Featured series 
Month: October 2008
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Nation & World
Two HSPH professors honored for their scientific contributions
Two members of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) faculty have been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on human health issues. The IOM was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, and membership is a high honor in the health…
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Nation & World
HRES fetes completion of grad, professional student housing program
Harvard Real Estate Services (HRES) Tuesday (Oct. 21) celebrated the completion of an eight-year program to provide housing for approximately 50 percent of the University’s graduate and professional students. The program, which included both new and renovated properties in Cambridge and Boston, provides students with myriad housing options — everything from single-family homes to high-rise…
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Nation & World
Asia Programs offers master’s in public policy degree
Asia Programs of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation recently announced (Oct. 16) the launch of its two-year master’s in public policy (M.P.P.) program at the Fulbright School in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
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Nation & World
This month in Harvard history
Oct. 15, 1945 — Pulitzer Prize-winning History Professor Paul Herman Buck, PhD ’35, becomes Harvard’s first Provost. Under the terms of the statutory amendment approved on this day by the Board of Overseers, the Provost is also, ex officio, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (the position Buck has held since 1942).
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Nation & World
Students watch ‘An Inconvenient Truth’
It’s “an inconvenient truth,” but only about 25 people showed up for a Harvard screening Sunday (Oct. 19) of a film by the same name, which earned former Vice President Al Gore ’69 both an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize.
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Nation & World
Controlling greenhouse gases, universities, individuals matter
From 1850 to 2000, the use of fossil fuels worldwide grew 140-fold, a practice that has gradually filled the Earth’s atmosphere with warming gases.
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Nation & World
Harvard avenges — just barely — last year’s heartbreaking loss
The Harvard football team knows drama. They’ve lived it all season. Counting Saturday’s (Oct. 18) win against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, three of Harvard’s first five games this season have been decided by three points or less. And up 24-10 at the half, the game looked to be headed toward an easy victory — one…
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Nation & World
Cooper: Doctor-patient relations cause health disparities
In the United States, a black man can expect to die, on average, 10 years earlier than his white counterpart. For black women, that racial gap in life expectancy is five years.
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Nation & World
Peabody Museum to host Day of the Dead celebration
Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnography will come alive in a unique way Nov. 2 when it joins the Consulate General of Mexico in Boston in hosting a celebration of the traditional Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
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Nation & World
Center for European Studies welcomes its fall fellows
The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) has announced the arrival of its 2008 fall fellows. The CES is dedicated to fostering the study of European history, politics, and society at Harvard, and selects visiting scholars that will play an active role in the intellectual life of the CES and the University. While…
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Nation & World
Black holes are the heart of galaxies
Astronomers think that many — perhaps all — galaxies in the universe contain massive black holes at their centers. New observations with the Submillimeter Array now suggest that such colossal black holes were common even 12 billion years ago, when the universe was only 1.7 billion years old and galaxies were just beginning to form.…
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Nation & World
Teacher of Arabic Wilson B. Bishai dies at 85
Wilson B. Bishai, professor emeritus of Arabic for the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC), died Aug. 1 from kidney failure at his home in Maryland. He was 85.
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Nation & World
Belfer Center names fellows for 2008-09
The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School recently announced the following new 2008-09 research fellows. These fellows conduct research within the Belfer Center’s International Security Program/Program on Intrastate Conflict (ICP) and Project on Managing the Atom (MTA).
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Nation & World
Harvard planners seek feedback on preliminary refinements to master plan
Harvard University’s planners are seeking comment on preliminary refinements to several master planning concepts well in advance of filing an Institutional Master Plan (IMP) with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), targeted for 2009.
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Nation & World
Community comes out for fun, food, football
A chilly Saturday morning outside of Harvard Stadium couldn’t stop the residents of Allston from coming out to mingle at the 19th annual Allston-Brighton Family Football Day (Oct. 18). President Drew Faust and Vice President of Government, Community, and Public Affairs Christine Heenan joined residents of Allston-Brighton for the pregame luncheon.
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Nation & World
Scientists unlock secret of death protein’s activation
Harvard Medical School researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified a previously undetected trigger point on a naturally occurring “death protein” that helps the body get rid of unwanted or…
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Nation & World
Volunteers unveil DNA, medical data in push for everyday gene sequencing
The world moved a step deeper into the DNA age yesterday as 10 volunteers released their genetic and medical information on the Internet as part of a multi-year effort to…
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Nation & World
Reading human history in the bones of animals
In a Siberian cave Patrick Wrinn found bones: bones of sheep and goats, bones of extinct bison and horses, of mammoths and wooly rhinoceroses. Wrinn, a doctoral student in archaeology at the University of Arizona and member of the Harvard Class of 1998, is trying to find out who — or what — put the…
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Nation & World
Dan Shore named University’s vice president for finance
Dan Shore, director of the University’s Office of Budgets and Financial Planning since 2003 and Harvard’s acting chief financial officer since May 2008, has been named vice president for finance and chief financial officer.
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Nation & World
Alice Waters special guest at ‘smart food’ panel
In anticipation of Harvard’s upcoming sustainability celebration, a panel discussion on sustainable food took place Tuesday (Oct. 14) in the Faculty Room at University Hall. It began with a reception at which chefs doled out demitasse cups filled with a chowder of Cape Cod Bay scallops and Berkshires bacon, and wait-staff circulated trays of heavenly…
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Nation & World
‘Green’ University celebration commences
If you flew over Harvard University in a small plane, you would see only a few outward and obvious signs of sustainability. You would see a glittering solar array on Shad Hall at Harvard Business School, a landscaped green roof on Gund Hall, home of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and you would see a…
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Nation & World
Major step forward in cell reprogramming
Imagine, if you can, a day within the next decade when a physician-scientist could remove a skin cell from your arm and with a few chemicals turn that fully formed adult cell into a dish of stem cells genetically matched to you.
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Nation & World
Study shows what smokers need to stay clean
Hospital-sponsored stop-smoking programs for inpatients that include follow-up counseling for longer than one month significantly improve patients’ ability to stay smoke-free. An analysis of clinical trials of programs offered at hospitals around the world finds that efforts featuring long-term support can increase participants’ chances of success by 65 percent.
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Nation & World
Police reports
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Oct. 13. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu.
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Nation & World
MessageMe system to be tested Oct. 23
The University will test its emergency text-messaging system, MessageMe, on Oct. 23. A test message will be broadcast midday to more than 14,000 Harvard community members who have signed up for the alert system.
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Nation & World
Genetic ‘fingerprint’ shown to predict liver cancer’s return
Scientists have reached a critical milestone in the study of liver cancer that lays the groundwork for predicting the illness’s path, whether toward cure or recurrence. By analyzing the tissue in and around liver tumors, an international research team has identified a kind of genetic “fingerprint” that can help predict whether cancers will return.
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Nation & World
Gazette writer Gewertz dies at 63
Ken Gewertz, teacher, editor, and longtime staff writer for the Harvard University Gazette, died of cancer on Sept. 7 at his home in Watertown, Mass. He was 63. Gewertz gave 22 years of service to the University. As a reporter for the Gazette, he covered almost every aspect of life at Harvard, concentrating on the…
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Nation & World
This month in Harvard history
October 1784 — Harvard awards an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to Maj. Gen. Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.