cathode surface by electrons. The
oxide ions diffuse through the electrolyte to the fuel rich and
porous anode, where they react with the fuel (hydrogen) and give
off electrons to an external circuit and produce a harmless
byproduct, namely water
A solid startShriram Ramanathan, Assistant Professor of
Materials Science, made the move from a corporate to an academic
campus with ease. Prior to joining Harvard in 2006, he worked at
Components Research, Intel in Oregon in the areas of wafer bonding
and non-invasive microscopy of buried interfaces. He clearly took
some business sense with him, as SiEnergy, a spin-off co-founded by
Ramanathan that aims to commercialize solid oxide fuel technology,
received $500,000 in funding from Allied Minds in October. While
solid oxide fuel cells are prized for their efficiency in
converting chemical into electrical energy, they must operate at
extremely high temperatures (around 800-1000 degrees Celsius) for
desirable power density. Moreover, high temperature means a slow
start-up time and the use of exotic (that is, expensive) materials
to bear the heat. SiEnergy lowers the (temperature) bar, cutting
the operational temperature significantly while still retaining
efficient power density. To do so, Ramanathan is investigating
proven and robust microscale fabrication methods. The cool
invention can deliver a wide range of power in an environmentally
friendly manner, is highly scaleable, and has potential use as a
power source in areas
such as transportation (from forklifts to scooters), telecom,
and portable electronics (especially for backup energy). With his
team, including Alex Johnson, a Fellow at the Harvard University
Center for the Environment, Ramanathan has been developing initial
proof-ofconcept prototypes. OTD entered the picture in 2007 soon
after he disclosed the new invention. This led to inking a deal
with Applied Minds, which has provided seed funding to develop this
innovation further.
Striving for commercializationAs with most research
breakthroughs, the process of going commercial is not like the
overnight success stories attached to many a famed IPO or insanely
popular product. Technology, especially a lab-based innovation like
black silicon, takes timeoften decadesto weave its way into a
manufacturing process or to reach store shelves. In short, patience
is as important as patents.
The cool invention can deliver a widerange of power in an
environmentally friendly manner, is highly scaleable, and has
potential use as a power source in areas such as transportation,
telecom, and portable electronics.SEAS Fall/Winter 2007 I 7
Even when doing applied research, Ive always appreciated how
long it might take to understand the potential value of any
breakthrough, let alone commercialize it, says Robert L. Wallace
Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research
Fellow in Electrical Engineering Federico Capasso, who has high
expectations for his co-invention of the plasmonic laser antenna
(see sidebar below). Moreover, research in the basic sciences,
which may not initially seem to have any immediate application,
could one day lead to a device that will end up in everyones home
many decades later. Theres no magic ball that lets you see what
research even if application-directedwill end up translating well.
Further, university culture is not always open to commercializing
research, and sometimes the right-place/right-time
elements are not in an inventors favor. In a Crimson article,
Mazur recalled the initial resistance he ran into when he attempted
to file the original patent for the process of creating black
silicon soon after its discovery. Although its not much solace,
several decades earlier Harvard, by downsizing its computer
research efforts, missed out on licensing core memory, invented by
computer pioneer An Wang 48 (Ph.D., Applied Physics) before he
started Wang Industries. Dean Venky, who arrived at Harvard in
1998, says he has seen a gradual culture change at Harvard with
regard to commercializing science and technology. It is now
recognized that in a world where technology is playing an ever
greater role, commercialization provides a powerful way for
universities like Harvard to achieve their educational and research
mission, he says.
Back on the ground floor, Mazur, although pleased with where
SiOnyx is headed today, said that the patenting, licensing, and
startup process, even during a time when the University and
administrators are providing increased support to innovators, is
complicated and demands a lot of hard work. There is some light at
the end of the tunnel for Harvard innovators. The reorganized OTD
is seeking to make the commercialization process much easier,
guiding students and faculty through all the hoops and being there
when things go awry. Judging from OTDs initial success (see Model
licensing sidebar), this approach appears to be gaining traction.
In the coming years, a SiOnyx Inside logo might not be that
far-fetched. J
Crosscurrents
Technologies Available For Partnership With IndustrySEAS and OTD
are seeking industrial partners to commercialize a number of
emerging technologies developed by SEAS researchers. A few examples
follow below.
Instrument for rapid, realtime measurement of thermal properties
of materialsInventor: Joost Vlassak, Gordon McKay Professor of
Materials Engineering Technology: An instrument that relies on a
novel microscale sensor design and achieves an ultra-fast,
high-precision measurement of thermal properties of materials using
only thin films of the materials Potential: This is of particular
use for companies that are synthesizing new materials or new alloys
or for anyone involved in thin film deposition
Slowing and trapping light in photonic crystalsInventor: Frank
Vollmer, Junior Fellow at the Rowland Institute Technology: A novel
technique for slowing down light in a small optical chip to enhance
the interaction of light and molecules; the device is smaller than
traditional optical devices, delivers ultra-high-sensitive
detection and measurement, and is compatible with other micro- and
nanotechnologies Potential: The technology can be used for optical
sensing and chemical and biological detection as well as the
fabrication of exceptionally small lasers for applications in
displays and telecommunications, quantum optical devices, and
barcoding
Optical antennaInventors: Kenneth Crozier, Assistant Professor
of Electrical Engineering, and Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace
Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research
Fellow in Electrical Engineering Technology: The plasmonic laser
antenna technology has demonstrated high-intensity radiation (~1
GW/cm2) and spot sizes dramatically smaller than conventional
optics would allow Potential: The optical antenna can be readily
adapted to a wide range of wavelengths, from the visible to the
far-infrared, and has been implemented as a relatively simple
modification to off-the-shelf semiconductor laser diodes, enabling
advances in optical storage, near-field optical microscopy, and
maskless lithography
Droplets in dropletsInventor: David Weitz, Mallinckrodt
Professor of Physics and Applied Physics Technology: The formation
of double emulsions, droplets of one liquid within another droplet
Potential: The relative droplet sizes can be carefully and
uniformly controlled and are compatible with a wide variety of
chemistries, allowing diverse applications in the personal care,
food, and pharmaceutical industries J
8 I SEAS Fall/Winter 2007
Model LicensingNovel technologies often require equally novel
licensing agreements. A nonprofit bioengineering startup found a
way to extend a helping hand to those in need, and a nanotechnology
pioneer covered new ground in an unprecedented licensing agreement
for fabrication methods. Under the terms of the agreement, Harvard
has granted a royalty-free license to MEND for its work relating to
drugs and vaccines geared toward developing countries. MEND is also
pursuing commercial markets in the developed world for the sole
purpose of supporting its charitable mission. Nano-Terra focuses on
developing and commercializing industrial applications of these
technologies with corporate and government partners. Harvard will
receive royalties from products developed from the licensed
technologies and will receive a small equity stake in Nano-Terra.
