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195 stories in September 2009
SEAS, FAS professor Allan R. Robinson dies at 76
Allan R. Robinson, Gordon McKay Professor of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Emeritus died on Sept. 25, at the age of 76.
Harvard President Drew Faust served as guest lecturer for a Harvard Divinity School class, where she discussed her most recent book.
HBS study goes inside the boardroom
A new report from Harvard Business School offers an inside look at some of the challenges facing the boards of directors of corporate America.
Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Kirsten Bomblies is among 70 new faculty members who are joining the University’s various Schools this year. With the start of the new year, Harvard has hired 41 new assistant professors, six associate professors, and 23 new full professors, and promoted 20 existing faculty members to tenured professor positions.
SBY attends Harvard University forum
Visiting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attended a Harvard University forum in Boston, United States, to exchange views on how to improve a nation's standard of living...
The Graduate School of Design at Harvard celebrates one of its own, the late J. Max Bond Jr., a pioneering architect.
School of Public Health professor advising feds on H1N1 policy
One thing certain about the flu is uncertainty, according to Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and a prominent authority on the spread of infectious disease. The rise and rapid spread of H1N1 flu virus, known as swine flu, has kept Lipsitch busy in recent months. An expert [...]
Amid calls for transformative change in the world’s energy supply, Harvard chemist Ted Betley is taking a back-to-basics approach and examining the mother of all energy supplies — photosynthesis — for clues to how nature runs a power plant. Betley, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, says he’s convinced that solar power must become [...]
Crimson football edge Brown in home opener
In 2008, the Harvard Crimson football team and the Brown Bears shared the Ivy League championship, but Friday (Sep. 25) night Harvard refused to share.
Harms named Ivy Player of the Week
For the second time this season, goalkeeper Austin Harms ’12 of the Harvard men’s soccer team has been named the Ivy League Player of the Week.
The Harvard women’s soccer team started league play with a win on Sept. 26, taking down the Penn Quakers in their Ivy League opener, 3-2.
"I met him the year before I left the Mississippi Delta — my second year as a Teach for America member in Phillips County, Ark., one of the poorest counties in the country. Patrick had flunked eighth grade twice; that year was his third try. He simply wouldn’t show up."
Quest for a Long Life Gains Scientific Respect
In mice, sirtuin activators are effective against lung and colon cancer, melanoma, lymphoma, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease, said David Sinclair, a Harvard Medical School researcher and co-founder of Sirtris. The drugs reduce inflammation, and if they have the same effects in people, could help combat many diseases that have an inflammatory component, like irritable bowel syndrome and glaucoma….
Uribe pushes for improved relations
Álvaro Uribe, president of the Republic of Colombia, expounded on his administration’s accomplishments in a speech at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Sept. 25.
Harvard University Extension School, turning 100 next year, launched its multi-event centennial celebration with a Sept. 25 convocation.
The poll, by the Harvard School of Public Health and The Boston Globe, found that opposition to the law stands at 28 percent, up slightly from 22 percent in a June 2008 survey.
Flu threats are tough to pin down
Harvard’s Lipsitch had a central role in developing the swine flu planning scenario authored by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. That report - which said that in a “plausible scenario,’’ H1N1 could kill 30,000 to 90,000 - emphasizes “this is a planning scenario, not a prediction….”
The Humanities Center at Harvard is staging a symposium this weekend on the publication of the 1,095-page "A New Literary History of America" (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2009). A centerpiece of the symposium was today’s (Sept. 25) "20 Questions" panel with the book's editors, Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors.
Odinga optimistic about Africa’s democratic future
Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga expresses optimism about Kenya’s democratic future.
Leslie Kirwan ’79, M.P.P. ’84, appointed FAS dean for administration and finance
Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Dean Michael D. Smith today (Sept. 25) announced the appointment of Leslie Kirwan as the new FAS dean for administration and finance, effective Nov. 2, 2009.
Doctors’ group drops late-night ER visit fees
Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians said yesterday that it would no longer add $30 to bills for emergency care delivered between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Harvard’s Faust Plots Course for ‘Unified’ School in Crisis
Harvard University President Drew Faust is pushing to knock down traditional budgeting barriers among the school’s independent divisions, after the school lost $11 billion of endowment value last fiscal year.
NIH funds risky, potentially transformative research by Harvard faculty members
Eighteen faculty members at Harvard and Harvard-affiliated institutions are among 115 scientists nationally whose promising and innovative work was recognized today with the announcement of three grant programs by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
President stresses culture of collaboration
The importance of the University’s mission has been heightened by the challenges of our times, President Drew Faust said Thursday (Sept. 24), but Harvard must foster a new culture of collaboration across the University in order to meet those challenges.
In the first of six Norton Lectures, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk investigates the act of novel reading and the fleeting “second lives” readers acquire.
Music and art to accompany fall Harvard Allston Farmer’s Market
On Sept. 25, the market will host a number of local musicians and artists from 3-7 p.m. to ring in the fall while displaying some of the season’s best crops.
