SHARP JOLTS MIT, REJECTS TOP POST
Author: By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff
Date: Wednesday, February 21, 1990
Page: 1
Section: METRO
Phillip A. Sharp, the renowned biologist whose pending appointment as
president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was hailed last week as
a move by the university to reformulate its role in society, stunned the
Cambridge campus yesterday by withdrawing his acceptance of the job.
The decision was especially shocking to those who believed that, as MIT
president, Sharp would have enhanced the image of scientists and their
influence on social policy. He would have been the first biologist to head
MIT.
"I was honored and challenged" by the offer of the MIT presidency, Sharp
said in a prepared statement. "As I anticipated dissolving my research program
and teaching duties, I came reluctantly to the realization that I could not
fill that void in my life with anything else."
"I know that the presidency of MIT is an office of extraordinary
importance, challenge and opportunity," he said, "but in the end, I discovered
that it is not me. I apologize for my indecisiveness and for not more fully
understanding this personal need."
Sharp gave no interviews last week when MIT officials acknowledged that his
would be the sole nomination to be placed before the university's governing
corporation at its March 2 session. Sharp said yesterday that he would have no
further comment on his decision.
MIT administrators issued a statement that no attempt would be made to
place a nomination for president before the March 2 meeting, but beyond that
little was certain about what would happen next.
Among those believed to have been top contenders for the post before the
corporation and faculty search committees settled on Sharp was James Gibbons,
dean of engineering at Stanford University. He is said to have cooled toward
the idea of leaving Palo Alto, Calif. Lester C. Thurow, dean of MIT's Sloan
School of Management, and Michael L. Dertouzos, director of the MIT's
laboratory for computer science, both are thought to be viable candidates.
MIT provost John Deutch, long considered the front-runner for the job, and
Gerald Wilson, dean of engineering, could resurface as candidates. Comments
made in the final days of the selection process, however, indicated that
members of the search committees have strong interest in providing what the
chairman of the faculty committee called a fresh, nonroutine look at the
university and its role in society.
Henry Jacoby, dean of the faculty, said yesterday that he believed Deutch,
who has announced his resignation as provost effective June 30, would
continue as provost if necessary while a president is found.
As for Deutch's potential resurrection as a candidate, Jacoby said he
believed Deutch "took himself out of the running in general," not because he
saw someone else winning, "and I believe he remains out."
Deutch could not be reached yesterday for comment.
Paul Gray, current MIT president, said yesterday he believed it would be
possible to find a new president in the four months remaining before his
planned departure from office. He said that the governing corporation could
choose to keep him and corporation chairman David Saxon, who has reached the
mandatory retirement age, on the job temporarily.
At age 45, Sharp is at the cutting edge of one of the most exciting and
fastest developing frontiers of science. He has won the top awards in his
field short of the Nobel prize, which many colleagues believe he eventually
will win.
Among his closest associates are David Baltimore, who will leave MIT this
summer to become president of the research-oriented Rockefeller University,
and Robert Weinberg of the Whitehead Institute, which is associated to MIT.
All were members of the MIT faculty when they began sharing laboratory space
and cooperating in research, and the relationships have continued despite some
divergence in their career paths.
Apparently, it was facing the end of that part of his life that changed
Sharp's mind.
"He had met several times with the corporation and faculty selection
committees since last fall," one well-informed source said. "He told them he
realized that he would have to give up his research and was prepared to do
that."
However, the source said, Sharp changed his mind last weekend; he
contacted a top-ranking university administrator Monday about his change of
heart and spoke with Gray about it Monday night.
Jacoby, the faculty chairman, said yesterday that "it is up to the
executive committee" of the MIT corporation to restart the selection process.
''I'm sure they are stewing about how best to do that now."
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