Month: November 2007

  • Nation & World

    Charlesview and Harvard agree to land exchange

    The Charlesview Inc. board of directors and Harvard University have signed a purchase-and-sale agreement that will enable the construction of a new apartment complex for Allston’s Charlesview residents on Harvard-owned property located a half-mile from the current complex in Barry’s Corner.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Three from Harvard selected as Rhodes Scholars

    Two Harvard seniors and a recent graduate have been chosen as Rhodes Scholars. Clara L. Blättler of Brookline, Mass., and Shayak Sarkar, of Edinburg, Texas, were among the 32 Americans chosen for the prestigious scholarship that funds two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England. Sammy K. Sambu has been…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Faculty Council

    At its fifth meeting of the year on Nov. 28, the Faculty Council considered proposals for mandatory course evaluations and for restructuring and renaming the joint Ph.D. program in Information, Technology, and Management, and voted on the proposed Harvard Summer School Courses of Instruction for 2008. The council next meets on Dec. 5. The preliminary…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Standing committees of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

    Upon the recommendation of the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), Harvard President Drew Faust has approved and announced the following Standing Committees. Standing Committees of the faculty are constituted to perform a continuing function. Each committee has been established by a vote of the faculty, and can be dissolved only by…

    22 minutes
  • Nation & World

    This month in Harvard history

    Nov. 11, 1951 — On Armistice Day (now Veterans’ Day), an overflow crowd jams the Memorial Church for the dedication of the World War II Memorial wall, bearing the names of those from the Harvard family who gave their lives in service to the nation. The guest preacher is the Rt. Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill,…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Nov. 26. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online athttp://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    In brief

    Harvard Trademark Program launches new site The Harvard Trademark Program has announced the launch of its new Web site,http://www.trademark.harvard.edu.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Newsmakers

    Ryan Travia recognized for Drug and Alcohol Peer Advisers program Harvard’s Director of Alcohol and Other Drug Services Ryan M. Travia was named one of five “National Outstanding Advisers” at a national convention held in Atlanta earlier this month. The annual event was sponsored by an international network of colleges and schools dedicated to promoting…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Four named to Institute of Politics advisory committee

    Harvard University’s Institute of Politics (IOP) at the Kennedy School of Government has announced the appointment of four experienced political practitioners to the institute’s senior advisory committee. The committee is responsible for guiding and advising institute staff toward fulfillment of the IOP’s mission of inspiring young people to careers in politics and public service.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Charles L. Schepens

    Charles L. Schepens, long considered one of the giants of 20th Century ophthalmology and the unquestioned leader in retinal detachment surgery, died March 28th, 2006 at the age of 94 in Boston, MA.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Heavenly seven

    A visiting Harvard football team exploded for four first-half touchdowns to overwhelm Yale, 37-6, on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 17) in a battle of the Ivy League’s only remaining unbeaten teams.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Flu vaccinations offered through December

    HUHS is offering free flu shots to members of the Harvard community. No appointment is needed. Walk-in hours at HUHS offices on the second floor of Holyoke Center are noon to 3 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, now through December, except on Dec. 24 and 25.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    K School celebrates Ida B. Wells with poster

    The Kennedy School of Government (KSG) recently celebrated the launch of poster reproductions of the portrait of Ida B. Wells that hangs in the School’s Fainsod Room. The painting of Wells — a fierce anti-lynching crusader and journalist — was installed in April 2006 next to Winston Churchill. It marked the first commissioned oil portrait…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Muppets are international envoys of understanding

    Before the popularity of the world’s favorite fuzzy amphibian and a blue furry monster addicted to cookies, there was the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE).

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    University recycles half its trash for first time

    Harvard’s University-wide recycling rate topped 50 percent for the first time ever in October, the latest in a series of recycling gains that University Operations Services Supervisor of Waste Management Rob Gogan said are not over.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Feminist pioneers discuss women’s health policy

    More than three decades after publication of the taboo-shattering book on female health, “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” activists are still struggling to bring attention to women’s health issues amid the national debate over medical insurance coverage, said one of the book’s authors and feminist pioneer Judy Norsigian.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sidney Coleman dies at 70

    Sidney Richard Coleman, a member of the Harvard faculty for 43 years and a giant of theoretical physics, died on Nov. 18 after a five-year struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 70.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Scientists identify gene responsible for statin-induced muscle pain

    Statins, the popular class of drugs used to lower cholesterol, are among the most commonly prescribed medications in developed countries. But for some patients, accompanying side effects of muscle weakness and pain become chronic problems and, in rare cases, can escalate to debilitating and even life-threatening damage.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Telling the arthropod tale of life

    They had sifted through the forest floor’s leaves and dirt for days, looking for a tiny type of daddy longlegs native to New Zealand, but had little more than dirty hands to show for it.

    8 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Selective attention most impaired during first night shift worked

    Our biological propensity for keeping awake during the day and sleeping at night makes night work a challenge. Now, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have found that attention is especially affected during the first night shift. This research appears in the Nov. 28 issue of the Public Library of Science One.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    HMC Board names Kaplan interim CEO

    The Harvard Management Company (HMC) Board announced on Nov. 9 that Robert Kaplan, professor of management practice at the Harvard Business School (HBS) and former vice chairman of The Goldman Sachs Group, has been appointed the interim CEO of the Harvard Management Company and will serve in that capacity until the new president and CEO…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Armstrong: God is hard to get to know

    Man’s practical understanding of God, said one religious scholar speaking at Harvard, is “like a goldfish trying to understand a computer. … It will always be beyond us.”

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Environmental work honored by HMS

    The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School (HMS) has named Kofi Annan and Alice Waters as its 2008 Global Environmental Citizen Award recipients.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    White House awards Pipes and Wisse Humanities Medals

    President George W. Bush awarded the prestigious National Humanities Medals for 2007 to Harvard faculty members Richard Pipes and Ruth R. Wisse during a Nov. 15 ceremony at the White House. In total, nine distinguished Americans and one cultural foundation were honored for their exemplary contributions to the humanities and were recognized for their scholarship,…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Allston-Brighton celebrates its 200th birthday

    More than 300 guests attended a gala event on Nov. 17 at the new WGBH offices on Guest Street in Brighton in honor of the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Brighton and Allston communities.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Tutu sees lots of negatives, a few positives, in American foreign policy

    Desmond Tutu was a high school teacher in Johannesburg before he entered the ministry, and all these years later he is still very much the pedagogue. “Good afternoon,” he said…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Berkman Center receives $4M gift from MacArthur Foundation

    The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School a $4 million gift in support of the center’s second decade. This is the single largest gift from a foundation in the Berkman Center’s history.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    University namesake celebrates 400th

    It is 1607 in England. Queen Elizabeth I has died only four years earlier. King James I, her successor, has already commissioned a new Bible translation that will indelibly mark the English language four years later.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Atrocities attract healing hands to the Congo

    The rape itself was brutal enough, but the woman’s nearly severed hand shocked Susan Bartels.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Blood stem cells fight invaders

    No other stem cell is more thoroughly understood than the blood, or hematopoietic, stem cell. These occasional and rare cells, scattered sparingly throughout the marrow and capable of replenishing an…

    4 minutes