Harvard appoints Summers

After an exhaustive nine-month search that included the evaluation of approximately 500 candidates, Harvard University announced yesterday former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers as the university's 27th president.

The Harvard University Board of Overseers approved the search committee's recommendation yesterday afternoon during special meeting.

"I am honored by the opportunity to return to Harvard, at such an exciting time in the life of the university," Summers said in a press release. "For now, I consider it a privilege to start the third phase of my Harvard education.

Summers will assume his newly appointed role on July 1, succeeding Neil Rudenstine '56.

Summers earned a B.S. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975 and went on to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard. He later joined the university as a member of the faculty, teaching economics. In 1983, at the age of 28, he became one of the youngest tenured full professors in Harvard's history.

He left the Harvard faculty for jobs in Washington, where he most recently served as Secretary of the Treasury during the final years of the Clinton administration. He also worked as deputy treasury secretary in a close partnership with former Secretary Robert Rubin. Most economic analysts believe Summers played an integral role in the United States' response to several foreign currency crises.

The Harvard announcement comes after it narrowed the candidates down to four finalists, a list that also included Harvard provost Harvey Fineberg, University of Michigan president Lee Bollinger and Princeton politics professor Amy Gutmann.