A Harvard Medical School dean testified yesterday during a Senate committee hearing at the Fernald State School, where Harvard scientists conducted radiation experiments on retarded students in the 1940s and 50s.

Dr. James Adelstein, executive dean for academic programs at the Medical School, spoke at the school in Waltham, Mass., at a special hearing led by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56, who chairs the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.

Adelstein, who was speaking for the University, would not discuss his testimony with reporters, his secretary said.

Jane Corlette, Harvard's acting vice president for government, community and public affairs, elaborated on Adelstein's presence in an interview yesterday.

"We wanted to describe what we're doing and to go on the record and to express our sympathy and concern for the family of the people involved," Corlette said. "We are very concerned about what might have happened to them in the past."

The Crimson first reported last week that Clemens E. Benda, a Medical School faculty member until 1964 and chief physician at the Fernald School, led tests in which retarded students were fed radioactive milk with their breakfast cereal. Benda died in 1975.

"We felt it was important that we be there," Corlette said. "We certainly don't yet have any sense of the full picture. We do know there was some Harvard involvement starting with Dr. Benda, and since we have been involved we wanted to be there."

Margaret L. Dale, an attorney who works in the Medical School's Office for Research Issues, also attended the hearing, according to Harvard and MIT officials who were at the meeting. Dale could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Harvard officials, including President Neil L. Rudenstine, have declined to discuss any possible University liability for the tests.

Two former Fernald students testified at yesterday's hearing that they did not know they were given small amounts of radiation in their food.

Austin LaRocque, a former Fernald student, toldthe panel that he was not informed of theradiation when he participated in the experiments.

"I absolutely was not told," LaRocque said inan interview after the hearing.

LaRocque said he was pleased that Harvardattended the hearing. "They showed up and facedthe music," he said.

Kennedy and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), whoalso attended the hearing, expressed shock at thetestimony of LaRocque and the other former Fernaldstudent.

"Last month, the nation was shocked to learnthat in the years after World War II, the federalgovernment sponsored radiation experiments onhuman subjects without their consent," Kennedysaid in his opening remarks.

"It is already clear that a number of theseexperiments took place in Massachusetts, includingsome here at the Fernald School where our SenateCommittee is meeting today," Kennedy said.