Tag: Alvin Powell

  • Nation & World

    Martin Kilson, College’s first tenured African American professor, dies at 88

    Martin Kilson, who in 1969 became the first African American to be named a full professor at Harvard College, died on April 24.

    2 minutes
    Martin Kilson
  • Nation & World

    Playing like they mean it

    Chess players from around the region gathered at the Smith Campus Center last weekend for a chess tournament that saw players of all skill level and ages meet on the chessboard.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Day of the golden jackal

    The surprising success story of the golden jackal in Europe holds lessons about nature’s resilience and about how nature might respond to the evolutionary pressure exerted by humans as we change the natural landscape. The Gazette spoke with doctoral student Nathan Ranc for insight.

    14 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Written in the bones

    Harvard doctoral students offered a glimpse of the future of evolutionary inquiry, outlining projects that touch on the human pelvis, butterfly hybrids, field and forest mice, and the mystery of an ancient pile of bones.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sparking a national debate

    Environmental protection is not a goal to achieve but a task to be undertaken by one generation and handed to the next, Gina McCarthy, the former EPA administrator and current director of Harvard’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, told the Gazette in an Earth Day interview.

    10 minutes
    A 1967 photograph, showing old cars used as rip-rap along the banks of the Cuyahoga to protect it from erosion is held in front of the river decades later.
  • Nation & World

    Rocketwoman

    Fifty years ago this summer, Neil Armstrong took his “giant leap for mankind” on the moon. In his wake hundreds of others have flown into space, including Ellen Ochoa, a four-time shuttle astronaut who stepped down as director of the Johnson Space Center in 2018 and is currently a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy…

    15 minutes
  • Nation & World

    As the end nears, who’s in control?

    Advocates and opponents of medical-aid-in-dying laws, also called physician-assisted death, gathered at Harvard Medical School for a two-day conference organized by the HMS Center for Bioethics.

    6 minutes
    Dan Diaz discusses medical aid in dying with Mildred Solomon.
  • Nation & World

    Inoculating against misinformation

    A new survey by Harvard researchers shows that trust in leaders and institutions are at a low ebb in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, highlighting the importance of gaining trust as part of the response to the growing Ebola epidemic there.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Homeless, hopeless, and sick

    Humanitarian workers from around the globe will visit Harvard to discuss how best to treat the increasing number of diabetics among refugee populations. Symposium organizers talk about the problem and what they hope the symposium will accomplish.

    8 minutes
    Sylvia Kehlenbrink (left) and Lindsay Jaacks.
  • Nation & World

    How to feed 10 billion by midcentury

    A panel of experts at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health discussed how the globe might feed an estimated human population of 10 billion by midcentury and suggested a diet high in plant foods, low in red meat, as well as a host of reforms to how food is produced and distributed today.

    7 minutes
    Anna Sortun, David Bennell, Gina McCarthy, and Walter Willett.
  • Nation & World

    The greatest migration

    The peopling of Polynesia’s far-flung islands may be the most epic migration story of all time. Harvard Review Editor Christina Thompson’s book “Sea People” examines the latest evidence of who the Polynesians were and how they did it.

    9 minutes
    Christina Thompson at the Peabody Museum.
  • Nation & World

    Seeing the forest for the trees

    Novelist Richard Powers’ “The Overstory” features trees as key characters in an entwined tale of human life and our impact on the natural world. He will speak at the Arnold Arboretum and the Mahindra Humanities Center later this month.

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sleep, heart disease link leads from brain to marrow

    New research from Massachusetts General Hospital traces a previously unknown pathway from poor sleep to an increase in the fatty plaques that line blood vessels in atherosclerosis, a key feature of cardiovascular disease.

    4 minutes
    Cameron McAlpine and Filip Swirski.
  • Nation & World

    Looking to China for lessons on helping the poor

    Harvard scholar Nara Dillon is seeking lessons on poverty reduction from China’s success, part of Harvard’s long-running, broad engagement with the world’s most populous nation that continues over spring break when President Larry Bacow visits.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Lopez named VP, general counsel

    Harvard named Diane E. Lopez its next vice president and general counsel, succeeding Robert Iuliano, who is taking over as president of Gettysburg College.

