Word: wald
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...times Wald's preoccupation with the universal and his disinterest in the earthly annoys those with whom he works. A sectionman from one of his courses says Wald is not a harsh grader but is often unaware of Harvard's norms, once recommending a C median for an hourly--something the sectionman says "just isn't done here...
...relating specific issues and ideas to universal concepts, Wald intellectually transcends the boundary between science and politics. He juxtaposes democracy with natural selection and judges scientific work on its moral and political implications. Noting the dearth of scientist-activists, he says without apology, "The thing that gets me into those political issues is science. You cannot study nature as it goes down the drain...
...Wald's first public political act was a speech he delivered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in March, 1969. Delivering such lines as "The Vietnam War is the most shameful episode in the whole of American history," Wald became an early and prominent academic critic of the Asian war. Vietnam was just one part of this speech, however, for Wald says it was only a "detail in a much bigger situation"--the militarization of the United States, accompanied by the increased dominance of big business. Consequently he lists as his political priorities: nuclear disarmament and the control of nuclear...
...speech changed his life "more than the Nobel prize," Wald says, turning him into a magnet for social activists interested in gaining exposure through the use of public figures. Wald says he avoids most organizations, preferring to act individually, but he is deeply involved with the American Friends Service Committee and Amnesty International in defending Soviet dissidents and opposing totalitarian regimes in South Korea and Chile. Wald also backed the presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and George McGovern...
Harvard's nebulous tenure policy favors accomplished researchers, and its reputation often helps supply a national audience for its faculty members, but many published scholars fail in the classroom. Students, colleagues and critics agree that Wald, more than anything else, is a dedicated teacher who has the rare ability to present complex ideas on a sophisticated but understandable level. As with his science, Wald's teaching is not separated from his politics. In Natural Sciences 5. "The Nature of Living Things" (yes, he enjoys teaching undergraduates), Wald once burned a dollar bill during lecture and asked the class to explain...