The other was an academic superstar, brilliant but somewhat shy and more at ease in Bermuda shorts than suits.

Only a year ago, Michael A. Bellesiles was well on his way to becoming an academic superstar.

As one of the world's most renowned research universities, Harvard is where academic superstars are continually expected to revolutionize their fields of knowledge.

Mr. Derrida is an academic superstar - his lectures are sometimes compared to Elvis sightings by fans - and a stylish dresser.

Dartmouth, for example, now offers to pay for campus visits by black students, as it long has for athletes and academic superstars.

"I believe a lot of students fall through the cracks because they're not academic superstars," Mr. Watley said.

"She's an academic superstar," said Emily Golden, program director for A Different Start.

You've got a lot of academic superstars down there who believe that their freedom of expression comes first and everything else--including the national security --comes afterward.

Nowadays Mr. Eagleton lives the life of an academic superstar, jetting about the world from one academic conference to another.

Two floors above him, on the sixth and top floor of the base, was Emeritus Row, the plush offices of the academic superstars.