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Campus & Community
Newsmakers
Carbonari named chair, Fulton named vice chair of Harvard’s JCHS Policy Advisory Board; HSPH presents Q Prize to maestro
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Campus & Community
HUHS to offer flu vaccination clinics through November
Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) will conduct free vaccination clinics throughout November. The clinics will be open to the entire Harvard University community every Monday and Tuesday (noon-3 p.m.) at HUHS on the second floor of the Holyoke Center (Monks Library).
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Campus & Community
Wilga Marie Rivers
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on October 21, 2008, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Wilga Marie Rivers, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Rivers was an international authority on language learning and teaching.
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Campus & Community
Sports in brief
Crimson win despite surrendering an early lead at Penn; Crushing NCAA first-round loss completes memorable season; Men’s soccer drops final contest in OT, still receives NCAA berth; Icers rebound, skate into first place; Crimson swept in weekend series despite the return of Stone and Vaillancourt
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Arts & Culture
Appreciating Billie Jean King’s contribution to second-wave feminism
In a stately room in the Barker Center, flanked by portraits of famous men, Billie Jean King holds court. Not physically. She’s the topic of discussion, the name on everyone’s lips. One would think this were the after party of her notorious 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match with Bobby Riggs, the match she…
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Campus & Community
Field trip
For well over a century, Harvard and Yale have gone head-to-head at the end of November for the epic football match known simply as “The Game.” The contest is steeped in history and tradition, not just for the undergraduates who take to the field but also for the thousands of students and alumni who descend…
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Nation & World
N.E. HUD chief offers suggestions
The chief federal housing official in New England told a Harvard University audience that his department is poised to help foreclosure-imperiled homeowners navigate the nation’s economic crisis, but he called on President-elect Barack Obama to empower that effort by expanding the nation’s commitment to fair and affordable housing.
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Campus & Community
Harvard College Library is going green
The changes may not be immediately evident, but little by little, Harvard College Library (HCL) has been “going green” for years, even before the University’s newest commitment to sustainable practices.
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Campus & Community
‘Ed Portal’ builds bridge of learning for area children
When she grows up, 7-year-old Carley Daly wants to be “an animal doctor” who takes care of dolphins. As she explained her coming profession: “They’re partly scientists.”
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Campus & Community
Community Gifts finds food at the top of wish list this holiday season
That’s the magic number for The Greater Boston Food Bank’s (GBFB) annual Turkey Drive, where just $15 provides a meaty turkey to families across eastern Massachusetts for the holiday. Yet with winter swiftly approaching, Thanksgiving is just the threshold for the need the GBFB anticipates this season.
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Health
Genetic screening no better than traditional risk factors for predicting type 2 diabetes
Screening for a panel of gene variants associated with the risk for type 2 diabetes can identify adults at risk for the disorder but is not significantly better than assessment based on traditional risk factors such as weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels.
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Health
Anesthetic causes changes in mouse brains
For the first time researchers have shown that a commonly used anesthetic can produce changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of living mammals, confirming previous laboratory studies. In their Annals of Neurology report, which has received early online release, a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators shows how administration of the gas…
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Science & Tech
Humanity may hold key for next Earth evolution
Human degradation of the environment has the potential to stall an ongoing process of planetary evolution, and even rewind the evolutionary clock to leave the planet habitable only by the bacteria that dominated billions of years of Earth’s history, Harvard geochemist Charles Langmuir said Thursday (Nov. 13).
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Science & Tech
Quantum computers could excel in modeling chemical reactions
Quantum computers would likely outperform conventional computers in simulating chemical reactions involving more than four atoms, according to scientists at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Haverford College. Such improved ability to model and predict complex chemical reactions could revolutionize drug design and materials science, among other fields.
