Dear FAS colleagues,
I’m writing to share the bittersweet news that Frank Doyle will step down as dean of the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at the end of the academic year (June 30, 2022) to assume the provost role at Brown University.
I’m deeply grateful to Frank for his leadership, service, and most importantly his partnership. He has led SEAS with an ambitious and forward-thinking vision during a period of tremendous change and growth for the school and was a steady hand through the significant challenges of the pandemic. Among the many accomplishments of his tenure, the opening of the new Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) complex stands as the most visible. Designed to foster connections and promote the kind of interactions that give rise to innovation, the ethos of the SEC perfectly mirrors Frank’s own approach to academic leadership. An eager connecter and collaborator, Frank has partnered with other Harvard Schools and academic divisions to launch several new joint degree programs in critical areas of inquiry, including playing a key role in establishing the world’s first PhD program in Quantum Science & Engineering. He’s worked enthusiastically to extend the reach of SEAS beyond Harvard’s gates, establishing important new industry partnerships and initiatives that are providing SEAS faculty and students with a critical platform for engagement. Under his leadership, SEAS has also made important strides in advancing diversity, inclusion, and belonging, with the strategic planning process he initiated setting the vision and priorities for creating a vibrant and inclusive intellectual community at SEAS. Under Frank’s leadership, engineering has thrived as a part of a Harvard liberal arts and sciences education, and SEAS has become a dynamic intellectual hub that has opened new and promising research opportunities possible only at Harvard. He’s brought to all of this work a seemingly limitless supply of energy and an unfailingly upbeat disposition that I admire and have often benefitted from.
Soon, the FAS will launch an international search for Frank’s successor. I will share more details about those activities as they become available.
For now, please join me in thanking Frank for his many contributions to SEAS, to the FAS, and to the larger Harvard community.
Sincerely,
Claudine
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Claudine Gay
Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences