April 10, 1950 — Ralph J. Bunche — AM ’28, PhD ’34, Director of the United Nations Trusteeship Department, and future winner of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize — is appointed to a government professorship. He is the first black named to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Bunche expects to do teaching and research in international relations, international law, and colonial administration. But U.N. duties prevent him from teaching a single class. He resigns in 1952.
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending April 21. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at www.hupd.harvard.edu/.
With good news comes the bad news. This year’s Daffodil Days, held on March 16, raised $51,726 in funds for the American Cancer Society — the first time in its 22-year history that this year’s total did not surpass the previous year’s total ($53,329). However, with the economic downturn taken into consideration, “I still think we did fabulously,” said Daffodil Days coordinator Julie Russell.
At its 11th meeting of the year on April 22, the Faculty Council reviewed the proposed Extension School courses for 2009-10; considered a proposal for a new Department of Human Evolutionary Biology; and discussed Google and the Harvard College Library. The council’s final meeting of 2008-09 will be on May 13. The preliminary deadline for the May 19 Faculty meeting is May 4 at 9:30 a.m.
Carroll Emory Wood Jr., 88, a University professor of biology and curator of the Arnold Arboretum, died March 15. He was teacher and mentor to many botanists and students at and at the University of North Carolina. A specialist in the flora of the Southeastern United States, he initiated, supervised, and edited a comprehensive flora of that region, “The Generic Flora of the Southeastern United States.” A “Celebration of Carroll” will be held on April 26 from 3 to 5 p.m., at United South End Settlements, 566 Columbus Ave., Boston.
Frans Spaepen, interim dean at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and John C. and Helen F. Franklin Professor of Applied Physics, has appointed applied mathematician Michael P. Brenner as the School’s first associate dean for applied mathematics.
The Board of Overseers of Harvard College, created in 1642 by the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, has elected Merrick B. Garland ’74, J.D. ’77, to be president of Harvard’s Board of Overseers for 2009-10 and Ann M. Fudge M.B.A. ’77, to be vice chair of the board’s executive committee for the same period.
This past weekend, the Harvard women’s softball team, led by Jennifer Francis ’10 and Bailey Vertovez ’09, traveled to Providence, R.I., to take three of four games from the Brown Bears.
On Saturday (April 18), Radcliffe’s heavyweight crew defeated Dartmouth and Syracuse on Onondaga Lake to hold on to the Elizabeth O’Leary Cup, with wins in the second varsity eight, varsity four B, and varsity eight races. This year’s victory marks the seventh win for the Black and White in the 10-year history of the event.
Despite downing the Scarlet Raiders at Malkin Athletic Center in five games a month before, the Crimson were unable to stop the powerful Rutgers-Newark attack (which hit a combined .337) in a three-game sweep of Harvard on Friday (April 17), snapping the Crimson’s five-game winning streak.
Disappointment struck men’s lacrosse after they dropped their midweek tilt against No. 14 Brown on April 15, which may dampen the team’s chance to make their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1996. So, when the No. 17 Crimson came out flat on Saturday (April 18) against a struggling 3-10 Holy Cross team, the Harvard men found themselves pressed to find some sort of inspiration.
There are some new wheels on campus, and they come attached to the new fleet of VeriFast Cycles, the first bicycles in a pilot bike-share program based out of Harvard’s undergraduate Houses. The program will officially be launched during Harvard’s Earth Day Celebration “Block Party” on Saturday (April 25), hosted by the Environmental Action Committee (EAC).
David T. Ellwood, dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, has been selected by the American Academy of Political and Social Science as winner of the 2009 Daniel Moynihan Prize. The prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on May 7.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) today (April 20) announced the election of leaders in the sciences, the humanities and the arts, business, public affairs, and the nonprofit sector. The 210 new AAAS Fellows and 19 Foreign Honorary Members join one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies and a center for independent policy research.
Harvard fosters a culture of community service that embraces those who study, teach and work here. An essential component of today’s Harvard education is the call to serve the greater community, both locally and globally.
