All articles


  • Campus & Community

    Memorial services

    Houthakker memorial today The University community is invited to attend a memorial service at the Memorial Church for Henry Lee Professor of Economics Emeritus Hendrik Houthakker today (Sept. 25). A reception at Loeb House will follow the 2 p.m. service.

  • Campus & Community

    This month in Harvard history

    September 1951 — Outside Memorial Hall on registration day, WHRB-Radio conducts a new programming feature: sidewalk interviews of freshmen, who explain why they have come to Harvard and what they think of it.

  • Science & Tech

    J. Richard Bond awarded Gruber Prize at CfA

    Theoretical work on the evolution and structure of the universe landed Canadian cosmologist J. Richard Bond the 2008 Cosmology Prize of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, awarded Sept. 17 at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

  • Campus & Community

    CPL honors anti-hunger leader with Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award

    The Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has announced that the 2008 Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award will go to Billy Shore, co-founder of Share Our Strength. The award and the $100,000 prize that accompanies it will be presented to Shore on Nov. 19 at a reception in Cambridge, Mass.

  • Health

    Harvard Forest: 3,500 acres, global impact

    Harvard may be rooted in Cambridge, but it has a lot more roots in the small north-central Massachusetts town of Petersham. That’s where you’ll find the woods, streams, and fields of the Harvard Forest, a 3,500-acre research and teaching facility that’s been part of the University for more than a century. Having been closely monitored…

  • Nation & World

    Electric cars, ‘cap and trade,’ and more

    R. James Woolsey Jr., a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has a favorite personal strategy for ensuring U.S. domestic security: his Toyota Prius hybrid, upgraded with an A123 conversion kit that allows it to run largely on a battery rechargeable by house current.

  • Nation & World

    McCain’s, Obama’s education platforms on view at Kennedy School

    It was standing room only at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) as a former governor and a Harvard Law School (HLS) professor took on the issue of education.

  • Campus & Community

    Lewis Ranieri to deliver Dunlop Lecture on Oct. 1

    Lewis Ranieri of Hyperion Private Equity Funds will deliver the ninth annual John T. Dunlop Lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (HGSD) on Oct. 1. The title of Ranieri’s lecture is “Revolution in Mortgage Finance.”

  • Health

    Stem cell summit hails bench progress, looks to bedside future

    New discoveries concerning cell reprogramming over the past year have boosted stem cell researchers in the lab and encouraged efforts to transfer test tube and lab animal advances to humans suffering degenerative diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

  • Campus & Community

    Faculty Council

    At its second meeting of the year on Sept. 24, the Faculty Council considered candidates for Parliamentarian for 2008-2009 and heard a proposal from the Standing Committee on Research Policy concerning principal investigators. The council next meets on Oct. 8. The preliminary deadline for the Oct. 21 Faculty meeting is Oct. 6 at 9:30 a.m.

  • Nation & World

    ‘Likemindedness’ can be stultifying

    Cass R. Sunstein, the Felix Frankfurter Professor at Harvard Law School and a former attorney-adviser in the Department of Justice’s Office of the Legal Counsel, spoke at the fourth annual Constitution Day lecture (Sept. 17) sponsored by the Office of the Provost.

  • Campus & Community

    Colloquium series launched by IIC, SEAS

    The Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC) and Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) recently announced the inauguration of a new joint colloquium series that will bring speakers at the frontiers of research in computing and science to the Harvard campus.

  • Arts & Culture

    Christo and Jeanne-Claude discuss art of the deal

    The dynamic husband and wife artistic team of Christo and Jeanne-Claude are likely better negotiators than many foreign leaders. The pair is best known for their massive art installations, often using nylon or woven fabric to highlight buildings or works of nature. Their most recent project (2005), “The Gates,” consisted of 7,503 16-foot-tall steel gates…

  • Campus & Community

    CHGE releases new ‘Healthy Harvest’ guide

    The Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE) recently published “Healthy Harvest: Regional Food Guides for New England and Mid-Atlantic States.” These comprehensive guides (available at http://www.healthyharvest.org) include detailed information about when produce is available regionally both fresh and from storage, as well as food-specific information on varieties, nutritional content, how…

  • Campus & Community

    CfA to host focus group on aesthetics and astronomy

    The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is sponsoring a focus group survey on Dec. 3 at Phillips Auditorium, 60 Garden St., to gather information on how NASA scientists create astronomical imagery. CfA experts will be on hand for the 3 p.m. talk and discussion. Astronomy enthusiasts are invited to register for the survey, which will…

  • Arts & Culture

    Radcliffe Fellow Markovits talks about ‘mad, bad, dangerous’ poet

    George Gordon, Lord Byron died in 1824 at the age of 36 — a short life, but long enough for Byron to become a personage so vivid and controversial that he was arguably the modern era’s first celebrity.

