Science Proves Level Playing Field for Harvard Grad

Harvard pre-meds are infamous for spending their undergraduate years in Cabot Library cubicles. Dr. Jennifer M. Puck '71 spent them at sit-ins and demonstrations.

"The years when I was there, students were all very concerned about politics and less concerned about academics," she says. "At least, I was."

Her Harvard experience also included three years as a music concentrator and a last-minute decision to attend medical school. But Puck landed squarely on her feet--as a senior investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute, the agency responsible for the Human Genome Project.

Speaking from her office at the institute's headquarters in Maryland, Puck muses on how she started out at anti-war demonstrations and ended up at one of the most prestigious genetic research projects in the country.

As an undergraduate, Puck joined a vocal group of student activists protesting the government's actions in Vietnam.

"The Vietnam War was happening, and everyone was marching places...I was going to Washington a lot," she recalls.

Puck says her political activism left little time for the serious studying her concentration required.

"When I was in some of the upper-level music classes, they were really difficult," she says. "Biochemistry was easier for me."

After graduation, Puck still had yet to pick a definite career path. She considered graduate work in anthropology and medicine but found a better match for her interests in the medical field.

Acceptance at Harvard Medical School tipped the scale for Puck. Though she was still undecided on a career, she says her professors at the College left a favorable impression.

"I think the faculty at Harvard are absolutely outstanding," she raves. "To be able to be taught by some of the true greats in the field is something people treasure."

Puck chose pediatric infectious diseases as her specialty, but the growth of the AIDS epidemic drove her to genetic research. An associate professorship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine led to her current post. And Puck says she's happy with where she's been so far.

"I'm absolutely thrilled," she says. "I feel like I've had a lot of variety.

But she is cautious to say that any of those doors were opened solely by her Harvard degree.

"It certainly never hurts," she shrugs. "I think you build opportunities yourself. I don't think the Harvard name gets you anywhere on its own."

Puck says in the medical research field, an Ivy League education carries far less weight than the quality of a researcher's work.

"Actually, science is pretty democratic," she says.

Grant applications go through a peer-review process, she adds, and are approved on their merits rather than a researcher's alma mater. And Harvard networking, she says, isn't a powerful tool in the medical research field.

"I haven't gotten where I am through any kind of college network. The opportunities I had came more from a little later in my career than from when I was at college," she says.

Though the Harvard name or network may not have greased the wheels for Puck, she says her college education led her to a job she loves--even if she didn't take the straightest path to get there.

"It's a great place to be," she says.