.Harvard University chooses new provost

Armed with four degrees from Harvard and years of experience as a professor in the School of Public Health and Dean of the Faculty of Public Health, Fineberg replaced outgoing Provost Albert Carnsdale on July 1. Carnsdale left Harvard to become Chancellor of the University of California at Los Angeles, a position for which Penn Provost Stanley Chodorow was also considered. Under Fineberg, the number of SPH degree candidates grew from 426 to 764 and the number of faculty increased from 133 to 162, while its budget rose from $38 million to $120 million. He also led a capital campaign which raised more than $125 million over the past four years. Additionally, SPH now offers a doctoral program in health policy and biological sciences in conjunction with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Fineberg said he looks forward to his new position. "As Provost, I will do all that I can to assist the whole Harvard community in our shared efforts to make a great university even stronger and better prepared for the future," he said. After graduating from Harvard College in 1967, Fineberg received graduate degrees from Harvard Medical School and the university's Kennedy School of Government in 1972. Fineberg's research has focused on the process of health policy development and implementation, the assessment of medical technology and the disemination of medical innovations. -- Shannon Burke Gee elected as Brown's newest president The Brown Corporation unanimously selected Ohio State University President Gordon Gee as Brown University's 17 president at a closed meeting in June. Gee will replace outgoing Brown President and former Penn Provost Vartan Gregorian, who was named President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York -- one of the nation's largest charitable foundations with an endowment of over $1.3 billion -- in January. Gee was selected by a committee consisting of 16-members of the Brown Corporation -- the university's governing body -- with assistance from a 13-member advisory committee of faculty, students and administrators. The committee -- which was chaired by former Brown Chancellor A.O. Way -- chose the 53-year-old Utah native after considering over 165 candidates for the position. "Gordon Gee comes to Brown with an extraordinary record of leadership at one of the nation's premier research universities," Brown Chancellor Artemis Joukowsky said. Joukowsky added that Gee will "assume the presidency at a propitious time in the university's history when Brown's successful capital campaign has renewed endowments for our faculty, student scholarships and libraries and has prepared the university for the challenge of the 21st century." Gee received his bachelor's degree in history from the University of Utah in 1968 before earning a law degree and doctorate in education from Columbia University. After completing his work at Columbia, Gee returned to the University of Utah, where he served as assistant law dean from 1973 to 1974. He spent a year as a judicial fellow and senior staff assistant to the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court before being named associate law dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. He moved to West Virginia University in 1979, where he served as dean of the College of Law before assuming the presidency in 1981 at the age of 37. He became president of the University of Colorado in 1985 and moved to Ohio State in 1990. Gee arrived at Ohio State when the university was experiencing financial difficulties and facing a significant cut in state funding. He is credited with strengthening the institution through reorganizing and simplifying its structure, adopting strict fiscal discipline and reevaluating its priorities. Gee serves as Chairperson of the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities, as well as on the boards of the Truman Scholarship Foundation, Central Ohio United Negro College Fund, and Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee. -- Shannon Burke