Lawrence Bacow

Lawrence S. Bacow is an American academic administrator, lawyer, and economist who served as the 29th president of Harvard University from July 2018 to June 2023. Prior to Harvard, he held the position of chancellor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1998 to 2001 and was the 12th president of Tufts University from 2001 to 2011, where he advanced commitments to teaching, research, public service, need-based financial aid, and institutional streamlining. A faculty member at MIT for nearly 25 years, Bacow specialized in environmental policy, negotiation, and dispute resolution, authoring books and articles on these topics while chairing the MIT faculty from 1995 to 1997. His leadership at Harvard included navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and launching initiatives on the university's historical ties to slavery, amid broader debates on institutional legacies and equity in higher education. Now Harvard Professor of Public Policy Emeritus, Bacow is recognized for fostering academic innovation, civic engagement, and expanded student opportunities across his tenures.

Lawrence S. Bacow was born in August 1951 in Detroit, Michigan, to Jewish immigrant parents who had fled persecution in Europe. His father, Mitchell Bacow, emigrated as a child from Minsk to escape anti-Jewish violence before World War II and later became a lawyer. His mother, Ruth Bacow, survived three years in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, as the sole Jewish survivor from her community of approximately 120 people transported in 1942; she immigrated to the United States at age 19 after the war via a Liberty Ship. Bacow had one sister, Lanie, who was outgoing in contrast to his self-described nerdy disposition.

Bacow grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, a factory town dominated by three General Motors plants that shaped the local economy, where most residents either worked for GM or supported its ecosystem. His family's life revolved around Jewish observance, with membership in the city's two synagogues and regular attendance at Hebrew school and services four or five days a week; his parents instilled values of gratitude for survival and a duty to share opportunities with others. As a child, he engaged in hands-on activities like building radios from kits, participating in science fairs, reading Popular Science, and pursuing ham radio interests, fostering an early curiosity encouraged by his parents' probing questions such as "Why?" and "But suppose?".

Lawrence S. Bacow was born and raised in Pontiac, Michigan, as the son of Jewish immigrants whose experiences profoundly shaped his worldview. His mother, Ruth Wertheim Bacow, survived the Auschwitz concentration camp as the sole Jewish survivor from her hometown of Londorf, Germany, and immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, at age 19. His father, Mitchell Bacow, was a lawyer who had also fled Europe amid the Holocaust's aftermath. Bacow grew up in a close-knit Conservative Jewish family, with community and religious life revolving around their synagogue, instilling values of resilience and communal responsibility informed by his parents' histories. He has at least one sister, and maintained family ties including visits to paternal relatives in the Detroit area.