Jeremy R. Knowles has stepped down from his post at the helm of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in order to rest from complications caused by prostate cancer, Interim President Derek C. Bok announced yesterday.

David Pilbeam, currently a senior adviser to the dean of Harvard College, will assume the deanship in Knowles’ absence, Bok wrote in a letter to the FAS community. Knowles’ term was set to end on June 30.

Knowles announced his illness last week in a letter to faculty. He worked away from the office last week and had originally planned to return to University Hall this week. Bok said in his letter yesterday that in recent days Knowles’ condition had “taken a turn for the worse.”

“No one has loved Harvard more or worked more tirelessly in its behalf,” he wrote. “In his absence, we will do our best to carry on with the important work of the Faculty and the University—as Jeremy, more than anyone, would wish.”

Pilbeam, reached at his home yesterday evening, said that he only learned of Bok’s decision at noon on Sunday. He called himself a “placeholder” until the forthcoming appointment of a permanent dean.

“I would say that this job...is one that I never aspired to, nor would I. I do it because I was asked to. I do it because, in part, it is obvious to everybody that I am not a candidate to be the dean, starting July 1, and that makes it easier for everybody,” Pilbeam, the Ford professor of human evolution, said.

In a written statement released yesterday, Pilbeam said the Faculty’s “thoughts and prayers” were with Knowles.

“Even though the circumstances under which I have been asked to serve as Dean on an interim basis are absolutely not what I would have wished, I am pleased to serve the FAS and the University in any way that I can,” he said.

Peter T. Ellison, former dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Pilbeam’s colleague in anthropology, said yesterday that Pilbeam has quietly contributed to the University for decades.

“He has remarkable breadth of experience here in the University,” Ellison said. “David is skillful and insightful and patient and very quiet in his style. I think many people may not realize what an important role he has played in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for quite a long time.”

According to Ellison, Pilbeam has worked closely with Knowles since the British chemist first became dean in 1991.

“They developed a very strong, close working relationship,” Ellison said. “He was trouble shooter for Jeremy Knowles and he took on a number of projects behind the scenes.”

In front of the scenes, Pilbeam was a member of the Task Force on General Education whose winter report has been at the center of the Faculty’s attention this semester. He co-chairs the Education Policy Committee, the group responsible for delayed concentration choice and the introduction of secondary fields. From 1987 to 1992, Pilbeam was dean of undergraduate education.

Ellison said Pilbeam, a leading scholar of human and primate evolution, is familiar with the inner workings of the University.

“There will be no learning curve for him,” he said. “In many ways I’m surprised that his name hasn’t surfaced in the search for permanent dean. In other ways I’m not, in that David wouldn’t seek out that sort of role.”

Knowles has been serving as interim dean since William C. Kirby stepped down from the post last June. A permanent dean is expected to take over July 1, but President-elect Drew G. Faust has yet to name her choice.

—Staff Writer Samuel P. Jacobs can be reached at jacobs@fas.harvard.edu.

FOR MORE INFO:

Beloved Brit to Reprise Role as FAS Dean (May 24, 2006): Derek Bok announces that Jeremy R. Knowles, the chemist who led the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) through the 1990s, will move back into University Hall to serve as the interim dean of FAS.

Faculty Furthers Core's Finale (April 18, 2007): Bok announces that Knowles is absent from the Faculty meeting due to complications from previously unannounced prostate cancer.