Putting problem sets, papers, studying, and exams behind them, a small group of Harvard students brought together by Professor Melissa Franklin built their own boat, going from raw materials to finished product in just five days and then launching the vessel on the Charles River.
Harvard scientists at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have been helping fifth graders in Boston’s Hennigan Elementary School this spring, bringing technical expertise and life experiences to help students better understand science and engineering, and visualize college careers of their own.
Pamela Thompson, manager of adult education for the Arnold Arboretum and a breast cancer survivor, has been training since January to summit California’s 14,000-foot Mount Shasta, a climb through ice and snow that will require crampons and ice axes, to raise money and awareness for breast cancer prevention.
Steven E. Hyman, former provost and Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard, has been named president-elect of the Society for Neuroscience, the world’s largest organization of brain and nervous system scientists and physicians.
H. Stephen Leff, an assistant professor of clinical psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has received the Carl Taube Award from the American Public Health Association.
James E. Ryan, one of the nation’s leading scholars of education law and policy, will become the next dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Tucker Collins was S. Burt Wolbach Professor of Pathology and the Chief of Pathology at Boston Children’s Hospital. He passed away in 2007 at the age of 54 years due to an aggressive brain tumor.
John Francis (“Jack”) Burke was born on July 22, 1922 in Chicago, the first of three children born to Francis A. Burke, a railroad man, and Mary Biaggi. He died November 2, 2011 of pancreatic cancer. He filled those 89 years with grace and wry humor through many phases, including chemical engineer, Army Air Corps pilot (he enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor), surgeon, educator, homespun philosopher, administrator, and one of the most remarkably innovative surgeon-scientists of the post-War era.
Bert Lester Vallee, who died on May 7, 2010, was a talented trace-metal biochemist, an innovative medical educator, a pioneer in academic-industrial relationships, and a creator of ingenious organizations that promoted biomedical research and collaborative international collegiality.
Nothing about Joseph L. Henry was ordinary. In his academic career he excelled noticeably above others — as a student, teacher, department chair, dean, board member, national policy adviser, and as a mentor to many health professionals and policy makers.
Fritz Heinz Bach, a brilliant transplant immunologist and the Lewis Thomas Distinguished Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School died of a cardiac arrest on Sunday, August 14, 2011 at his home at Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. He was 77 years old.
Roger William Jeanloz, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology emeritus at Harvard Medical School, died shortly before his 90th birthday on September 28, 2007, in the south of France where he was on holiday with his wife, Dorothea.
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on May 7, 2013, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Heinrich Dieter Holland, Harry C. Dudley Professor of Economic Geology, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Professor Holland was one of the founding fathers of the geochemistry of hydrothermal ore deposits.
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on March, 5, 2013, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late William N. Lipscomb, Jr., Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Professor Lipscomb was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1976 for his studies on the structure of boranes.
Dr. Mary Ellen Avery died on December 4, 2011 at the age of 84. She was best known to the world for her ground breaking research on the cause of hyaline membrane disease (later called Respiratory Distress Syndrome), an illness that claimed the lives of an estimated 10,000 infants in the United States each year. That discovery catapulted her to leadership positions in the United States and Canada and to the highest honors offered by national societies.
Radcliffe Day featured a celebration of the arts and the award of the Radcliffe Medal to actress and arts activist Jane Alexander, as well as a panel discussion that explored the challenges artists face.
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on April 2, 2013, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Dorrit Cohn, Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Professor Cohn was internationally recognized as a major literary theorist and was one of the first women to be appointed to tenure at Harvard.
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on March, 5, 2013, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Rolla Milton Tryon, Jr., Professor of Biology, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Professor Tryon was curator of ferns in Gray Herbarium and an authority on the taxonomy and geography of ferns and fern allies.
Dr. Mary Ellen Wohl, known internationally for her research in pediatric pulmonary diseases, passed away at age 77 in October, 2010 at Rogerson House in Jamaica Plain. Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, she had served as Chief of the Division of Respiratory Diseases at Children’s Hospital Boston for 22 years and Director of its Cystic Fibrosis Center for 19 years, saving and touching countless lives along the way.
Oprah Winfrey, the Afternoon Program’s principal speaker at Harvard’s 362nd Commencement, addressed the Class of 2013. This is the text of her speech as delivered on May 30.
Harvard Commencement speaker Oprah Winfrey addressed the Class of 2013 under sunny skies and called for them to accept failure, and then triumph over it. During the Afternoon Program, Harvard President Drew Faust recapped the year and called for increased federal funding for research universities.
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