32 Facts About Lawrence Bacow

Lawrence Seldon Bacow is an American economist and retired university administrator.

Lawrence Bacow began his academic career in 1977 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a professor of environmental studies in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning before becoming the department's chair and ultimately the university's chancellor.

On June 8,2022, Lawrence Bacow announced he would be leaving the presidency of Harvard in June 2023 after five years in office.

Lawrence Bacow was born on August 24,1951, in Detroit, Michigan, to Jewish parents.

Lawrence Bacow's mother emigrated from Europe at age 19 after World War II and was the only member of her family to survive Auschwitz.

Lawrence Bacow's father was brought to the United States from Belarus as a child to escape pogroms.

Lawrence Bacow grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, where he was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and became an Eagle Scout.

Lawrence Bacow began his academic career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he served as a professor for 24 years, ultimately being appointed department chair and chancellor.

Lawrence Bacow co-founded and was the first director of MIT's Center for Real Estate.

Lawrence Bacow was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.

On September 1,2001, Lawrence Bacow was elected the 12th president of Tufts University.

At Tufts, Lawrence Bacow opposed graduate students' and technical and clerical employees' unionization efforts, which led to a student protest culminating in a student-led takeover of an administration building.

On February 8,2010, in an email to Tufts' student body, Lawrence Bacow announced he would step down as president in June 2011.

On May 25,2011, Lawrence Bacow was named a member of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, one of the boards charged with guiding Harvard University's endeavors and initiatives.

Lawrence Bacow was initially a member of the Presidential Search Committee assembled to find Harvard's next president soon after Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard's 28th president, announced her retirement.

On February 11,2018, Lawrence Bacow was selected from 700 candidates as Harvard's 29th president effective July 1,2018.

Lawrence Bacow was inaugurated in a Harvard Yard ceremony on October 5,2018, three months after officially taking on presidential duties.

Lawrence Bacow began his tenure with a trip to his birthplace of Detroit and hometown of Pontiac, Michigan, where he met with students, educators, Harvard affiliates, and local leaders to emphasize what he called the "transformative power of higher education".

In 2019, Lawrence Bacow traveled to China, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Lawrence Bacow read a poem written by a Uyghur, an ethnic group undergoing genocidal treatment and systematic human rights violations by China's governing Communist Party, according to both the Trump and Biden administrations and numerous human rights organizations.

In 2019, Lawrence Bacow wrote to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan, expressing his view that international scholars and individuals who entered the US illegally at a young age and been provided various protections under DACA should not be subject to deportation and should be given US work permits.

Lawrence Bacow praised the Supreme Court's decision to reinstate DACA in Department of Homeland Security v Regents of the University of California, and, alongside MIT President Leo Rafael Reif, led Harvard's successful legal challenge to Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidance issued in July 2020 that would have forbidden international students from staying in the country if they were taking online courses.

In late 2019, Lawrence Bacow established the Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery with the goal to better understand the institution's ties to slavery and how it benefited from the Atlantic slave trade, and to establish events and activities to help others at Harvard understand slavery's historical impact.

Lawrence Bacow has called climate change "the most consequential threat facing humanity".

In September 2021, Lawrence Bacow appointed Harvard's first Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, James Stock.

Lawrence Bacow has defended Harvard's position in Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard, a case the Supreme Court agreed to hear in January 2022, that the university should be permitted to consider race as a factor in its process of considering applicants for admission.

In June 2022, Lawrence Bacow emailed the Harvard community, saying that he intended to step down as president on June 30,2023.

Lawrence Bacow leaned heavily on health experts' advice on how the university should handle it and employed preventative measures to keep university infection rates low.

The university maintained its financial health throughout the pandemic, which some attribute to Lawrence Bacow, who sought to equip the university for economic recessions resembling the 2008 Great Recession.

In November 2019, Lawrence Bacow announced that he was forming the Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery to better understand the historical and enduring connections to slavery on the Harvard campus and in the community.

Lawrence Bacow accepted the proposals and committed $100 million from the Harvard Corporation to implement them, with the funds divided between current-use resources and a long-term endowment.

Lawrence Bacow is an avid runner and has run five marathons.