Rate My Professor Evelynn Hammonds

Evelynn Hammonds is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and Professor of African and African American Studies in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In the field of History, she earned a B.S. in physics from Spelman College, a B.E.E. in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech, an S.M. in physics from MIT, and a Ph.D. in the history of science from Harvard University. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, she joined the Harvard faculty. Hammonds held pioneering administrative positions, including the first Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity (2005-2008), Dean of Harvard College (2008-2013), and Chair of the Department of History of Science (2017-2022). She served on the President’s Initiative on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, chaired the University-wide Steering Committee on Human Remains in the Harvard Museum Collections, and sits on the Faculty Executive Committee of the Peabody Museum. Currently, she is interim director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History (2024-2025), president of the History of Science Society (2024-2026), and director of the Project on Race & Gender in Science & Medicine at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. She has also served as Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer (2003-2005), vice president/president-elect of the History of Science Society, and on boards including those of Spelman College, Bennett College, Bates College, and the Arcus Foundation.