Alexandra Adler

One of the first female neurologists at Harvard Medical School (HMS), Alexandra Adler died Jan. 4. She was 99.

Adler was a leading expert in the field of psychosomatic syndromes and psychopharmacology. Her particular are of expertise was schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. Adler's studies focused on the survivors of a deadly 1942 nightclub fire in Boston and on combat survivors from World War II.

Adler was first appointed as a member of the research staff at HMS in 1935. However, she could not receive a post on the regular staff of HMS because of her gender.

After leaving Harvard in 1944, Adler went to New York University, where she spent the rest of her professional life.

David E. Bell

A economist who advised two presidents and was later a population studies expert at Harvard, David E. Bell died Sept. 6 after a brief illness. He was 81.

Bell was a special assistant to President Harry S. Truman and a director of the Bureau of the Budget and the Agency for International Development under President John F. Kennedy `40.

Bell's employment at Harvard came in two stints. In the late 1950s, Bell worked on a predecessor project of the Harvard Institute for International Development. He then returned in 1981 as the Gamble professor of population sciences and international health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He took emeritus status in 1988, but continued to regularly come into work.

Former Harvard President Derek Bok called Bell "one of the finest human beings I have been privileged to know during my 40 years at Harvard."

Kwang-chih Chang

A renowned expert on China's Bronze Age, Kwang-chih Chang died Jan. 3 from Parkinson's disease. He was 69.

Chang was an active professor in Harvard's anthropology department from 1977 until his retirement in 1996. He served as the department's chair from 1981 to 1984 and was appointed as the Hudson Research Professor in 1984.