Grosz notes that because Radcliffe does not have any laboratories of its own, the Institute has not tried to attract laboratory scientists, preferring instead to work with theoreticians.

She said, however, that she is exploring how Radcliffe fellows might use Harvard laboratories in the future.

In addition, Grosz says she hopes to find more ways for College students to be involved in Radcliffe research.

“One of the best things about being a faculty member at Harvard is the undergraduates,” she says.

Change in Fellowships

Never before has Radcliffe had deans who were solely in charge of developing specific academic disciplines. In the past, deans at Radcliffe were primarily administrators who concentrated on the logistics of running Radcliffe College and after 1999, the Institute for Advanced Study.

But this summer, Faust appointed Grosz to give direction to Radcliffe’s work in the sciences and hired Katherine S. Newman as Radcliffe’s new dean of social science.

These women are charged with making Radcliffe a world-class producer of research in the hard and social sciences. Newman will split her time between Radcliffe and the Kennedy School of Government, where she is currently the Wiener Professor of Urban Studies.

Newman says she will focus on reframing and enhancing the role of social analysis and public policy at Radcliffe, which she describes as an “intellectual hothouse for the whole University.”

In addition, Newman says she hopes to “create longer-term scholarly relations for the social sciences” and also to invite fellows back for public symposia after they have completed the program.

“I hope that Radcliffe will become a place where new ideas and perspectives will be made available to the public and to the scholarly community,” she says.

As they go through the applications for the 2002-2003 Radcliffe Fellowships, which were due yesterday, Vichniac, Grosz and Newman say they are working together to develop a new approach to scholarship at the Institute.

In addition to attracting individual fellows with specific research interests, the team hopes to attract groups of fellows, or “clusters,” with complementary academic interests.

“Science is a very social activity,” Grosz says. “It’s critically important to be able to attract groups of people.”

Newman describes the nature of Radcliffe as “inherently interdisciplinary,” and hence an ideal environment for developing clusters.