Education School’s Gardner receives Ledlie Prize

A renowned Graduate School of Education (GSE) psychologist, whose landmark work in multiple intelligences theory has received international acclaim, has been awarded the George Ledlie Prize for 1999-2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Howard Gardner, the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at GSE, was cited by President Neil L. Rudenstine for the “breadth and depth” of his work and for his “dedication to educational reform.”

Gardner, who has spent his entire 39-year academic career at Harvard after attending the University as an undergraduate (“I came here as a freshman and never left,” he says), serves as co-director of Harvard Project Zero, an educational research group he helped establish in 1967. He has authored 18 books, including Frames of Mind (Basic Books, 1983), which articulated his theory of multiple intelligences – challenging the traditional educational model of a single measurable standard of human intelligence. Gardner’s most recent book, Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century (Basic Books, 1999) takes the construct even further, delving into the possibility of additional forms of intelligence and their development.

Winning the Ledlie Prize carries a special significance for Gardner. “It’s especially heartwarming when an institution you identify with selects you as somebody they think well of,” Gardner says. “This is not a prize for helping with fundraising, but I think it’s a prize for someone whose work is admired at the University.”

The Ledlie Prize is awarded annually to someone affiliated with the University who “has by research, discovery or otherwise made the most valuable contribution to science, or in any way for the benefit of mankind.” Robert B. Woodward, the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry, was the first recipient, in 1955. Others winners have included Douglas Melton, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences; Charles Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry; and Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education.