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Health
For innovative undergrads, bacteria make some buzz
A team of undergraduates who engineered a bacterial biosensor with electrical output recently made some buzz at the 2008 international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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Health
A single gene leads yeast cells to cooperate against threats
An ingenious social behavior that mobilizes yeast cells to cooperate in protecting each other from stress, antibiotics, and other dangers is driven by the activity of a single gene, scientists report this week in the journal Cell. The cooperating cells use the same gene, dubbed FLO1, as a marker for detecting “cheaters,” cells that try…
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Science & Tech
Moral dimensions of ‘the scientific life’
Scientific knowledge is reliable and it is authoritative. It is also often understood to be impersonal: The personal characteristics of a researcher are not thought to influence his or her findings. In recent work, historian Steven Shapin assumes the reliability and authority of scientific knowledge but illustrates how scientists’ personal characteristics and traits figure prominently…
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Campus & Community
Gift spurs public service efforts
At a late-afternoon reception in University Hall’s Faculty Room last week (Nov. 13), Harvard President Drew Faust and Harvard College Dean Evelynn Hammonds gratefully acknowledged a $1 million, multiyear gift from Charlotte Chen Ackert ’76 and David Ackert to the University’s Center for Public Interest Careers (CPIC).
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Campus & Community
HKS initiative includes new professorships, student support, and research
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is announcing an ambitious new initiative linking innovative governance to the world’s major social challenges.
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Campus & Community
Faculty Council
At its fourth meeting of the year on Nov. 12, the Faculty Council discussed committee service and considered a proposal for a new concentration in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology. The council next meets on Nov. 26. The preliminary deadline for the Dec. 9 Faculty meeting is Nov. 24 at 9:30 a.m.
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Arts & Culture
Probing an unlikely friendship
Theirs was an unlikely friendship. One man was a black abolitionist, orator, and journalist who had been a slave from Maryland, the other a white politician from the backwoods of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.
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Arts & Culture
Falling in love with South Asian music
As a young boy, Richard Wolf, professor of music, liked to sit at the piano in his grandparents’ home and invent short musical ditties. “My grandfather would listen and shout, ‘Oh! It’s Bach! Oh, just like Mozart!’” Wolf recalled recently, with a laugh. “He was wonderfully encouraging.”
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Campus & Community
This month in Harvard history
November 1942 — A Harvard Alumni Association advertisement for the well-known Harvard chair (black with gold trim and mahogany-colored arms; weight: 28 pounds; advertised price: $13.50) yields the following historical details: “Many Harvard men know well this famous ‘Freshman’ chair which can be traced far back into the history of the college . . .…
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Campus & Community
Police reports
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Nov. 10. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu.
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Campus & Community
In brief
Money Mondays offer help The Office of Human Resources will be offering a special series of “HARVie chats” on banking, benefits, investing, and other financial topics. Harvard staff are invited to visit http://harvie.harvard.edu/chats/upcomingchats.shtml to get information that may help in navigating through the current economic downturn.
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Campus & Community
Newsmakers
Klaber selected for summit J.D./M.B.A. student Andrew Klaber has been selected as one of 160 emerging leaders from 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific region who will gather at the Four Seasons Hotel in Tokyo for the Asia Society’s Third Annual Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit.
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Campus & Community
Gleason memorial set for Nov. 14
A memorial service is set for Andrew Gleason, professor emeritus of the Mathematics Department, who died Oct. 17. The service will be Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. in the Memorial Church, Harvard Yard. A reception will follow at Loeb House, 17 Quincy St., from 3 to 5 p.m.
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Campus & Community
Harvard China Fund announces fiscal year 2010 grant program
The Harvard China Fund, under the Office of the Provost, has announced its fiscal year 2010 grants program for Harvard faculty, programs, and Schools. The purpose of the fund is to support interdisciplinary research and teaching in and about China, focus Harvard’s considerable strengths toward tackling the challenges that China faces, and improve communication and…
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Campus & Community
Student prizes awarded in Japanese Studies
The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Kodansha Publishers recently hosted the 14th annual Edwin O. Reischauer/Kodansha Ltd. Commemorative Symposium and the 13th annual awarding of the Noma-Reischauer Prizes in Japanese Studies. These prizes are given annually by Kodansha Publishers for the best essays written by Harvard University students on Japan-related topics.