Year: 2008

  • Nation & World

    Cabot Science Library catches migration in exhibit case

    Roadkill may seem an odd inspiration for a library exhibition, but when a colleague mentioned an article about the rising number of migratory animals killed on roads and highways, Cabot Science Reference Librarian Reed Lowrie knew he’d stumbled onto his next exhibit.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    MessageMe system to be tested today

    The University will test its emergency text-messaging system, MessageMe, today (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.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Nunn wants to eliminate nukes

    Sam Nunn, former Democratic senator from Georgia (1973-97), is well known as an eminence in the realm of U.S. security policy.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    NYU chemist Robert Shapiro decries RNA-first possibility

    Back in the depths of time, an event almost miraculously improbable happened, creating a long, unlikely molecule. And life arose on Earth. Or, if you prefer, back in the depths of time, in a soup of small, relatively common molecules, an unknown chemical reaction occurred, sustained itself, replicated … and life arose on Earth.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Third class of Lemann Fellows comes into residence at Harvard

    The Harvard University Brazil Studies Program at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) recently welcomed its third class of Lemann Fellows.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Richmond memorial program scheduled for Oct. 27

    A memorial service honoring the life of Julius B. Richmond will be held Oct. 27 at 10 a.m. at the Harvard Club of Boston, 347 Commonwealth Ave. A reception will follow.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Gewertz memorial service Friday

    A memorial service will be held 3 p.m. Friday (Oct. 24) at the Memorial Church for Ken Gewertz, who died on Sept. 7 at his home in Watertown, Mass. He was 63.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Judaica Division concert includes world premiere of sax concerto

    As part of its celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, the Harvard College Library’s Judaica Division will host the world premiere of a saxophone concerto composed by an award-winning Israeli composer Nov. 2, at 3 p.m. at Sanders Theatre.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Hunn Awards bestowed on six

    Six alumni/ae were recognized for their outstanding “Schools and Scholarships” work during an awards ceremony on Oct. 17 at the Agassiz Theatre, Radcliffe Yard. Each year, the Admissions Office honors some of its most loyal and longtime volunteers in Schools Committee work all over the globe. Collectively, this year’s recipients represent more than 192 years…

    1 minute
  • 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…

    2 minutes
  • 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…

    3 minutes
  • 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.

    2 minutes
  • 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).

    1 minute
  • 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.

    4 minutes
  • 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.

    5 minutes
  • 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…

    3 minutes
  • 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.

    4 minutes
  • 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).

    1 minute
  • 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…

    2 minutes
  • 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.…

    3 minutes
  • 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.

    1 minute
  • 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).

    3 minutes
  • 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.

    2 minutes
  • 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.

    1 minute
  • 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…

    4 minutes
  • 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…

    4 minutes
  • 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…

    6 minutes
  • 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.

    2 minutes
  • 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…

    5 minutes
  • 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…

    7 minutes