All articles


  • Campus & Community

    Science losing war over evolution?

    This just in from the front lines of the battle between evolution and intelligent design: evolution is losing. That’s the assessment of Randy Olson, a Harvard-trained evolutionary biologist turned filmmaker…

  • Campus & Community

    Two teams address Harvard planning and development

    To meet the increased physical planning and development needs of the faculties and departments on Harvard’s existing campus while simultaneously preparing for first-phase development in Allston, the Harvard Planning + Allston Initiative (HPAI) – the team that coordinated University-wide physical planning – has been reconfigured into two University organizations.

  • Arts & Culture

    Brigham pilot program connects people with family histories

    A Harvard Medical School instructor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is spearheading a pilot project to encourage Brigham employees to gather detailed family health histories to give health care officials an edge fighting inherited diseases.

  • Campus & Community

    Music Dept.’s beloved Elliot Forbes, 88

    Elliot Forbes, the Fanny Peabody Professor of Music Emeritus, died Jan. 10 at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 88. A member of an old Boston family with numerous Harvard connections, Forbes was the son of Fogg Museum Director Edward Waldo Forbes and the great-grandson of poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.

  • Health

    Professor shines light on shadowy condition

    Sandra Fallman avoided mirrors. Walking down sidewalks during dates, she would avoid bright storefront lights, walking near the curb to stay in the shadows. She put 25-watt bulbs in her apartment lights, not to set the mood, but to provide cover. Fallman suffers from a little-known mental condition called body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).

  • Campus & Community

    Gwynne Evans, Renaissance lit scholar, at 93

    G. (Gwynne) Blakemore Evans, Cabot Professor of English Literature Emeritus at Harvard University and this country’s most distinguished editor of Shakespeare’s plays and poems, died on Dec. 23, 2005, at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 93. His death was the result of complications that followed a recent stroke.

  • Campus & Community

    Divinity School’s Hutchison dies at 75

    William Hutchison, scholar of American religious history and former co-master of Winthrop House, died of cancer on Dec. 16, 2005, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was 75.

  • Campus & Community

    Shorenstein announces spring fellows

    The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government recently announced its group of spring fellows.

  • Arts & Culture

    The first word on nouns and verbs

    Since humans learned to speak, they have put their words into two basic categories, nouns and verbs. Nouns denote objects; verbs refer to actions. Dictionaries of specialized words have been added by bankers, lawyers, scientists, and clergy, but this core distinction remains.

  • Arts & Culture

    Controlling long-term memory

    Harvard University biologists have identified a molecular pathway active in neurons that interacts with RNA to regulate the formation of long-term memory in fruit flies. The same pathway is also found at mammalian synapses, and could eventually present a target for new therapeutics to treat human memory loss.

  • Campus & Community

    IOP announces fellows for spring semester

    Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP), located at the Kennedy School of Government, has announced the selection of an experienced group of individuals for fellowships this spring. The following resident fellows will join the institute for the spring semester and will lead weekly, not-for-credit study groups on a range of political topics. Fellows interact with students,…

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard senior awarded Mitchell Scholarship

    Harvard College senior Victoria Sprow is among the 12 national recipients of the 2006-07 George J. Mitchell Scholarship. Only the third Harvard student ever to receive the Mitchell award, Sprow will study for a master’s degree in creative writing at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

  • Campus & Community

    Shorenstein Center names finalists for Goldsmith Prize

    Six entries have been chosen as finalists for the 2006 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, awarded each year by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government. The winner of the $25,000 prize will be named at an awards ceremony on March 14 at the Kennedy…

  • Health

    Computer use deleted as carpal tunnel syndrome cause

    The popular belief that excessive computer use causes painful carpal tunnel syndrome has been contradicted by experts at Harvard Medical School. According to them, even as much as seven hours a day of tapping on a computer keyboard won’t increase your risk of this disabling disorder.

