Vo l u m e I V • I s s u e 2 • F a l l 2 0 0 5
start but it is seldom enough to ensure In other words, our faculty, students,
DEAN’S MESSAGE
COMMUNITY
This 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.
H oward 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
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 PASSION
DEAS 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.
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 SETTING
To 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
A LOOK BACK

A look back
As 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.

Undergraduate
Over 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.

Graduate “There are very few places

The graduate student population
has grown from 175 to 270 during in the world where one
1995–2005, an increase of over 50
percent. Most impressive, the num-
can spend the morning
ber of applications to our programs
has nearly tripled over a shorter
thinking about some
period and selectivity increased; phenomenon seen in a
less than 13% of students who
apply are admitted. microfluidic device and
the afternoon thinking
Number of Grad Program Applicants * / Selectivity 1997–2004
1997
1998
382
72 18.8% acceptance rate
about how fish swim or
1998
1999
1999
437
89 20.4% acceptance rate

439
why microorganisms are
“What’s great about the shaped in the way that
2000 99 22.6% acceptance rate

2000 830
2001 143 17.2% acceptance rate

2001 1018

Division is that you they are.”

2002 145 14.2% acceptance rate

2002 1430
2003 154 10.8% acceptance rate

can get the best of both

2003 1210

—Marcus Roper, Ph.D. candidate,

2004 151 12.5% acceptance rate

0 300 600 900 1,200 1,500

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
Number of Applicants
Number of Students Admitted Applied Mechanics
Alumni success
Recent 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.

2 I DEAS – Fall 2005

 A LOOK BACK
By the numbers
Sponsored research in the Division has
increased more than 60 percent from
1995 ($20.6M) to 2005 ($33M).

35

$ in mil

30

Bolstering engineering 25

In recent years, DEAS has built a strong foundation

for invention-oriented disciplines such as computer
systems research and increased its collaborations in 20
fields like electrical engineering and bioengineering. 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Renewal
The 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.
Without boundaries
Today, nearly 80 faculty members in
areas including—applied mathemat-
ics, applied physics, engineering,
environmental sciences, computer
science, and biology—actively col-
laborate with DEAS.
“Because of Harvard’s
intrinsic excellence,
I hope we can always
High honors get the brightest
Eight members of the DEAS faculty
are members of the National Acad-
students and the bright-
emy of Engineering, and eight are est faculty, which still
members of the National Academy
of Sciences (three of both). is more important than
Other major honors and awards
by DEAS faculty include: Harvard
anything else I do.”
College Professorships (5); MacAr- —Dean Venky in a 1998
thur Genius Award; Guggenheim
Fellowship; and Alpha Iota Prizes Harvard Gazette interview
for Excellence in Teaching (4).
World-class work
In 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.

DEAS – Fall 2005 I 3

A LOOK BACK

Good neighbors
DEAS 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.
New companies
In 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).
Monies generated from partnerships with
industry have increased from $110,000
in 1995 to $1.7M in 2005.

Entrepreneurship
In 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.

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.
Collaborations
DEAS has been instrumental in
establishing more extensive part-
nerships with industry. A particu- “We can take what we discover and
lar success was the development
be proud when it results in a new
of the Crimson Grid in 2003. IBM
partnered with DEAS to create an or better product while at the same
innovative computing platform
designed to support collaborative time plow our findings back into the
research and sharing of data.
The benefits are more than just
Division.”
— David Weitz,
monetary. Over the past few years,
Professor of Physics and Applied Physics
we have hosted student-oriented
talks and recruiting events with
leaders from major companies
such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco,
Zeiss, AT&T, and Samsung.

4 I DEAS – Fall 2005

 A LOOK BACK
Maxwell Dworkin
One 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) 40 & 60 Oxford Street
H. Gates III COL ’77 and Steven A. Ballmer ’77 In 2003, 60 Oxford Street, with
funded the new home for computer science and 8,000+ square feet of dedicated
electrical engineering faculty in 1996; the build- space for bioengineering, opened.
ing was completed in 1999. 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 Hall
During 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.

Support
We 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.
High-tech management
In 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.