The spring election for new members of the Board of Overseers is now in progress. Eligible voters include all Harvard degree holders, except for employees of the University who are officers of instruction or administration. All degree-holding alumni may vote for Elected Directors. For more information, visit www.harvard.edu/alumni/elections.php.
The University will test its emergency text-messaging system, MessageMe, on April 16. The test message will be broadcast midday to more than 14,000 Harvard community members who have signed up for the alert system to date.
Samuel Hutchison Beer, the distinguished Harvard political scientist, died in his sleep at the age of 97 on April 7. For years, Beer was the world’s leading expert in British politics, but he also studied the American political system, and was active in American politics as a lifelong Democrat and chairman of Americans for Democratic Action from 1959 to 1962.
In 1997, Paul and Daisy Soros created a charitable trust to support graduate study by new Americans — immigrants and children of immigrants. This year, out of the 750 applications nationwide, eight of the 31 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship winners are Harvard graduate students.
Carroll Emory Wood Jr., 88, a Harvard University professor of biology and curator of the Arnold Arboretum, died March 15. He was teacher and mentor to many botanists and students at Harvard and at the University of North Carolina. A specialist in the flora of the Southeastern United States, he initiated, supervised, and edited a comprehensive flora of that region, “The Generic Flora of the Southeastern United States.” A “Celebration of Carroll” will be held on April 26 from 3 to 5 p.m., at United South End Settlements, 566 Columbus Ave., Boston.
A memorial service for Samuel P. Huntington, who was the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard, will be held on April 22 at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Church in Harvard Yard.
The grass wasn’t greener on the other side of the river — although for a while it sure looked like it was. Vying for their first Baseball Beanpot win in three years, the Harvard men’s baseball team took the field at Fenway Park on Monday (April 13) against the Boston College (B.C.) Eagles in the 20th annual Beanpot consolation game. And, despite a 14-hit barrage from the Eagles, the Crimson gave their state rival quite a scare.
Harvard University has a long-standing tradition of community engagement and public service. Students, faculty, and staff contribute to the quality of life in the University’s host cities through more than 350 programs addressing education, affordable housing, economic opportunity, civic life and culture, health, and the environment.
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University have announced this year’s winners of the Lukas Prize Project Awards. The awards, established in 1998, recognize excellence in nonfiction books that exemplify the literary grace and commitment to serious research and social concern that characterized the distinguished work of the award’s Pulitzer Prize-winning namesake J. Anthony Lukas, who died in 1997.
William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard College’s dean of admissions and financial aid, was honored last night (April 15) by Access, the leading provider of financial aid, scholarships, and valuable advice to Boston high school students. The dean was recognized for his outstanding work ensuring that institutions of higher learning are affordable and accessible to everyone.
On Thursday (April 23), the Semitic Museum will host half-hour discussions at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. (appropriate for grades three through six) on how ancient Israelites made bread — from planting to eating — and explore everyday life of the average villager 2,700 years ago. Students will also have the opportunity to handle original ceramic fragments and try to match them with whole vessels on display. Registration is required and limited to 15 children per session, $2 per child. For more information, call (617) 495-4631 or e-mail Dena Davis at davis4@fas.harvard.edu.
Popular author and professor of medical law Alexander McCall Smith will give a lecture under the auspices of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics today (April 16).
Herbert C. Kelman, the Emeritus Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, was awarded the 2009 Socrates Prize for Mediation by the Centrale für Mediation. A multidisciplinary mediation association focused on the promotion of mediation and dispute resolution in society, Centrale für Mediation recognized Kelman for his outstanding contributions to the solution of national and international conflicts at the 13th Annual Mediation Congress in Berlin. Kelman has been engaged for more than 30 years in efforts toward the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is a pioneer in the development of interactive problem solving, an unofficial third-party approach to the resolution of international and intercommunal conflicts.
The Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF) awarded its Established Investigator Grant to Edward E. Harlow, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research and Teaching at Harvard Medical School (HMS), on Feb. 24.
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