David A. Hamburg, 45, chairman of the Psychiatry Department at the Stanford Medical School:

Hamburg is known at Stanford as a "low-key type." He is a proven scholar, having served as director of the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago before taking his present post at Stanford.

Although he has had limited contact with undergraduates, Hamburg has served in several important administrative capacities. The most notable was during Stanford's own search for a president two years ago when Hamburg was the coordinator for the three committees involved in the screening process: alumni, faculty, and student.

During that period, Hamburg was, according to one committee member, "a mediator to the point that we didn't know where he stood at times, but overall a very effective figure."

At the Medical School, Hamburg has built the Psychiatry Department from virtually nothing into one of the best five or six departments in the country. The Medical School is not well-endowed, and yet Hamburg has been able to garner support for the department he created.

One innovation that Hamburg has instituted is the appointment of a member of the Psychiatry Department as an ombudsman-a neutral investigator in disputes between faculty and administration, faculty and students, or administration and students.

At present, Hamburg is himself being considered for provost of Stanford. One of his major drawbacks apparently is that few undergraduates are familiar with him.

Hamburg is noted for his sensitivity to the idea of academic freedom, and this is said to be one of the few issues which can visibly raise his ire.

Hamburg has no ties with Harvard; he was an undergraduate at the University of Indiana and later received his M. D. there. He spent his residency at Yale.

G. Alexander Heard, 53, Chancellor of Vanderbilt University:

Heard is the man President Nixon chose last May to be his special advisor on campus unrest. After several perfunctory and well-publicized meetings, that consultation broke up and Heard returned to Nashville.

Heard is highly-respected as an educator and political scientist. He has authored four books on Southern politics, and is generally regarded as a liberal Democrat.

After joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 1952 as professor of Political Science, Heard became dean of the Graduate School in 1958. He was then named chancellor in 1963.

The position as President Nixon's personal advisor provided Heard with national exposure, but no one has really resolved the outcome of his discussions with the President.

A possible catch as far as the job at Harvard is concerned is speculation that Heard was offered the presidency at Columbia in 1969 and Vanderbilt made him pledge to remain on there as chancellor. How binding such a pledge would be in relation to Harvard-if it actually was made-is not known. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and should he be selected, would be the first Harvard president from the deep South.