The license granted Nano-Terra provides exclusive commercialization
rights to these technologies in areas outside the biomedical field
such as electronics, aerospace, energy, industrial products,
military uses, environmental testing, and consumer goods. The
intellectual property, involving molecular selfassembly, rapid
prototyping, electrical/ optical systems, soft lithography, and
microfluidics, has a potentially wide range of applications in a
number of important industries. The company has already entered
into codevelopment agreements with 3M; Merck KGaA, a major Asian
electronics manufacturer; and the Department of Defense. Nano-Terra
expects that these agreements will result in products being brought
to market or into active use within the next 18 to 36 months. J
Crosscurrents
Helping handIn June, Medicine in Need (MEND), founded at SEAS by
David Edwards, Professor of the Practice of Bioengineering, and
students, entered into a licensing agreement to bring innovative
vaccine and drug products to people in developing countries.
Efforts will focus initially on tuberculosis and are expected to
expand rapidly to other infectious diseases. MEND, a nonprofit drug
delivery technology platform corporation, combines proprietary
compound formulations with low-cost, high-throughput spray-drying
technologies to turn existing, proven injectable drugs and vaccines
into dry powders, enabling effective, safe treatment delivery via
pulmonary, oral, and injectable routes.
MEND will pay Harvard a royalty on these revenues, and under an
innovative gift-back mechanism, Harvard will donate most of these
payments back to MEND to support MENDs nonprofit effort to develop
advanced treatments and preventative therapies for diseases of
poverty.
Small science comes up bigOTD licensed a broad portfolio of
issued and pending patents covering nanoand microscale molecular
fabrication methods developed by Professor George Whitesides,
Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, and his
laboratory to Nano-Terra, Inc., a newly formed, privately held
company. The transaction represents one of the largest technology
transfer arrangements in Harvards history.
Protecting public interest in technology licensingconflicts of
interest. A summary of the nine points is as follows: Universities
should reserve the right to practice licensed inventions, and to
allow other nonprofit and governmental organizations to do so. In
March of 2007 Harvard University joined with a number of the
nations other leading universities and the Association of American
Medical Colleges (AAMC) to develop a set of shared guidelines
intended to protect the public interest when universities grant
licenses for the rights to their latest scientific advances to
private parties. The white paper-titled In the Public Interest:
Nine Points to Consider in Licensing University Technology aims to
encourage technology transfer agreements to facilitate broad
development and dissemination of universitygenerated technologies.
The white paper emphasizes avoiding excessive litigation, minding
export controls, and managing Exclusive licenses should be
structured in a manner that encourages technology development and
use. Strive to minimize the licensing of future improvements.
Universities should anticipate and help to manage technology
transfer related conflicts of interest. Ensure broad access to
research tools. Enforcement action should be carefully considered.
Be mindful of export regulations. Be mindful of the implications of
working with patent aggregators. Consider including provisions that
address unmet needs, such as those of neglected patient populations
or geographic areas, giving particular attention to improved
therapeutics, diagnostics and agricultural technologies for the
developing world. J
SEAS Fall/Winter 2007 I 9
Faculty News(above) David Weitzs fluid factories wowed the Wired
editors From creative teaching to global-minded research, SEAS
faculty caught the eye of major media in 2007.
Nota BeneGood fun ... Lola England de Valpine Professor of
Applied Mathematics L. Mahadevan received an Ig Nobel award for the
study of wrinkle patterns on sheets, saying, Theres no reason good
science cant be fun. The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded each October
for 10 achievements that first make people laugh, and then make
them think. Superheroes The October 1 issue of Newsweek featured
bioengineering Professor David Edwards and graduate student Ling
Wong among the superheroes fighting global disease. In addition,
Edwards penned an editorial for the journal Nature, Paris gets a
new cultural crucible, about the creation of Le Laboratoire in
Paris, which will presentL. Mahadevan, who won a famed Ig Noble
Prize for studying wrinkle patterns, believes that good science can
be fun.
to the public art and design works-inprogress resulting from
seasonal experiments. Leading international artists and scientists
will explore, for example, the experience of cell division through
visual art, making plants smarter using fluid mechanics,
personalizing urban homes through biometric testing, or designing a
synthetic world where avatars evolve through the uploading of
personal biometric data. His new book, Artscience: Creativity in
the Post-Google Generation, is due from Harvard University Press in
January 2008. Head start Bioengineer and Army Reservist Kit Parker
provided firsthand knowledge and technical expertise about head
trauma injuries on the battlefield for an article in Technology
Review: The big question for scientists like me is how the shock
wave is propagated into the skull We dont know that; we dont know
what the nature of these injuries areif nerves are being
compressed, sheared, the extent of vascular injury, and what is
going on in the microcellular environment. Virtual hours Inside
Higher Ed reported on instructor David Malan 07 (Ph.D., Computer
Science) and his use of virtual office hours in Computer Science
50: After connecting, students find themselves in a program
resembling a traditional chat room, but with a window that can show
what the instructor is seeing on his or her own computer. To
demonstrate program-
ming concepts or debug an assignment, a teaching fellow even has
the option to take control of a students computer and operate it
remotely, much like an IT specialist at a corporate help desk.
Plumbing research Wired Science blogged about David Weitzs advances
in microfluidics: David Weitz of the department of physics at
Harvard University showed that he and his team can make
microfluidic devices that do all sorts of tricks. They can sort
tiny drops of liquid, split them apart, combine them, and even make
remarkably identical drops inside of drops. One of his students
even founded a startup company, RainDance Technologies, to
commercialize chips as research tools.Computer scientist Barbara
Grosz, now Interim Dean at the Radcliffe Institute, has continued
to work to remove barriers for women faculty.
