Harvard SEAS, Newsletter, Fall 2005

Vo l u m e I V • I s s u e 2 • F a l l 2 0 0 5

COMMUNITYThis coming year will be my last serving as Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard. I plan, however, to spend my remain-ing time working with the same dedication, enthusiasm, and intensity as when I first ar-rived. As you will read in a special section of this newsletter (pages 2–5), thanks to the hard work, commitment, and generosity of our fac-ulty, students, staff, and friends, we have made tremendous strides over the past decade.

Howard Aiken’s electromechanical computer sits quietly at the Sci-

ence Center. Bill Gates’ computer code for BASIC, three reams of dot-matrix printouts, rests on a wall in Maxwell Dworkin. Our faculty and students’ lat-est findings, posters exploring the nano-sphere to the troposphere, grace our hallways. While all these objects hint at human ingenuity, all are firmly trapped behind glass—protected for posterity but not easily accessible.

Such technological snapshots can, how-ever, generate conversation: How did it work (can clunky metal switches really make calculations)? What problem was at stake (simple curiosity or a cure for a disease)? What was the historical con-text (a world war or a software war)? Who were the engineers and scientists behind the scenes (and what did they go on to do)? The dialogue may provide a

start but it is seldom enough to ensure the next great breakthrough or encour-age a future generation of innovators.

This brings up two questions parallel to the one I posed in my last message about inspiring students to better understand and appreciate technology. What kind of environment encourages individuals to rise to a grand intellectual challenge or motivates them to invent an entirely new way of doing something? How do we go about creating such a culture?

SHARED PASSIONDEAS is a special place at Harvard. We have limited hierarchy and a high level of autonomy; we have no formal depart-ments but countless informal groups linked by similar interests; and on a giv-en day, someone here is likely to cross paths or collaborate with a half-dozen people or more. That translates into the ability to always adapt, the creativity to come up with fresh ideas, the openness to connect with others, and the willing-ness to share knowledge and the excite-ment we have about pursuing it.

The power of this approach is increas-ingly apparent.

• A small group of faculty and staff transformed a staid corner into a beautiful, comfortable setting with seating and refreshments, to promote stronger community.

• A senior concentrator in biology worked in a DEAS microfluidics lab creating “armor-plated” bubbles; he celebrated his last semester at Harvard by becoming a lead author of a Nature Materials paper.

• After being inspired to enter an entrepreneurship competition, a DEAS Ph.D. student in microbiology started a company that could greatly improve energy efficiency in heating systems.

• Recently, several DEAS researchers received grants for work on treating disease in the developing world, a topic not normally associated with engineering.

In other words, our faculty, students, and staff are encouraged to pursue sys-tems thinking at all levels. And just like in every system, nurturing its success means getting involved at the ground level—learning about individual parts and processes—and appreciating how it all fits together and what support it needs to be an integrated part of an even larger enterprise. I want to be where those natural intersections happen: the labs, the classrooms, and even the stair-ways where people meet for a quick chat. The vibrancy I feel and see each day as I make my rounds is what inspires me in my own research and reminds me of the importance of doing all I can to remove the barriers that inhibit it.

THE NATURAL SETTINGTo open up entire fields of inquiry, trans-late knowledge into applications, and make an impact on the world means infusing a strong sense of purpose into all that we do. Only by doing that will we generate the ideas and inventions that will wind up behind display cases in some future Harvard building. At our best we are a magnet that draws in the curious and charges them up, giving them the energy and drive for what-ever they end up tackling, from applied mathematics to engineering.

Looking back, I am excited about all that we have accomplished, from hav-ing 80 faculty members integrated with Division activities to tripling the admissions to our graduate programs. But I am proudest of what’s hardest to measure—the shared passion for engi-neering and the applied sciences that has made the Division such a wonderful place to think and work.

While I have always had one foot in the Dean’s Office and the other in my lab, I am looking forward to being one researcher among many, one collabo-rator in a sea of collaborators, and one contributing member of this thriving, imaginative community that all of us have shaped together. J

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Number of Applicants

Number of Students Admitted

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Number of Grad Program Applicants* / Selectivity 1997–2004

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A look backAs we greet another new academic year and we ready for the transition to a new Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences, it’s an appropriate time to look at where we’ve been and where we are today. Our success has been possible because of the great determination and character of those in the past. We can think and act boldly in the years ahead because of the excellence and dedication of our current faculty, students, staff, and supporters.

GraduateThe graduate student population has grown from 175 to 270 during 1995–2005, an increase of over 50 percent. Most impressive, the num-ber of applications to our programs has nearly tripled over a shorter period and selectivity increased; less than 13% of students who apply are admitted.

Alumni successRecent alums have used their skills to: return home–Salil Vadhan ’95 is now an Associate Professor at DEAS; become computer-graphics animators–a lead light-ing designer for Pixar, Danielle Feinberg ’96 led the team that rendered the aquatic universe in Finding Nemo and most recently worked on The Incredibles; and even own and run a bakery–Joanne Chang ’96, an honors graduate with a degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics, now runs Flour Bakery and Café in Boston’s South End. Others like Gitika Srivastava ’01 have founded high-tech companies like Skyris or used their quantitative skills to enter a wide array of fields like finance and banking.

“What’s great about the Division is that you can get the best of both worlds: a well-rounded Harvard education combined with one of the best engineering pro-grams in the country.”—Daniel Curran S.B. ’05,

Engineering Sciences

“There are very few places in the world where one can spend the morning thinking about some phenomenon seen in a microfluidic device and the afternoon thinking about how fish swim or why microorganisms are shaped in the way that they are.”—Marcus Roper, Ph.D. candidate,

Applied Mechanics

UndergraduateOver the past decade, undergraduate enrollments in our three concentrations have ranged from 300 to 400. While our engineering sciences pro-gram has been ABET-accredited for 20 years, the advising committee in 2003 particularly praised our interdisciplinary, flexible approach to education.

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RenewalThe number of faculty (full-time equivalents) in engineering and applied sciences has grown

tremendously over the past ten years, from 40 FTEs in 1995 to 66 in 2005, even as many of

the longstanding faculty members retired.

High honorsEight members of the DEAS faculty are members of the National Acad-emy of Engineering, and eight are members of the National Academy of Sciences (three of both).

Other major honors and awards by DEAS faculty include: Harvard College Professorships (5); MacAr-thur Genius Award; Guggenheim Fellowship; and Alpha Iota Prizes for Excellence in Teaching (4).

Without boundariesToday, nearly 80 faculty members in

areas including—applied mathemat-

ics, applied physics, engineering,

environmental sciences, computer

science, and biology—actively col-

laborate with DEAS.

World-class workIn terms of citation impact, Harvard ranked second nationally in the category of Engineering and Computer Science in a 2002 analysis by ISI (for 1998–2002 data). Many of our faculty are the most cited individuals in their fields.

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“Because of Harvard’s intrinsic excellence, I hope we can always get the brightest students and the bright-est faculty, which still is more important than anything else I do.” —Dean Venky in a 1998

Harvard Gazette interview

By the numbersSponsored research in the Division has

increased more than 60 percent from

1995 ($20.6M) to 2005 ($33M).

Bolstering engineeringIn recent years, DEAS has built a strong foundation for invention-oriented disciplines such as computer systems research and increased its collaborations in fields like electrical engineering and bioengineering.

DEAS – Fall 2005 I 3

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K“We can take what we discover and

be proud when it results in a new

or better product while at the same

time plow our findings back into the

Division.”

— David Weitz, Professor of Physics and Applied Physics

Monies generated from partnerships with industry have increased from $110,000 in 1995 to $1.7M in 2005.

