Three-plus Centuries of Scientific Research

Harvard has long been fascinated with scientific discovery - from at least 1672, when John Winthrop, colonial governor of Connecticut, gave Harvard its first telescope, to the present day, when work done by graduate student Chris Shaffer has led to a patent for a system of making three-dimensional compact discs.

The quest for new knowledge has been led by world-renowned faculty members who have cured diseases, pioneered new technologies, and created whole new industries. As one student put it, "It seems that every time you turn around, a Harvard professor is winning a Nobel Prize or getting interviewed on CNN."

"Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination."
- John Dewey, 1929

"Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harvard professor, 1872

"There is only one proved method of assisting the advancement of pure science - that of picking men of genius, backing them heavily, and leaving them to direct themselves."
- Harvard President James Bryant Conant, in an Aug. 13, 1945, letter to The New York Times

Eric Mazur, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics, and graduate student Chris Shaffer adjust a laser system that has many applications, from making optical communications and data storage devices to performing eye and skin surgery.

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