Engineering meets biology

A group of faculty at DEAS, in col-
Transformation
laboration with colleagues at the Through implementing our future
Medical School and its teaching plans, a vibrant, creative, and sup-
hospitals, has begun to define an
initiative in biologically inspired
portive culture and community will
engineering, an endeavor centered emerge. We must work from the
at the interface between the histori- inside out, first strengthening the
cally distinct disciplines of engineer-
relationships in our own community,
ing, the physical sciences, biology, and medicine. This may lead to the
creation of fully biocompatible materials; the ability to regenerate tissues then throughout Harvard, and then
or reprogram complex physiology in debilitated or aging patients; and the reaching out to the wider world.
development of low-cost medical technologies.

DEAS – Fall 2005 I 5

FACULTY NEWS

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

ZHIMING KUANG
Assistant 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. MANOHARAN
Assistant 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. SMITH
Assistant 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

PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS

The following faculty members received promotions during the 2004– 05 academic year: 1 2

Navin Khaneja David C. Parkes Michael D. Smith

Promoted to Associate Professor of Promoted to John L. Loeb Associate Named Associate Dean for Computer
Electrical Engineering, as of July 1, 2005. Professor of the Natural Sciences, Science and Engineering. Our thanks go 3 4
as of July 1, 2005. to Margo Seltzer, who previously served
Michael D. Mitzenmacher in the role. J
1. Khaneja
2. Mitzenmacher
Promoted to Gordon McKay Professor of Margo I. Seltzer 3. Parkes
Computer Science, effective January 1, Named Harvard College Professor, 4. Seltzer
2005 (and tenure). effective July 1, 2005, for five years. 5 5. Smith

6 I DEAS – Fall 2005

 FACULTY NEWS
COLLABORATIONS
Ronold King celebrates two centuries

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.”

O n 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.
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
King’s 100th birthday. While meeting the turn-of-the-century by King. In turn, his students became part of his research en-
mark certainly justified having a party, ever since King’s of- terprise, making advances that led to publication in journals
ficial retirement in 1972, a fan club led by Dr. Ed Altshuler ’60 and books. King has been honored countless times by the IEEE
has held fetes in his honor. for his leadership in engineering education—most telling, his
King received his A.B. and M.S. (1927 and 1929) from the Uni- 1997 receipt of their Graduate Teaching Award, recognizing
versity of Rochester and his Ph.D. (1932) from the University him for exemplary standards in teaching and research and a
of Wisconsin–Madison, all in Physics. He arrived at Harvard in lifetime of dedication to his students.
1938, when faculty member and future Nobel That dedication to mentorship has earned King
Prize winner John H. Van Vleck was first devel- He has advised more than 100 another century mark: He has advised more
oping his modern theory of magnetism based doctoral candidates at Harvard, than 100 doctoral candidates at Harvard, an
on quantum mechanics. King, best known for achievement believed by many to be a record
developing electromagnetic antenna theory an achievement believed by many in academic circles.
and as the author of several major textbooks to be a record in academic circles. Former students and other alumni who would
on electromagnetics, must have quickly im- like to send their good wishes should e-mail
pressed the future dean of engineering and applied physics: communications@deas.harvard.edu. We will compile and
He was given an honorary master’s degree from the University forward your messages to Dr. King. J
one year after arrival.

Thanks, Deke!
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
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,
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

DEAS – Fall 2005 I 7

FACULTY NEWS

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).

LINKS AND NODES is growing on me.” Pointing upward at the lighting—metal

domes with orange interiors—he made an observation likely
Extreme makeover to be echoed by anyone who visits: “The overhead lights kind

D EAS 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
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

