Paul Farmer appointed University Professor
Paul Farmer, an anthropologist and physician whose research has helped to revolutionize the strategies for treating infectious disease in some of the poorest corners of the world, has been named a University Professor, Harvard’s highest distinction for a faculty member. “Paul Farmer is best known to the public as a pioneering humanitarian,” President Drew Faust said in announcing the appointment. “But among scholars he is equally well-known for his research and writing, which have crossed boundaries between the social sciences and biomedical research and married theory and practice to forge a new approach to global health. He is also an outstanding educator with a remarkable capacity to inspire students to focus their minds and their energies on serving the common good.” The President and Fellows of Harvard College established the University Professorships in 1935 to recognize “individuals of distinction … working on the frontiers of knowledge, and in such a way as...