Month: October 2010

  • Nation & World

    Race plays minor role in Facebook friendships

    Race may not be as important as previously thought in determining who befriends whom, suggests a study of Facebook habits by sociologists from Harvard and UCLA.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Bok Center honors 510

    The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ deans of undergraduate education awarded an unprecedented 510 certificates of distinction and excellence on Oct. 26 at Harvard’s Center for Government and International Studies.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Neuroengineering program is focus

    Bertarelli Foundation brings together Harvard Medical School and Swiss University EPFL to create joint neuroengineering program.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Why Books?’

    Thirteen workshops at Harvard book sites kick off a two-day conference, “Why Books?,” on the fate of print in a digital age.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    To the heart of a movement

    Professor Jill Lepore, a contributor to The New Yorker, examines the movement behind the tea party in “The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History.”

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    All in this together

    Members of the New England Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) — which assists member institutions in recruiting and retaining faculty and staff — worked on strategies for a host of challenges during the organization’s general assembly, held at Harvard University.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Pushing back

    Deborah Bial, Ed.M.’96, Ed.D.’04, founder of the Posse Foundation, spoke to a Harvard audience about her organization’s efforts to help economically disadvantaged kids prepare for and then succeed in college.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Reading the Quran in Germany

    German scholar Stefan Wild delivered the 2010 H.A.R. Gibb Arabic and Islamic Studies Lectures, sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The first of the three talks — “The History of the Quran: Why Is There No State of the Art?” — drew a large and avid audience to Tsai Auditorium.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Professor Harold Bolitho dies

    Harold Bolitho, professor of Japanese history emeritus in Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, died on Oct. 23 after a long illness.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Faculty Council meeting held Oct. 27

    At its fifth meeting of the year on Oct. 27, the Faculty Council heard details of the forthcoming faculty retirement plan.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Harvard students win in Collegiate Inventors Competition

    Harvard doctoral candidate Alice Chen won first prize in the Collegiate Inventors Competition, while several other Harvard students took home second and third prizes.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Arnold Arboretum announces T-shirt contest

    The Arnold Arboretum invites artists of all ages to submit their T-shirt designs for Lilac Sunday 2011.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    A new Center for Primary Care

    Backed by a $30 million gift, Harvard Medical School’s unit will serve as a docking point for students, residents, fellows, and faculty from across HMS and its affiliated teaching hospitals.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Targeting lung cancer

    An initial study of a new treatment for a form of lung cancer seems so promising it has been jumped from Phase 1 to Phase 3 clinical trials.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Minds in the making

    The Harvard Achievement Support Initiative is arming teachers, parents, and community partners with techniques and resources that boost student achievement.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Art during wartime

    Alan Riding, the former European cultural correspondent for The New York Times, discussed his new book, “And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris,” in a panel event at Harvard.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘Treat and Greet’ open house at Barry’s Corner

    Harvard University will host a Halloween-themed community open house at Barry’s Corner in Allston on Oct. 29. The event encourages neighbors to meet people who work in the area and learn more about the Harvard departments and organizations in the community.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Visions of war

    An exhibit at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts explores the new ways that artists see war.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Screening: Side Effects From Endoscopic Procedures

    Instead of relying on doctors’ reports about adverse events, Harvard’s Dr. Daniel Leffler used electronic medical records to track emergency visits and hospital admissions that occurred within two weeks of a colonoscopy or upper-gastrointestinal endoscopy and that appeared to be related to the procedures…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    A focus on British art

    A display of prints and engravings by several British artists from the early 19th century evokes the classical and the contemporary.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Aiding scholars at risk

    Harvard issues a call for nominations in an annual quest to offer one-year fellowships to “scholars at risk” who face persecution in their native countries.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Noma-Reischauer Prizes awarded in Japanese studies

    The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Kodansha Ltd. Publishers hosted the 16th annual Edwin O. Reischauer/Kodansha Ltd. Commemorative Symposium and the 15th annual awarding of the Noma-Reischauer Prizes in Japanese Studies on Oct. 15.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    ‘Africa in Motion’

    A two-day celebration of African studies at Harvard highlighted cultural elements such as dance and artwork, study and travel on the continent, and scholarly discussions of Africa’s status today.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The bad news on Afghanistan

    In a talk at Harvard’s Center for Government and International Studies, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh said he was disappointed in the Obama administration’s approach to Afghanistan and criticized U.S. journalists for not being aggressive enough in their coverage of American foreign policy.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    On God and evolution

    The Harvard Museum of Natural History’s Asa Gray Bicentennial Celebration kicks off with “Re: Design,” a play centered on the correspondence of Gray and Charles Darwin.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Where men have more than one wife

    Radcliffe researcher explores the connection between cultures where men have more than one wife and increased violence.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    American banks: On the mend

    Financial reforms just enacted, said FDIC chair Sheila Bair, will put risk where it belongs, and usher in a new era of stability, efficiency, and consumer protection.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    American Academy inducts 17 faculty

    A group of Harvard faculty members has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 230th class of fellows.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Fuel efficiency for marathoners

    Inspired by his experience in the 2005 New York Marathon, an M.D./Ph.D. student has taken a rigorous approach to calculating just how much carbohydrate a runner needs to fuel himself or herself through 26.2 miles, and what pace that runner can reasonably expect to sustain.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Termites as architects

    The air exchange system inside termite mounds provides a natural example of how to harness intermittent winds.

    4 minutes