R. Buckminster Fuller Professor of Design Science

Overview

Honoring the legacy of R. Buckminster Fuller as a designer, inventor, and scientist who was committed to addressing pressing planetary and societal concerns, this newly established endowed professorship will support a visionary scholar and/or practitioner at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. We seek individuals who support and expand upon the school’s mission by demonstrating a systemic, ethical, and innovative approach to global issues, through scholarship and/or design of contemporary relevance and urgency.

The future of our planet and the quest for sustainable design solutions rank high among these issues.

We are especially interested in someone with a record of cross-disciplinary research and/or practice. The successful candidate will be appointed within the department that is most appropriate to their primary field of expertise but will be expected to bridge across all the disciplines represented in the GSD’s academic departments and non-departmental programs, as well as establishing collaborative research and pedagogy with other Harvard schools.

This position is envisioned with a certain degree of latitude. The role is for a full-time tenure track associate professor or a part-time junior or senior practice position that will engage with and teach in one or several of the school’s degree programs. These include architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, design studies, design engineering, and doctoral studies. Importantly, the successful candidate will have the capacity to address the needs of the Master in Design Studies and Master in Design Engineering programs in particular.

The successful candidate will also be an effective and experienced teacher and can demonstrate a record of outstanding creative research through scholarship and/or practice that advances one or more disciplines.

Academic qualifications depend on the profile of the successful applicant. Candidates who pursue largely scholarly research are generally expected to hold a Doctoral degree, while design practitioners may have an alternative terminal degree, appropriate to support the appointment rank.

The faculty search committee will review applications on a rolling basis starting in March 2026.

Initial Submission Candidates should submit:

• Cover letter
• Curriculum Vitae
• If relevant, selected material from your portfolio, including publications, plans, reports, or design work, depending on experience, up to 25 mb
• Names and contact information for a minimum of three referees. (Candidates will be notified regarding requests for evaluation letters during the subsequent phase of the recruitment process. Please note that your referees may or may not be asked for letters.)

Subsequent Submission At a later date, candidates advancing in the selection process will be asked to provide additional material.

Salary commensurate with experience and dependent on the position type at hire:

• Professor in Practice hiring range:
  Full-time salary $180,000-$230,000 (pro-rated based on time commitment, generally between 50% and 75%
  FTE)
• Associate Professor in Practice hiring range:
  Full-time salary $135,000-$165,000 (prorated based on time commitment, generally between 50% and 75%
  FTE)
• Associate Professor (full-time, tenure track) hiring range: $135,000 – $165,000