The Harvard Gazette

Experience

Leaders at Harvard in and out of the classroom tell their stories in the Experience series.

Paul Farmer.

Campus

‘To be horrified by inequality and early death and not have any kind of plan for responding — that would not work for me’

Paul Farmer on Partners In Health, ‘Harvard-Haiti,’ and making the lives of the poor the fight of his life

Toshiko Mori.

Campus

‘I was confused and inspired. I wanted to do everything’

As an architect and a teacher, Toshiko Mori made her name by making statements

Howard Gardner in his office.

Campus

‘The greatest gift you can have is a good education, one that isn’t strictly professional’

In a life of multiple pursuits, Howard Gardner has remained a student above all else

Campus

‘What the hell — why don’t I just go to Harvard and turn my life upside down?’

Family, history, and the 1960s all helped to shape Drew Faust, but it was illness that urged her forward

Martin Karplus

Campus

‘I had the conviction that my ideas were correct’

In America, safe from Nazi power, Martin Karplus began on a Nobel Prize journey quickened by intuition

Campus

‘If you can stay present, that’s a better place to be’

For Kathy Delaney-Smith, basketball is a mind game

Campus

‘If you’re not failing, you’re probably not trying as hard as you could be’

George Church’s scientific drive

Campus

‘People want politics to be about big things’

Michael Sandel’s passion for justice

Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus Gerald Holton is pictured in his Cambridge home. He first arrived at Harvard in 1943. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Campus

‘A completely new life was beckoning’

Beyond the reach of monsters, Gerald Holton found infinite possibilities

Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria is pictured in his home on the campus of HBS at Harvard University. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Business

‘I had this extraordinary sense of liberation’

Nitin Nohria’s exhilarating journey

Campus

‘It seemed to me miraculous that you could actually hear Shakespeare or Keats speaking from the page’

Helen Vendler’s encounters with reverie

Laurel Ulrich is the 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University. She is pictured in her home in Cambridge. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Campus

‘I had the advantage of disadvantage’

How Laurel Thatcher Ulrich caught up with the past

Stephen Greenblatt is the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is pictured in his home in Cambridge. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Campus

‘So that represented my own little rebellion’

The literary adventures of Stephen Greenblatt

Campus

‘Physics was paradise’

Melissa Franklin’s experimental zeal

Walter Willett is the Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. He is pictured in his home in Cambridge. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Campus

‘I spend a fair amount of time thinking about what might go wrong’

Walter Willett’s data-honed wisdom

Campus

‘What could be more interesting than how the mind works?’

Steven Pinker’s history of thought

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot is the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is pictured in her home in Boston. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

Campus

‘I have always been temperamentally wired to carry on’

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot’s lessons in resilience

Campus

‘My life was going to have to deal with issues of social injustice’

Martha Minow’s sense of purpose

Campus

‘Search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression’

For E.O. Wilson, wonders never cease