ACADEMIA

Lawrence S. Bacow

President, Harvard University

Previously the president of Tufts University and the chancellor of MIT, Lawrence "Larry" Bacow's standing as a leader in American higher education was again recognized when he became president of Harvard University in August 2018. The son of a mother who survived Auschwitz and a father who escaped violent pogroms in Europe for a new life in America, the Pontiac, MI native capped off his own distinguished academic career with a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. An observer of kashrut who keeps a mezuzah on his office door, Bacow remains proud of his Jewish immigrant roots. As he told a press conference announcing his new position at Harvard earlier this year, "I would not be standing here today, literally, if this country had turned its back on my parents." (Photo: PR Newswire.)