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  • Campus & Community

    University offers staff a bridge to somewhere

    Melani Bizarria cries when she talks about Harvard’s Bridge to Learning and Literacy Program. “I need to say thank you so much for the opportunity,” says Bizarria after a recent English class, her eyes welling up with tears. “I’m trying to do my best, but I don’t have words to explain my feelings. I am…

  • Campus & Community

    Biologist McCarthy nets Scientist of Year Award

    The Harvard Foundation will present the 2009 Scientist of the Year Award to James J. McCarthy, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography and master of Pforzheimer House, at this year’s Annual Albert Einstein Science Conference: “Advancing Minorities and Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics.” McCarthy will be honored for his outstanding work in climate science…

  • Science & Tech

    Fijian girls succumb to Western dysmorphia

    In 1982, Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Anne E. Becker was still an undergraduate at Radcliffe when she traveled to Fiji for a summer of anthropology fieldwork. What struck her about this South Pacific island nation — and has in many research trips since — was “the absolute preoccupation with food and eating,” she said. “Family…

  • Health

    Study IDs human genes required for hepatitis C viral replicating

    Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers are investigating a new way to block reproduction of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) — targeting not the virus itself but the human genes the virus exploits in its life cycle. In the March 19 Cell Host & Microbe, they report finding nearly 100 genes that support the replication of…

  • Arts & Culture

    Geospatial Library relaunched

    Following a yearlong process of redesign and testing, the University Library’s Office for Information Systems has relaunched the Harvard Geospatial Library (HGL), the University’s catalog and repository of data for geographic information systems (GIS). The new HGL offers an enhanced user experience through new functionality and a highly intuitive interface.

  • Nation & World

    Panel: Housing crisis is opportunity for action

    When housing prices on Main Street tumbled last year — who doesn’t know this? — tremors rumbled all the way to Wall Street, and beyond. For the first time in 40 years of record-keeping, the median price of a single-family home declined. In six months, the value of U.S. housing stock dropped $3 trillion. Credit…

  • Nation & World

    An attempt to define ‘academic excellence’

    Michèle Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and professor of sociology and of African and African American studies, analyzes the system of peer review in her new book “How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment.”

  • Campus & Community

    Nieman recognizes Charlotte Observer with Taylor Family Award

    For its coverage of health and safety violations in the poultry industry “The Cruelest Cuts,” the Charlotte Observer has won the 2008 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers, and will be presented a $10,000 prize by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard on April 16, 2009.

  • Health

    Training the talent in trouble spots

    The Harvard Initiative for Global Health (HIGH) has begun a fellowship program with the aim of identifying and helping train bright young developing-world health professionals in remote regions of the world with the greatest global health challenges.

  • Campus & Community

    Gwen Ifill of ‘Washington Week’ wins Goldsmith Award

    The winners of the Shorenstein Center’s annual Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism are by definition accomplished. But in listing all the achievements of this year’s recipient, Gwen Ifill, Shorenstein Center director Alex Jones chose to focus on something that is unlikely to find its way onto her resumé.

  • Nation & World

    Harvard conference on gender and law looks at past, present, future

    It was a homecoming of sorts when Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, spoke at a conference on gender and the law today (March 12) at a conference at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

  • Campus & Community

    Women’s tennis wins 2 of 3

    The Harvard women’s tennis team pulled a pair of wins this past weekend, including a 4-3 upset over No. 68 Boston College on March 13, and then, bouncing back from a 1-6 loss to No. 52 Florida International (March 15), a 6-1 win over Florida Gulf Coast (March 16). The Crimson now stand at 4-6,…

  • Campus & Community

    Crimson continue to cruise, have won 6 of their last 8

    The Harvard men’s volleyball team are now winners of six out of their last eight, sweeping East Stroudsburg on March 14, 3-0, followed by a 3-0 sweep of MIT on March 17. The Crimson downed East Stroudsburg in straight sets (bouncing back from a loss at Princeton the night before) for their first road win…

  • Campus & Community

    Women’s basketball to play in WNIT

    An Ivy League title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament were just out of reach for the Crimson this season, but it’s not time for the Harvard women’s basketball team to hang up their jerseys just yet.

  • Campus & Community

    Undergrad grants available through Schlesinger Library

    The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America invites Harvard undergraduates to make use of the library’s collections with competitive awards of up to $2,500 for relevant research projects. Preference will be given to applicants pursuing research in the history of work and the family, community service and volunteerism, culinary…

  • Campus & Community

    Walter Cardinal Kasper visits Harvard Catholic Chaplaincy

    His Eminence Walter Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity at the Vatican, will speak on March 25 at St. Paul Parish, home to the Harvard Catholic Chaplaincy.

  • Arts & Culture

    Looking for Barbies

    In connection with the American Repertory Theatre’s world premiere production of Christine Evans’ play “Trojan Barbie,” The Weekly Dig is sponsoring a Barbie Doll competition and exhibition at the Space 242 Gallery in the South End, Boston.

  • Campus & Community

    Longwood goes smoke-free

    The buildings of Harvard Medical School (HMS) at the Longwood campus are entirely smoke-free both inside and out, as of March 16. As part of HMS’s continued commitment to enhancing employees’ quality of life and the environment on campus, smoking is prohibited on all Harvard property in the Longwood Medical Area. This policy applies to…

  • Campus & Community

    Kou named inaugural recipient of Young Investigator Award

    Samuel Kou, professor of statistics and director of graduate studies in the Department of Statistics at Harvard University, was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Raymond J. Carroll Young Investigator Award from Texas A&M University on March 14. Kou was presented with his award as part of “Statistical Methods for Complex Data,” a daylong…

  • Campus & Community

    Khanna named fellow of AIB

    Tarun Khanna, the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School (HBS) and an expert on emerging economies, has been elected a fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB).

  • Campus & Community

    This month in Harvard history

    March 1901 — On Phillips Field (bounded by Linnaean, Walker, and Shepard Sts.), Radcliffe begins building Bertram Hall, its first dormitory.

  • Campus & Community

    Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending March 16. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

  • Science & Tech

    Do you know what makes you happy?

    Want to know what will make you happy? Then ask a total stranger — or so says a new study from Harvard University, which shows that another person’s experience is…

  • Science & Tech

    Researchers find majority of fire and ambulance recruits overweight or obese

    Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), Boston Medical Center, Harvard University, and Cambridge Health Alliance found that more than 75 percent of emergency responder candidates for fire and…

  • Science & Tech

    Computer science pioneer Barbara J. Grosz awarded Allen Newell Award

    Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University,…

  • Health

    Study identifies human genes required for hepatitis C viral replication

    Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers are investigating a new way to block reproduction of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) — targeting not the virus itself but the human genes the…

  • Science & Tech

    Link found between religious belief, intensive medical care at end of life

    In a new study of terminally ill cancer patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that those who draw on religion to cope with their illness are more likely to…

  • Health

    Glass tables: An overlooked safety threat

    Many households harbor a threat to young children that safety regulations, surprisingly, have overlooked: glass-topped tables and tables with glass panels. A review by Children’s Hospital Boston, in collaboration with…

  • Health

    Defibrillators may have little benefit for older, sicker patients

    Defibrillators are commonly recommended to patients with heart failure to prevent sudden cardiac death, but beyond having heart failure, there is a lack of criteria to identify the appropriate patients…

  • Health

    Obesity linked to dangerous sleep apnea in truck drivers

    Truck crashes are a significant public health hazard, causing thousands of deaths and injuries each year, with driver fatigue and sleepiness being major causes. A new study by Harvard researchers…