Prof. Lawrence H. Summers became the 27th president of Harvard University on July 1, 2001. In addition to being an eminent scholar and admired public servant, Prof. Summers is the former Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy at Harvard. As secretary of the treasury of the United States, i.e., Principal Economic Adviser to the President and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Government, he led the effort to enact the most sweeping financial deregulation in 60 years.

Internationally, Prof. Summers worked to reform the international financial architecture and the International Monetary Fund, to secure debt relief for the world's poorest countries, and to combat international money laundering. In 1991, he became the Vice President of Development Economics and Chief Economist of the World Bank.

Prof. Summers was the first social scientist to receive the Alan T. Waterman Award of the National Science Foundation (NSF). He also received the John Bates Clark Medal, given to the outstanding American Economist under the age of 40. His many publications include Understanding Unemployment and Reform in Eastern Europe, as well as more than 100 articles in professional economics journals. Also, he has been editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics and has served as the Arthur Okun Distinguished Fellow in Economics, Globalization, and Governance.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 30, 1954, Prof. Summers was educated in the Lower Merion public schools in Pennsylvania. He began his Harvard career as a doctoral student in economics after he had received a bachelor of science degree from MIT in 1975. He has twin daughters, Pam and Ruth, and a son, Harry.