AWARDS
Start 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

8 I DEAS – Fall 2005

 FACULTY NEWS
NOTA BENE
Ralph Mitchell’s lab, including researcher
Kristen Bearce, are working to preserve
great works of art such as Degas’s wax
When the going’s good … India New
sculptures. ABC News reports that “More
England profiled Dean Venky in its Aug.1
than a century ago, the French artist,
issue. Here are a few highlights—on
Edgar Degas, crafted intricate sculptures
being chosen Dean: “[Former FAS Dean
from beeswax, lard, clay, and odds and
Jeremy] Knowles says the lunch meeting
ends such as cork, wood, wire, and rags.
that he had with Narayanamurti clinched
Now scientists have found that colonies
it. ‘After the meeting, I said, “Look, we
of bacteria and fungi appear to be feast-
should definitely set our sights on this
ing on the work ...To test for microbial in-
intense, bubbling, enthusiastic, wise
Cells swim in clockwise, circular trajectories at solid, planar surfaces. When a cell fection, Bearce and Mitchell swabbed the
person,” and that long Saturday morning
executes a “run,” the flagella rotate anticlockwise (when viewed from behind) and statues and then cultured the samples.
convinced me that he was someone who the cell body counter-rotates in a clockwise direction. When viewed from above, They found over half of the bacteria
would effect a transformation,’ Knowles the cell trajectories at the bottom surface appear clockwise and the cell trajectories
cultured from the swabs produced en-
reminisces.” On his future plans: “After at the top surface appear anticlockwise. (Image courtesy of Nature.)
zymes that could break down wax, almost
his deanship, Narayanamurti would like
and medicine. He hasn’t really moved! for a swim ... PhysicsWeb (July 5) takes 60 percent produced enzymes that can
to take a sabbatical and research public
He just ‘bent’ a little, to change function. a dip into recent research findings about digest starch, and some 24 percent had
policy … and technology and society at
His problems remain macroscopic, not swimming E. coli made by DEAS affiliates the ability to digest both starch and wax.”
the Kennedy School of Government.
microscopic. They still begin with ob- Eric Lauga, Willow R. DiLuzio, George … Deprogramming myths … The Harvard
‘I would like to think through my ideas,
servation, not with computation. He had M. Whitesides, and Howard A. Stone. Gazette profiled computer scientist
and understand the policies better,’ he
to learn about constraints from chemists “Recent years have seen a flurry of Michael Mitzenmacher on his receipt of
says. Later, he plans to return to his re-
and biologists. (Harvard provided a lab.) interest in making sensors, motors, and tenure. Once a Harvard undergraduate
search in nanostructures and condensed
I think that his work offers a truly helpful other devices from biological organisms himself, Mitzenmacher said he is eager to
matter.” … Grid(un)lock … IBM published
model for an applied mathematician who like bacteria. However, to make devices attract a new generation of students to the
a case study, “The Crimson Grid: IBM and
knows mechanics and wants to work in that work efficiently, it is important to field by dispelling some common myths:
Harvard DEAS Create Powerful Comput-
biology.” … It’s life, Jim … The Aug. 14 know how the microorganisms behave “Undergraduates see programming and it
ing for Research and Learning,” detailing
Boston Globe reported on Harvard’s new when they approach solid surfaces. Now doesn’t seem particularly creative because
the use of grid computing to enable users
Origins of Life Initiative. The Division’s researchers at Harvard University have the problems they first learn on are very
to share complex programs, models,
Scot Martin, who is involved in the in- developed the first model to explain a simple. But computer science is incredibly
data, and storage capacity. The goal is
terdisciplinary endeavor, will explore how surprising type of behavior first seen in collaborative. If you are going to solve big,
to extend a bit of crimson locally and na-
an environment with the right chemical E. coli bacteria in the 1970s—the fact important problems, you work in groups,
tionally: “In time it will collaborate with
composition may have allowed life to that they always swim in clockwise circles not hacking alone in your room.” J
arise. The Globe goes on to report, “Many near a solid surface.” … Living art ...
of science’s most interesting questions Michael Mitzenmacher gives a human touch to computation.
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
IBM’s Steve Sakata and DEAS M-Taiwan plan.” The M-Taiwan plan (M is
IT Director Joy Sircar. for mobile) aims to create Taiwan’s third
flagship industry, after semiconductors
computing grids at other area universities
and LCDs, and improve the quality of
such as the Massachusetts Institute of
Taiwan’s information network. … Out
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 E. coli rotates its flagella, or tiny
from mechanics and physics to biology hairs, like an outboard motor.

