Senior Adviser on AI Transition

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to share that, after two years of thoughtful leadership, Christopher Stubbs will conclude his service as Senior Adviser on Generative AI, and that Douglas Finkbeiner, Professor of Astronomy and of Physics, will succeed him in this role. I am truly grateful to Chris for his thoughtful guidance and perspective as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) has worked to understand and respond to the opportunities and challenges presented by generative artificial intelligence (GAI), and I am pleased to welcome Doug to this important position.

Chris has been at the vanguard of recognizing AI not only as a significant new technology but also as an opportunity for pedagogical innovation, data analysis, research, and process improvement in administration. He has helped advance conversations across the FAS and the University and has been a leading voice in developing guidance for faculty and researchers. His thoughtful engagement and commitment to breaking down silos by bringing together schools and units across the FAS, including the Office of Undergraduate Education, the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and HUIT, in new ways have embodied the spirit of collaboration that allows us to draw on the full breadth of expertise across the FAS. I am very grateful that he has agreed to continue contributing as a member of the GAI Faculty Advisory Committee.

Doug brings broad experience working at the intersection of physics, astronomy, large-scale scientific datasets, and computational analysis. He was on leave last year working with the Mechanistic Interpretability research group at Anthropic.

In this role, Doug will help guide the FAS’s continuing efforts to engage thoughtfully and productively with AI. He will work closely with faculty, staff, and researchers across the FAS to help shape a coherent AI strategy grounded in the FAS’s academic mission and coordinated with related work across the University. He will also help make that strategy visible—sharing our direction and priorities with the community as they develop and creating opportunities for discussion, input, and debate. His scientific perspective and experience with data-intensive analyses will be invaluable as we move this work forward, learn from the scholarly expertise across the FAS, and develop thoughtful, principled, and forward-looking approaches to AI.

Please join me in thanking Chris for his dedicated service and in welcoming Doug to this important role.

Best,
Hopi

Hopi Hoekstra
Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
C. Y. Chan Professor of Arts and Science
Xiaomeng Tong and Yu Chen Professor of Life Sciences