EntrepreneurshipIn 2000, DEAS established TECH—the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard.

TECH provides “both a real and a virtual space for students, faculty, alumni, and industry

leaders to learn together, collaborate, and innovate.” TECH offers special courses on subjects

such as innovation in science and engineering.

Good neighborsDEAS is an increasingly active part of the community.

• Local high school teachers are encour-aged to experience life in our labs and take the latest research back to the classroom through the GK-12 program.

• Faculty and graduate students have teamed with the Museum of Science, Boston, to bring the latest research to the public.

• Bioengineers created MEdicine in NeeD (MEND) in 2002, providing ways to treat tuberculosis in the developing world.

The Industrial Outreach Program, formed in 2002, is a coordinated series of annual workshops, semi-nars, and events connect-ing the world’s leading companies with research-ers and graduate students throughout the University.

CollaborationsDEAS has been instrumental in establishing more extensive part-nerships with industry. A particu-lar success was the development of the Crimson Grid in 2003. IBM partnered with DEAS to create an innovative computing platform designed to support collaborative research and sharing of data.

The benefits are more than just monetary. Over the past few years, we have hosted student-oriented talks and recruiting events with leaders from major companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Zeiss, AT&T, and Samsung.

New companiesIn addition to fostering relationships with industry and government labs, DEAS serves as a “incubator” for new ventures.

Raindance: The recently formed company is devoted to discovering, developing, and commercializing the precise manipulation of minute amounts of fluids in microfluidic devices. 2005; David Weitz (Applied Physics).

Liquid Machines: Computer scientists created this lead-ing provider of Enterprise Rights Management (ERM) solutions to protect critical business content and audit usage while enabling collaboration. 2004; Michael D. Smith (Computer Science).

Pulmatrix: Grown from a novel DEAS course, this ven-ture-funded startup develops products that diagnose, treat, or prevent or inhibit the spread of airborne in-fectious diseases. 2003; David Edwards and students (Bioengineering).


SupportWe are privileged to have a large number of Harvard and DEAS graduates and friends who have continued to give generously and to sustain our efforts in engineer-ing and applied science. Pledges, outright gifts, and matches to DEAS from alumni, friends, and support from corporations and foundations, have totaled over $100M over the past decade.

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40 & 60 Oxford StreetIn 2003, 60 Oxford Street, with 8,000+ square feet of dedicated space for bioengineering, opened. In 2003–4, new bioengineering labs were created on the 2nd floor of the Engineering Sciences Lab (40 Oxford Street). In 2006 DEAS will be linked to the Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineer-ing building.

Pierce HallDuring the past five years, almost every part of historic Pierce Hall has been completely reno-vated, including reclaiming the 4th-floor attic space and building new undergraduate labs.

Maxwell DworkinOne of the most dramatic signs of the Univer-sity’s commitment to renewing engineering and the applied sciences (and one of the reasons Dean Venky decided to accept the deanship) was the Maxwell Dworkin building. William (Bill) H. Gates III COL ’77 and Steven A. Ballmer ’77 funded the new home for computer science and electrical engineering faculty in 1996; the build-ing was completed in 1999.

High-tech managementIn 1999, DEAS and HBS initiated the creation of a new graduate degree program named for an area that had just begun to take hold: Information, Technology and Management (ITM). While more common at Harvard to-

day, the program was unusual, if not unprecedented, in the way it paired technically minded faculty with members from the Harvard Business School. Doctoral students study everything from Internet commerce to the design of databases and business computer systems to computer security and online customer authentication.

TransformationThrough implementing our future

plans, a vibrant, creative, and sup-

portive culture and community will

emerge. We must work from the

inside out, first strengthening the

relationships in our own community,

then throughout Harvard, and then

reaching out to the wider world.

Engineering meets biologyA group of faculty at DEAS, in col-laboration with colleagues at the Medical School and its teaching hospitals, has begun to define an initiative in biologically inspired engineering, an endeavor centered at the interface between the histori-cally distinct disciplines of engineer-ing, the physical sciences, biology, and medicine. This may lead to the creation of fully biocompatible materials; the ability to regenerate tissues or reprogram complex physiology in debilitated or aging patients; and the development of low-cost medical technologies.


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NEW ARRIVALSThe Division is pleased to welcome three new faculty members this fall.

ZHIMING KUANGAssistant Professor of Climate Science (joint with Earth and Planetary Sciences)

Background: B.S. (1996) in Space Physics, with a minor in Electrical Engineering, Peking University, China; Ph.D. (2003) in Planetary Science, with a minor in Applied Computation, California Institute of Technology

Areas of focus: Tropical convection and large-scale dynamics; remote sensing

www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~kuang/

VINOTHAN N. MANOHARANAssistant Professor of Physics and Chemical Engineering (joint with Physics)

Background: B.S.E. (1996) in Chemical Engineering, Princeton University; Ph.D. (2004) in Chemical Engineering, University of California–Santa Barbara

Areas of focus: Biophysics; materials science; soft condensed matter (with an emphasis on colloids; surface and interface science

manoharan.deas.harvard.edu

MAURICE A. SMITHAssistant Professor of Bioengineering

Background: B.E. (1993) in Electrical Engineering, Biomedi-cal Engineering, and Mathematics, Vanderbilt University; M.D./Ph.D. (2005), Johns Hopkins University

Areas of focus: Biomechanics (in particular, motor control processes as they relate to diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s)

people.deas.harvard.edu/~mas/ J

Navin Khaneja Promoted to Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, as of July 1, 2005.

Michael D. Mitzenmacher Promoted to Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, effective January 1, 2005 (and tenure).

PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTSThe following faculty members received promotions during the 2004– 05 academic year:

David C. Parkes Promoted to John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences, as of July 1, 2005.

Margo I. Seltzer Named Harvard College Professor, effective July 1, 2005, for five years.

Michael D. Smith Named Associate Dean for Computer Science and Engineering. Our thanks go to Margo Seltzer, who previously served in the role. J

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On September 17, a group of former students and admirers from across the country gathered in Lexington, Mas-

sachusetts, to celebrate emeritus faculty member Ronold W. P. King’s 100th birthday. While meeting the turn-of-the-century mark certainly justified having a party, ever since King’s of-ficial retirement in 1972, a fan club led by Dr. Ed Altshuler ’60 has held fetes in his honor.

King received his A.B. and M.S. (1927 and 1929) from the Uni-versity of Rochester and his Ph.D. (1932) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, all in Physics. He arrived at Harvard in 1938, when faculty member and future Nobel Prize winner John H. Van Vleck was first devel-oping his modern theory of magnetism based on quantum mechanics. King, best known for developing electromagnetic antenna theory and as the author of several major textbooks on electromagnetics, must have quickly im-pressed the future dean of engineering and applied physics: He was given an honorary master’s degree from the University one year after arrival.

Though the concept is commonplace today, the idea of seam-lessly and systematically bringing the latest research and tech-nologies directly into the graduate classroom was pioneered by King. In turn, his students became part of his research en-terprise, making advances that led to publication in journals and books. King has been honored countless times by the IEEE for his leadership in engineering education—most telling, his 1997 receipt of their Graduate Teaching Award, recognizing him for exemplary standards in teaching and research and a lifetime of dedication to his students.

That dedication to mentorship has earned King another century mark: He has advised more than 100 doctoral candidates at Harvard, an achievement believed by many to be a record in academic circles.

