John Harvard's Journal
Peak Professorships
The ranks of University ProfessorsHarvard's supreme academic appointmenthave changed significantly with the elevation of two faculty members to the position, and the announcement that a third will return to Cambridge to take up the chair he relinquished in 1998. University Professors are recognized for their wide-ranging and pioneering scholarship, often crossing disciplinary boundaries, and are encouraged to pursue their work by engaging with fellow faculty members and students across Harvard's schools. As a measure of their distinction, there are but 21 University Professorships in all (three of them currently vacant).
Dale W. Jorgenson, Ph.D. '59, formerly Abbe professor of economics, is the first Morris University Professor, occupying a chair named for Samuel W. Morris '40. Jorgensonwho in 1971 won the American Economic Association's John Bates Clark Medal as the profession's most distinguished young economistis widely known for bridging theory and practice. For example, he has examined determinants of investment spending and has done leading work on the role of technology in economic growth, the subject of his most recent book, Economic Growth in the Information Age. (His research on global warming and the development of China was reported in "The Great Global Experiment," November-December 2002, page 34.) Besides chairing the department of economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) from 1994 to 1997, Jorgenson has directed the Kennedy School of Government's Program on Technology and Ecnomic Policy since 1984. The new professorship was funded by Morris's daughter, Barbara Morris Caspersen, and her husband, Finn M.W. Caspersen, LL.B. '66, a leading benefactor of the Law School.
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Christoph Wolff |
Stephanie Mitchell / Harvard News Office |
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Amartya Sen |
Stephanie Mitchell / Harvard News Office |