Astronomy professor Karin Öberg will serve as Harvard’s next senior vice provost for faculty, coordinating faculty recruitment and appointment reviews, the University announced Friday.
Öberg’s appointment, set to begin in July, comes roughly a week after the University announced that current senior vice provost Judith D. Singer would step down from her administrative role to return to teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Öberg, who researches the chemistry of planet formation, has already served on several of the University’s most powerful faculty committees — including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Faculty Council and a University-wide Faculty Advisory Council created last spring to advise Harvard’s top brass.
As senior vice provost, she will continue working with some of Harvard’s top administrators to manage faculty recruitment and retention in a year of financial crisis.
Last year, Harvard announced a hiring freeze on faculty and staff, which has not yet officially lifted, and a pause on merit-based wage increases. The FAS alone, staring down a $365 million budget deficit, has slashed non-tenure-track faculty budgets and graduate student admissions.
Öberg, who has already advised on tenure cases as a member of the Committee on Appointments and Promotions, also ascends to the vice provost position as Harvard’s system of academic appointment comes under increasing scrutiny.
Her predecessor, Singer, characterized parts of the tenure process somewhat clandestine in a 2013 interview with The Crimson — a description that gained traction in the wake of several high-profile tenure denials in the past few years.
In a release announcing Öberg’s appointment, Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 praised her judgment and “efforts to nurture academic excellence.”
“I am eager for even more members of our community to benefit from her experience and skills. I have no doubt that she will excel in her new position,” he said.
In the release, Öberg said a “flourishing faculty, free to pursue academic excellence, is at the heart of Harvard’s mission.”
“I am deeply honored and excited at the opportunity to serve the University and support the next generation of scholars in this new role,” she added.
—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at amannsm.38. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.