Former students and other alumni who would like to send their good wishes should e-mail

[email protected]. We will compile and forward your messages to Dr. King. J

COLLABORATIONSRonold King celebrates two centuries

Deke DeCosta, a one-man audio/visual and instructional lab dynamo at DEAS, retired after an amazing 40 years of service at Harvard. Students, faculty, and staff constantly marveled at his

Ronold King then and now. King tackled fundamental—even metaphysical—issues, such as what defines the best culture for supporting science, saying “Let those who would be cultured seek more than a shell of form…Let them seek what is truly worthwhile in all things as usefulness, as beauty, as truth, and as goodness.”

clever solutions to the array of problems new technology delivered en route to the promise of easier living. He saw, installed, and fixed it all: from the early ARPANET to the modern Internet.

A constant refrain heard in hallways, labs, and classrooms: “Deke was always there to bail us out when something went awry.” At a Who’s Who celebration of DEAS luminaries past and present,

Thanks, Deke!Professor Fred Abernathy presented DeCosta with an iPod filled with personal messages of thanks. An avid gardener, DeCosta is eager to spend time enjoying the simplicity of the soil. J

He has advised more than 100

doctoral candidates at Harvard,

an achievement believed by many

to be a record in academic circles.


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LINKS AND NODESExtreme makeover

DEAS members wanting to unplug their earbuds in favor of old-fashioned conversation have a new destination close

to home. In late September a new social center, located on the ground level of Maxwell Dworkin, made its debut. A once quiet corner of the building’s spacious entryway received an extreme makeover, going from drab to fab in less than three months.

The design, by Douglas Okun and Associates, seamlessly incor-porates the existing blond wood paneling used throughout the building with a warm autumnal palette of golds and browns, brightened with an occasional splash of silver. Brushed steel fixtures, suspended lighting, and granite tops round out the comfortable setting. The furniture is modular and movable, so pulling up a chair or table should be as easy as moving a com-puter mouse, an appropriate metaphor for the location, home of the EECS faculty.

Systems Administrator John Fisher, who works in the nearby IT Office at DEAS, said “I’m still getting used to the carpet”—an intense pattern of rectangular geometric shapes—“but it

is growing on me.” Pointing upward at the lighting—metal domes with orange interiors—he made an observation likely to be echoed by anyone who visits: “The overhead lights kind of look like those 1950s hairdryers. But at night they will give off an orange glow that will look cool.”

While the retro feel may evoke the era when radio was the latest in wireless technology, modernity is not out of view: a 42-inch flat screen–LCD display is sandwiched in between floor-to-ceiling windows. While intended for announcements, news, and movie nights, some eager visitors will likely attempt to hijack it briefly for a near life-sized game of Madden 2005.

Another likely draw, especially when the weather turns colder, will be the food and beverages. A once “fishbowl” used as a computing hub has been transformed into a clean-lined refreshment center that includes simple breakfast and snack fare and—the highlight—a 24/7 espresso maker, activated in the after-hours with a swipe card.

The space is one part of a larger ongoing effort to boost com-munity throughout DEAS. If all goes as planned, the hum of conversation, academic and otherwise, will generate a buzz that will rival even a round of double espressos. J

While the new social center looks great by itself (above), the design truly comes to life with people, as during the festive grand opening (above right).

AWARDSStart something … Computer scientist Radhika Nagpal is one of five research-ers in the nation who has been awarded a prestigious fellowship as part of Mi-crosoft Research’s first annual New Faculty Fellowship Program. Each fel-lowship award, which recognizes those who are “advancing computing research in novel directions with the potential for high impact and who demonstrate the likelihood of becoming thought lead-ers of the field,” includes a cash gift of $200,000. The Fellow also receives

other Microsoft resources and has the option of exploring collaborations with MSR researchers. Nagpal was featured in several full-page advertisements cel-ebrating the winners, including those in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal … Fast, cheap, and in sequence … The National Human Genome Re-search Institute awarded a research team headed by Jene A. Golovchenko a $5.2M grant for developing electronic sequenc-ing in nanopores. Collaborators include

Daniel Branton (Harvard), David Deamer and Mark Akeson (UC–Santa Cruz), and Stephen Winters-Hilt (University of New Orleans) … No small reward … NSF has renewed its grant for the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center ($12M+ over five years) … In control … Roger Brockett was awarded the 2005 Rufus Oldenburger Medal by the ASME in recog-nition of his significant contributions and outstanding achievements in the field of automatic control … A+ … David Mooney received the 2005 William J. Gies Award

from the International Association for Dental Research/American Association for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) for the best paper published in the Journal of Dental Research … A swimming success … Michael Brenner was elected a 2004 Fellow of the American Physical Society for his creative, stimulating, and seminal contributions to various subjects in fluid dynamics. J


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NOTA BENEWhen the going’s good … India New England profiled Dean Venky in its Aug.1 issue. Here are a few highlights—on being chosen Dean: “[Former FAS Dean Jeremy] Knowles says the lunch meeting that he had with Narayanamurti clinched it. ‘After the meeting, I said, “Look, we should definitely set our sights on this intense, bubbling, enthusiastic, wise person,” and that long Saturday morning convinced me that he was someone who would effect a transformation,’ Knowles reminisces.” On his future plans: “After his deanship, Narayanamurti would like to take a sabbatical and research public policy … and technology and society at the Kennedy School of Government. ‘I would like to think through my ideas, and understand the policies better,’ he says. Later, he plans to return to his re-search in nanostructures and condensed matter.” … Grid(un)lock … IBM published a case study, “The Crimson Grid: IBM and Harvard DEAS Create Powerful Comput-ing for Research and Learning,” detailing the use of grid computing to enable users to share complex programs, models, data, and storage capacity. The goal is to extend a bit of crimson locally and na-tionally: “In time it will collaborate with

computing grids at other area universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, and the University of Massachusetts–Boston. The ultimate goal is a mass BioGrid that links development and collaboration from the Commonwealth’s universities, medi-cal schools, and health care, biotechnol-ogy, and pharmaceutical institutions to support research and e-learning in the life sciences.” … Out of the ordinary … SIAM News featured an article on the remarkable work of L. Mahadevan and his uncanny ability to bend boundaries. “In talking to Maha, I was struck by his suc-cessful but unspoken strategy in moving from mechanics and physics to biology

and medicine. He hasn’t really moved! He just ‘bent’ a little, to change function. His problems remain macroscopic, not microscopic. They still begin with ob-servation, not with computation. He had to learn about constraints from chemists and biologists. (Harvard provided a lab.) I think that his work offers a truly helpful model for an applied mathematician who knows mechanics and wants to work in biology.” … It’s life, Jim … The Aug. 14 Boston Globe reported on Harvard’s new Origins of Life Initiative. The Division’s Scot Martin, who is involved in the in-terdisciplinary endeavor, will explore how an environment with the right chemical composition may have allowed life to arise. The Globe goes on to report, “Many of science’s most interesting questions are emerging in the boundaries between traditional disciplines such as physics, chemistry, and biology.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. … Going wireless … Sinorama magazine’s August issue fea-tures an interview with Gates Professor H.T. Kung: The Man Behind M-Taiwan. “Dr. Kung talked about the transforma-tion of the wireless industry in the last two years, as well as the key factors that will affect the future development of the M-Taiwan plan.” The M-Taiwan plan (M is for mobile) aims to create Taiwan’s third flagship industry, after semiconductors and LCDs, and improve the quality of Taiwan’s information network. … Out

for a swim ... PhysicsWeb (July 5) takes a dip into recent research findings about swimming E. coli made by DEAS affiliates Eric Lauga, Willow R. DiLuzio, George M. Whitesides, and Howard A. Stone. “Recent years have seen a flurry of interest in making sensors, motors, and other devices from biological organisms like bacteria. However, to make devices that work efficiently, it is important to know how the microorganisms behave when they approach solid surfaces. Now researchers at Harvard University have developed the first model to explain a surprising type of behavior first seen in E. coli bacteria in the 1970s—the fact that they always swim in clockwise circles near a solid surface.” … Living art ...

Ralph Mitchell’s lab, including researcher Kristen Bearce, are working to preserve great works of art such as Degas’s wax sculptures. ABC News reports that “More than a century ago, the French artist, Edgar Degas, crafted intricate sculptures from beeswax, lard, clay, and odds and ends such as cork, wood, wire, and rags. Now scientists have found that colonies of bacteria and fungi appear to be feast-ing on the work ...To test for microbial in-fection, Bearce and Mitchell swabbed the statues and then cultured the samples. They found over half of the bacteria cultured from the swabs produced en-zymes that could break down wax, almost 60 percent produced enzymes that can digest starch, and some 24 percent had the ability to digest both starch and wax.” … Deprogramming myths … The Harvard Gazette profiled computer scientist Michael Mitzenmacher on his receipt of tenure. Once a Harvard undergraduate himself, Mitzenmacher said he is eager to attract a new generation of students to the field by dispelling some common myths: “Undergraduates see programming and it doesn’t seem particularly creative because the problems they first learn on are very simple. But computer science is incredibly collaborative. If you are going to solve big, important problems, you work in groups, not hacking alone in your room.” J

Michael Mitzenmacher gives a human touch to computation.

IBM’s Steve Sakata and DEAS IT Director Joy Sircar.

Cells swim in clockwise, circular trajectories at solid, planar surfaces. When a cell executes a “run,” the flagella rotate anticlockwise (when viewed from behind) and the cell body counter-rotates in a clockwise direction. When viewed from above, the cell trajectories at the bottom surface appear clockwise and the cell trajectories at the top surface appear anticlockwise. (Image courtesy of Nature.)

E. coli rotates its flagella, or tiny hairs, like an outboard motor.


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A team of students and faculty created “armored” bubbles and drops of liquid through a novel combination of micro-fluidics and colloid science. Their study, published in Nature Materials, Vol. 4, No. 7, describes how small particles can be assembled in close-packed arrangements around bubbles and drops in a set of chan-nels—each less than the width of a human hair—called a microfluidic device.

“We have discovered a way to controllably grow a spherical shell of particles around tiny bubbles of gas and drops of liquid. Small solid particles are targeted toward the bubble interface, and the particles are forced to assemble on that interface,” ex-plains Anand Bala Subramaniam, a senior undergraduate at Harvard and the lead author of the study. “The shell of particles acts as armor that protects the gas bubble from dissolving or coalescing with other bubbles.”

This process may enhance everyday products by significantly reducing co-alescence, and it allows the use of a wide range of particles to form the shells, such as vitamins and even flavors for foods like ice cream. Furthermore, by suspending cells or other objects in the drops, the armor-plating technology may be able to effectively protect these objects from external dangers, providing a means for controlled encapsulation. For example, when small nano- or microparticles are delivered to the body in drugs, the particles diffuse, and hence cannot be precisely targeted. By assembling them on the surface of a larger bubble, the particles

are essentially “jammed” into position so they move as a single large object. This allows for far greater control of the particles, meaning they could be targeted to a specific part of the body while still maintaining the advantages of having the increased surface area of small particles.

Adapted from a DEAS press release.

Needle-free vaccination goes globalProfessor David Edwards has been awarded $7.6M by the Grand Challenges in Global Health (GCGH) Initiative for his research on needle-free vaccination via nanoparticle aerosols. The goal is to improve the currently available tuberculosis and diphtheria vaccines by reformulating them into aerosol sprays that can be inhaled. Forbes zeroed in on his work in an article titled “Chutzpah Science”: “The novel delivery mecha-nism has commercial potential in treat-

ing diabetes, since prosperous countries are full of diabetics. Eli Lilly & Co. and Alkermes (which now owns the tech-nology) are trying out inhaled insulin on 1,000 patients. How about the same method to deliver vaccines, sparing the costs of refrigeration and needles? There’s scant commercial potential here, but there’s a need. In 2003 Edwards started the nonprofit MEdicine in NeeD to develop the technology, which is very tricky. You have to dry the vaccine with-out killing the cells in it, and you have to make the particles small enough to be inhaled but not so small that they are exhaled.”

The GCGH Initiative selected 43 groundbreaking research projects (including Edwards’s project and one by HMS colleague Dr. Christopher Mur-ray) for more than $436M in funding. The Initiative is supported by a $450M commitment from the Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation as well as two new funding commitments—$27.1M from the Wellcome Trust and $4.5M from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Adapted from the original press release by the Gates Foundation. Related articles appeared in the Harvard Gazette, Forbes, and the Boston Globe.

SELECTED ARTICLES ABOUT THE DIVISION

Microfluidics, a particular area of expertise at DEAS, offers beauty as much as it does practicality; the armored bubbles are no exception.

David Edwards (DEAS) and Dr. Christopher Murray (HMS) were both Gates Foundation grant recipients.

“Armor-plated” bubbles and drops


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Living machinesA dozen Harvard undergrads, including concentrators from DEAS, are taking part in the intercollegiate Genetically Engi-neered Machines competition. Dubbed “iGEM,” the event involves 13 schools, including the California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy, and Pennsylvania State University. Teams from the various schools come up with their own ideas about what type of “machine” they would like to create and then get to work building it.

The Harvard effort tackled two projects: using bacteria to create a “biowire,” a line of cells that can transmit a signal from one end to the other, and trying to create a “biosketch,” which uses light-sensitive bacteria to create a device that users can write on using a pen that emits ultraviolet light and which could then erase the writing through exposure to high temperatures.

Pamela Silver is one of the driving forces behind the competition. Silver said she thought it provided a valuable hands-on experience for students to learn about biological engineering firsthand. Professor of Genetics George Church, Assistant Professor of Computer Sci-ence and Instructor in Systems Biology Radhika Nagpal, and Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Kit Parker are helping Silver advise the students. Representatives of all teams will present the results of their work at a “jamboree” at MIT in November.

Adapted from the Harvard Gazette.

Going greenA team of Harvard grad student entre- preneurs—Brian Pulliam, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Ph.D. ’07; Kathryn Tinckam, M.D., Harvard Medi-cal School, MM.Sc. ’05; Jacqueline Har-low, Harvard Law School, J.D. ’06; Thom-as “Tod” Perry, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Ph.D. ’05 (see p.18); and W. Alex Goodwin, Harvard Business School, M.B.A. ’05— captured first place in the $125,000 Ignite Clean Energy business plan competition, for their proposal to use microbes to clean out the gunk that forms inside water

pipes that conduct heat. This use of microbes could dramatically increase energy efficiency. The process was origi-nally used to preserve outdoor sculp-tures from decay.

The team came together courtesy of a new course, Business 2107: Commercial-izing Science and High Technology, organized and taught by HBS’s Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration Lee Fleming. Entering the competition, however, was not an original part of the class syllabus. Luck-ily, Paul Bottino, executive director of the DEAS-based Technology and Entre-preneurship Center at Harvard (TECH), heard about the opportunity and men-tioned it to the students over dinner.

The Harvard team’s first-place finish netted them financial and business sup-port, including a $15,000 award and a one-year membership in the University of Massachusetts–Lowell Commercial Venture Development incubator, providing free office space and expert advice to jump-start the winning team’s business (a $20,000 value). Adapted from stories in the Harvard Gazette and the Harbus. Related stories appeared in Mass High Tech. J

The winning team (from left): Brian Pulliam, Kathryn Tinckam, Jacqueline Harlow, Tod Perry, and W. Alex Goodwin.

In addition to mentoring students in the iGEM competition (lower right), computer scientist Radhika Nagpal (above, third from the left) traveled to Redmond, Washington, to attend an award ceremony honoring New Faculty Research Fellows (See Page 8).

The Harvard iGEM team.


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“I’ve learned a lot about teamwork, responsibility, and dedication,” says

Biomedical Sciences concentrator Mei “Rosa” Ng ’08. That trifecta, along with a lot of trial and error, contends Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Kevin “Kit” Parker, is exactly what you need to thrive in the hard sciences—an area known more for its sink-or-swim mentality than an all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude.

“The people who are successful in the sciences are the ones who maintain discipline under the pressure of getting grants, teaching, and doing research all at the same time,” Parker says. “Doing good, even great, science isn’t enough on its own.”

In Parker’s Cellular Engineering course, Ng and other future leaders in biotechnology get a two-for-one deal: receiving les-sons in state-of-the-art cellular engineering techniques, and gaining a hands-on approach to how to run a lab; work as a team; and conduct, write up, and present experimental results.

Creating the course, which takes place in Parker’s busy lab at 40 Oxford Street, required a similar dedication to discipline and collaboration. Almost all the credit, he says, goes to Teaching Assistant Kristy Shine, Research Assistant Sean Sheehy, and postdocs Nick Geisse and Mark Bray, all of DEAS. As important, the Dean’s Office earmarked part of two innovation funds, given by donors James F. Rothenberg A.B. ’68, M.B.A. ’70 and Edward A. Taft III A.B. ’73, as part of the Division’s Challenge Fund, to help Parker transform the course into a leadership boot camp.

The class members—six women and three men from across the University and from disciplines ranging from mathemat-ics to medicine—had to master skills and techniques that, Parker says, many faculty members outside Harvard would envy. Divided into three teams, all the students incorporated a micropatterning technique (critical in forming materials for tissue engineering) developed by Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor George M. Whitesides. One group exploited a femtosecond laser to precisely cut through cells, useful in sensitive areas like the brain. The technology, developed by Eric Mazur, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics, was something

none of the students had heard of before taking the class.

“By the end, these students will be ready to walk into any lab or any biotech company and deliver the tools and tech-niques that no one there will know. They are marketable beyond having Harvard

on their résumés,” says Parker. Learning the tools, however, was only part one of the process. To make the grade meant car-rying out an experiment in rapid order and being prepared to present and defend the results. The grueling process led to an intense 30-minute grill session by Parker and his colleagues.

Here’s the scene on the final day: Posters (the net result of each team’s work and one of the most common ways scientists transfer knowledge) are tacked up around the stark white lab. The students huddle around Parker, who stands nearly seven feet tall and sports a shaved head, as he tells them to “imagine they are hawkers in the North End, trying to get people to come to a restaurant.” In other words, they need to be ready to convince a potential researcher that he or she should care about what they have to offer.

“So why did you do that?” he asks undergraduate Ng, who stands in front of her team’s poster, titled “Intermediate Fac-tors in C2C12 Mechanotransduction.” Dressed in Ann Taylor black and a good two feet shorter than Parker, she stands firm, looks him in the eye, and defends herself. Graduate students Weng Si Ho and Nathaniel Huebsch come to her aid when he launches a rapid-fire follow-up, asking whether they looked at a related paper and what they thought of it. After a good 15 minutes of nonstop friendly interrogation, he moves on to the next group, but not before asking a few of the lab members to clarify any remaining issues.

“This is definitely the most challenging class I have taken at Harvard thus far,” said Ng after it was all over. “However, it is worth all the time I’ve put into the course. Besides learn-ing what cellular engineering is all about, I’ve also gained laboratory and organizational skills that I will be able to use throughout my scientific career.”

Omar Ali, a graduate student in Professor of Bioengineering David Mooney’s lab, whose group includes Mitra Dowlatshahi ’06 and Danny Goodman ’08, makes a few last-minute edits to

ADVICE FOR YOUNG INVESTIGATORS

“The people who are successful in the sciences

are the ones who maintain discipline under

the pressure of getting grants, teaching, and

doing research all at the same time.”


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AwardsOn June 13, the Technology and Entre-preneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) named its 2005 Innovation Fellows and research grant recipients as part of its Program on Innovation in Science and Engineering. The program is sponsored by Altran Technologies and Arthur D. Little, and receives essential support from Cambridge-based Synectics Inc. The 2005 Fellows are Thomas D. Perry

IV, Ph.D. ’05 (Microbiology) and Ryan Larsen, Ph.D. ’06 (Applied Physics). The innovation research grant recipients are Anqi Huang A.B. ’07 (Computer Science and Economics) and Kevin Gan A.B. ’07 (Biochemical Sciences). The Fellows were formally recognized at the Altran Foundation for Innovation awards ceremony in Paris on June 16. J

Racing stripes

Graduate student Jacomo Corbo, a Ph.D. candidate in Electri-cal Engineering, was named one of eight finalists in the 2005 Altran Formula One Engineering Academy.

In 2004, Altran and Renault formed the Academy and cre-ated a related competition to attract engineering talent from around the world. Entrants are asked to develop a plan to improve Formula One (F1) safety, reliability, or performance; the winner gets a chance to work in the pit, so to speak, be-coming a part of the research and development team for six months.

While Corbo did not garner the pole position, his placement as a finalist was impressive given the application pool of over 1,500. His project was inspired by a NASA technical document about fault tolerance for satellites and space vehicles.

While orbiting the track rather than the earth, Corbo says, “an F1 vehicle is an extremely complex machine, consisting of a multitude of sensor-rich, network-embedded hardware and software systems that must operate reliably and in the face of novel failures. Our objective was to address these require-ments by the design and implementation of both on-board (on-car) and off-board systems for fault diagnosis and auto-nomic repair.” J

Harvard’s hallmark gets high marksOn July 29, the Harvard Crim-son reported that “Harvard’s push to expand its Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, begun in 2001, falls directly in line with recom-mendations released this past June by the National Academy of Engineering. In their report, the NAE called for engineering departments to widen their focus and to include more interdisciplinary work, both in research and the curricu-

lum, if they want to keep pace with an increasingly glo-balized world. The new approach recommended by the report—which calls for engineering to be integrated with oth-er fields including the sciences, finance, and applied math—is already ‘Harvard’s hallmark,’ according to DEAS’s Dean Narayanamurti. Narayanamurti said that Harvard’s engineer-ing is already ahead of the curve in terms of implementing the recommendations.” J

the poster using white correcting tape and a pen. Almost by instinct, Parker squarely fixes on the specifics of their research, but in an unexpected way. “Why did you use that image? Do you really need that graph?” he asks, pointing. Both questions are not easy ones to answer and are initially greeted with silence. The students, who likely know every inch of what’s depicted in the images, might not have thought to be prepared for such a broad question. A way to condense weeks, if not months, of data into a small space that draws a viewer in is something that plagues even well-seasoned academics.

“Focus on what’s visually impressive,” Parker continues. “You’ve got to pitch a story, and a researcher is likely to leave with an image in his or her mind. They’ll say, ‘Huh, what’s happening in that area of the cell is interesting’ and remember that.”

Thanks to the drill, Ali and others will leave with not only good design tips—they’ll have an ability to anticipate and tackle anything a questioner might throw their way. The

graduate student says with confidence, “I now know how to really manage a project.” That, says Parker, is “a big W in the win column.”

Ultimately, the class provides lessons for those who want to teach in a hands-on, experiential way. As Parker readily admits, to do it well takes a great deal of support—from the dean, to research assistants, to the students themselves. A professor from a local university, who visited during the final presentations to see whether he might want to create a similar course, confessed that it would simply be too much work to replicate. That didn’t even include the after-class barbecue that Parker was preparing for the teams at his place, a short walk from the lab.