Next generation ... Science magazine highlighted Assistant
Professor of Bioengineering Debra Augustes decision to move to
Harvard. She said in the article, Theyre investing a lot in each
and every one of us. Pumped up The New Scientist, BBC Radio,
National Geographic, Ars Technica, Chemistry World, and other
members of the media were all pumped up about Kit Parkers research
on muscle-powered thin films (see p. 4). Digg it The aim of
computer scientist David Parkes and colleagues. to make Internet
bandwidth a currency (see pp. 45) caught the attention of New
Scientist and the BBC. The research also was dug by Digg.com, a
site which allows users to vote on what they consider the most
interesting content. For two days, a short blurb about the efforts
of Parkes made it to the sites front page for millions of visitors
to see. Doing the math ... Nature Boston profiled newly appointed
Interim Dean at Radcliffe Barbara Grosz: Harvard computer scientist
Barbara Grosz was told as a child that girls couldnt do math. She
has proven that wrong and worked to remove barriers for women
faculty. Best and brightest ... Computer scientist Radhika Nagpal
received airtime in a Microsoft Research video about their New
Faculty Fellowship program.
10 I SEAS Fall/Winter 2007
New Arrivals
RemembranceDavid Turnbull, whose last appointment was Gordon
McKay Professor of Applied Physics, died on April 28. His seminal
work included theoretical and experimental studies of nucleation of
crystals, the glass transition and the amorphous state, crystal
growth, and atomic diffusion. The Materials Research Society (MRS),
which has awarded a lectureship prize in his name since 1992,
summed up Turnbulls contributions in this way: David Turnbull was a
towering figure in materials science. He distinguished himself in
many areas of materials research, including kinetics to crystal
nucleation and growth, diffusion in metals, and glass formation.
Among his numerous honors and awards were the MRS von Hippel award
in 1979 and the Japan Prize in 1986 his legacy lives on in all his
published work as well as through his students, associates, and
colleagues, and through the tremendous volume of work within
materials science.
Faculty News
Joanna AizenbergGordon McKay Professor of Materials Science;
Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Study; Professor of Chemistry and Chemical
Biology BACKGROUND: Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science,
Israel M.S. and B.S. from Moscow State University AREAS OF FOCUS:
Biomineralization; biomimetics; self-assembly; crystal engineering;
surface chemistry; nanofabrication; biomaterials; biomechanics and
biooptics www.seas.harvard.edu/aizenberg_lab/
(above) The New York Times said Eric Mazur is as experimental in
his classroom as he is in his research laboratory. (below) While
money doesnt grow out of Ethernet wires, David Parkes and
colleagues are looking for a better and safer means for
e-commerce.
AwardsJeremy Bloxham, Harvard College Professor and Professor of
Computational Science; Division Dean for the Physical Sciences,
FAS; and Mallinckrodt Professor of Geophysics, was appointed as a
New Fellow of the Royal Society. Materials scientist Joanna
Aizenberg was named the 2008 recipient of the Ronald Breslow Award
for Achievement in Biomimetic Chemistry. The award, which
recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of biomimetic
chemistry, was established on March 24, 2001, at a symposium held
at Columbia University in honor of Ronald Breslow 52, 54, 55. David
A. Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical
Engineering, was awarded Michigan Techs highest honor, the Melvin
Calvin Medal of Distinction. Daniel Jacob, Vasco McCoy Family
Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Engineering,
and Steven Wofsy, Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric
and Environmental Science, were among the participants of the IPCC
report, an assessment of climate change research, for which the
2007 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded. L. Mahadevan, Lola England de
Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, and Jan Skotheim received
the 23rd Franois Naftali Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics for
their paper, Soft lubrication: The elastohydrodynamics of
nonconforming and conforming contacts. This award was given in 2006
by the American Physical Society. Venkatesh Narayanamurti, John A.
and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied
Sciences and Dean of SEAS, was elected a fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. Michael Rabin, Thomas J. Watson Sr.
Professor of Computer Science, was appointed as a Foreign Member of
the Royal Society. James R. Rice, an expert in theoretical
mechanics, was awarded the 2007 Maurice A. Biot Medal for
Poromechanics. The nomination letter read in part, Jim Rices
contributions to the mechanics of porous materials are so
extensive, fundamental, and diverse that it is difficult to
summarize them succinctly, even though they constitute only a part
of his contributions to the broader area of mechanics, including
fracture, plasticity, computational mechanics and geomechanics,
materials science, and geophysics.
Beautiful mind ... The New York Times took a teaching lesson
from applied physicist Eric Mazur in a Q&A entitled, Using the
Beauties of Physics to Conquer Science Illiteracy: Mazurs own
Harvard course, Physics 1b, is the kind of science class that even
a literature student might love playful, engaging, something like a
trip to a science museum. Indeed, Dr. Mazur, 52, is as experimental
in his classroom as he is in his research laboratory. Lifesavers
... Princeton Engineering Schools EQUAD News highlighted
collaborative research on nanoparticle drug delivery methods with
Harvard bioengineer David Edwards. Feel the Force ... In a feature
story, the June 14 issue of the journal Nature unwrapped the
mystery of the curious Casimir force with applied physicist
Federico Capasso. J
Hanspeter PfisterGordon McKay Professor of the Practice of
Computer Science; Director of Visual Computing, Initiative in
Innovative Computing BACKGROUND: Ph.D. in Computer Science, State
University of New York at Stony Brook M.Sc. in Computer Science,
State University of New York at Stony Brook M.Sc. in Electrical
Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich,
Switzerland AREAS OF FOCUS: Computer graphics; machine learning;
computer vision; scientific visualization; computer graphics
hardware
Promotions and AppointmentsFawwaz Habbal, Executive Dean, was
appointed Senior Lecturer on Applied Physics. Habbal teaches
Introduction to Nanobiotechnology: Concepts and Applications at the
Harvard Extension School and is part of the team-taught seminar,
Applied Physics 289r, Interdisciplinary Chemistry, Engineering, and
Physics. Matt Welsh was promoted to Associate Professor of Computer
Science. Anthony G. Oettinger was appointed Gordon McKay Research
Professor of Applied Mathematics and Research Professor of
Information Resources Policy.