  • Campus & Community

    HAA selects Aloian Memorial Scholars

    This past May, the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) selected two rising seniors to receive the David and Mimi Aloian Memorial Scholarships for their senior year (2008-09). The criteria for the awards reflect the traits valued and embodied by the late David and Mimi Aloian — thoughtful leadership that makes the College an exciting place in…

  • Campus & Community

    Ackerman awarded Golden Lion for contributions to architecture

    The 2008 Venice Biennale award committee has conferred on James S. Ackerman, the Arthur Kingsley Professor of Fine Arts Emeritus at Harvard University, its prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The award citation praised Ackerman’s contributions to architecture, calling him “the doyen of the international community of historians of Renaissance architecture,” adding, “He is one…

  • Campus & Community

    MessageMe subscribers re-register, first-time users sought

    Given the convenience and widespread acceptance of text messaging, the University is offering this form of correspondence as another technological solution for communicating with students, faculty, and staff in the event of an extreme emergency on campus. As part of the University Emergency Management Plan, the Harvard community can now sign up to receive text…

  • Health

    Important new step toward producing stem cells for human treatment

    A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) scientists has taken an important step toward producing induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that are safe to transplant into patients to treat…

  • Nation & World

    Faculty experts to explore financial crisis in Webcast panel

    Harvard President Drew Faust invites students, faculty, and staff to a special panel discussion Thursday, Sept. 25, on the current turmoil in the financial markets. “Understanding the Crisis in the Markets: A Panel of Harvard Experts” will begin at 4 p.m. in Sanders Theatre.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard faculty members net MacArthur fellowships

    Three biologists — one current and two future faculty members at Harvard — have won MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants, $500,000 no-strings-attached awards intended to encourage creativity, originality, and innovation in a broad array of fields.

  • Health

    Transfer of hospitalized patient from one resident to another can lead to harm

    A significant percentage of resident physicians report that patient handoffs – transfer of responsibility for a hospitalized patient from one resident to another – contributed to incidents in which harm…

  • Science & Tech

    Three Harvard faculty members net MacArthur fellowships

    Three biologists — one current and two future faculty members at Harvard — have won MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants, $500,000 no-strings-attached awards intended to encourage creativity, originality, and innovation in…

  • Health

    NIH names Harvard Pioneers, Innovators

    Harvard faculty members comprise almost 20 percent of the 47 scientists nationally whose promising and innovative work was today recognized with the announcement of two grant programs through the National…

  • Campus & Community

    Thomas Weller, Nobel laureate, HSPH professor emeritus, dies at 93

    Thomas H. Weller, a Nobel Prize winner in 1954 and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) professor emeritus, passed away on Aug. 23. He was 93.

  • Health

    HPV, cervical cancer link earns scientists Alpert Prize

    Two scientists who discovered that specific types of human papillomavirus, or HPV, cause cancer of the cervix received the 20th annual Warren Alpert Foundation Scientific Prize on Sept. 15. As part of the day’s celebration, the prize winners Harald zur Hausen and Lutz Gissmann — both professors at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg…

  • Campus & Community

    HMS’s VanRooyen earns Humanitarian Award

    At its annual dinner on Sept. 5, the Hippocrates Society honored Harvard Medical School Associate Professor of Medicine Michael VanRooyen with the 2008 Humanitarian Award. VanRooyen, who is also associate professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), was recognized for his extensive work in humanitarian…

  • Campus & Community

    University Hall rearranged, College expands some offices

    Many University Hall offices were relocated this summer as part of an effort by Harvard College and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to better meet the needs of students and faculty. These changes occur as plans take shape for the College to open additional offices in Holyoke Center.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard announces Scott Mead ’77 Family Head Coach for Men’s Tennis

    As an undergraduate, Scott Mead ’77 was a talented and versatile athlete for the Crimson, a letter-winner in both squash and lacrosse. He was also a gifted tennis player, but because tennis season overlapped with that of lacrosse, he chose to compete in the tennis tournament circuit during the summer.