“This is not ‘science in a can’,” Parker says. “I want the kids to be creative and work on real projects that can stretch their knowledge. I’m all about producing quality of mind rather than volume. We are here to create leaders.” J

Jacomo Corbo (third from the left) among the finalists for the Altran Engineering Academy finalists.


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Van Gogh imprisoned stars like yellow daisies smashed behind a sheet of blue glass. Winslow Homer abandoned

a casual boater between angry waters and a bludgeoned cadre of clouds. Gerhard Richter stole and melted down the gray winter air into a series of polished mirrors. In each case, a painter sought to capture a small sliver of the dramatic and ever-changing atmosphere.

Another kind of artist, an engineer, is also attempting to frame the sky in a box; in his case, the canvas is a laboratory. Recently tenured Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Chemis-try Scot Martin studies the behavior of the billions of particles that comprise the atmosphere. “In the environmental area, every problem has many dimensions: biological, chemical, physical,” he says.

His research group uses a multidisciplinary approach to tackle a range of projects concerned with understanding and quan-tifying the chemistry of surfaces in environmental chemical systems. Although surfaces may seem better territory for ge-ologists or archeologists than for an environmental chemist, what controls the formation and reactivity of a surface ulti-mately influences our entire atmosphere.

Martin views the earth as a huge chemical reactor. “Think of acid rain,” he says, citing a common example of a vicious cycle initiated by human activities. “Sulfur and coal get emit-ted. In the atmosphere, SO2 gets transformed into sulfuric acid. Acid rain enters into the mineral-rich soil. The acids plus the H2 pro-ton react and the minerals release aluminum, which is taken up in the plant roots. This causes phytotoxicity. Trees [and other plants] die. It is all chemistry: One thing is connected to the next, and one cycle drives the next.”

To understand such a chain of events, envi-ronmental chemists must first resolve the tension between studying the atmosphere in its full complexity and doing so in a limited but more manageable laboratory setting. In the field, researchers rely on balloons, aircraft, and on-the-ground deployments to obtain real-time atmospheric data that can be used to generate robust climate models, such as warming or cooling trends. “At the same time, if you are in the full soup, it can be difficult to understand everything that is happening,” Martin says. “In the lab we can make things simpler so they can be better understood. But while we understand what we have in the box, we must make the bridge to relevancy. So, we try to look at the natural system and divine the most important set of factors and carry those back to the laboratory.”

As a postdoctoral student at MIT during the mid-1990s, Martin worked with a research team to “bring the ozone hole down to earth.” The group isolated the surface reactions that occurred on polar stratospheric clouds. They then set up lab studies to understand how the chemical transformations took place on surfaces, and with further analysis gained a better understand-ing of the chemistry and causes of the ozone hole. He’s now using similar methods to put another troublesome genie into a bottle: cloud formation.

“A big effort in my research these days is the Harvard Smog Chamber. We’ve been looking for some time now at the reac-tions of organic particles and, specifically, how they interact with ozone, hydroxyl radicals, and other atmospheric species. But what we really want to know is, what’s the net result in the atmosphere?” For example, when organic particles are first re-leased from diesel engines, water doesn’t readily condense on them to form clouds; they are hydrophobic. However, when they interact with ozone or hydroxyl radicals, the particles be-come more oxidized (more water-loving or hydrophilic). The emission of organic particles and their conversion from pho-

PUTTING THE SKY IN A BOXEnvironmental chemist Scot Martin reins in the atmosphere


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OPEN ATMOSPHERE

Scot Martin received his B.S. at Georgetown University and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at Caltech. He arrived at DEAS in 2000 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT and serving on the faculty of the University of North Carolina.

Martin has found the Division an ideal fit because of its emphasis on collaboration and interdisciplinary research. “It is exciting because when you are thinking about a problem and there’s another aspect or another point of view, there’s always a colleague you can turn to quickly,” he explains.

His office, adorned with an arrangement of green couches that mimics a pleasant talk-show set, says a lot about his own style of working and a desire to welcome colleagues and students alike. The field, in fact, demands such openness. Martin believes that science and personality go together; researchers are drawn toward or away from current and emerging areas as much because of the science as due to their own psychology.

“Before a probe has ever gone to a new planet, the scientists in the field are the dreamers,” Martin says, drawing on astronomy. “After the probe and the data come back, then a different sort of scientist moves in: the quantitative analysis type. And the dreamers go on to another planet.”

To make headway in any area of research, he concludes, we need a bit of imagination and calculation.

Martin has found the Division an ideal fit...“There’s always a colleague you can turn to quickly.”

bic to philic is potentially changing how clouds form, which in turn effects climate change.

Currently, the oleic acid particles (like those that come from the meat smoke of outdoor barbecues) Martin uses to analyze this process in the lab are relatively pure. They last for about two minutes before breaking up. “In the atmosphere, however, we know oleic acid is present for at least two weeks. Why the difference? In the lab we study pure oleic acid, but in the at-mosphere oleic acids are inside particles of other molecules, and the matrix of those other organic molecules is slowing the organic reaction with particles.”

The smog chamber allows Martin to create particles of a com-plexity similar to what’s actually in the atmosphere. The in-door approach also offers a great advantage: Every ingredient in the smog recipe will be known and accounted for. Even so, it takes a three- sided process to ensure that the air doesn’t slip right through Martin’s hands. The three sides are lab researchers (such as his team), modelers (like Vasco McCoy Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmen-tal Engineering Daniel Jacob), and in-the-field measurers (Jim Anderson, Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, and Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Science Steven Wofsy).

“A typical process is to work in the lab for several years on a particular project and get a set of results. We then have a cou-ple of choices. We can publish the results in the open literature

and wait for someone else to find them or use them; but that’s not always satisfying. Or we can take the lab results and put them into a model (that pulls additional data from hundreds of other sources) to find out what the consequences are.” At DEAS that translates into a short walk down the hall to the Harvard Atmospheric Chemistry group.

Some of Martin’s work will soon get the real test. “We have developed a number of theories on atmospheric particles over the last ten years. Now we are making an apparatus with which we will actually start testing these theories directly in the atmosphere,” he says. He plans to start simply, putting a tube out the window, and then move to the roof. For the next steps, he will hit the road, taking a trip to the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts, and then go to an oceanside

location. The hardest final trip is navi-gating the public sphere. He hopes that all his data, whether on the ozone hole or cloud formation, will one day help inform policy makers’ decisions about climate or other environment regula-tions. Although progress on stemming

the tide of pollution may be slow, Martin takes a philosophical approach to the state of the environment.

“Whatever condition I’ve been in all along, I’ve always tried to make the best of it,” he says. “I don’t feel frustrated or confused, and [I] focus on how to assess where we are now. Wherever we are, if it is a bad place, it is not my fault; if we are in a good place, it is not to my credit. I am a very small person in all of that. I try to assess where we are now and assess how I can change that direction for the better.” J

Close-up of the home-built humidity chamber in Martin’s laboratory.


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On August 31, before the back-to-school blues set in, Harvard College

Professor Eric Mazur teamed up with Chris Rogers, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Tufts University, to make (and dispel) some magic in front of a group of high school science teachers.

Rogers presented a menagerie of plastic brick–based gadgets from his ROBOLAB, a project he created with LEGO Inc. that incorporates its programmable Mind-Storms™ kits. His interactive and inter-locking approach to learning science, math, and principles in engineering has entered 50,000 schools worldwide. Rog-ers jokes on his Web site that he “has been banned from recess for making too much noise” by offering projects teach-ers can use to challenge their students, including building a sensor-based mini-golf course or discovering an automated way to measure water temperature.

