President, Harvard University
Lawrence S. Bacow is the 29th President of Harvard University.
One of higher education’s most widely experienced leaders, President Bacow is committed to supporting scholarship and research, encouraging civic engagement, and expanding opportunity for all. From 2001 to 2011, he was president of Tufts University, where he fostered collaboration and advanced the university’s commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and public service. Prior to Tufts, he spent 24 years on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he held the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professorship of Environmental Studies and served as Chair of the Faculty (1995-97) and as Chancellor (1998-2001).
An expert on non-adjudicatory approaches to the resolution of environmental disputes, President Bacow received an S.B. in economics from MIT, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Ph.D. in public policy from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Prior to his election to the Harvard presidency in February 2018, he served as a member of the Harvard Corporation (2011-18), a Hauser Leader-in-Residence at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (2014-18), and a President-in-Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (2011-14).
President Bacow was raised in Pontiac, Michigan, by parents who were both immigrants. He and his wife, Adele Fleet Bacow, were married in 1975 and have two adult sons.