Some professors say his style during ad hoc committee meetings—which advise him on whether to grant tenure to any candidate—is more engaged and more assertive.

“I have heard from others that President Summers is much more aggressive than Rudenstine, that he is one of the most aggressive questioners in the meeting,” said Lee Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology Tom Maniatis.

Saltonstall Professor of History Charles S. Maier ’60 said Summers “has a slightly different mode” and “is very probing.”

“He likes intellectual games. He likes to pose puzzles,” Maier said of Summers’ questions during tenure meetings.

According to Loeb Professor of Social Sciences David Cutler, one of three FAS academic deans, “Summers is quite actively involved in dictating the direction in a field.”

Although the hiring of Pinker and Nowak contributes to Summers’ focus on interdisciplinary work, many of the prominent senior faculty members who left Harvard last year also held joint appointments.

Former Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74 taught at the Divinity School and FAS, while K. Anthony Appiah held appointments to both the Afro-American studies and philosophy departments. Anne-Marie Slaughter was a professor both at Harvard Law School and in the FAS government department. All three departed for Princeton.

Gender studies scholar Carol Gilligan had appointments in FAS and the Graduate School of Education before leaving for NYU last year.

Last year, Kirby called the departures of so many prominent Harvard professors “disappointing.”

—Jessica E. Vascellaro contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu.