Campus & Community

Individuals and communities can improve the food system, according to members of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, which has launched a yearlong, University-wide focus on how to make food distribution more equitable, sustainable, and nutritious. This week kicks off the campaign called Food Better.

Harvard’s i-lab is a safe place for students to take risks and explore potentially commercial ideas, like cricket chips, aerial drone service and repair, or a public service-oriented website to connect voters and officials.

Stephen Blyth will become the next president and chief executive officer of Harvard Management Company, Harvard University announced today.

Harvard’s copyright “first responders” program has equipped a group of University librarians with the knowledge to help library users navigate the tricky field of copyright law.

Harvard University announced today that its endowment posted a 15.4 percent return and was valued at $36.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014. The fiscal year 2014 endowment return was 82 basis points in excess of the 14.6 percent return on the benchmark Policy Portfolio.

The 11th annual Brian J. Honan 5K Run/Walk in Allston-Brighton on Sept. 20 brought together people from both sides of the Charles, including 600 Harvard runners.

In recognition of the long, sustained support of Paul B. Edgerley, M.B.A. ’83, and Sandra Matejic Edgerley ’84, M.B.A. ’89, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences deanship will be named in honor of the Edgerley family. This is the first of Harvard’s deanships to be named.

Harvard University’s early buildings hugged the ground; after two centuries, the campus began to soar.

The glass-and-steel roof, the calling card of Pritzker Prize-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano, caps the expanded and renovated Harvard Art Museums and is the building’s defining feature.

Professor of Mathematics Jacob Lurie, whose work has helped to transform algebraic geometry to derived algebraic geometry and made it applicable to other areas in new ways, has been named a MacArthur fellow.

President Drew Faust discussed challenges facing Harvard at the start of a new academic year in a conversation with journalist Nicholas Kristof at Sanders Theatre.

Leverett House’s McKinlock Hall re-opened to students at the beginning of the academic year after 15 months of reconstruction. McKinlock is the second completed project in the House renewal initiative, which is one of the largest and most ambitious capital improvement campaigns in Harvard College history and a major campaign priority.

“Elements of Architecture” was reprised in Cambridge as Harvard Professor Rem Koolhaas expounded on the exhibit during a lecture that kicked off the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s “The Grounded Visionaries” weekend (Sept. 12-14).

The Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science has received $30 million in grant funding over the five years from three U.S. government agencies to launch its new research activities, Harvard Medical School announced on Sept. 11.

During the first few days of each semester, Harvard offers “shopping week,” in which students try out a class before formally registering.

A five-year, $3.5 million gift to launch the Louis Bacon Environmental Leadership Program was announced Wednesday by the Harvard Kennedy School. Louis Bacon is a prominent entrepreneur and conservationist.

Freshman Matthew DeShaw arrives at Harvard, unloads, and slips into a new life.

Harvard Professor Evelynn Hammonds served as a mentor for Summer Research Opportunities at Harvard (SROH), a 10-week residential program that exposes undergraduates from across the country to life in a research university. SROH is dedicated to training young scholars from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups traditionally underrepresented in graduate training.

Boston native Aldel Brown, who helped found a charter school in the District of Columbia, credits his childhood tennis lessons with Tenacity in helping him to succeed. Brown has returned as a member of the Harvard Law School Class of 2017.

A Harvard graduate and Lowell House residence manager help homeless artists find a mass market for their work.

A celebration marking the life and career of Patrick Dewes Hanan will be held Sept. 12.

Rain or shine, slush or mush, the mail gets through, only it’s not the U.S. Postal Service that goes the last mile to your door, it’s Harvard Mail Services.

Beetle biologist Brian Farrell is taking the reins of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, with an eye toward increasing collaboration between Harvard scientists and those at institutions in the region. The center will also get a new executive director, Ned Strong, former director of the Chilean office.

The Harvard School of Public Health announced its — and Harvard University’s — largest-ever gift, $350 million from The Morningside Foundation, which will rename the School and foster programs to improve health in several key areas.

In the upcoming season, Harvard’s women’s volleyball and field hockey and men’s water polo teams will be the ones to watch.

On Sept. 3, the Faculty Council welcomed new members, reviewed history and policies, elected subcommittees for 2014-15, discussed the work of the council in the new academic year, and discussed proposed changes to course scheduling.

In a question-and-answer session, four members of Harvard’s benefits committee explain changes to the University’s health care plans for next year.

Patrick Dewes Hanan came to Harvard University in 1968. He served with distinction as chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and as director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. He passed away at 87.

Harvard President Drew Faust delivered a brief address to open the daily ritual of Morning Prayers at Memorial Church, a brief service of prayers, an address, and music. Faust called the University’s diverse community a “Harvard symphony.”

One year into his tenure, Dean James Ryan of the Harvard Graduate School of Education is setting a course for the future.