Professor Hammonds is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, professor of African and African American Studies, and director of the Project on Race and Gender in Science and Medicine at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Professor Hammonds is the author of several articles about: race and science; medicine and disease and the HIV/AIDS epidemic; women, gender and science; and African American women and feminism. Professor Hammonds’ most recent book (co-edited with Rebecca Herzig) is The Nature of Difference: The Sciences of Race from Jefferson to Genomics (2008). She was the first Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard from 2005–2008. From 2008–2013, she served as Dean of Harvard College.

Professor Hammonds earned bachelor degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from Spelman College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, a master’s degree in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Science from Harvard University. She holds honorary degrees from Spelman College and Bates College.