  • Campus & Community

    Former deputy secretary of defense named Belfer Lecturer

    John White, former U.S. deputy secretary of defense, has been named the Robert and Renée Belfer Lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG). White has served as a lecturer in public policy at KSG since 1998.

  • Campus & Community

    HMS seeks grant, fellowship nominations

    Each year more than 50 postdoctoral and faculty fellowships/grants are available to the Harvard medical community by invitation only. The private foundations that fund these grants permit a limited number of individuals to be nominated for these awards. (Individuals cannot apply for these directly, but must be nominated by the institution.) In order to choose…

  • Health

    Meditation found to increase brain size

    People who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don’t. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention…

  • Campus & Community

    MacArthur Foundation awards $3 million to Berkman Center, OpenNet Initiative

    The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded $3 million to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and its partners to advance their collaborative study of state-sponsored Internet filtering worldwide through the OpenNet Initiative.

  • Arts & Culture

    University Library receives grant

    The Harvard University Library (HUL) has received a grant of $600,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the development of a registry of authoritative information about digital formats. Detailed information about the format of digital resources is fundamental to their preservation. The two-year project will result in a new Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR),…

  • Campus & Community

    New professorship addresses energy

    HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES New professorship addresses energy William Hogan named first Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy at KSG A new professorship devoted to global energy policy has been created at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (KSG) to help address the enormous challenges of meeting worldwide energy needs in a timely, secure, environmentally responsible,…

  • Campus & Community

    Sewall named director of Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

    Sarah Sewall was appointed director of the Kennedy School of Government’s (KSG) Carr Center for Human Rights Policy on Jan. 25. She began her appointment immediately and will serve through the 2006-07 academic year.

  • Arts & Culture

    HUAM names Ebbinghaus new curator of ancient art

    The Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) recently announced the appointment of Susanne Ebbinghaus as the George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art. Ebbinghaus has been serving as a curatorial research associate in the Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art and Numismatics at Harvard University Art Museums and recently spent a year at the University of…

  • Campus & Community

    Gift from Jordans advances FAS, health research

    The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and disease-fighting researchers across Harvard are the recipients of Jerry and Darlene Jordan’s recent $10 million gift to the University. The gift is just the latest expression of the Jordans’ generosity: Over the years, Jerry ’61, M.B.A. ’67, and Darlene Jordan have funded financial aid, athletics, and other…

  • Campus & Community

    Herman is assistant dean for communications at HSPH

    Robin Herman has been appointed assistant dean for communications at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). She has served as director of the School’s office of communications for the past six years.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard senior is Bermuda’s Rhodes Scholar

    Harvard senior Jay A.H. Butler has been named Bermuda’s Rhodes Scholar for 2006.

  • Campus & Community

    Two University Professors appointed

    Two members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) have been appointed to University Professorships. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, currently the James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History, known for her work on daily life in late 18th and early 19th century America, has been appointed the 300th Anniversary University Professor. Peter Galison, the…

  • Campus & Community

    Crimson get set for icy rivalry

    The Harvard men’s and women’s hockey teams will battle Boston University for Beantown bragging rights early next week in the opening rounds of the 54th and 26th annual Beanpot Tournaments, respectively.

  • Campus & Community

    Tennis camp registration now under way

    The Tennis Camps at Harvard (TCH), one of the area’s most appealing summer activities for children and adults, will start its 16th season on June 12 at the Beren Tennis Center at Soldiers Field Athletic Complex.

  • Campus & Community

    Skocpol joins Radcliffe as senior adviser

    Theda Skocpol, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), has accepted a three-year term as a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study senior adviser in the social sciences, effective Jan. 1.

  • Campus & Community

    Sidanius named professor of African American Studies

    James H. Sidanius, a psychologist best known for establishing and refining an influential theory of social dominance along lines of gender, age, race, and class, has been named professor of psychology and of African and African American Studies in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective Jan. 1.