Fineberg said he expects to find the same quality of colleagues at IOM.
After stepping down as Harvard provost at the end of last semester, Fineberg spent the summer hiking in the West with his wife, Mary M. Wilson, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and HSPH.
Since then, he and his wife have been using their free time on projects that until this point they haven’t had the time to pursue, Fineberg said.
Fineberg said the prospect of returning to the world of the 9-to-5 grind is daunting.
“I don’t even want to contemplate that,” he said. “This is a delicious time—it’s sort of like being a student without any classes.”
Fineberg said he and his wife will be relocating to the Washington, D.C. area, where the Institute of Medicine is located.
He said that he was not concerned about moving to Washington given current issues of national security.
“The tenor of the times made the job all the more appealing,” Fineberg said. “It’s a great opportunity for service at a very critical time in the nation’s history.”
—Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to the reporting of this article.
—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.