SPH's Earls Receives Honorary Doctorate

Felton J. Earls, professor of human behavior and development at the School of Public Health, received an honorary Doctor of Science from Northwestern University at commencement exercises last spring. Earls was cited as "one of the nation's premier scholars in exploring how social contexts influence human development . . ." and for "his deep commitment to understanding the broad range of factors -- biological, psychological, social and moral -- influencing total development."

Faculty Assistant and Songwriter To Perform at Club

Faculty Assistant Tracie Smart, a singer and songwriter who won recognition at this year's Boston Music Awards as first runner-up in the folk category with her CD Echoes in the Dark, will be performing from that CD, as well as introducing songs for a new CD, at Club Passim in Harvard Square at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 19. Smart works for Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry George Whitesides.

Sears Prize Awarded To Four Students

The Law School has awarded the Joshua Montgomery Sears Jr. Prize to four students for academic achievement. The four prizes are awarded annually, one to each of the two students receiving the highest averages in the work of the first year, and one to each of the two students receiving the highest averages in the work of the second year.

Class of 1999 members Danielle M. Spinelli and Julian W. Poon received the prizes for work in the first year. Class of 1998 members Douglas A. Kysar and Marc E. Isserles received the prizes for work in the second year.

The Sears Prize was established in 1912 by Sarah C. Sears in memory of her son, Joshua Montgomery Sears Jr., Class of 1904.

Pianist Levinson Wins Competition, Records CD

Lowell House Artist-in-Residence Max Levinson topped a field of 60 entrants to win the 1997 Dublin International Piano Competition this year. The prize package included £10,000, a Kawai grand piano, and a series of concert engagements in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. Levinson was the only American to make the finals.

This past summer, N2K Encoded Music released a compact disc of Levinson's renditions of solo works by Brahms, Schumann, Schoenberg, and Leon Kirchner (Harvard's Pulitzer Prize-winning Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus). Although not Levinson's first recording, the CD marks his debut on N2K, which has established a Web site (www.maxlevinson.com) for the 25-year-old pianist, who concentrated in English and received his Harvard A.B., cum laude, in 1993.