Michael D. Smith, the associate dean for computer science and engineering, will lead the Faculty of Arts and Sciences beginning on July 15.
Michael D. Smith, currently the associate dean for computer science and engineering, will assume leadership of the University's largest school in just six weeks.
Smith, who came to Harvard in 1992, has only served as a tenured professor in the Faculty for seven years.
"Mike Smith is an excellent teacher, a distinguished computer scientist, and a talented leader known to his colleagues as someone who galvanizes others in pursuit of common goals," Faust wrote in a letter to the FAS community Monday morning. "He has emerged as one of his generation's most influential experts on computer architecture, while working creatively to connect technology with a broad array of other fields."
Smith, who teaches the popular undergraduate course "Computer Science 50, Introduction to Computer Science 1," noted the "importance of a vibrant environment for scholarship across the arts and sciences and the offering of an education second to none."
"This is a moment of rare opportunity, as we renew our curriculum, explore new connections across fields, and plan for a presence in Allston that reflects and strengthens our academic mission," he said in the statement.
When Smith assumes the deanship on July 15, he will be the third dean to sit in University Hall's second-floor corner office in just over a year.
The University’s flagship school has lacked a permanent leader since historian William C. Kirby resigned under pressure from then-University President Lawrence H. Summers in January of last year.
Jeremy R. Knowles, the chemist who led FAS through the 1990s and returned to University Hall last summer to serve as interim dean until the selection of a permanent FAS leader, stepped down last month because of complications from prostate cancer.
The announcement comes after British geophysicist Jeremy Bloxham—divisional dean for the physical sciences—reportedly rejected an offer to fill the position in May.
Among the most important issues facing the next FAS dean are the implementation of the new program on general education to replace the Core, fundraising to overcome the current FAS deficit, the strengthening of the sciences, and the expansion into Allston, professors and administrators have said in interviews in recent months.
As an administrator, Smith has helped guide the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as it became a separate school this past year. The former swim coach is also now the chair of the Faculty Standing Committee on Athletics Sports.
Smith spent his undergraduate years at Princeton, graduating in 1983, before eventually earning a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford ten years later.
When the popular computer scientist received tenure in 2000, his colleague, Henry H. Leitner, remarked, "We need more people like Michael Smith. Undergraduates love him, his teaching evaluations are always among the very highest. Harvard did very well in this case."
In 1999, Fifteen Minutes, The Crimson's weekly magazine, honored Smith as one of Harvard's "fifteen hottest professors."
—Johannah S. Cornblatt and Samuel P. Jacobs contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Check thecrimson.com for updates throughout the day.
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