Getting in Touch with Your Inner Polymath

Sidney Harman was a polymath of our time. Presidential Professor Harman was founder and first chairman of the Academy for Polymathic Study, chairman of Newsweek, and founder/chairman emeritus of Harman International, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio and video products including digital navigation and information systems for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. He held a USC Presidential Chair and was the Isaias W. Hellman Professor of Polymathy. He was President of Friends World College, a worldwide experimental Quaker college, from 1970 – 1973 and served as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce from 1977 – 1978. He founded the Program on Technology, Public Policy and Human Development at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Alexander Marr is associate professor of art history. He is a polymath's polymath. His research questions have lead him across early modern Europe from Flemish art collections to Italian studiolo. Professor Marr blends the methods and questions of history, art history, and the history of science in pursuit of early modern cultures of collecting, curiosity, and wonder.