Malcolm H. Wiener (born July 3, 1935) is an American attorney, prehistorian and philanthropist. Most notably, Wiener has served as general counsel of the Archaeological Institute of America, as an advisor for the United States Department of State and as principal and chairman of The Millburn Ridgefield Corporation and ShareInVest, both asset management firms.
In 1988, Wiener endowed the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The center focuses on increasing social and economic wellbeing, equity and opportunity, and to advance the cause of social justice and effective social programs. He is also a trustee emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds honorary doctorates from multiple institutions, including the University of Cincinnati.
Early life and education Wiener was born July 3, 1935 in Qingdao, China, to American parents Myron Wiener and Ethel Wiener (née Zimmerman). He was raised in a Jewish family. His mother was born in Yantai to Russian-born Samuel Zimmerman and she died when he was only 4 days old. Wiener came to the United States to San Francisco in 1939.Lists of U.S. Citizens Arriving at San Francisco, 1930-1949
He was awarded a Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps scholarship for study at Harvard College; the award was made "on the basis of financial need, and high academic personal promise in class and extracurricular activities"."Thirteen win scholarships at Harvard", Washington Post, 17 May 1953. He graduated magna cum laude with an honors thesis in economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. While at Harvard, he was president of the University Chess Club."Collegiate Chess Championship Meet", The Harvard Crimson, 16 January 1956. Between his years at Harvard College (1953–1957) and Harvard Law School (1960–1963), he served at sea as an Ensign/Lieutenant JG in the United States Navy from 1957 to 1960.
Career Wiener was the founder and CEO of The Millburn Corporation (later Millburn Ridgefield LLC, 1977-1997) CommInVest (1977-1997) and ShareInVest (1982-1997). In 1981 he founded the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) and in 1984 the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation (both are registered non-profit organizations). From 1996 to 2010, he served as a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. From 1984 to 2016, he served as a Trustee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the last five years as Chair of the Board; at the American School, he proposed and funded the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science (1992).
The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University was founded and funded by Wiener. The Center encompasses programs in health, criminal justice, housing, education, and inequality. Wiener has also published several works on economic policy.
Wiener is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. There, he has been active in promoting the consideration of non-lethal military technologies; in particular, he chaired and authored the report of a CFR Independent Task Force on the subject in 1995. He also endowed the CFR Annual Lecture on Science and Technology.The Malcolm and Carolyn Wiener Annual Lecture on Science and Technology, Council on Foreign Relations.
Wiener is the author of numerous works on Aegean prehistory and the eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age. Several works have focused on the chronology of the Bronze Age Mediterranean world. His publication (2014) on "The Interaction of Climate Change and Agency in the Collapse of Civilizations ca. 2300–2000 B.C." has attracted notice for its contribution to the history of climate change episodes in world history.
Awards and recognition Wiener has received seven honorary doctorates: Litt.D., University of Sheffield, 1997; Ph.D., University of Tübingen, 1998; D., University of Athens, 1998; Dr. of Humane Letters, University of Cincinnati, 2007; D.Sc., University College London, 2009; D. Archaeology, Dickinson College, 2013; D.Sc., University of Arizona, 2014."Leaders in Arts, Business and Public Service to Receive Honorary Degrees", UANews, 14 May 2014. University of Arizona Commencement Spring 2014 (archived).
Wiener is a Fellow or Member of the following: the Academy of Athens,"Malcolm H. Wiener, Aegean prehistory researcher and benefactor, named associate member of Academy of Athens", Athens News Agency, 8 February 2018."Malcolm H. Wiener, Aegean prehistory researcher and benefactor, named associate member of Academy of Athens", Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi. the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Austrian Archaeological Institute, the German Archaeological Institute, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, and the Society of Antiquaries of London. He is a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France and an Honorary Member of the Board of the Archaeological Society at Athens. He has also received the Ring of Honour of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz, Germany.Ring of Honor award to Malcolm Wiener, Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz. Additionally, he received the Bandelier Award for Public Service to Archaeology from the Archaeological Institute of America,"The Bandelier Award for Service to Archaeology ", Archaeological Institute of America, 2013.Dispatches from the AIA. and the Philhellene Award and Athens Prize from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. In 2014, the Greek government bestowed upon him the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor."Malcolm Wiener Awarded Gold Cross by the Hellenic Republic" —American School of Classical Studies at Athens."Ceremony to Award Dr. Malcolm Hewitt Wiener With the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor", Hellenic News Of America.
Personal life Wiener was previously married to Mary F. McLarnon in 1975.New York, New York City Marriage Licenses Index, 1950-1995
On June 8, 1990, Wiener married Carolyn Talbot Seely (born 1948), a daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Frederic T. Seely, of Old Greenwich, Connecticut. She was Counsel to the Republican Leader Bob Dole and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Baltimore's School of Law.
Catherine "Kate" Wiener (born 1993), a Yale graduate, married to Riley Ford, who is a great-great-grandson of George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth, of the founding family of The Detroit News. Elizabeth Seely Wiener (born 1994), a Harvard graduate.https://histecon.fas.harvard.edu/Elizabeth_Wiener.htm Thomas F. Wiener (born 2001) Jonathan P. Wiener (born 2001)
Wiener is a resident of Greenwich, Connecticut.
