Archive for category: Lectures

Read the transcript here.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Sherri, for giving me the opportunity to open this year’s forum. The lineup of speakers and sessions planned for today and tomorrow is superb, so I will not go on for too long, but I did want to say a few words about our community.

Over the past year or so, I have spent an extraordinary amount of time in conversation with people who are curious about what is going on at Harvard. In these conversations, I have tended to focus on what we are doing—the research and scholarship we are undertaking across the University to deepen understanding, to yield discoveries, and to drive innovation and progress in every field and discipline. Academic excellence continues to resonate with individuals across the country and around the world. Despite the great uncertainty of the present moment, the possibility of knowledge paving the way to a better future has not lost its luster.

Of course, what we are doing is possible because of who we are, and we can never lose sight of that fact. Our community spurs and speeds excellence by embracing difference in its many forms. Derek Bok, who was the University’s president when I was an undergraduate, described diversity as a critical enabler of learning. Exposure to different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different experiences leads to intellectual and personal growth. Here, we encourage the best people to learn alongside one another as they learn from one another. Everyone benefits when all are welcomed, supported, and included.

This is a truth deeply felt. Throughout my career as a physician, an academic, and a leader, I have worked with incredibly talented people whose lives were nothing like my own. I learned from them—and they from me—and the many bonds and bridges that formed among us made our work together richer and stronger than it might have been otherwise.

My hope is that all of us can have that experience—that all of us can grow in expected and unexpected ways thanks to the community we create and sustain together year after year. This gathering is an important part of that effort. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your commitment to our mission and to our community—and for your own efforts to ensure that each person at Harvard can thrive.

A conversation on a range of economic policy issues and the implications of the recent election with Lawrence Summers, the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University; Weil Director, Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.