thumb|right|Porträtt av Lawrence Summers
'''Lawrence Henry Summers''', född demokratisk politiker och ekonom. Han var USA:s finansminister 1999-2001 och rektor av Harvard University 2001-2006.

Han föddes i en judisk familj i Connecticut. Både hans farbror Paul Samuelson och morbror Kenneth Arrow är nobelpristagare i ekonomi. Också båda föräldrarna är ekonomer. Han är uppvuxen i Pennsylvania, var föräldrarna arbetade som professorer vid University of Pennsylvania. Summers avlade 1975 sin grundexamen vid Massachusetts Institute of Technology och 1982 avlade han sin doktorsexamen i nationalekonomi vid Harvard University. 28 år gammal blev han professor vid Harvard.

Summers har tre barn från första äktenskapet till Victoria Perry; identiska tvillingdöttrar Pamela och Ruth samt sonen Harry. Han gifte om sig 2005 med litteraturvetaren Elisa New som är professor vid Harvard.

Summers arbetade 1991-1993 som chefsekonom på Världsbanken och senare i olika befattningar på USA:s finansdepartement under president Bill Clinton. Han var finansminister i ett och ett halvt år och sedan återvände han till Harvard som universitetets rektor.

Han är en ivrig förespråkare av frihandel och globalisering; hans åsikter uppfattades som kontroversiella vid Harvard när han var rektor. Hans kommentarer 2005 om kön och intelligens <ref> [http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2005/nber.html Summers tal vid NBER-konferensen 2005]</ref> tolkades av många så att han skulle ha menat att män i genomsnitt är något intelligentare än kvinnor.

{{Infobox US Cabinet official
| name=Lawrence Summers
| image= Summers Lawrence.jpg
| order=71st
| title=United States Secretary of the Treasury
| term_start=July 2, 1999
| term_end=January 20, 2001
| predecessor=Robert Rubin
| successor=Paul H. O'Neill
| birth_date=
| birth_place=New Haven, Connecticut
| death_date=
| death_place=
| party=Democratic
| profession=Academic, economist
}}

'''Lawrence Henry "Larry" Summers''' (born Secretary of the Treasury for the last year and a half of the Bill Clinton administration, and served as the 27th President of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. He is the nephew of famed economists Paul Samuelson and Kenneth Arrow.

Summers resigned his position as president of Harvard University amidst controversy on June 30, 2006, and was replaced by former University President Derek Bok as acting Interim President the next day. Summers returned to the University following a sabbatical for the 2006-07 academic year as one of Harvard's select University Professors.  Separately, as announced on October 19, 2006, he became a part-time managing director of the investment and technology development firm D. E. Shaw & Co. and since January 2007 has acted as an advisor to the board of the global economic and financial analysis firm RGE Monitor.

==Early life==
Born to a Jewish family in Nobel laureates in economics:  Anita Summers's brother). He spent most of his childhood in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he attended Harriton High School.
 
At age 16, he entered the B.S., 1975).  He was also an active member of the MIT debating team. He attended Harvard University as a graduate student (Ph.D., 1982), where he studied under economist Martin Feldstein.  He has had stints teaching at both MIT and Harvard.  In 1983, at age 28, Summers became one of the youngest tenured professors in Harvard's history. Recently, in December 2005, Summers married a Harvard English professor, Dr. Elisa New. 
Summers has three children by his first wife, Victoria Perry.

==Professional life==
===Academic economist===
As a researcher, Summers has made important contributions in many areas of economics, primarily  IDEAS/RePEc. Summers is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty.

thumb|200px|Official portrait as Secretary of the Treasurythumb||200px|Summers' signature, as used on American currency

===Public official and educational administrator===

Summers left Harvard in 1991 and served as Chief Economist for the Clinton administration.  

From 1999 to 2001 he served as Secretary of the Treasury, a position in which he succeeded his long-time political mentor Robert Rubin. In 2001, he left the Treasury and returned to Harvard as its President.

In Slate'', June 29, 2001</ref><ref>[http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/worldwide/story/0,9959,1319497,00.html ''Renaissance Man''] ''The Guardian'', October 5, 2004</ref><ref>[http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/default.asp?Page=1&PUB=243&ISS=21210&SID=606917&SearchStr=Harvard Institutional Investor: How Harvard Lost Russia]</ref><ref>[http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/lawrence_of_absurdia_1/ Lawrence of Absurdia]</ref><ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/24/magazine/24SUMMERS.html?ex=1377057600&en=ad07c27697972a5b&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND ''Harvard Radical''] ''NY Times'', Aug 23, 2003</ref><ref>[http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2005/nber.html ''Lawrence Summers: Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce'']</ref><ref>Clinton, Bill (2005). ''My Life''. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.</ref><ref>Finder, Alan and Kate Zernike (February 21, 2006)</ref><ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/education/21cnd-harvard.html Harvard President Has Decided to Resign, Officials Say.] ''New York Times''</ref><ref>[http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=506127 How Larry Got His Rep], The Harvard Crimson, 2005-03-03, a long background piece on how the press spun the controversies around Summers</ref>

==Controversies==

===World Bank Pollution Memo===

In December 1991, while at the World Bank, Summers signed a memo written by staff economist Lant Pritchett which argued among other things (according to its author; the full memo is not public) that free trade would not necessarily benefit the environment in developing countries.  Pritchett also drafted what he referred to as an ironic aside to the memo which Summers also signed.  The aside was leaked to the press and stated that, developed countries ''ought'' to export more pollution to developing countries because these countries would incur the lowest cost from the pollution in terms of lost wages of people made ill or killed by the pollution due to the fact that wages are so low in developing countries.   The aside went on to state that "the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that"<ref>[http://www.whirledbank.org/ourwords/summers.html The Lawrence Summers Memo] December 12, 1991</ref>  Public outcry ensued when the aside was leaked.

===Differences between the sexes===