When Lawrence H. Summers wakes up on Saturday, he'll be out of a job, his eight years on the Clinton Administration's payroll over. But now the outgoing treasury secretary may now have a shot at another prestigious position: the presidency of Harvard.

As late as four weeks ago, says a Clinton administration colleague, Summers claimed he had no interest in the Harvard presidency. But Summers remains one of the leading contenders on a short list of 30 to 40 candidates winnowed from the overall field of 400 nominees--and those under consideration routinely deny their interest.

Though he has spent the last eight years as a public servant and policymaker, Summers is a highly regarded academic and has the all-important Harvard connection--a prior affiliation with the University that makes him more appealing as a candidate and gives him backers on the inside. And with his extensive experience on the national stage, colleagues think Summers might be the man with the vision to use Harvard's bully pulpit to its full advantage.

Now his future depends on another kind of fickle presidential politics:

the Harvard-style politics that will determine whether he will be offered the university's top post.

The Economist

Summers, who is married with three children, is the son of two economists and the nephew of two more. He was born Nov. 30, 1954 in New Haven.

He attended MIT, where he too studied economics. After graduating, he moved up the river to become a graduate student in economics at Harvard. In 1982, he completed his doctorate. Only one year later, at 28, he became the youngest tenured professor in Harvard history.