Famous Professors Teaching Classes Thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>I was hoping to start a thread where knowledgeable people could list well known professors who teach undergraduate courses. I will post this on both the MIT and Harvard sites. I am sure it won't be exhaustive, but perhaps it can give a flavor for some of the opportunities available to students considering the school.</p>

<p>Cut and paste the list and expand it in your subsequent posts. Thanks!</p>

<p>Professor, Name of Course (no numbers), Approximate Size of Class, Level (Freshman -F, Advanced -AU, Graduate (open to Freshman) -G)</p>

<p>example:</p>

<p>John Q. Professor, Intro to Biology, 250, F
Sally Jones, Economics of Online Forums, 12, AU</p>

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<p>What's your definition of famous?</p>

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<p>Use your own... perhaps known by the (educated) general public because of their publishing (books, articles in popular magazines), prestigious awards (Pulitzer, Nobel, National Academy of Sciences), accomplishments, or theories.</p>

<p>For example, I just heard the President of Princeton mention undergrad classes with Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, Paul Krugman, Cornel West, etc.</p>

4

<p>Well, then, top of my head:</p>

<p>Niall Ferguson
Stephen Greenblatt
Louis Menand
Greg Mankiw
David Cutler
Lene Hau...</p>

<p>There must be at least one or two in each department.</p>

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<p>My sophomore D has Steven Pinker for Psych. Pinker is a psychologist, cognitive scientist, and best-selling author who was one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2004.</p>

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<p>Oh yeah, she had Greg Mankiw for Econ last year. From 2003 to 2005, Mankiw was the chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisors.</p>

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<p>It's a difficult line to draw...</p>

<p>Larry Summers (large Globalization lectures)
Matthew Meselson (undergraduate genetics class)
Marty Feldstein (2 undergrad lecture classes)
"Skip" Gates (intro af-am studies)
Daniel Gilbert (NYTimes best seller, intro psych)
Michael Sandel (large core class)</p>

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<p>The alumni association seems to think that the guy who teaches Justice is so good that we alumni should get his lectures too.</p>

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<p>Mankiw, Sandel, Pinker, Summers are all pretty terrific, though their classes are very large. But I think what really impresses me is how many senior faculty, from all over the University, teach freshman seminars (limited to freshmen with a maximum class size of 12). Here's a link to this year's freshman seminar list:</p>

<p>HERS</a> Output</p>

<p>I really encourage you to take a look at the wide array of seminars that are offered and google the professors who are offering them. Among the professors whose names I recognized:</p>

<p>Roy Glauber – Nobel Prize winner in Physics</p>

<p>Dudley Herschbach – Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry</p>

<p>David Hubel (Harvard Medical School) – Nobel Prize winner in Medicine</p>

<p>Lisa Randall – theoretical physicist listed by Time magazine last year as one of “100 Most Influential People”</p>

<p>Helen Vendler – referred to by NY Times as the leading poetry critic in America</p>

<p>Samantha Power (Kennedy School) – Pulitzer Prize winner and former foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama (who infamously had to resign after calling Hillary Clinton a “monster”)</p>

<p>Richard Cooper – senior economics professor; former chair of the National Intelligence Council; former chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; former Under-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs</p>

<p>Wei-Ming Tu – head of Harvard Yenching Institute</p>

<p>Elaine Scarry – philosopher and Truman Capote Award winner for literary criticism</p>

<p>Ernest May – senior advisor to 9/11 Commission; former dean of Harvard College</p>

<p>Benedict Gross – senior math professor and former dean of Harvard College</p>

<p>Richard Fallon (Harvard Law School) – Consitutional scholar</p>

<p>John Huchra – leading American astronomer and former chair of the US National Committee for the International Astronomical Union</p>

<p>Jerome E. Groopman (Harvard Medical School) – leading AIDS researcher</p>

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<p>Sherman Alexie at the University of Washington-Seattle teaches Native American studies.
Spike Lee teaches film at NYU and Columbia</p>

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<p>Marjorie Garber teaches large intro classes (500+) and small seminars on Shakespeare and Jane Austen. I took audited her summer-term Austen class, which had maybe 25 students.</p>

<p>Laurence Tribe sometimes teaches undergraduates. He taught a 12-person college seminar called “Sex, Love, and Death in American Law” in 2007.</p>

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<p>Last year or the year before Paul Farmer, Jim Kim (now president of Dartmouth) and Arthur Kleinman co-taught a course on Global Health.</p>

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<p>Paul Farmer taught the Global Health class this year as well. </p>

<p>To add to the seminars list, Greg Mankiw also taught a seminar this semester–one of my good friends who is in it absolutely loves it.</p>