The Grass Is Greener at Harvard
THERE is an underground revolution spreading across Harvard University this fall. It’s occurring under the soil and involves fungi, bacteria, microbes and roots, which are now fed with compost and compost tea rather than pesticides and synthetic nitrogen.
If You Need to Work Better, Maybe Try Working Less
When members of 12 consulting teams at Boston Consulting Group were each required to take a block of "predictable time off" during every work week, "we had to practically force some professionals" to get away, says Leslie Perlow, the Harvard Business School leadership professor who headed the study.
Opposites attract – but they may not stay together
Opposites may always attract. But they may not remain together long-term. In a counter-intuitive discovery published in the current edition of the journal Nature, researchers from Harvard, the University of California at Davis, Princeton, and Penn State University report that oppositely charged drops of water will not attract permanently, but instead will bounce off each other indefinitely when [...]
Maher memorial service Sept. 25
A memorial service for Brendan A. Maher, the Emeritus Edward C Henderson Professor of the Psychology of Personality in the Department of Psychology, will be held on Sept. 25.
Expert: Lift taboo on Earth engineering
University of Calgary Professor David Keith calls for investment in geoengineering research as part of the search for solutions to climate change.
Arts, humanities, and human rights
On Sept. 24 the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies will host the annual Human Rights at Harvard Welcome Reception.
2008 Census data: Housing is getting even less affordable
"Although housing affordability for newly purchased homes has improved, overall affordability for renters or owners is unchanged or worse because of the economy," says Daniel McCue, research analyst at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. "People are still hurting."
The fear of lawsuits among doctors does seem to lead to a noticeable amount of wasteful treatment. Amitabh Chandra — a Harvard economist whose research is cited by both the American Medical Association and the trial lawyers’ association — says $60 billion a year, or about 3 percent of overall medical spending, is a reasonable upper-end estimate.
New stamps for 4 Supreme Court justices
The justices were recognized for their long service and significant contributions. Brandeis served 22 years, the shortest tenure of the four. Brennan and Story were on the court more than 33 years. All four justices went to Harvard, and Frankfurter had personal ties to two of the others.
Harvesting watts from the wind
Harvard installs two tall turbines on the top deck of its Soldiers Field Road parking garage, the University’s largest wind power installation to date.
Sifting Your Harvard Questions, Looking For Parenting (and Other) Lessons
Before closing the book on William R. Fitzsimmons’s turn answering reader questions about Harvard, we wanted to reflect a bit more on the content of those questions — which ultimately topped 900.
Harvard falls short against Holy Cross in opener
Junior quarterback Collier Winters threw for 195 yards and two touchdowns in the Crimson’s 27-20 loss to Holy Cross.
Soccer’s Akpan named National Player of the Week
Senior forward Andre Akpan of the Harvard men’s soccer team was named Top Drawer Soccer National Player of the Week on Monday (Sept. 21).
For MacArthur Grants, Another Set of ‘Geniuses’
Daniel J. Socolow, the director of the MacArthur fellows program, noted that while about half the fellows are technically in the sciences, their work often touches on other areas. “We focus on the work, not the field,” he said.
Lt. Dan Choi — West Pointer, Iraq infantry veteran, Arabic linguist, and Baptist minister — speaks out against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy after getting the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard’s first Service to Humanity award.
Mahadevan, Huybers named MacArthur Fellows
Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Peter Huybers and England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan are named MacArthur Foundation Fellows.
Huybers and Mahadevan named MacArthur Foundation Fellows
Two Harvard faculty members who study present and past ice sheets and the science behind familiar objects and everyday events have been named recipients of prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants. This year’s awards, announced today by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, go to Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Peter Huybers [...]
Harvard Crimson first to test new hockey helmets
Thanks to an NHL Hall of Famer, the Harvard University men's ice hockey team will be the first in the country to test a new helmet designed to further limit the sport's instances of concussions.
Aspirin Can Prevent Colon Cancer in High-Risk Group, Study Says
The Harvard study suggested aspirin could prevent tumors from growing by inhibiting Cox-2, an enzyme that may play a role in the initial growth of a tumor.
Doctors Don’t Agree On Letting Patients See Notes
The medical record has traditionally been viewed by the medical establishment as something that they own," says Dr. Tom Delbanco of Harvard Medical School. "They think: 'It's my private notes. This is my stuff.'"
Honoring Nations 2009, a two-day symposium sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School, calls on national experts and elders to share innovations in tribal governance.
To honor the signing of the Constitution, a panel of experts examined the legacy of the historic document, followed by a discussion with retired Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter.
The University opened a new telephone hotline Friday (Sept. 18) to serve as a clearinghouse for real-time information about major issues of interest to the Harvard community.
Crisis Makes Studying Economics Both More and Less Attractive
At Harvard, a freshman seminar Greg Mankiw is teaching had 15 slots, and 200 applicants — getting into it, he notes, was about a hard as getting into Harvard all over again.
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