    5 minutes
    Diane Lopez is seen at Langdell Library.
  • Nation & World

    Eating our way to a sustainable future

    Author Paul Greenberg said eating more and different seafood, emphasizing species that are less energy-intensive to harvest and high in omega-3 fats, can help answer the world’s food challenges in the coming decades.

    5 minutes
    Tub of fish
  • Nation & World

    Longevity and anti-aging research: ‘Prime time for an impact on the globe’

    Research into extending humanity’s healthy lifespan has been progressing rapidly in recent years. In February, a group of aging and longevity scientists founded a nonprofit to foster the work and serve as a resource for governments and businesses looking to understand the potentially far-reaching implications of a population that lives significantly longer, healthier lives.

    12 minutes
    David Sinclair
  • Nation & World

    Ending HIV transmission by 2030

    Eradicating the remaining pockets of HIV transmission in the U.S. by 2030 will be a challenge for the Trump administration, and depend on local cooperation in reaching high-risk groups with surveillance, prevention, and treatment, according to Harvard HIV/AIDS researcher Max Essex.

    9 minutes
    Max Essex
  • Nation & World

    The algorithm will see you now

    AI is coming to a hospital near you — but it may be in the world’s remote regions that it could impact patients most. However, experts gathered at Harvard said its potential will not be realized unless it is deployed as part of broader health care solutions, not simply as a tool in search of…

    8 minutes
    Ashley Nunes at the podium
  • Nation & World

    A rise through the ranks

    At Harvard Medical School, Calixto Sáenz worked his way up to become director of the microfluidics core facility.

    6 minutes
    Calixto Saenz on the steps of Harvard Medical School
  • Nation & World

    Gene therapy was a ‘last shot’

    Three years after undergoing gene therapy at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center to treat a life-threatening immune disorder, an Ohio college student is no longer thinking about his own “last shot” for health, but rather about medical school and “giving back.”

    13 minutes
    Brenden Whittaker and David Williams
  • Nation & World

    A program to give workforce well-being a boost

    Harvard Chan School of Public Health researchers are engaging with some of the world’s most recognizable brands to improve working conditions and workplace well-being around the world.

    5 minutes
    Eileen McNeely.
  • Nation & World

    The endless struggle over racism

    Pervasive racism and hate requires a response that addresses it at various levels, from politics to public safety to schools, experts at a Harvard Chan School forum said.

    6 minutes
    Maureen Costello, Director of Teaching Tolerance and Member of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Senior Leadership Team; Dipayan Ghosh, Pozen Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School; David Williams, Chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Oren Segal, Director, Center on Extremism, Anti-Defamation League; moderator Philip Martin, Senior Investigative Reporter, WGBH News
  • Nation & World

    The science, business of aging

    A half-day conference at Harvard Business School examined the growing promise of research on aging and the potential of now-experimental interventions to one day ease the burdens of infirmity.

    7 minutes
    A man at a podium with big projection screens on either side of him
  • Nation & World

    A gathering to battle cancer

    Amid projections that global cancer rates will skyrocket, researchers from around the country gathered at Harvard Monday to share their latest findings and to launch a center whose aim is to boost cancer early detection and prevention.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Soldiers’ songs of pain — but also healing

    A project to write songs using individual soldiers’ combat experiences appears to help them overcome haunting memories of war, lessening the impact of trauma held too close for too long.

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Leadership lessons from Harvard’s president

    Harvard President Larry Bacow talks about his leadership journey and the lessons along the way.

    6 minutes
    President Larry Bacow and Dean Michelle Williams.
  • Nation & World

    Teen vaping rising fast, research says

    Amid studies showing e-cigarette use rising rapidly among teens, public health officials who recognize the devices’ potential to reduce health hazards discuss the need to tailor their message to keep the devices out of the hands of the young, according to the head of Harvard’s Center for Global Tobacco Control.

    14 minutes
    A vape pen and vape smoke
  • Nation & World

    Rewinding the brain

    Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Paola Arlotta is seeking to develop a new tool to understanding brain function and dysfunction: self-generating brain organoids.

    9 minutes
    Paola Arlotta.
  • Nation & World

    A nation nearer to the grave

    Against a backdrop of recent jumps in drug overdose deaths and suicide, McLean Hospital psychologist R. Kathryn McHugh discusses the opioid crisis and increasing suicide deaths with the Gazette.

    10 minutes
    A fentanyl user holds a needle.