SEAS Fall/Winter 2007 I 11
I was actually You get a feeling in your body before you hit
Entering graduate just going to come school does not over to the
U.S. for a ball that this is going to be a great shot... mean that
Gulda a year to learn Eng- That can be the same thing with problem
sets plans to give up lish and to see a golf. Not only is lot of
the country, .. You see everything: it is just there. golf a
lifelong she says. But a coach at CU Boulder took sport, but shes
found a way to relate her an interest in her game and her grades
sporty side to her academic oneboth (Gulda earned a 3.911 GPA in
engineerare as much mental as physical. You ing physics) and
suggested nearly from get a feeling in your body before you hit the
start that she consider going pro. a ball that this is going to be
a great shot. Some days you can just stand there and During her
first and only summer be oh my gosh, this is going to go in among
the professionals, she did not and it will go in. It is a flow that
you get. make the cut for the major LGPA tourThat can be the same
thing with probnaments; she did, however, come close, lem sets.
Some days you really feel this landing in the top 30 during her
second is a great day of doing homework. You try. To put this in
perspective, it norsee everything: it is just there. J mally takes
about five years to break
Student News
GraduateDriven
into the majors. In short, she could have made itbut chose not
to. As a pro, Gulda watched girls whose entire lives sunup to
sundown were spent golfing, with personal trainers, coaches,
families, and partners all like a kites tail in tow. Moreover, she
says that until you make it to those years when you can support
yourself, life is composed of nonstop practice, play, and plane
rides. I have so many passions for other things that I want to fit
in my life, she says about her decision to leave the links for the
lab. With a laugh Gulda adds that she did have the occasional dream
about having her own brand like Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie.
She adds, I think when it starts to get dark and the weather starts
to get bad and the problem sets start to take 20 to 30 hours, I
will think it would be nice to be on the golf course.
Student AwardsGraduate student Adam C. Siegel and his colleagues
received honorable mention in Sciences Visualization Challenge for
their entry Tiny Metal Pathways. The team tied a microstructure 200
micrometers wide into a beautiful knot to showcase a potential
technique for blending tiny electrical circuits into fabric
materials. Computer science graduate student Kelly Heffner was
honored with the Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate
Student Teaching of Undergraduates. Paul Novotny, an engineering
sciences Ph.D. candidate, won a best student paper award for his
paper GPU Based Real-time Instrument Tracking with ThreeDimensional
Ultrasound at the 9th Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted
Intervention (MICCAI) conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. A group of
Harvard undergraduates traveled to Tokyo to compete in the
Association for Computing Machinerys 31st annual International
Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM-ICPC) on March 1216. From among
6,099 teams selected from 1,756 universities in 82 countries
competing at 205 sites and hundreds more competing at preliminary
contests worldwide, 88 teams of students competed for bragging
rights and prizes. The Harvard team received an honorable mention
for its efforts. J
A
second after her cap dusted the ground at the University of
Colorado at Boulder, the Swedish-born Maria Persson Gulda grabbed
her clubs to join the ranks of professional golfers. Prior to her
arrival at Harvard to pursue a Ph.D. in applied physics, she was on
courses, not taking them. Her journey began by happenstance. Her
parents, who do not play, lived a few steps from one of Swedens
most famed greens, the Halmstad Golf Club. At 10 Gulda took up the
sportand discovered that her love of the game was equal to her
talent. She then set her sights on the U.S. for college because of
the increased opportunities to combine academics with
athletics.
Maria Persson Gulda (above), who entered the Ph.D. program in
the fall of 2007, practices her swing (below).
12 I SEAS Fall/Winter 2007
Student News
The goal becomes giving students sufficiently interesting
projects to help them decide whether or not they are going to slog
through four years of EE.Faculty member Todd Zickler adds some
punch to ES 50: Introduction to Electrical Engineering.
UndergraduateTeaching on cue
T
he cover of the 200708 CUE Guide parodies the Wikipedia site,
the popular yet often controversial usergenerated open source
encyclopedia. As with Wikipedia, students often receive their first
impressions of Harvard courses by reading what others have said
about them. As with all entries, the one for Engineering Sciences
50: Introduction to Electrical Engineering, a course that Assistant
Professor of Electrical Engineering Todd Zickler painstakingly
reengineered three years ago, can be reduced to a single rating:
4.3 (thats the mean ranking [out of 5] of the course, and among
similar courses thats quite high). But because tastes differ, the
more discriminating future patron might ask a deeper question: Just
what goes into a course? Judging by Zicklers experience with the
revised ES 50, the proper ingredients and careful preparation are
as essential as seamless execution. For the specifics that go
beyond the CUE Guide, we asked Zickler to give his own personal
assessment of whats involved in crafting a course. Use primary and
secondary sources. I think every time you have a new class theres
somewhat of a learning curve. As part of an initial planning
effort, it is a combination of looking at other places, your past
experience, and whats
out there in terms of textbooks, says Zickler. Year-to-year
courses continue evolve, especially in fields like engineering. The
goal becomes giving students sufficiently interesting projects to
help them decide whether or not they are going to slog through four
years of EE. Vary the course based on the class. Group dynamics can
totally change from year to year, says Zickler. Depending on the
nature of the students enrolled in a courseespecially a smaller one
like ES 50a class can be different every year. Even with the most
roadtested materials, an instructor must be ready to adapt on the
fly. Grades, especially in the hard sciences, are guideposts.
Zickler views grades as indicators, especially because they are
part quantitative and part qualitative assessments. Grades give
students a sense of where they are relative to their peers and a
way to measure progress through the semester. I think in a lot of
large engineering schools, especially public institutions, grades
are used to weed people out, he explains. At Harvard we are trying
to do the opposite. I definitely think we have to be conscious
about how grades are assigned. Academics are one part of an
education. Just as faculty members balance research, teaching, and
committee work, todays students juggle their courses with
everything from writing for The Crimson to playing rugby to working
a job or running a startup company out of their dorm room. Given
that, Zickler
is not surprised that most concentrators do not end up turning
their courses into a direct career path. Where do students end up?
