Who is interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber?

Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber, an economist and physician who is the school's chief academic officer, will serve as Harvard's interim president after Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday.

The Harvard Corporation announced Garber would temporarily take over for Gay, who left the school amid controversy over her handling of antisemitism on Harvard's campus and allegations of plagiarism in her academic work. 

In a statement, the Corporation called Garber a "distinguished and wide-ranging scholar" who has "served with distinction" as provost for more than a decade. 

"We are fortunate to have someone of Alan’s broad and deep experience, incisive judgment, collaborative style, and extraordinary institutional knowledge to carry forward key priorities and to guide the university through this interim period," the statement said. 

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Garber became Provost at Harvard in 2011. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard and an M.D. from Stanford. 

Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers praised Garber's elevation in a post on X, saying he is "universally liked, admired, and respected" and a "superb choice as Interim President." 

In addition to his role as Provost, Garber is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, a Professor of Economics at the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, a Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

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He is also a member of the Association of American Physicians, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. 

Garber assumed the responsibilities of interim president after Gay announced her resignation Tuesday afternoon. Gay had been widely criticized for Harvard University's initial response to the Israel-Hamas war and her congressional testimony on antisemitism on the school's campus.

At a hearing in December, Republican lawmakers questioned Gay and the presidents of MIT and UPenn about whether calls for intifada or the genocide of Jews on campus violated their institutions' codes of conduct or policies against bullying and harassment. All three faced harsh backlash for failing to clarify and insisted more context was needed. 

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In an interview with the Harvard Crimson in October, Garber said he regretted the university's initial statement on the war in Gaza. That statement had been slammed by Harvard affiliates, politicians and Jewish groups because it did not explicitly denounce Hamas for the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. 

Garber said the university's statement divided Harvard's community and expressed support for a clarifying statement Gay released less than a day later which explicitly condemned Hamas.

"The community was immediately divided, and that is not true of every crisis that we face," he told The Crimson. "It is a combustible situation, and one in which many people are grieving."

Garber has for years been floated as a contender for Harvard President and was even considered for the role in 2017, the Crimson reported, although the post went to Lawrence S. Bacow. In 2022, he told the student newspaper he was "very happy" serving as the provost.

The Harvard Corporation said Garber will serve as president "until a new leader for Harvard is identified and takes office."