Publications “The Dating Game: The History and Present State of the Controversy Concerning the Date of the Theran Eruption”, CHRONOS: Stratigraphic Analysis, Pottery Seriation and Radiocarbon Dating in Mediterranean Chronology, 2024, pp. 181–189. “Processions Aplenty: From Elite Palatial Parades to Mass Population Pilgrimages in Middle and Late Minoan Crete”, Processions: Bronze Age Ceremonial Studies Presented to Robert B. Koehl, 2023, pp. 3–7. “Travels with Hugh”, Megistos Kouros: Studies in Honour of Hugh Sackett, 2022. “The Population and Depopulation of Late Minoan Crete”, Kleronomia: Legacy and Inheritance. Studies on the Aegean Bronze Age in Honor of Jeffrey S. Soles, 2022, pp. 217–228. “The Fateful Century: From the Destruction of Crete ca. 1450–1440 to the Destruction of Knossos ca. 1350–1340”, One State, Many Worlds: Crete in the Late Minoan II-IIIA2 Early Period. Proceedings of the International Conference Held at Khania, Μεγάλο Αρσενάλι, 21st–23rd November 2019, 2022, pp. 97–115. “Minoan Colonization”, Political Geographies of the Bronze Age Aegean. Proceedings of the Joint Workshop of the Belgian School at Athens (EBSA) and the Netherlands Institute at Athens (NIA) May 28 to 31, 2019, 2022, pp. 251–257. “The Contribution of Archaeological Science to the Study of Animals in Aegean Prehistory”, Zoia. Animal-Human Interactions in the Aegean Middle and Late Bronze Age. Proceedings of the 18th International Aegean Conference, originally to be held at the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory, in the Department of Classics, The University of Texas at Austin, May 28–31, 2020, Aegaeum 45, 2021, pp. 29–33. “Helladic Greece from the Middle Bronze Age to c. 1350 BCE”, From Past to Present. Studies in Memory of Manfred O. Korfmann, 2020, pp. 279–331. “Foreword”, Πύρρα. Μελέτες για την αρχαιολογία στην Κεντρική Ελλάδα προς τιμήν της Φανουρίας Δακορώνια, 2018. “The Impact of Climate Change, Famines, Mass Migrations, Epidemics, and Warfare in the Collapse of Civilizations: Recent Evidence from Archaeological Science”, Πρακτικα της Aκαδημία Aθηνών 93 B, 2018, pp. 49–68. “The Significance of Recent Developments in Egyptian Chronology for the Absolute Chronology of Late Helladic I–III and the Middle, Recent, and Final Bronze Age Chronology of Italy”, MEDITERRANEA ITINERA: Studies in Honour of Lucia Vagnetti, 2018, pp. 3–10. “The Collapse of Civilizations”, Belfer Center Paper, September 2018. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School. “Causes of Complex Systems Collapse in the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia and Italy at the End of the Bronze Age”, “Sea Peoples” Up-to-Date: New Research on the Transformations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 13th–11th Centuries BCE, 2017, pp. 43–74. “Il mondo miceneo e Omero”, Manuale di Epigrafia Micenea. Introduzione allo studio dei testi in lineare B, 2016, pp. 23–50. “Helladic Pairs of Cups”, Studies in Aegean Art and Culture. A New York Aegean Bronze Age Colloquium in Memory of Ellen N. Davis, 2016, pp. 11–26. “Beyond the Versailles Effect: Mycenaean Greece and Minoan Crete”, RA-PI-NE-U: Studies on the Mycenaean World Offered to Robert Laffineur for His 70th Birthday, Aegis 10, 2016, pp. 365–378. “Aegean Warfare at the Opening of the Late Bronze Age in Image and Reality”, METAPHYSIS. Ritual, Myth and Symbolism in the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the 15th International Aegean Conference, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, Austrian Academy of Sciences and Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna (22–25 April 2014), Aegaeum 39, 2016, pp. 139–146. “The Scientific Study of Antiquity”, Daedalus 145.2, 2016, p. 112. “Oh, No—Not Another Chronology!” The Art and Culture of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Dorothea Arnold (Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 19, 2010), 2015, pp. 649–663. “The Mycenaean Conquest of Minoan Crete”, The Great Islands: Studies of Crete and Cyprus Presented to Gerald Cadogan, 2015, pp. 131–142. “Dating the Theran Eruption: Archaeological Science Versus Nonsense Science”, Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective, 2015, pp. 131–143. “The Interaction of Climate Change and Agency in the Collapse of Civilizations ca. 2300–2000 BC”, Radiocarbon 56(4) / Tree-Ring Research 70(3), 2014, pp. S1–16. “Dating the Emergence of Historical Israel in Light of Recent Developments in Egyptian Chronology”, Tel Aviv 41, 2014, pp. 49–53. “Radiocarbon Dating of the Theran Eruption”, Proceedings of the 38th International Symposium on Archaeometry, Tampa, Florida, May 10–14, 2010, Open Journal of Archaeometry 2, 5265, 2014. “Realities of Power: The Minoan Thalassocracy in Historical Perspective”, АΜΙΛΛΑ: The Quest for Excellence. Studies Presented to Guenter Kopcke in Celebration of His 75th Birthday, 2013, pp. 149–173. “ ‘Minding the Gap’ Gaps, Destructions, and Migrations in the Early Bronze Age Aegean: Causes and Consequences”, American Journal of Archaeology 117, 2013, pp. 581–592. “Contacts: Crete, Egypt and the Near East circa 2000 B.C.”, Cultures in Contact: From Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C., 2013, pp. 34–43.