President Lawrence Summers

"There are few, if any, areas of knowledge that are as pervasive in their impact on the missions of every part of the University as what takes place in the life sciences," said President Summers.

Drawing from research in economics, he described how investigations into human betterment have vividly concluded that most Americans would choose the benefits of medical progress over the improvements in material quality of life made since 1950. The same conclusion emerges even when the time period is pushed back to the beginning of the 20th century.

That conclusion, said President Summers, is a powerful statement about a small but increasingly active medical sector in the country’s economy–and an even more dramatic statement about biomedical research.

"For us as a society, there is a serious case to be made that there is no higher return on investment than our investment in the life sciences and in biomedical research," he said.

In meeting with people around the University, he has noted the many interests that involve life sciences, such as developing health care infrastructures in Africa, understanding the implications of neuroscience in early childhood education, and investigating the role of evolution in understanding human aesthetic appreciation.

Opportunities for life sciences at Harvard are increased by the fact that scientists are taking on an ever greater range of problems, he said, such as the science of diseases that affect people in poor countries and the interaction of genetic and environmental considerations as central to a much wider range of inquiry.

President Summers said he is working with Provost Steven Hyman, HSPH Dean Barry Bloom, HMS Dean Joseph Martin, FAS Dean William Kirby and all of those involved in setting the University’s life sciences strategy.

Any strategy must strike the right balance between strategic direction and creative energy and between basic science and the kind of applied science that can make an immediate difference in people’s lives, he said.

He embraced what he called a return to interdisciplinary approaches in life sciences and reminded the audience of what can be produced when scientists from different fields work together–the structure of DNA, for example, was deduced by an ornithologist who collaborated with a physicist, he noted.

HMS Dean Joseph Martin at the building dedication

In the months and years ahead, the University will increase substantially its commitment to issues in global health, he said. "We have an obligation to use what we know to address the challenges of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis," said President Summers.

The University is also working toward developing a common approach to graduate training in life sciences so that the best students continue to be recruited and that they receive the best instruction on a University-wide level.

Referring to the distance between the Longwood and Cambridge campuses, President Summers concluded: "We have discovered so very much at Harvard, I am convinced we can also discover how to collaborate across several-mile distances, and I think we are making very great progress in that regard."

To read President Summers’ remarks in their entirety, visit http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2003/new_research.html.

HMS Dean Joseph Martin introduced President Summers and welcomed the audience who filled the sleek-looking auditorium in the New Research Building. The 10-story, glass-facade facility is the largest research and education building ever built by Harvard. More than 800 research staff from HMS as well as from Harvard-affiliated hospitals will work in the New Research Building, said HMS Dean Martin.

Also speaking at the event were Philip Leder, chair of the HMS Department of Genetics, and Sydney Brenner, co-winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA.

For information about related upcoming symposia sponsored by HMS, visit http://www.hms.harvard.edu/milestone/.