Lawrence S. Bacow
Larry Bacow is President of Tufts University. A lawyer and
economist whose research focuses on environmental policy, he holds
faculty appointments in five departments at Tufts: Urban and
Environmental Policy and Planning; Economics; Civil and
Environmental Engineering; Public Health and Family Medicine in
the Medical School; and the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy.
Since coming to Tufts, Bacow established the Task Force on the
Undergraduate Experience to explore the potential of Tufts'
undergraduate academic, residential and co-curricular
offerings. Numerous task force recommendations have been implemented,
highlighted by the current construction of Sophia Gordon Hall to
expand on-campus housing for Tufts students. Bacow oversaw
the 10-year reaccreditation of Tufts by the New England Association of
Schools and Colleges. He streamlined the administration in Arts,
Sciences and Engineering to increase resources for faculty and appointed
the Council on Graduate Education to strengthen graduate programs
university wide. He launched a plan to expand the basic sciences at
the School of Medicine and successfully worked with hospital officials
to restore the university's name to Tufts-New England Medical
Center. On the Medford/Somerville campus, he has led a thoughtful
master planning process to preserve the sense of place that makes the
campus special while also identifying new space for teaching,
research, office, student, residential, and other uses.
Bacow has strengthened relations between Tufts and its host
communities, initiating activities such as Community Day on the
Medford/Somerville campus and an annual symposium on active
citizenship and community partnerships. He has emphasized increased
collaboration among Tufts' eight schools and generated creativity and
enthusiasm for interdisciplinary study. Under Bacow's
leadership, Tufts has enjoyed its three most successful years of
fundraising as well as research support.
Bacow serves on the Board of Directors of the American
Council on Education. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences. He is a director of Tufts-New England Medical
Center, Cummings Foundation and Campus Compact. He is an active
participant with his colleagues in the New England Small Colleges
Athletic Conference. He is a trustee of Wheaton College
and a member of the Board of Overseers of Hebrew College and
frequent keynote speaker on higher education and environmental issues.
Prior to coming to Tufts, Bacow was the Chancellor of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Lee and Geraldine Martin
Professor of Environmental Studies. A gifted teacher and scholar, he
taught courses in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the
Economics Department, the Political Science Department, and the Sloan
School of Management. Bacow chaired the MIT faculty and held visiting
professorships and research appointments at five universities
abroad. An internationally recognized expert on non-adjudicatory
approaches to the resolution of environmental disputes, he has
authored four books and numerous articles, and has consulted
extensively throughout the world.
Bacow received his S.B. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, his J.D. from Harvard Law School, and his M.P.P. and
Ph.D. from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.