While no formal list of candidates to be the next dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) has been released, internal observers say several professors are especially likely to be considered.

These include Geisinger Professor of History William C. Kirby, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Dean Drew Gilpin Faust and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Peter T. Ellison.

Current Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles plans to resign July 1, although he has said he will remain in the position until University President Lawrence H. Summers names a successor.

Administrators and professors on the committee Summers has established to advise him in the search stress that the field remains wide open and Summers is still gathering names.

While it is too early to call Kirby, Faust and Ellison front-runners, they are, according to one observer, “obvious candidates” who will merit serious consideration.

Kirby has been seen as a potential dean for years. His experience as a former chair of a major department, history, is a highly valued asset in a candidate for the deanship.

Kirby is also the director of Harvard’s Asia Center and co-wrote a recent report outlining possibilities for implementing one of Summers’ top priorities, study abroad.

Kirby is regarded as an excellent candidate, and according to some, other professors being considered are likely to be compared against him.

If Kirby is the default candidate, Faust is most out of the box. She is also the least likely of the three to accept the position.

She arrived at Harvard in January 2001 as the first dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and has been working to form the Institute in its new post-merger mission.

She is also a distinguished American historian and was highly popular with undergraduates when she taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

But although she has not explicitly ruled out accepting the deanship, Faust has said she considers leading Radcliffe “the best job in higher education.” She has only been in Cambridge for one year, and her becoming dean of FAS would entail another lengthy search for a new head of Radcliffe.

Ellison’s administrative resume is equally impressive—of the three, he has by far the most experience in University Hall. After chairing a committee on graduate student financial aid reform in 1998, Ellison has followed through on that committee’s recommendations as dean of GSAS, winning $4 million in new aid for graduate students last fall.

His future plans for GSAS include developing a residential campus as an alternative for students to the cutthroat Cambridge real estate market.

He also served as a successful chair of the anthropology department.