DEAS – Fall 2005 I 9

IN MEDIAS RES
SELECTED ARTICLES ABOUT THE DIVISION
“Armor-plated” bubbles
and drops
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
10 I DEAS – Fall 2005
Microfluidics, a particular area of expertise at DEAS,
offers beauty as much as it does practicality; the
armored bubbles are no exception.
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 global
Professor 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-
David Edwards (DEAS) and Dr. Christopher Murray (HMS) were both Gates Foundation grant recipients.
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.
 IN MEDIAS RES
Living machines
A 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 In addition to mentoring students in the iGEM competition (lower right), computer scientist Radhika Nagpal
from one end to the other, and trying to (above, third from the left) traveled to Redmond, Washington, to attend an award ceremony honoring New
Faculty Research Fellows (See Page 8).
create a “biosketch,” which uses light-
sensitive bacteria to create a device that pipes that conduct heat. This use of The Harvard team’s first-place finish
users can write on using a pen that emits microbes could dramatically increase netted them financial and business sup-
ultraviolet light and which could then energy efficiency. The process was origi- port, including a $15,000 award and a
erase the writing through exposure to nally used to preserve outdoor sculp- one-year membership in the University
high temperatures. tures from decay. of Massachusetts–Lowell Commercial
The team came together courtesy of a Venture Development incubator,
Pamela Silver is one of the driving forces
new course, Business 2107: Commercial- providing free office space and expert
behind the competition. Silver said she
izing Science and High Technology, advice to jump-start the winning team’s
thought it provided a valuable hands-
organized and taught by HBS’s Lumry business (a $20,000 value).
on experience for students to learn
Family Associate Professor of Business Adapted from stories in the Harvard Gazette and
about biological engineering firsthand.
the Harbus. Related stories appeared in Mass High
Professor of Genetics George Church, Administration Lee Fleming. Entering Tech. J
Assistant Professor of Computer Sci- the competition, however, was not an
The Harvard iGEM team.
ence and Instructor in Systems Biology original part of the class syllabus. Luck-
Radhika Nagpal, and Assistant Professor ily, Paul Bottino, executive director of
of Biomedical Engineering Kit Parker the DEAS-based Technology and Entre-
are helping Silver advise the students. preneurship Center at Harvard (TECH),
Representatives of all teams will present heard about the opportunity and men-
the results of their work at a “jamboree” tioned it to the students over dinner.
at MIT in November.
Adapted from the Harvard Gazette. The winning team (from left): Brian Pulliam,
Kathryn Tinckam, Jacqueline Harlow, Tod Perry,
and W. Alex Goodwin.
Going green
A 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

DEAS – Fall 2005 I 11

STUDENT NEWS
ADVICE FOR YOUNG INVESTIGATORS
“I ’ve learned a lot about teamwork, “The people who are successful in the sciences none of the students had heard of
responsibility, and dedication,” says
Biomedical Sciences concentrator Mei are the ones who maintain discipline under
“Rosa” Ng ’08. That trifecta, along with a the pressure of getting grants, teaching, and to walk into any lab or any biotech
lot of trial and error, contends Assistant
Professor of Biomedical Engineering doing research all at the same time.”
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
12 I DEAS – Fall 2005
before taking the class.
“By the end, these students will be ready
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

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
STUDENT NEWS
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

Racing stripes Harvard’s hallmark gets high marks

On 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
Jacomo Corbo (third from the left) among the finalists for the Altran Engineering
focus and to include more
Academy finalists.
interdisciplinary work, both
Graduate student Jacomo Corbo, a Ph.D. candidate in Electri- in research and the curricu-
cal Engineering, was named one of eight finalists in the 2005 lum, if they want to keep pace with an increasingly glo-
Altran Formula One Engineering Academy. balized world. The new approach recommended by the
In 2004, Altran and Renault formed the Academy and cre- report—which calls for engineering to be integrated with oth-
ated a related competition to attract engineering talent from er fields including the sciences, finance, and applied math—is
around the world. Entrants are asked to develop a plan to already ‘Harvard’s hallmark,’ according to DEAS’s Dean
improve Formula One (F1) safety, reliability, or performance; Narayanamurti. Narayanamurti said that Harvard’s engineer-
the winner gets a chance to work in the pit, so to speak, be- ing is already ahead of the curve in terms of implementing the
coming a part of the research and development team for recommendations.” J
six months.
While Corbo did not garner the pole position, his placement
as a finalist was impressive given the application pool of over Awards
1,500. His project was inspired by a NASA technical document On June 13, the Technology and Entre- IV, Ph.D. ’05 (Microbiology) and Ryan
about fault tolerance for satellites and space vehicles. preneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) Larsen, Ph.D. ’06 (Applied Physics).
named its 2005 Innovation Fellows and The innovation research grant recipients
While orbiting the track rather than the earth, Corbo says, “an research grant recipients as part of its are Anqi Huang A.B. ’07 (Computer
F1 vehicle is an extremely complex machine, consisting of a Program on Innovation in Science and Science and Economics) and Kevin Gan
multitude of sensor-rich, network-embedded hardware and Engineering. The program is sponsored A.B. ’07 (Biochemical Sciences). The
software systems that must operate reliably and in the face by Altran Technologies and Arthur D. Fellows were formally recognized at the
Little, and receives essential support Altran Foundation for Innovation awards
of novel failures. Our objective was to address these require-
from Cambridge-based Synectics Inc. ceremony in Paris on June 16. J
ments by the design and implementation of both on-board The 2005 Fellows are Thomas D. Perry
(on-car) and off-board systems for fault diagnosis and auto-
nomic repair.” J

