The Rowland Institute at Harvard, formerly the Rowland Institute for Science, was founded by

Edwin H. Land Edwin Herbert Land, ForMemRS, FRPS, Hon.MRI (May 7, 1909 – March 1, 1991) was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical ...

(founder of

Polaroid Corporation Polaroid Corporation was an American company that made instant film and cameras, which survives as a brand for consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit his Polaroid (polarizer), Polaroid polarizing polyme ...

) as a nonprofit, privately endowed basic research organization in 1980. The institute merged with

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

on July 1, 2002. The Rowland Institute is dedicated to experimental science across a wide range of disciplines. Research subjects at the institute includes chemistry, physics and biology, and focus on interdisciplinary work and the development of new experimental tools. It was originally located on the Charles River near

Kendall Square Kendall Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The square itself is at the intersection of the Main Street and Broadway. It also refers to the broad business district east of Portland Street, northwest of the Charl ...

in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a few miles away from the main campus of Harvard. In 2024, the institute moved to Harvard's main campus, to a newly renovated building at 60 Oxford Street, in shared space with the Harvard Quantum Initiative.

Rowland Fellows

The flagship program at the Rowland Institute is the Fellows Program. The program supports early career

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

al scientists. Rowland Fellows receive funding for salary and research expenses and are allocated their own

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools ...

space. The Rowland Institute also provides technical support from permanent expert staff. The Fellowship lasts for five years, with continuation past two years contingent on a favorable internal review.

Notable members and alumni

* Howard Berg - biophysicist noted for his work on the

motility Motility is the ability of an organism to move independently using metabolism, metabolic energy. This biological concept encompasses movement at various levels, from whole organisms to cells and subcellular components. Motility is observed in ...

of the bacterium

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...

(E. coli) *

Steven Block Steven M. Block (born 1952) is an American biophysicist and Professor at Stanford University with a joint appointment in the departments of Biology and Applied Physics. In addition, he is a member of the scientific advisory group JASON, a senior ...

- pioneered the use of

optical tweezers Optical tweezers (originally called single-beam gradient force trap) are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic objects like atoms, nanoparticles and droplets, in a manner simil ...

to study step dynamics of

kinesin A kinesin is a protein complex belonging to a class of motor proteins found in eukaryotic cells. Kinesins move along microtubule (MT) filaments and are powered by the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (thus kinesins are ATPases, a typ ...

and

RNA polymerase In molecular biology, RNA polymerase (abbreviated RNAP or RNApol), or more specifically DNA-directed/dependent RNA polymerase (DdRP), is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reactions that synthesize RNA from a DNA template. Using the e ...

on DNA templates * Colleen Cavanaugh - microbiologist recognized for her studies of

hydrothermal vent Hydrothermal vents are fissures on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hot ...

ecosystems *

Donald A. Glaser Donald Arthur Glaser (September 21, 1926 – February 28, 2013) was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1960 for his invention of the bubble chamber. Education Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Glaser completed his Bachelor ...

- physicist, neurobiologist, and winner of the 1960

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

for inventing the

bubble chamber A bubble chamber is a vessel filled with a superheated transparent liquid (most often liquid hydrogen) used to detect electrically charged particles moving through it. It was invented in 1952 by Donald A. Glaser, for which he was awarded th ...

* Jene Golovchenko - physicist noted for his work on materials for

whole genome sequencing Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing or just genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a single time. This entails sequencing all of an organism's ...

Lene Hau Lene Vestergaard Hau (; born November 13, 1959) is a Danish physicist and educator. She is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics at Harvard University. In 1999, she led a Harvard University team who, by use of a Bose–E ...

- physicist noted for her work on

Bose–Einstein condensate In condensed matter physics, a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low Density, densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero#Relation with Bose–Einste ...

, and ultracold atomic system optics *

Winfield Hill Winfield Hill is the Director of the Electronics Engineering Laboratory at the Rowland Institute at Harvard University. A self-proclaimed "electronics circuit-design guru" and trained physicist and electronic engineer, he co-authored the popular ...

- co-authored the popular text ''

The Art of Electronics ''The Art of Electronics'', by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill, is a popular electronics design reference textbook dealing with analog electronics, analog and digital electronics. The third edition was published in 2015. The author accepts repo ...

'' with Harvard Physicist

Paul Horowitz Paul Horowitz (born 1942) is an United States of America, American physicist and electrical engineering, electrical engineer, known primarily for his work in electronics design, as well as for his role in the search for extraterrestrial intellige ...

Past directors

: 1980 - 1992 *

Phil Dubois Phillip Donn DuBois (born November 16, 1956) is a former American football tight end in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins. He also played for the Washington Federals of the United States Football League.Frans Spaepen Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François'' or ''Franciscus''. One cognate of Frans in English is ''Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–164 ...

: 2002 - 2013 *

Cynthia Friend Cynthia Friend is an American chemist. She currently serves as president and chief operating officer of The Kavli Foundation. She is on leave from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Friend was the first female ...

: 2013 - 2019
Andrew Murray
2020–present

References

{{authority control Harvard University research institutes Multidisciplinary research institutes Science and technology studies associations Research institutes established in 1980 1980 establishments in Massachusetts