I dont really have that concern whether they end up as professional
engineers, Zickler says. His goal is to encourage, even if
indirectly, more American students to learn about science and
engineering. CUE scores are relative. Everyone, even faculty, likes
getting good marks. Zickler does use the CUE as a key reference,
saying, The way that I found it useful is when people actually
write comments. I am not really sure how to read the numbers as
they are highly variable. His mixed experience with the CUE likely
echoes the experiences of other faculty. Ive had years where I have
said, This is best year ever and my CUE scores are lower than in
other years, he points out. Teaching is a two-way street. A
professor learns as the students learnalthough the lessons are
somewhat different. If it wasnt for ES 50 Id almost forget I was an
electrical engineer, says Zickler with a wink. The class is a way
of keeping you in touch with basic fields and forces you to stay
broad. Zickler also applauds the Harvard students themselves,
considering them some of the best he has ever interacted with
anywhere. Having this sort of excuse to meet interesting students
and hear their stories and watch them learn and for some of them to
shift their focus and become engineers thats probably the best
part. J
SEAS Fall/Winter 2007 I 13
flying spores. When he speaks about his favorite
subjectinterdisciplinary approaches to problem-solvinghis sentences
pop and plunge. Brenner has a habit of stopping mid-predicate to
allow the next thought to hurtle into the air. The whole game is
defining what the question is, he says. Everybody thinks that they
know what the question is. But the truth is that nobody knows what
the question is! Faculty members and students come to Brenner to
collaborate on tricky problems, from understanding how biofilms
evolve to unearthing the mechanics of a whales ultra-efficient
flipper. Brenner acknowledges that sometimes he will send them away
with only a question. The scenario is less bleak than it appears.
Half the struggle of doing science, Brenner says, is posing a
question about a topic in such a way that the answer ends up
quantitatively sound while revealing a truth about the initiating
physical system. A good question guides thinking and research,
ensuring that the conclusion will lead to something new that can
also be measured. If you really understand something in science,
says Brenner, you can describe it in a sentence as precise as an
equation. Its as simple as that. The difficulty lies in looking at
a problem in such a way that it becomes simple. The math itself
isnt hard! Everyone thinks the problem is with math.
In ProfileApplied mathematician Michael Brenner, who earned a
Ph.D. in physics, realized his true academic calling was to solve
eclectic problems.
Mathematical thinkingDownplaying the difficulty of the math
might seem counterintuitiveto both those who love and those who
loathe numbers. Brenner, who admits he can be an academic gadfly,
has his sights on broader aims. During his tenure on the
Universitys General Education Committee he lobbied his fellow
members to create an introductory quantitative thinking
requirement. His radical goal: positioning applied mathematics as
an epistemologya way of thinking, not just as a practice. Its true
that a lot of my colleagues are offended by the notion that applied
mathematics is just a user facility like an electron microscope, he
explains.
Michael BrennerQuestioning (mathematical) authority
R
esearch into the evolutionary relationship between fungi and
feces takes Michael Brenner, Glover Professor of Applied
Mathematics and Applied Physics, into what he dubs the zone of
repugnance. But dont expect to see the following problem in a
standard math text: Fungi grown in animal waste must escape the
waste to ensure reproductive success. Animals, which serve as
carriers, eat outside a zone of repugnance around the dung. Thus,
the fungi
launch their spores into the air at high velocities so they land
beyond the noeat zone. How do evolutionary pressures affect the
shape of spores so as to minimize drag, ensuring the spores are
flung farther and faster? Brenner teaches undergraduates in Applied
Mathematics 50 how to use unorthodox situations like the
reproductive dilemma of humble fungi as material for quantitative
investigation. His lectures, in fact, resemble in pace and
execution the projectile motion of
14 I SEAS Fall/Winter 2007
The whole game is defining what the question is, he says.
Everybody thinks that they know what the question is. But the truth
is that nobody knows what the question is!We all think were in the
center of the universe. Of course I really believe applied
mathematics is It. Were about the art of asking the question. The
nice thing about Harvard is that everyone wants to know what the
question is. Brenners conversion to the discipline occurred as he
was earning a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. He
realized that he loved solving eclectic problems, regardless of
their field of origin. At the time, Brenner wasnt even aware that
had stumbled into applied mathematicshe didnt even know that what
he enjoyed had a name. favor of allowing students to learn how to
state problems quantitatively. He sketches aloud the outlines of a
quantitative liberal arts degree. You ought to be able to come in,
think about some aspect of the worldwhatever you find
interestingand quantify it. Fifty percent of undergraduates enter
Harvard interested in math or science, but we only get 10 percent
as concentrators. Thats because their idea of mathematics is based
on the definition of math in high school, which is only about
method. In a way, the reform proposals are his own manner of
grappling with the one problem he says he cannot solve: how to
teach undergraduates how to think. How does one learn it? I dont
know. Iteration. The challenge is how to build a set of courses
that will allow he breaks off mid-sentence. He must be narrowing in
on a question: Surely if spores have found a brilliant solution for
survival in the dank forest, academics can find a way to seamlessly
integrate mathematics into the groves of academe. Once the problem
is clearly defined, just solve for x. J
In profile
Brenner is collaborating with colleagues at Harvard Medical
School to understand the way biofilms, akin to pond scum, form and
grow. (Photo courtesy of Roberto Kolter.)
Solving for x The evolution of hemoglobin. In collaboration with
Ron Milo, Systems Biology Fellow; Marc Kirschner, Professor of
Systems Biology; and Jennifer Hou, a graduate student in the
Physics Department, Brenner investigates using hemoglobin,
responsible for the high oxygen saturation of blood, to understand
the effect of physiological adaptations on evolutionary
adaptations. How did hemoglobin come to adjust our oxygen levels in
the blood during and after physical activities like climbing a
mountain? Limiting the growth of biofilms. Limiting the growth of
biofilms, ubiquitous microorganisms like the muck that forms on the
surface of the water in an aquarium tank, is critical for industry
(from aiding in oil recovery to saving ship hulls) and medicine
(mitigating infection in medical implants). Working with Roberto
Kolter, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard
Medical School, Brenner wants to determine whether understanding
the basic physics of the morphology of biofilms will allow
researchers to better understand its evolution. Splitting a jet.
Technologies from inkjet printers to microfabrication rely on the
fragmentation and precise control of liquid jets into droplets.
Brenner and former physics graduate student Srinivas Paruchuri have
demonstrated the possibility of splitting a flowing liquid jet into
two separate subfilaments by applying sufficient stress to the
surface of the jet. Such a process could be used to create small
polymeric fibers, something once considered a mere theoretical
fantasy. Figuring out whale flippers. Humpback whales, despite
their massive scale, are incredibly agile swimmers. Scientists
believe there could be a relationship between their swimming skills
and the bumps on their back flippers, which might affects stall
delay (the sudden increase in angle of a flipper or wing due to a
change in water or air flow). Brenner is working with Silas Alben
(a former postdoctoral fellow at SEAS) and Ernst van Nierop, a
current SEAS graduate student, to understand the aerodynamic
mechanism of the bumpy whale tale and then apply such findings to
wing design in airplanes.
