Lawrence H. Summers

president, Harvard University

Lawrence H. Summers is Charles W. Eliot University Professor. He served as the 27th president of Harvard University from July 2001 until June 2006. From 1999 to 2001 he served as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury following his earlier service as Deputy and Under Secretary of the Treasury and as Chief Economist of the World Bank. Prior to his service in Washington, Summers was a professor of economics at Harvard and MIT. His research contributions were recognized when he received the John Bates Clark Medal, given every two years to the outstanding American economist under the age of 40, and when he was the first social scientist to receive the National Science Foundations Alan T. Waterman Award for outstanding scientific achievement. He is a member of the National Academy of Science. He received his BS from MIT and his PhD in economics from Harvard. Among his other activities, Lawrence Summers writes a monthly column for the *Financial Times*, coedits *the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity*, and serves as a managing director of D. E. Shaw, a major alternative investment firm. He also serves on a number of not-for-profit and for-profit boards. He is on leave in 2009-10 in government service as Director of the National Economic Council.