Campus & Community

At first glance, physics and basketball seem worlds apart, but at Harvard they’re connected in more ways than one.

After dropping the doubles point, the Harvard women’s tennis team won five of the six singles matches to knock off crosstown rival Boston University, 5-2, on Friday at the Murr Center.

Oprah Winfrey, who has consistently used her success as a talk show host and media entrepreneur to promote education, civic engagement, and charitable works, will be the principal speaker at the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard’s 362nd Commencement.

Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds hosted a fireside chat at her home with Professor Henry Louis Gates and about 25 student participants who had been selected through a lottery system. The chat was part of a series of events designed to foster interaction between undergraduates and faculty outside the classroom.

Harvard freshman Christina Gao is also a top-ranked figure skater, and is doing so well in competitions that she’s taking a leaving from school to train for the Olympics.

Wyss Institute Founding Director Donald Ingber received the NC3Rs 3Rs Prize from the U.K.’s National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research for his innovative Lung-on-a-Chip.

Warren E.C. Wacker, former Henry K. Oliver Professor of Hygiene Emeritus, died on Dec. 29, 2012.

Nicole Scherzinger, an advocate for people with special needs and breast cancer research, and a classically trained opera singer, was awarded the Harvard Foundation’s most prestigious medal Feb. 23 at the 28th annual Cultural Rhythms festival.

Harvard’s Lavietes Pavilion was bedecked in a paler shade of crimson on Saturday for the Harvard-Yale women’s basketball game in honor of the Pink Zone, an event to raise awareness and support in the fight against breast cancer.

Comedian, actor, and (perhaps) politician Eddie Izzard ruminated on infallibility and the Golden Rule as he accepted the sixth annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism.

A student spends an unforgettable summer working with African penguins.

Driven by historic levels of financial aid, the number of applications to Harvard College remained high this year. Applications reached a record 35,022, the third consecutive year with numbers near 35,000. Last year 34,303 applied, and two years ago 34,950 did.

Talented recording artist, television personality, and philanthropist Nicole Scherzinger has been named the Harvard Foundation’s 2013 Artist of the Year.

Robert A. Lue has been named the Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, placing him at the forefront of efforts to rethink teaching and learning, both on campus and off.

Harvard Business School (HBS) Professor Emeritus Francis J. Aguilar, an authority on strategic planning and general management who also made his mark on generations of students as a gifted and caring teacher, died on Feb. 17.

Tommy Lee Jones discusses his first glimpse of the foreign turf of New England, and a hard choice he had to make on arriving: Should he focus on football or acting?

Harvard men’s basketball moved into sole possession of first place in the Ivy League after beating Princeton 69-57 on Saturday, following a Friday night win over Penn, 73-54.

Cass Sunstein, regarded as one of the most influential legal scholars of his generation, has been named a University Professor, Harvard’s highest honor for a faculty member.

A two-week seminar in January offered Harvard doctoral students the chance to learn from experts from across the University about using technology to support education.

On Feb. 13, the Faculty Council heard presentations on the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching and from the Standing Committee on Women.

Hundreds of students from both sides of the political aisle gathered at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum for a “State of the Union” watch party sponsored by the Institute of Politics (IOP).

The Association for Psychological Science has awarded John R. Weisz the James McKeen Cattell Lifetime Achievement Award for Applied Research.

The Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) is accepting applications for its senior fellows program.

Attendance at the recent Harvard Start-Up Career Fair was up 65 percent from last year, indicating to Scott LaChapelle, assistant director of technology platforms and new employer development at the Office of Career Services, that the event resonated for both students and potential employers.

Rene Kuhn Bryant of Lexington, Mass., a former associate editor of the Harvard Library Bulletin, died Jan. 30 after a long illness.

Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds is sponsoring a book talk series featuring Professors John Dowling, Jennifer Hochschild, and Jill Lepore.

Two years after he helped establish it, Harvard’s Richard Losick has been honored with the Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching.

Susan Shallcross Swartz and her husband, James R. Swartz ’64, have donated $10 million to Harvard Divinity School to establish the Susan Shallcross Swartz Endowment for Christian Studies.

Harvard College senior Mary Davies ’13 has been named a Global Health Fellow with Medical Missionaries.

James Quinn Wilson, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government, taught at Harvard from 1961 to 1987. Perhaps the most prominent political scientist of his generation, he died in Boston, Massachusetts, from complications of leukemia, on March 2, 2012.