Nye and Rowe named Distinguished Service Professors

Joseph S. Nye Jr. and Peter G. Rowe have been named Harvard University Distinguished Service Professors, President Lawrence H. Summers has announced.

Created by the governing boards’ Joint Committee on Appointments in 2002, this

category of professorships is intended principally to recognize individuals who have concluded an extended period of distinguished service as the dean of one of the University’s faculties and who are returning to regular service as members of the faculty.

Nye, who is also the Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations at the Kennedy School, served as the School’s dean from December 1995 until June 2004.

Rowe served as the dean of the Graduate School of Design for 12 years, until this past June, and also holds the Raymond Garbe Professorship of Architecture and Urban Design.

“These appointments recognize the accomplishments of two highly respected colleagues who led their schools with skill and devotion, and who over the years have contributed greatly to the larger life of the University,” said Summers. “We are fortunate to have benefited from their distinguished service as deans, and fortunate that we will continue to benefit from their service as members of the faculty.”

Under Nye’s leadership, the Kennedy School strengthened its faculty, extended its international reach, and substantially enlarged its capacity to contribute to addressing salient questions of public policy, while emerging as an increasingly important hub of cross-faculty academic activity. A much-admired scholar of international affairs, Nye has been a member of the Harvard faculty since 1964. He is a former director of the Center for International Affairs and a former associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and he served in the federal government as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from 1993 to 1995.

Nye’s recent publications include “The Paradox of American Power” (2002), “Understanding International Conflicts” (4th ed., 2002), and “Soft Power: The

Means to Success in World Politics” (2004). His latest book, “The Power Game: A Washington Novel,” will be published in November. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton, studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and earned his Ph.D. in government from Harvard.

Rowe guided the Design School through a period of major faculty expansion, a broadening of its portfolio of degree and nondegree programs, intensified international activity, and the launching of initiatives in such areas as design informatics, technology and the environment, and real estate. He also helped focus undergraduate awareness on issues of the built environment by advocating the inclusion of design courses in the Core Curriculum. A member of the Design School faculty since 1985 and past chair of its Department of Urban Planning and Design, Rowe previously served on the faculty of Rice University, where he was director of the School of Architecture.

Rowe received the B.Arch. degree from Melbourne University in Australia and the M.Arch. in urban design from Rice. His recent work focuses on the evolving cultural conditions of modernity, especially as they apply in various regions and to various aspects of the built environment. He is the author or coauthor of numerous publications, including “Architectural Encounters with Essence and Form in Modern China” (2002), “Modern Urban Housing in China: 1840-2000” (2001), “Asia Modern” (1998), “Civic Realism” (1997), “Modernity and Housing” (1993), “Making a Middle Landscape” (1991), and “Design Thinking” (1987).