Quantifying the worldAt SEAS, the former physicist now
collaborates with researchers from across the University, working
with evolutionary biologists and engineers alike. The collaborative
and interdisciplinary nature of his research continually softens
his partiality for his found field of study. In his ideal world,
faculty members in applied mathematics, statistics, and economics
at Harvard would work together to create a concentration for
undergraduates in which disciplinary questions and problems are
dropped in
Fungi spores, shown close up, turn out to be ripe material for
mathematical analysis. (Inset image courtesy of Marcus Roper, Ph.D
07 and Anne Pringle.)
SEAS Fall/Winter 2007 I 15
Intersections
(left) In a sign that video games have become universal, the
hack of the John Harvard statue (dressed as Master Chief, a
character from Halo 3, by MIT students) in September sent blogs all
abuzz. (below) Ben Decker, one of the co-founders of the Harvard
Interactive Media Group feels right at home in virtual
settings.
pp.45); instructor David Malan 07 (Ph.D., Computer Science)
offers virtual office hours; and entirely virtual courses, like one
taught by graduate student Rebecca Nesson at Harvard Law School,
are becoming more common. Facebook, the social network site
developed in a Harvard dorm room, has already defined a generation.
In short, something is going on, and it merits further study.
Interactive Attractionn late September, timed with the release
of Halo 3, a widely anticipated video game, a group of MIT hackers
gave the John Harvard statue a makeover. Adorned with a battle
helmet and clutching a futuristic assault rifle, the bronze figure
mimicked the games hero, even looking ready to leap from its
foundation. For Ben Decker 08, one of the founders of the Harvard
Interactive Media Group and creator of a custom concentration in
the area, the hack conveyed a message: Interactive media is Ivy
League material. For the uninitiated, Decker offered a definition
of the emerging field (via email, of course) that spanned several
pages and contained footnotes.
I
Interactive media devices, mobile or otherwise, are no more
isolating than traditional media, he says. Youre not talking to the
guy next to you if youre sitting reading a book either. That girl
engrossed in her Game Boy might be networking with friends even if
the Blackberry execs thumbing in a few after-work emails look more
productive. In fact, life lived in the Matrix may offer more
stimulus than standard options like hanging out at the mall or, for
the over-21 set, cruising a club. In many cases, we think
interactive media produces a much better social environment, as
youre doing fun, epic things with the people you meet, not just
awkwardly standing around drinking beer, Decker says.
I think you study interactive media as you study anything: with
the broadest toolset possible, writes Decker. I think you need
straight, empirical, measureand-record lab work (on, say, skin
conductance in response to the presentation of ....), and I think
you need deep, analytical, rambling ethnographies. You need
proposed conceptual frameworks and meta-reviews. In short, the
tried and true tools of the human sciences still apply. Hitting a
moving target, however, requires ever-evolving aim. Technologys
tough because its always new, so I think theres more room than in
many disciplines for nothing fancy, lets just figure out whats
going on here kinda stuff, but theres plenty of room for the
nittygritty as well, I think. Decker, happy to gaze into the LCD
ball, says he senses trends. For example, Nintendos video game
system, the Wii which offers a controller that allows the users
actions to directly influence events on-screenis just the tip of
the iceberg. Hardware, says Decker, will
Such epic quests led Decker to pursue an academic one. Digital
interactions It boils down to platforms which alcan be tracked,
distilled, and studied. low for conversations across space and The
beauty of many interactive techtime, he wrote. Put another way, hes
nologies, particularly video games interested in finding and
virtual worlds, out what happens Imagine millions of people in
real-time is that they present when media stops beabsolutely
controling only a passive, re- environments, what an opportunity to
lable, ground-up receptive experience. study ethics and other
social attributes. creations of reality, wrote Decker in an esSuch
interactions are In essence, its the lab conditions say. Imagine
millions not limited to pulverof people in real-time everyone
dreams of. izing pixels, Decker environments; what points out.
Interacan opportunity to study ethics and othtion could be in the
form of a phone er social attributes! In essence, its the call, or
anytime an input-stimulus loop lab conditions everyone dreams of.
is occurring, from ATMs to APBs. In fact, such conversations go on
far more than many expect in a world where everyone seems engaged
in screen- or earbound isolation.16 I SEAS Fall/Winter 2007
Sim universityHere at SEAS, David Parkes studies how people
behave in online economies (see
become even more alive and dynamic. More broadly, the
convergence of entertainment media and the high-technology sector
will continue. The next big thing in interactive media is
ubiquitous computing, he says, referring to fully immersive
computing hardware that is built into everything from trashcans to
billboards. With ubiquitous computing, you stop using various forms
of interactive media discretely and begin simply to exist
digitally. This may seem a bit odd, but we are halfway there
already as virtual goods and services are sold and people are
buying virtual real estate, game characters, and so on. Even via
email, Decker exudes intellectual passion most lifelong scholars
rarely achieve, as if on the cusp of a new truth. For sure, I am
constantly and viscerally amazed by technology. In particular,
wireless technologies really just do it for mecontrolling, with
infinite precision, the sea of electrons flowing around you,
flowing through you. How can you not like that?! J
Intersections
Law Professor Empowered by the Grid
Ternary plot of Bush versus Gore as run in the precincts
constituting Texas Congressional District 24 in 2000
A
EventsVisit www.seas.harvard.edu/newsandevents for the latest
details, dates, and times for SEAS events. Here are some highlights
from the past months and a list of future opportunities: The
science of pizza - On December 15th, children, families, students,
teachers, and the curious are invited to spend an hour exploring
the science behind one of our favorite foods. Check the SEAS
website for more details. In November, researcher Jonathan
Schaeffer, University of Alberta, told the story of his nearly two
decade personal and professional quest of programming a machine to
win the World Checkers Championship. Under his tutelage, Chinook
became the first program in any game to win the right to play for a
human world championship. While the program lost the championship
match in 1992, Chinook became the undisputed champion in 1994. By
1996, it became clear that the program was much stronger than any
human, so Chinook uttered its last King Me! The Winston Chen
lecture series continues to bring some of the brightest minds to
Oxford Street. In October, L. B. Freud of Brown University
presented The Mechanics of a Molecular Bond Under Force. Look for
several industry-related events in the spring, including the
Industrial Partnership Programs annual workshop on topics in
materials science and Frontiers of Spintronics and Spin-Coherent
Phenomena in Semiconductors: A Symposium in Honor of E. I.
Rashba.
few months after arriving at Harvard Law School, Assistant
Professor Jim Greiner turned to computer scientists at the nearby
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences for some legal powerof a
sort. He sought the computational muscle of Crimson Grid, based at
SEAS, and other grid systems, including the Research Computing
Environment at the Harvard-MIT Data Center, to analyze and uncover
the often-hidden complexity of the redistricting process in
elections. Typically, after a census the boundaries of various U.S.
elective districts are redrawn to ensure that equal representation
is maintained relative to any changes in the population. Some
creative state legislators redraw the lines in ways that disfavor
racial and ethnic minorities, a tactic called gerrymandering.
Greiner points out that because voting happens behind closed
curtains, finding the truth between the lines the way redistricting
affects voting resultsproves difficult, especially because data
from standard methods like exit polls might not be available or
reliable. Grid computingrelying on drips and drabs of idle cycle
time from hundreds
of individual computer processors has the oomph to crunch
through decades of census and voting data and the ability to run
sophisticated Bayesian algorithms. Working with Government
Department Professor Kevin Quinn, Greiner has harnessed this power
to compute a voters-eye view of an election. For example, the
diagram above illustrating data from the 2000 election, provides a
compelling way to look at voter behavior. The larger dots indicate
more populous precincts; brighter shades indicate a greater Gore
share of the two-party vote. If one drops an imaginary vertical
line from the Hispanic vertex to the bisector of the triangles
bottom leg, one sees that, generally, most non-Hispanic voters in
predominantly Hispanic districts were white voters. If white voters
in predominantly Hispanic precincts voted more Democratic than
white voters in predominantly white precincts, aggregation bias
could affect the estimates of the preferences of Hispanic voters,
who turned out in low percentages. In short, Greiner and Quinn are
using clever computation to reveal how individuals votedwithout
violating their rights or revealing their identities. Combining a
knowledge of law with statistics, Greiner can then determine, for
example, if a district is racially polarized along party lines.
JSEAS Fall/Winter 2007 I 17
vinyl. I have always loved working with words, and I have long
loved nonsense poems and songs. I just had to try my hand at
computer-related parody. It was pretty awful stuff, but more
recently I have had some sonnets and other formal poetry accepted
by The Lyric, Iambs and Trochees, and Mbius, so maybe that early
doggerel was good practice in the mechanics. You pursued computer
science when programmers were likely singing to a small audience.
Did anyone know what a programmer did in the 1970s? I was part of a
teenage gang that aggressively sought out computer time. Vincent
Learson of IBM had arranged for his alma mater, Boston Latin
School, to have an IBM 1130 minicomputer; I learned to program in
Fortran in ninth grade. I can remember touring the Aiken computer
lab and being shown the Harvard IMP (Interface Message Processor) a
few weeks before it was actually connected to the ARPANET. So you
entered college running. By the time I arrived at Harvard as a
student, I had been programming for almost four years, had learned
five different programming languages, and had implemented the LISP
language on the IBM 1130. In the end, I got a fine liberal arts
education at Harvard as well as twoIn addition to writing and
coding, Steele did some doodling for the famed New Hackers
Dictionary.
Alumni NotesGuy Steele 75 is a Sun Fellow for Sun Microsystems
Laboratories, working on the Programming Language Research project.
His claim to fame is that he co-wrote the specification of the Java
programming language.
Guy Steele 75Making language singundergraduate and graduate
years shutachines are alive with the tling between Harvard and MIT,
where sound of Fortran/With numhe received his Ph.D. in 1980. After
a bers theyve crunched for a thousand short stint as a professor at
Carnegie hours/They add and subtract to the Mellon, he joined the
famed yet ill-fated sound of Fortran/And raise fractions Thinking
Machines, a to unheard of powers. (Sung to the I originally wanted
to be a pure math- company not shy about its ambitions for AI. tune
of The Sound ematician, perhaps with a side interest He eventually
settled of Music.) down at Sun MicrosysLong before emoti- in
physics, and thought of computers tems, where he helped cons,
computer lan- as merely a pleasantly diverting. make Java the
current guage pioneer and lingua franca for coding. Despite his
sometime amateur librettist Guy Steele programming prowess, Steele
says: At 75 was expressing his trials and tribulaheart Im
reallywell, I was about to tions in musical parodies. (Those ready
say a software guy, but the truth is that for more cringe-inducing
classics only Im a writer. need to bring up www.poppyfields.net/
filks in their Web browser.) Steele, one of the grand masters of
CS, spent his student days doing more than hacking lyrics,
literally inventing entirely new programming languages (notably
Scheme) for the then nascent field. A New England native, he
graduated from Boston Latin before spending his18 I SEAS
Fall/Winter 2007
M
Youre famous for the Great Quux (Steeles pseudonym) poem
collection. Were you an Andrew Lloyd Webber wannabe? Please! Maybe
a Tim Rice wannabe; I can still remember when Jesus Christ
Superstar came out and I listened to it on
very different perspectives on computer science. I think I
exasperated a number of professors at both ends of Cambridge by too
frequently countering opinions and assertions with, But Prof.
So-and-so [at the other school] says ... Did you have a sense that
something big was coming in computing? Apparently I overlapped with
Bill Gates at Harvard but never met him. I didnt know much about
the homebrew scene in the 1970s; I was working on my graduate
degree and had access to large computers. Occasionally I dreamed
that I might have exclusive access to a computer that big and that
fast (one megahertz! one megabyte! one megabuck). So when did it
really hit home that computing was not simply for scientists? In
1987 I bought a Macintosh II and a LaserWriter, and I used them to
desktoppublish the second edition of Common LISP: The Language. It
was then that I really appreciated the personal computer
revolution.
And you helped make programming more personal through your clear
(and often humorous) writing. Is that a natural gift or did you
develop that skill? Any humor I have, I got from my father, I
suppose, and I should credit the jokes that Donald Knuth put in his
indexes with making me feel that maybe I could get away with a
little humor in technical writing, too. Writing is a skill that I
have pursued quite intentionally. I have worked very hard to
develop a style of technical writing that avoids ambiguity without
sounding overly fussy. That has required thinking carefully about,
and coming to grips with, some of the deficiencies of English.
Whats your litmus test for success? As I read over what I have
written I ask myself: For every sentence, how could this be
misunderstood? Can this sentence be parsed in more than one way? I
rewrite to avoid ambiguity and pay very careful attention to word
placement, especially with only. I have reread, reworded, and
rearranged this
paragraph about nine times, and I think its now ready to ship.
Such a philosophywriting as rewritinglikely applies as much to
crafting lyrics as to programming as to life. I have very broad
interests. I originally wanted to be a pure mathematician, perhaps
with a side interest in physics, and thought of computers as merely
a pleasantly diverting (well, okay, obsessively diverting) hobby.
But I did take a computer course in my first year, and when I
realized I really didnt have the right sort of imagination for
higher mathematics, I was well positioned to make the switch. I did
do a graduate minor in quantum mechanics and also studied circuits
and hardware design at MIT; this breadth has served me well. And
for you, breadth boils down to ? I care about communicating clearly
and precisely. Computer languages are especially good for precisely
describing processes and relationships, but I like all languages.
Square dancing and carpentry and heraldry and music and cooking
have their specialized languages, and I love them all. J
Alumni Notes
Survey SaysIn the spring, 22,700 Harvard alumni received a
survey designed to assess their experiences at and attitude about
Harvard University. Seventeen hundred of the random samples were
directed to SEAS alumni. Overall, those surveyed reported strong
agreement with the overall vision for the School; believe that
increased faculty contact and hands-on learning are the most
important aspects of a first-rate education; and would like more
specific ways to engage with entrepreneurship and professional
activities during their reunions. On a scale of 1, meaning very
negative, to 6, meaning very positive, alumni rated their feeling
towards SEAS at a healthy 4.43.Very negative Mean 1 2 3 4 5 Very
positive 6
Recent GiftsIn the late spring, SEAS received an anonymous
corporate gift of $250,000 to establish the Liviu Librescu Graduate
Student Research Fellowship in Engineering and Applied Sciences.
The gift honors a man who contributed to the field of engineering
and celebrates Professor Librescus commitment to the community of
Virginia Tech. In response to the announcement of the transition
from a Division to a School, John Fetcher SB 34, SM 35 made a
donation. His letter announcing the gift not only congratulated
Dean Venky on the success of the new school but also outlined
Fetchers extraordinary 60-year career in environmental engineering.
Recent foundational and corporate gifts of particular note included
the Patterson Family Foundation, $1.5 million for the John H.
Finley Jr. Professorship; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
approximately $3 million in pledge payments and support of
Professor David Edwards; Microsoft, $710,000; and the Kavli
Foundation continued its support of the new Kavli Institute at
Harvard. The Heller Family Foundation supplemented previous gifts
to Harvard with an additional $25,000 this year to support the
creation of new businesses by students enrolled in David Edwardss
course on idea translation. Altran Technologies continued to
support the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center (TECH).
4.43
1%
4%
13%
35%
30%
18%
Look for the complete survey results to go online in the coming
months. J
Be part of the Renaissance...The Harvard School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences thrives because of institutional,
governmental, industrial, and alumni support. Such financial
generosity, intellectual guidance, and enthusiasm will enable us to
continue to enhance education and research and better society. To
learn more about giving opportunities, please contact Linda Fates,
Director, SEAS Office of Resource Development, at
[email protected].
SEAS Fall/Winter 2007 I 19
Sign of the Timeshe SEAS Celebration and Launch on September 20
was blessed by good weather and good words. You couldnt have
engineered a more beautiful day. A sun-filled blue sky. Eighty
degrees. The tops of trees edged in burnt orange. As if brilliantly
distilling natures gift into words, Peter J. Gomes, the Plummer
Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial
Church, conducted the official blessing for the School, saying: For
there to be a new school which exists in a strangely metaphysical
relationship with the Faculty of Arts and Science suggests that the
age of miracles is not over May this whole human family be much the
beneficiary of all the good that will issue forth from this place.
An archive of photos, video, and audio from the event is available
at: www.seas.harvard.edu/highlights/celebration.html J1 The new
SEAS seal at the center of attention. 2 Charles Vest, former
President of MIT and President of the National Academy of
Engineering, and Barbara Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural
Sciences and Interim Dean of the Radcliffe Institute, share a
moment over lunch. 3 Former Dean of the FAS, Jeremy Knowles, makes
his feelings known. 4 Peter J. Gomes 68, Plummer Professor of
Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, gives
his blessing. 5 President Drew Faust talks about how engineering at
Harvard has been a leading force in building bridges across
disciplines and to industry. 6 Left to right: Susan Graham 64,
Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and
President of Harvards Board of Overseers (20062007); Drew Faust,
Lincoln Professor of History and President, Harvard University;
Dean Venky; Thomas E. Everhart 53, Former President of the
California Institute of Technology and Professor of Electrical
Engineering and Applied Physics and President of Harvards Board of
Overseers (20042005). 7 H. Vincent Poor, Dean of Princetons School
of Engineering and Applied Science, speaks at Sanders Theatre. 8
Joy Sircar (right), Associate Dean for Information Technology and
CTO at SEAS, steals a bit of time from Mike Smith, Gordon McKay
Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and Dean
of FAS. 9 President Drew Faust and Dean Venky debut SEAS
fashion.
Connections
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6Feedback loopWe welcome and appreciate your comments,
suggestions, and corrections. Please send feedback to
[email protected] or call us at 617-496-3815. This
newsletter is published biannually by the Harvard School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences Communications Office.Harvard
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Pierce Hall 29 Oxford
Street Cambridge, MA 02138
7
Managing Editor/Writer Michael Patrick Rutter Designer,
Producer, Photographer Eliza Grinnell Copy Editor Darlene Bordwell,
Ambient Light Proofreader James Clyde Sellman, PhD 93 This
publication, including past issues, is available on the Web at
www.seas.harvard.eduCopyright 2007 by the President and Fellows of
Harvard College
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20 I SEAS Fall/Winter 2007