The general consensus of the educators, likely to be shouted even more loudly by their students, was a resounding, “That’s so cool!” The curious can get a complete lowdown on the Tufts Univer-sity Center for Engineering Educational Outreach web site, www.ceeo.tufts.edu.

Mazur, an applied physicist who doubles as an expert on peer instruction, started his lecture, “Visualizations and Visual Illusions: How the Mind Tricks Us,” by acknowledging his own visual wake-up call. A few semesters ago he discovered that, based on test results, many of his classic physics demos and hands-on

activities, used to teach key concepts in weight distribution and parabolic mo-tion, were going in one eye and out the other. A consummate scientist, he relied on the latest findings in neurology and cognitive psychology to literally see what was happening in this process.

It turns out that our mental models, or preconceived notions, of an event—for example, how a ball in motion bounces—or what we pay attention to, primarily influences what we see and ultimately what we remember. In other words, seeing doesn’t necessarily lead to believing. To clarify this notion, Mazur played a trick on his audience with a video presentation developed by cog-nitive psychologist Daniel Simons. He asked the audience to watch a video of

people in white and black shirts bounc-ing a ball to one another and count the times someone in black passed a ball to someone wearing the same color. Intent on completing the task, many of the audience members didn’t notice until the tape was slowed down that in the middle of the sequence a person dressed as a gorilla appeared, even hamming it up a bit by doing a little jig.

The same “out of mind” effect also hap-pens in darkened college classrooms and in shiny new textbooks. For example, in the past Mazur would show his Intro Physics students the following setup: A bar resting across two scales, on which a weight rested in the middle. He then moved the weight from the middle to the leftmost end. Many viewers, even af-ter seeing what actually happened (the readings on the scales changed), argued soundly that the scales would stay the same because the plank would even out the load—a common mispercep-tion that, ironically, the demonstration reinforced. In a similar way, realistic diagrams that illustrate counterintui-tive concepts such as parabolic motion (imagine a picture of a batter hitting

HANDS ON, BRAINS ON

(top left) Physicist and educator Eric Mazur opens the eyes of educators; (top right, bottom, and next page) adults and kids all agree that if you build it out of LEGOs, they will come.


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GOOD BUSINESSKapil Sibal, the Indian Minister of State for Science and Technology and Ocean Development, gave a talk in June entitled “Challeng-es Facing Governance in In-dia in the Knowledge Econ-omy.” Sibal, who attended Harvard Law School, deals with everything—from tsunami warning systems, to preserving India’s tiger population, and promoting R&D for the entire country.

In August, DEAS hosted a visit by the German-based company Zeiss, a leading microscopy manufacturer.

In September, DEAS (with help from Harvard Business School) sponsored the “Roadmap for Creating Profitable Growth in the Semiconductor Indus-try,” a forum for senior executives with business and technology backgrounds to collectively and individually ad-dress present and future industry chal-lenges. DEAS’s Woody Yang and HBS’s Clayton Christensen served as the pro-gram director and lead lecturer, respec-tively. Those wanting to know more

should read the June 6 cover story of EE Times. Later that same month, AT&T’s

Dr. Hossein E s l a m b o l c h i spoke about the future of IP to a standing-room-only crowd in Lessin Auditori-um. His refrain that “IP will eat everything” did not distress the audience, some of whom may have come just for the chance

to win a free iPod (AT&T raffled off five). Eslambolchi, wowed the audience with demonstrations of an automated voice help system, which could understand normal conversation with astounding accuracy, as well as a real-time program that converted a live television news broadcast directly into text, correcting itself along the way.

PRIVATE EYESFor the 2005–6 academic year, the Cen-ter for Research on Computation and So-

ciety (CRCS) will explore the scientific and social challenges of maintaining basic rights of privacy and security in a wired world. The Center is pleased to announce its first group of participants: Visiting Scholar Omer Reingold (incum-bent of the Walter and Elise Haas Career

Development Chair at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel); Visit-ing Postdoc Alon Rosen, who previously spent two years as a postdoc in the Cryptography Group of MIT’s Computer Sci-ence and Artificial Intel-ligence Laboratory and completed his Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science; Visiting Postdoc Rachna Dhamija, who completed her Ph.D. in

the School of Management Systems at UC–Berkeley in September and worked on electronic payment system privacy and security at CyberCash; and Visiting Postdoc Simson L. Garfinkel, who re-ceived three Bachelor of Science degrees from MIT in 1987, a Master of Science in Journalism from Columbia University in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Computer Sci-ence from MIT in 2005. To learn more about future CRCS events, sign up for the mailing list at www.crcs.deas. harvard.edu/mailinglist.html. J

EVENTSVisit www.deas.harvard.edu/newsandevents for the latest details, dates, and times. Here are some highlights from the past months and some future opportunities.

a ball in a stadium) distract learners rather than ground them. Mazur found that, based on eye-tracking studies he conducted, most viewers stare at every-thing (the people, the clouds, etc.) but the concept being illustrated.

“We overestimate how much we obtain from visual information,” says Mazur. “The mental models students come in with are hard to change. ‘Hands on’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘brains on.’ Predicting the outcome, recording the observation, and then revising or rec-onciling the results is the real process that matters.”

So how do we get around our own gray matter? Mazur discovered that to be

effective, a passive or even active demo required a high level of engagement on the part of the learners—not simply witnessing what’s happening. That means giving a student the time and space to correct what his or her mind first sees during a demonstration. In the case of handouts and textbooks, revert-ing back to simpler illustrations and models will limit distraction from the core principles.

The educators might have left feeling uneasy about how often their minds play tricks on them, but they will likely add “think” to any standard show-and-tell routine in the future—even when using those cool LEGOs. J

Dr. Hossein Eslambolchi of AT&T. CRCS kicks off 2005–6.


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Tod Perry Ph.D. ’05, environmental sciences and engineering (see page

11), went straight from defending his thesis to actively developing an intellectual property and funding strategy for a new company based upon a novel microbiol-ogy technology.

While now an alum, the idea for his firm happened when he was still a graduate

Q&A WITH TOD PERRYReporting from the real world

student working in Gordon McKay Professor Ralph Mitchell’s microbiol-

ogy laboratory. Perry took the interdisciplinary nature of the lab and of DEAS to heart. “While I work closely with thoe in my lab, I enjoy working with other researchers. I have collaborated with

scientists from academia, industry, and government agencies,” he says.

In fact, it was this open and collaborative thinking that allowed his team (com-posed of members from across Harvard) to beat out 39 other submissions at the MIT Enterprise Forum competition last spring. Perry translated a process the Mitchell laboratory had developed to preserve historic stone cultural heritage materials (such as outdoor statues) and applied it more broadly to tackle a global energy and environmental problem.

The Business School’s Lee Fleming, Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration, whose course first brought the group together, thinks that having an inventor on the team—someone who understood the science firsthand—was essential. “[They] pulled from an existing technology that was well understood and that worked,” he says. “The true credit, however, goes to the students for getting past all the usual problems of working across disciplines. They self-assembled and executed in a fantastic manner.”

Here Perry provides an inside look at the first stages of crafting a new company.

What first drew you to the Division?

I had the good fortune of working at the Division as a lab technician before matriculating into the degree program. I ended up in Ralph Mitchell’s lab work-ing on the attachment of microorgan-isms to surfaces. However, the reason I stayed on and matriculated into the graduate program was because of the applied nature of what we were doing. It wasn’t just looking at mechanisms and physical properties. It was observing what was happening on the surfaces. Are they breaking things down? Are they producing toxins? And is that important?

At the Division, we talk a lot about integrative research. Can you cite an ex-ample in your own experience/work?

