By Debra Bradley Ruder

Gazette Staff

When Everett Mendelsohn was a doctoral candidate at Harvard in the 1950s, there was no such thing as a graduate student center. Students like Mendelsohn were pretty much on their own.

Today, however, the center called Dudley House has become a hub for social, athletic, intellectual, and volunteer activities. And Mendelsohn, a professor of the history of science, will soon become its Master.

"I am deeply involved in graduate education, and I look forward to digging in hard in this new way with graduate students," he said. Joining him as Co-Master is his wife, Mary B. Anderson, an economic development consultant.

Mendelsohn will succeed Physics Professor Daniel Fisher, who is stepping down after a three-year term. At this week's meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles thanked both Fisher and his wife, Tessa, for their service.

Mendelsohn, a Harvard faculty member since 1960, is considered a superb choice because he has worked closely with graduate students as director of Graduate Studies in his department, and he understands the challenges they face around employment, funding, and other issues.

The global peace work he has done is a plus for a population that is nearly one-third international, according to Margot Gill, administrative dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Anderson also does international work; she recently traveled to Rwanda, for example, to run workshops on the provision of humanitarian assistance in conflict situations.

"The appointment of Everett Mendelsohn is wonderful news for the Graduate School," reflected GSAS Dean Christoph Wolff. "His stature as a longtime faculty member, his distinguished scholarship, and his important activities on behalf of peace and international security will further enhance the profile of our graduate community.

"Moreover, Mary Anderson's considerable experience inside and outside of academia will add another significant dimension to the intellectual outlook of Dudley House," Wolff said. "In combination, they are a perfect match for the multifaceted nature of our Graduate Student Center."

Located in Lehman Hall in Harvard Yard, Dudley House is a nonresidential House that serves some 3,400 graduate students and a small group of undergraduates who live in co-ops or private housing.

The graduate student center opened officially in the fall of 1991 as a way to help build a greater sense of community for graduate students living on and off campus, and to foster interaction among students from different departments.

Under Fisher's leadership, the range of activities around Dudley House has expanded substantially, and more students, faculty, staff, and others from the broad Harvard community have become involved in the House.

It is now a hopping place. Recent and upcoming events -- listed in the glossy, information-packed GSAS Bulletin -- include a Fred Astaire film festival, a Red Sox outing, a poetry reading, and a concert by the Dudley House Truly Huge Big Band. The House has its own coffeehouse, dining hall, game room, artist-in-residence, and intramural sports program -- complete with its own Web site.

As Master, Mendelsohn expects to serve as an informal counselor to students as they grapple with intellectual and personal choices.

His own professional interests include the history of the life sciences and the social and sociological history of science. He teaches a Core Curriculum course that focuses on science and society in the 20th century, and he won a Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award in 1995.

In the area of peace, Mendelsohn has focused on the relationship between science and modern war as a founder of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Committee on Science, Arms Control, and National Security. He also chairs the Academy's Middle East Program and recently has been working with a group of Israelis and Palestinians on the thorny question of Jerusalem's status.

As Fisher passes the baton, he reflects that his position at Dudley House was "an excellent entrée to becoming more involved with the Harvard beyond my department and to get to know fascinating people from across the University.

"Although I hope to stay active in the Senior Common Room," he continued, "I will greatly miss working with the wonderful Dudley House team, especially the talented and inspired graduate student Fellows who are responsible for making Dudley what it has become, and House Administrator Susan Zawalich, without whose sparkling generosity, humor, and patience the House would not function."