DEAS – Fall 2005 I 13

IN PROFILE
PUTTING THE SKY IN A BOX
Environmental chemist Scot Martin reins in the atmosphere
V an 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.
14 I DEAS – Fall 2005
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-

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- Martin has found the Division
sided process to ensure that the air
doesn’t slip right through Martin’s hands. an ideal fit...“There’s always a
The three sides are lab researchers (such
as his team), modelers (like Vasco McCoy
colleague you can turn to quickly.”
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
Close-up of the home-built humidity chamber in Martin’s laboratory.
IN PROFILE
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
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.
DEAS – Fall 2005 I 15
INTERSECTIONS
HANDS ON, BRAINS ON
O n 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
16 I DEAS – Fall 2005
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
(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.

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
EVENTS
Visit www.deas.harvard.edu/newsandevents for the latest details, dates, and times.
Here are some highlights from the past months and some future opportunities.
GOOD BUSINESS
Kapil 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 Dr. Hossein Eslambolchi of AT&T. have come
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
effective, a passive or even active demo
required a high level of engagement
on the part of the learners—not sim-
ply 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
should read the June 6 cover story of
EE Times. Later that same month, AT&T’s
Dr. Hossein
Eslambolchi
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
just CRCS kicks off 2005–6.
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 EYES
For the 2005–6 academic year, the Cen-
ter for Research on Computation and So-
INTERSECTIONS
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
DEAS – Fall 2005 I 17
ALUMNI NOTES

Q&A WITH TOD PERRY In fact, it was this open and collaborative
thinking that allowed his team (com-
posed of members from across Harvard)
Reporting from the real world 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
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. what was happening on the surfaces.
Are they breaking things down? Are

T od Perry Ph.D. ’05, environmental

sciences and engineering (see page
11), went straight from
student working in Gordon McKay
Professor Ralph Mitchell’s microbiol-
ogy laboratory. Perry
they producing toxins? And is that
important?

defending his thesis to “I don’t know what the took the interdisciplinary At the Division, we talk a lot about
integrative research. Can you cite an ex-
actively developing an nature of the lab and of
intellectual property outcome will be, but I DEAS to heart. “While I ample in your own experience/work?
and funding strategy for work closely with thoe in
a new company based have to chart the best my lab, I enjoy working Through a Sandia National Laboratories
Campus Executive Fellowship, I had the
upon a novel microbiol-
ogy technology.
path I can.” with other researchers. I
have collaborated with opportunity to study molecular model-
scientists from academia, industry, and ing simulations to better understand
While now an alum, the idea for his firm
government agencies,” he says. the atomistic mechanisms of some
happened when he was still a graduate

18 I DEAS – Fall 2005


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
ALUMNI NOTES
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

CHALLENGE MET
W e 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

PROFESSORSHIPS INNOVATION FUNDS

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.
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.

DEAS – Fall 2005 I 19

CONNECTIONS
1 STM allows researchers to image the topography of
3 5
FEEDBACK LOOP
We welcome and appreciate your
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communications@deas.harvard.edu
or call us at 617-496-3815. This
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Sciences Communications Office.
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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
20 I DEAS – Fall 2005
TOOLING AROUND
P reviously 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
2 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
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.)
4 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
6 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.
7 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.
8 9