Lawrence Summers still has a month left as president of Harvard University but already there is extensive guesswork going on in Cambridge and beyond about who will replace him.

Faculty buzz mostly centres on possible in-house candidates - several of whom are women - or the potential for a "marquee" political figure, such as Al Gore or Condoleezza Rice, taking the job. But this, of course, is all merely conjecture. This search will be nothing if not secretive.