R. Buckminster Fuller Professorship of Design Science

An endowed Harvard chair honoring Fuller's design-science approach to solving global problems.

The R. Buckminster Fuller Professorship of Design Science is a named, endowed chair established at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) in April 2021. It was funded by the philanthropy of Amy C. Edmondson (Harvard AB '81, AM '95, PhD '96) and George Q. Daley (AB '82, MD '91). Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School; Daley is Dean of Harvard Medical School. Named, endowed chairs are among the highest honors bestowed at Harvard, and the GSD announced a search for a visionary scholar to serve as the inaugural holder.

The professorship honors R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), inventor, designer, engineer, and philosopher, and a member of the Harvard College Class of 1917. It memorializes his "design-science" approach — working across energy, transportation, education, and other fields to solve global problems — and his best-known artifact, the geodesic dome. Placing the chair at the GSD ties Fuller's legacy of responsible, world-improving design to the training of future architects and designers "in perpetuity," as the school framed it.

The gift carries a personal dimension: Edmondson came to Fuller's work through the Harvard course "Synergetics: The Structure of Ordered Space" and a Fuller lecture at MIT, after which Fuller hired her as his Chief Engineer. She has described him as "an inspirational, joyful, brilliant, and invitingly inclusive person," and credits that experience with shaping her later scholarly career studying teams and organizations.

See Also

• R. Buckminster Fuller (R. Buckminster Fuller) — the honoree
• Amy Edmondson (Amy Edmondson) — Fuller's former Chief Engineer and the chair's donor
• Synergetics (Synergetics) — the subject of the course that drew Edmondson to Fuller

Sources

• Harvard GSD announces establishment of the R. Buckminster Fuller Professorship of Design Science