Daniel P. Schrag, who came to Harvard in 1997, became one of the nation’s top climate scientists as climate change became the focus of American politics and academia.
A former MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, Schrager holds faculty positions at three different schools at Harvard University, He heads the Harvard Center for the Environment, teaches Harvard’s flagship investigative course on global warming, and served for eight years on President Obama’s Science and Technology Advisory Council.
But while Schrager is nationally recognized as a respected voice on climate science and policy, many of the people he works with see things differently.More than two dozen current and former students, staff and colleagues saySchrager created a poor work environment for those around him.
In the spring of 2021, following an investigation by the Harvard Office of the Provost, Schrager was barred from recruiting new lab members for about half a year, was asked to step down as regional chair of Harvard’s environmental science and engineering program, and was required to submit to outside behavioral guidance.
The complaints against Mr. Schrager, which spanned two decades, were wide-ranging, but 25 current and former advisers, employees and colleagues said it illustrated a pattern of bullying. Students and faculty said Mr. Schrager often questioned the competence of those in his lab in front of colleagues and other faculty members, setting unreasonable expectations for students and failing to deliver on the promises he made.
