All articles


  • Campus & Community

    A professorship and a MacArthur

    Jazz musician and composer Vijay Iyer, who won a MacArthur Foundation grant, in January will become the first Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts in Harvard’s Department of Music.

  • Campus & Community

    Libraries coming together

    Sarah Thomas, the new vice president of the Harvard Library, will now also oversee the libraries of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The appointment signals a move toward a more unified and coordinated library system.

  • Health

    A foundation for future research

    Harvard researchers recently developed the most detailed “specificity profile” for Cas9 — a “machine” made of protein and RNA that can be programmed to target specific DNA sequences and to precisely cut, paste, and turn on or turn off genes. Future researchers will use the data when developing genetic tools and therapies.

  • Science & Tech

    The watchword is innovation

    Innovation, whether it’s large, small, solo, or institutional, is an increasingly important part of Harvard, a university working to maintain its clearly defined sense of self and at the same time evolve to meet future needs.

  • Campus & Community

    Seasoned with salsa

    This month, the Harvard Allston Education Portal has been offering dance lessons from Marco Perez-Moreno, a Harvard alumnus and professional ballroom dancer.

  • Nation & World

    Move over, Gutenberg

    After months of construction, a “video capture studio” is near completion at Widener Library as part of Harvard’s commitment to exploring, innovating, experimenting, and leading change in how faculty members teach and students learn.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard University endowment earns 11.3% return for fiscal year

    Harvard University announced today that its endowment posted an 11.3 percent return and was valued at $32.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2013.

  • Campus & Community

    A 21st-century campus

    Supporting the development of a robust campus, one that enhances Harvard’s mission of innovative teaching and learning, while simultaneously fostering connections across the University and the broader community will be an important goal of The Harvard Campaign.

  • Campus & Community

    Honan Race gains ground

    Almost 700 Harvard-affiliated athletes sponsored by Harvard Public Affairs & Communications and the Harvard Business School were among the 1,800 runners in the annual Brian J. Honan 5K Road Race on Sunday. The race benefits the Brian J. Honan Charitable Fund.

  • Science & Tech

    Where students own their education

    The class Applied Physics 50 is grounded in a teaching philosophy that banishes lectures and encourages hands-on exploration, presenting a collection of best practices gleaned from decades of teaching experience and studious visits to college physics classrooms nationwide.

  • Science & Tech

    Bright lights, big impact

    Harvard’s facility managers are working to improve energy systems and performance in their buildings. Their efforts, which include installing better equipment, are focused on ensuring that buildings operate as efficiently as possible.

  • Arts & Culture

    The shape of things to come

    The Office for the Arts’ Ceramics Program, one of Harvard’s longest and most celebrated, moved this month from its home of 26 years at 219 Western Ave. in Allston just a few blocks down to 224.

  • Nation & World

    Killings in Nairobi hit home

    Elif Yavuz, a recent graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health, was among dozens of people killed when the Somalia-based Shabab militant group took over a mall in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

  • Nation & World

    A more inclusive church?

    Gazette reporter Colleen Walsh spoke with the Harvard Divinity School’s Francis X. Clooney, the Parkman Professor of Divinity, professor of comparative theology, and director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, about some of the meaning behind the pope’s recent rhetoric.

  • Nation & World

    Cooperating in educating

    The Harvard Campaign will help support growing advancements in interdisciplinary collaboration and integrated knowledge across the University.

  • Health

    Marriage linked to better cancer outcomes

    People who are married when diagnosed with cancer live longer than those who are not married. Married patients also tended to have cancers diagnosed at an earlier stage, according to Harvard researchers.

  • Health

    Legal remedies

    Attorneys, judges, scholars and activists interested in expanding health rights through the law were at the Harvard School of Public Health to discuss progress and challenges.

  • Science & Tech

    The bees’ needs

    Harvard groups support hives, conduct research, and sample honey.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard kicks off fundraising effort

    Harvard University kicked off the public phase of a $6.5 billion fundraising campaign today, designed to benefit key priorities during constrained financial times. If successful, it would be the largest ever in higher education.

  • Health

    When bacteria fight back

    After the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report on the threat from drug-resistant bacteria, David Hooper, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an authority on the subject, discussed the issues during a question-and-answer session.

  • Science & Tech

    ‘Chasing Ice,’ and searching for solutions

    A screening of the film “Chasing Ice” brought Harvard experts together to discuss innovations in monitoring the glaciers’ retreat and how America can tap its own energy sources.

  • Nation & World

    Understanding India’s rape crisis

    In a question-and-answer session, Jacqueline Bhabha talks about the pervasive crime of rape in India and the impact of the death sentences issued last week to four men who were convicted of the 2012 gang rape of a woman on a Delhi bus.

  • Nation & World

    Sharing a passion to make a difference

    Since its inception in 1958, the Edward S. Mason Fellows Program has brought “demonstrated leaders from developing, newly industrialized and transitional economy countries” to the Harvard Kennedy School. This year there are 89 Mason Fellows from 51 countries.

  • Science & Tech

    A higher plane

    Research by scientists in Elizabeth Spelke’s lab suggests our innate understanding of abstract geometry has origins in the evolutionary past.

  • Arts & Culture

    Social justice at the A.R.T.

    From a world premiere musical about U.S. aid work in Africa to a girl struggling to cope with her dysfunctional family, the American Repertory Theater’s lineup for this season revolves around the theme of justice.

  • Science & Tech

    Advancing science and technology

    The National Science Foundation is awarding grants to create three new science and technology centers this year, with two of them based in Cambridge. The two multi-institutional grants total $45 million over five years.

  • Science & Tech

    Dawn of a revolution

    When Bill Gates came to Harvard as a student, he was known for his myriad interests and unconventional study habits. And then there was his endless fascination with computers, Walter Isaacson writes.

  • Campus & Community

    Malala Yousafzai is Harvard Humanitarian of the year

    Malala Yousafzai, the 16 year-old Pakistani girl who was shot on Oct. 9, 2012, in an assassination attempt for expressing her philosophy of gender equality in education and who famously said, “I want every girl, every child, to be educated,” will receive the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award.

  • Campus & Community

    Six luminaries to receive Du Bois Medal

    Harvard University announced Sept. 18 that it will award the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal to six leaders across government, the arts, and athletics during a ceremony on Oct. 2. The ceremony will also mark the launch of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

  • Nation & World

    Unraveling Maya mysteries

    For decades, Harvard’s Bill Fash and his wife, Barbara, have worked in Copán, Honduras, to restore, preserve, and protect Maya culture and history for future generations.