Through a Sandia National Laboratories Campus Executive Fellowship, I had the opportunity to study molecular model-ing simulations to better understand the atomistic mechanisms of some

Graduate Tod Perry Ph.D. ’05 may not have moved far from his alma mater (he is a frequent visitor at DEAS), but he has made a big move by starting his own company.

“I don’t know what the outcome will be, but I have to chart the best path I can.”


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PROFESSORSHIPS

Amy Smith Berylson A.B. ’75, M.B.A. ’79 endowed a Professorship in Engineering and Applied Sciences in honor of her 30th reunion.

The Case Family Foundation, on behalf of Bob Case A.B. ’76, M.B.A. and J.D. ’79 and Susie Case A.B., S.M. ’79, M.B.A. ’83, endowed the Robert and Suzanne Case Professorship.

Jean E. de Valpine A.B. ’43, J.D. ’49 endowed the Lola England Professorship.

George Joseph A.B. ’49 endowed the Vicky Joseph Professorship, currently held by Howard A. Stone.

Arthur C. Patterson A.B. ’66, M.B.A. ’68 endowed a Professorship in Engineering and Applied Sciences, to be named, in honor of his 40th reunion.

Robert P. Pinkas A.B. ’75, A.M. ’76 endowed The Robert P. Pinkas Fam-ily Professorship in Engineering and Applied Sciences in honor of his 30th reunion.

Allen E. Puckett S.B. ’39, S.M. ’41 endowed the Allen E. and Marilyn M. Puckett Professorship.

Gene Tiger Skyes A.B. ’80 endowed the Gene and Tracy Skyes Professorship in Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Jeff C. Tarr A.B. ’66 endowed the Tarr Family Professorship.

An anonymous donor endowed a Professorship in Engineering and Applied Sciences in honor of his 30th reunion.

INNOVATION FUNDS

John A. Armstrong A.B. ’56, A.M. ’61 and Ph.D. ’61 and Elizabeth S. Armstrong A.B. ’58 created the John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Innovation Fund.

David B. Heller A.B. ’89 created the David B. Heller Innovation Fund.

William Laverack Jr. A.B. ’79, M.B.A. ’85 and Cordelia Reardon Laverack created the Laverack Family Innovation Fund.

Thierry G. Porté A.B. ’79, M.B.A. ’82 created the Thierry G. Porté Innovation Fund.

Gary M. Reiner A.B. ’76, M.B.A. ’80 created the Reiner Family Innovation Fund.

James F. Rothenberg A.B. ’68, M.B.A. ’70 created the James F. Rothenberg Innovation Fund.

William A. Shutzer A.B. ’69, M.B.A. ’72 created the William A. and Fay L. Shutzer Innovation Fund.

Richard W. Smith A.B. ’74 created the Porthcawl Innovation Fund.

Edward A. Taft III A.B. ’73 created the Edward A. Taft III Innovation Fund.

An anonymous alumnus in the Class of 1968 created an Innovation Fund.

CHALLENGE MET

We are pleased to announce the completion of the Challenge Fund, created by an anonymous donor to establish 10 profes-sorships and 10 innovation funds in Engineering and Applied Sciences. The fund will ultimately generate a total of $45M

in new support for the Division. A complete list of donors is shown below. J

of the experimental results I have ob-served. This is a remarkable experience, especially because my thesis combined microbiology and chemistry.

What has winning the Ignite Clean Energy business competition meant?

This award allowed us to take cutting-edge research from the laboratory into the commercial marketplace. I have also been able to realize a dream—blending academics and business in such a way that will ultimately add value to society.

What problem will your new company tackle?

The company will address a $3 billion problem. We use microorganisms to overcome the critical energy problem of mineral scale formation in water pipes. Put simply, mineral plaques build up in pipes that, for example, drive hot water into your radiator, and make the transfer of heat far less efficient. Imag-

ine how that would affect a large office building’s heating system.

What were the first steps in establishing the company?

Since the first-place win in April and after a name change, from Microbial Scale Solutions to the more compelling Acillix Incorporated, I think we’ve made significant progress. I’ve been working hard to get the company up and running by performing proof-of-concept tests, building first prototypes, developing initial sales, establishing markets, pur-suing long-term funding opportunities, and broadening the company network of business, scientific, and academic advisors and partners.

What are some of the differences between being a graduate student and being an entrepreneur?

The most challenging part of going from graduate school into starting a business

is making decisions in the face of risk, and managing that risk. When you’re in school you plug through problems and usually there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end to each. You make decisions based on the success of experiments and iterate. Starting Acillix is a dynamic process where I make decisions that may affect the long-term success and viability of the entire company. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but I have to chart the best path I can.

What is a typical day like?

Each day is a completely different set of jobs—performing experiments, refining the business plan, charting a company strategy. I try to meet with everyone I possibly can to see what their insights are. One thing’s for sure: It’s the most challenging and rewarding thing I’ve ever done. J


FEEDBACK 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 bythe Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences Communications Office.

Harvard UniversityPierce Hall29 Oxford StreetCambridge, MA 02138

Managing Editor/Writer: Michael Patrick Rutter

Designer, Producer, Photographer: Eliza Grinnell

This publication, including past issues, is available on the Web at www.deas.harvard.edu

Copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

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TOOLING AROUND

Previously unobserved worlds made visible. Faster, more connected computing on a desktop PC.

Cleaner water and faster plant growth. Although advances in engineering and the applied sciences increasingly occur in realms far from our everyday experiences—at minute scales, in the wires behind the walls, or through alien-looking objects—they are all grounded in the physical world. Here’s a look at the tools—and as important, the tool makers—that enable research to flourish. J

Image 1: Louie DeFeo, Manager of the Engineering Machine Shop, is working with Assistant Professor of Physics Jenny Hoffman to build a low-temperature, high-magnetic field scanning tunneling microscope (STM, for short). Invented in 1981 by two IBM engineers, an STM allows researchers to image the topography of surfaces with atomic resolution, measure the energy levels of the constituent electrons, and even manipu-late a material, atom by atom. Hoffman’s customized version of the tool, a mere inch and a half tall, will take two skilled machinists over 100 hours to build. (See fall ’05 Colloquy.)

Image 2: A DEAS team, with help from FAS and University Information Systems (UIS), began building the hard-ware and networking environment for a grid computing environment, known as the Crimson Grid, in fall 2003. Working closely with four software engineers from the IBM Advanced Internet Technologies Group, the DEAS IT team (including Aaron Culich), built the Harvard Grid Reference System Implementation (HGRSI).

Images 3 and 6: The Division’s Laboratory of Applied Micro-biology, headed by Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Biology Ralph Mitchell, is cooperating with the Aka-tsuka Group of Tsu, Japan, to investigate applications of its novel water treatment process. The cooperative study has thus far revealed that crops irrigated with Akatsuka-treated water can withstand severe drought conditions. The process also prevents microorganisms from adhering to surfaces, which could be used to protect food products from degradation. Ultimately, a fuller understanding of the technology could lead to global applications, conserving scarce water resources and enhancing agricultural productivity in arid zones of the world. The treated water is also used as the main ingredient in a popular health-promoting soft drink available in Japan. The work at DEAS is part of a larger Akatsuka-sponsored project that includes other departments at Harvard. Pictured is Mitsuo Akatsuka, President and CEO, in the Engineering Sciences Lab.

Images 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9: Getting up close and personal with most of the tools located in DEAS labs usually involves donning a pair of safety goggles. Lenny Solomon, who first began working at Harvard in 1968 and at DEAS in 1978, formed the Safety Committee to keep research-ers out of harm’s way.


Harvard SEAS, Newsletter, Fall 2005

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