A biomathematician who was awarded a jury verdict of gender discrimination against Harvard University has had her case overturned by a judge. The jury agreed that Tamara Awerbuch-Friedlander was not given tenure by Harvard because she is a woman. However, Superior Court Judge Diane Kottmyer overruled the finding, which involves specific charges against University provost Harvey Finebery, on grounds of insufficient evidence and that the statute of limitations for bringing suit had expired.

The case began in 1989. Awerbuch-Friedlander, then a lecturer in the department of biostatistics, had won a prestigious First Investigator award from the National Institutes of Health, which was renewed. She says she was encouraged to believe she would be promoted based on her accomplishments, but Fineberg, then Dean of the School of Public Health, overruled an internal committee's recommendation that Awerbuch-Friedlander be promoted to assistant professor. Fineberg resigned as provost this March.

Awerbuch-Friedlander also claimed that Harvard's refusal to give her more than a year-to-year contract hurt her ability to obtain grants in her field of research—mathematical modeling of the spread of infectious diseases. In 1997, after failing to convince an independent discrimination committee that she had been wronged, she filed suit seeking benefits totaling more than $700,000. She refused Harvard's offer of an out-of-court settlement and is presently an unpaid lecturer in the Department of Population and Human Ecology.

Joe Wrinn, spokesman for Harvard, says the result establishes that Harvard was innocent of gender discrimination. However, Richard Levins, John Rock professor of Population Science, who collaborates and shares an office with Awerbuch-Friedlander says, “Sex discrimination is alive and well at Harvard.” He supports his assertion with statistics that women comprise 40% of Harvard's assistant professors, 18% of its associate professors and 11% of its full professors.

Awerbuch-Friedlander plans to appeal for reinstatement of the jury's verdict. Although Harvard officials will not say if she will be allowed to retain her office space, there is a presumption that removing her from campus could seem like an act of retribution.