Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Contact, publication, and social network information about Harvard faculty and fellows.

Willy Lensch, Ph.D.

Title
Institution
Department
Address
Phone
Profile Picture

Biography
2005
Hadassah Service Award
2007
Fellow, The Aspen Institute Health Forum
2007
Governor's Distinguished Service Award
2009 - 2013
Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching
2010 - 2011
Knop Visiting Scholar
2019
Starr Family Prize for Excellence in Advising
2021
Daniel D. Federman Staff Award for Exceptional Service

Overview
M. William Lensch, PhD, is Associate Provost for Research at Harvard University, a Member of the Center for Bioethics and a Lecturer (part-time) in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical school (HMS). Dr. Lensch is a past Fellow of the Center for Bioethics.

He earned his B.S. in Biology from Utah State University and his Ph.D. in the Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics at Oregon Health Sciences University, where he studied pediatric bone marrow failure, the onset of myeloid leukemia and rare diseases of the blood at the Portland Veteran’s Administration Medical Center. His post-doctoral work at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and as a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Career-Development Fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital used various types of human cells and tissue as platforms for understanding the genetics, development and diseases of the blood-forming system. His work in bioethics includes issues related to rare diseases, genetic modification, use of human tissues in research, stem cell biology, human/animal chimeras, and the disposition of human remains in museum collections.

His professional portfolio within the provost’s office spans the schools of Harvard and provides high level management/guidance for interfaculty research and educational initiatives (IFIs) in the physical, life, and social sciences. Dr. Lensch's experience in research, education, administration, science policy, intellectual property, consulting and outreach combine in support of scientific discovery. Prior to assuming his current role, Dr. Lensch was Strategic Advisor to the Dean of Harvard Medical School and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Consortium on Pandemic Readiness (MassCPR), an HMS-led, multi-institutional response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. He has additionally served the Harvard community as Chief of Staff to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Executive Director of the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (SCRB), Faculty Director of Education for the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), and as Instructor in Pediatrics at HMS/Boston Children’s Hospital.

As part of his work to promote biomedical science in the service of patients, their families and the understanding of our own bodies in health and disease, Dr. Lensch has served in various external roles including as a gubernatorial appointee to the State of Connecticut’s Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee, a member of the Public Education Committee of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, and as Chair of the Bioethics Subcommittee of the national American Heart Association. His recognition includes multiple Certificates of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, the Starr Family Prize for Excellence in Student Advising, and HMS’s Daniel D. Federman Staff Award for Exceptional Service, the latter for his role in the founding, operation, and ongoing strategy of the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness (MassCPR) during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Bibliographic
Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
Newest   |   Oldest   |   Most Cited   |   Most Discussed   |   Timeline   |   Field Summary   |   Plain Text
PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
Updating...
This operation might take several minutes to complete. Please do not close your browser.
Local representatives can answer questions about the Profiles website or help with editing a profile or issues with profile data. For assistance with this profile: HMS/HSDM faculty should contact contactcatalyst.harvard.edu. For faculty or fellow appointment updates and changes, please ask your appointing department to contact HMS. For fellow personal and demographic information, contact HMS Human Resources at human_resourceshms.harvard.edu. For faculty personal and demographic information, contact HMS Office for Faculty Affairs at facappthms.harvard.edu.
Lensch's Networks
Click the
Explore
buttons for more information and interactive visualizations!
Concepts (245)
Explore
_
Co-Authors (20)
Explore
_
Similar People (60)
Explore
_
Same Department 
Explore
_
Physical Neighbors
_
Funded by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program, grant number UL1TR002541.