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LEADERSHIP Administrative Changes Underscore Scientific Opportunities for Harvard Medicine Citing the Harvard medical community's promising collaboration and research agenda, Medical School dean Joseph Martin last month announced key administrative changes to help carry it out. Eric Buehrens, Ed Harlow, and Cynthia Walker (l to r) will help lead HMS in advancing collaborative research at a time when unprecedented opportunities exist for interdisciplinary and interinstitutional science. Buehrens and Harlow photos by Steve Gilbert. Walker photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services The first incumbent of the newly created position of dean for research is Ed Harlow, chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, who will continue as chair but step down as scientific director of the MGH Cancer Center. Harlow, who came to HMS as a professor of genetics in 1991, is best known for his work on cell cycle control in mammalian cells. Among his honors are memberships in the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. "The new office will lead the strategic planning efforts for HMS research, serve as a liaison to the Office of Resource Development, and help organize new research initiatives that are beyond the scope of any one department," Harlow said. "In the past, ideas were often brought forward and developed on an individual basis. This office will provide a forum for cross-disciplinary innovation and for projects that rely on high throughput and large-scale processing." A Unified Enterprise On a parallel path, Eric Buehrens has become the new executive dean for administration with the departure of Paul Levy to head Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "I'm really looking forward to working with Ed Harlow," Buehrens said. "There's a tremendous opportunity to integrate more closely our administrative and scientific priorities." Buehrens has served as the HMS associate dean for planning and facilities since 1998, and in that capacity launched the construction of the New Research Building on the North Quad, which is proceeding on time and on budget. Despite the promise and achievements, however, HMS is facing financial challenges. According to Buehrens: "These are serious but certainly not insurmountable. They are the kind of things that we manage our way through." Cynthia Walker will bring leadership to that effort as the dean for finance, having been promoted from associate dean. Reporting to Buehrens, she will oversee financial management of the School, expanding some programs to take advantage of current opportunities even though discretionary dollars to fund these initiatives have declined. "We hope that the cooling of the financial markets and the related slowing in philanthropy will be temporary situations," said Walker, who came to HMS in 1983 as a financial analyst. "In the meantime, we are exploring a variety of alternatives to maximize the School's support of our science and education programs.