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Biology professor Jeff W. Lichtman stepped down from his position as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ dean of Science after less than two years in the post, FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra announced in a Wednesday email to Division of Science faculty.
Lichtman, a neuroscientist first appointed to the deanship in 2024, will take on a new role counseling Hoekstra as her senior advisor on science, according to the email obtained by The Crimson.
Earth and Planetary Sciences professor David T. Johnston — who served on an executive team supporting Lichtman — will serve as interim dean of Science through the spring semester.
Lichtman’s tenure as dean is the shortest since the position was established in 2007. He declined to comment on what led to his departure when reached by phone Thursday afternoon.
As dean, Lichtman said that the sciences division needed to teach students to pursue “genuinely hard problems” amid the rise of artificial intelligence models — an approach he piloted in a first-year seminar on scientific mysteries.
Lichtman’s research, part of a field dubbed “connectomics,” focuses on mapping neural connections using imaging techniques and machine learning. Before becoming dean, he was best known for teaching Neuroscience 80, an introductory course.
As a member of the Mind, Brain, and Behavior program committee — an interdepartmental neuroscience body — he aligned with Hoekstra’s vision of an interdisciplinary divisional leader.
His departure caps a tumultuous year for Harvard scientists, who bore the brunt of federal funding freezes and cuts to national agencies’ grants. According to Hoekstra’s email, Lichtman was the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health funding in the FAS.
In the announcement, Hoekstra invited faculty to comment on the search for Lichtman’s successor by Feb. 15 — including on whether the Division of Science should be separated into two divisions for the life sciences and physical sciences. The two divisions operated independently until they were merged in 2007.
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“Let me end where I began, with deep gratitude to Jeff for his leadership and service, and with my very best wishes as he turns his focus back to his extraordinary scientific work and teaching,” Hoekstra wrote.
A FAS spokesperson referred The Crimson to Hoekstra’s Wednesday announcement in response to a request for comment.
—Staff writer Abigail S. Gerstein can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @abbysgerstein and Signal at abbysg.97.
—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @amannmahajan and Signal at amannsm.38.
