Bombshell
A devastating
piece by Alex Beam in today's Globe. Beam reports that Lawrence Summers has systematically tried to undermine the Harvard School of Public Health scientist who is managing the $107 million AIDS grant that school received in 2004. The scientist is a woman, and Summers feels that she's not capable of administering the grant all by herself.
I reported a bit of this story in
Harvard Rules, noting that Summers was furious when HSPH put out a press release announcing the grant and failed to mention his name. Summers was so angry that at a subsequent dinner attended by both him and HSPH dean Barry Bloom, the Harvard president asked to be seated somewhere he couldn't see Bloom.
But Beam puts everything that's happened since then together. He writes: "Since then, for almost a year, Summers and his satraps at Massachusetts Hall have been working overtime to undermine the School's relief program and its principal investigator, Dr. Phyllis Kanki." Part of that strategy has, apparently, included a whispering campaign suggesting that Kanki "isn't a real doctor."
This is nasty stuff. But then, this is life at Harvard these days. Before today's faculty meeting, every faculty member should read this story.
