President Bok said last night he has narrowed the list of possible successors to Robert H. Ebert, dean of the Harvard Medical School, to fewer than a dozen candidates and that he hopes to make a final choice, "within a matter of weeks."

Bok said a deliberate effort had been made to solicit suggestion for a replacement for Ebert, whose resignation takes effect July 1, 1977, from as many sources as possible both within and outside of the Harvard Medical Community.

Bok has been meeting regularly since last spring with an Advisory Committee composed of nine members of the Medical School faculty and Dr. Eleanor G. Shore '51, assistant to the president on health affairs.

In addition, he said comments and recommendations have been solicited from the entire Medical School faculty and the Joint Committee on the Status of Women.

Bok refused to comment on particular characteristics of the approximately ten candidates he is still considering and also declined to say whether or not he will select a new dean from the Harvard Medical School faculty.

Since Ebert's appointment to the highest paying University deanship in 1965 he has been active in promoting social medicine and was the leader in developing the Harvard Community Health Plan, a University program that provides health care to Cambridge and Boston area residents.

Preserve Strong Ties

Shore, an assistant to Bok, said last night that Bok is looking for someone who would preserve and increase the strengths of the Medical School in clinical medicine and bio-medical science as well as continue Ebert's interest in involving the school in the community around it.

Ebert, who is now 62 years old, decided to resign to spend his last three years before retirement doing research on medical education.

He came to Harvard in 1964 to become Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine and chief of the Medical Services at the Massachusetts General Hospital.