More importantly, they say the Altom suicide was a wake-up call to the students themselves: working together and being supportive of each other is the best way to combat an overly competitive department.

Still, despite the change, graduate students and professors alike say the department is not in an ideal place yet. Students are still under pressure to produce results, knowing that if they don't, both their own future and their advisor's reputation will suffer.

Alan Long, director of the laboratories of the Department of Chemistry, says that breaking down some of the walls and creating lines of communication within the department has been the key to change.

"But I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a competitive place," Long says. "The people we bring in here are competitive by nature. Harvard is Harvard."

Mending the Wounds

After Altom's death, graduate students were quick to say the pressures he faced were not unique to Altom and to the lab of Professor E.J. Corey, where Altom worked.

Altom wrote three suicide notes, one to Corey, one to his parents, and one to the chair of the chemistry department. In those notes he suggested numerous reforms to the structure of the department and ways to improve the lives and relieve the stresses of those in it.

The department has listened to Altom.