Four months after Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby named divisional deans for the social sciences, humanities and physical sciences, the life sciences—the fourth academic division of the Faculty—remains without a dean of its own.

Instead, Kirby has established an “executive committee” of nine professors to oversee curricular and physical planning across the life science departments, while he oversees a nationwide search for a divisional dean.

Though Kirby and University President Lawrence H. Summers both say they expect to name a dean in the next few months, they have yet to articulate why the life sciences alone should require such an extensive search process.

Moreover, the absence of a divisional dean—which comes at a time when the future role of life sciences at Harvard is in flux—has placed the burden of making long-term decisions on a committee created as a temporary stand-in for the future dean.

“This committee, in my view, and I think in Dean Kirby’s view, is a placeholder until there is a divisional dean,” says Chair of the Executive Committee on Life Sciences Douglas A. Melton. “So you could think of it as a substitute for a dean but not even having all the responsibilities that the new dean will have.”

“What we are doing now is helping [the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS)] plan for the next 10-plus years in the life sciences,” adds Melton, who is also Cabot professor of the natural sciences.

The Search

To date, Kirby has repeatedly declined to explain why the appointment of a divisional dean for the life sciences necessitates a nationwide search, nor has he explained what benefits such an external appointment would bring.

In an e-mail last night, Kirby responded only that “I have never been more optimistic about the future of the life sciences in the FAS and in the larger University.”

While the search committee is considering external candidates, it has not ruled out an internal hire either, according to committee member Andrew H. Knoll, who is Fisher professor of natural history and professor of earth and planetary science.

The committee is currently meeting about once a month, Knoll said, but they are not quite ready to make an offer.

“Certainly there’s been some narrowing down,” he says.

“I’m not aware of any major decisions that have come down the pike one way or another,” he adds.

Summers says that Dean of the Physical Sciences and the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti, who was lured from the University of California at Santa Barbara, serves as a model of the cross-department appeal that the administration is seeking in a life sciences dean.

“We should prepare to consider outside candidates given that this is a priority area,” Summers said.