Campus & Community

Today the University awarded a total of 6,777 degrees and 81 certificates. A breakdown of the degrees by schools and programs follows. Harvard College granted a total of 1,562 degrees.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has announced that Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, will be awarded the 2009 Radcliffe Institute Medal at the annual Radcliffe Day luncheon on Friday (June 5). Barbara J. Grosz, dean of the Radcliffe Institute, will give opening remarks and present the medal to O’Connor, who will deliver the keynote address.

Matt Lauer, co-anchor of NBC News’ “Today,” delivered the 2009 Senior Class Day speech in Tercentenary Theatre on Wednesday (June 3) under a canopy of green leaves and slightly overcast skies. With a joke-filled address that had the large crowd frequently in stitches, the accomplished journalist proved he is also an accomplished stand-up comedian.

A journalist, a landscape architect, and a Latin scholar are today’s Commencement orators. They fulfill a University tradition dating back to 1642. They also embark on three journeys that hint at the wide array of academic paths leading outward from Harvard.

Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) chapter first met in 1781, two years before the end of the Revolutionary War.

Barron, Bilotti, Bras, Chiappini, Doohovskoy, Kristol, Pellegrini, West. That’s roll call for eight 2009 Harvard graduates who were commissioned late Wednesday morning (June 3). Five are new officers in the U.S. Army and three in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Harvard President Drew Faust shared final words of wisdom with the Class of 2009 Tuesday (June 2), sending them into a newly uncertain world with assurances that their liberal arts education gives them the ability to improvise in changing times.

Harvard University has conferred today (June 4) honorary degrees on 10 outstanding individuals: Energy Secretary Steven Chu, filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, author Joan Didion, religious historian Wendy Doniger, legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin, immunologist Anthony S. Fauci, anthropologist Sarah Hrdy, engineer Robert Langer, musician Wynton Marsalis, and political scientist Sidney Verba.

Journalist Matt Lauer joins student orators in a humor-filled afternoon of informal celebration.

President Drew Faust announced a partnership with the federal government today that will help America’s military veterans obtain a Harvard education.

Harvard’s 358th Commencement begins: a beautiful day, a bittersweet poem, a cautionary talk, a president’s wisdom and good wishes – and hymns, prayers and farewells.

What do music therapy, midwifery, ballet, graphic art, physics, finance, and the study of military culture have in common? They are practiced at the highest levels of commitment and excellence by the Harvard graduates profiled here.

May 13, 1958 — On the steps of Widener Library, the Harvard Glee Club and the Radcliffe Choral Society perform choruses from Bach’s B-minor Mass. Although the groups have performed together for decades, the occasion marks the Choral Society’s first participation in a Glee Club outdoor concert.

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending May 25. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online athttp://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

Niall Kirkwood, chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and professor of landscape architecture and technology at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The Trudeau Foundation has recently awarded two 2009 Trudeau Scholars scholarships to doctoral candidates Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry and David Theodore. Beaudry, currently pursuing a juridical science doctorate at Harvard Law School, and Theodore, an architecture and urban planning doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, were among the 15 scholars who will each receive a scholarship worth up to $180,000 to help with their research. Beaudry is examining social exclusion in Latin America with a view to promote equality and better integration of various social groups, and Theodore’s work concentrates on the architecture of health-care buildings as a form of medical technology influencing health care.

Judah Folkman was born Moses Judah Folkman in 1933. The son of a rabbi, he became inspired to become a physician as a young boy when visiting ailing members of the congregation with his father. He soon became fascinated with science and medicine, and as a high school student he devised a perfusion system in his basement that maintained the viability of a beating rat heart for days after surgical removal.

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) Board of Trustees named Kathleen Corriveau, a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, as a 2009 APF Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Fellowship recipient. The $25,000 fellowship will support Corriveau’s research during the 2009-10 academic year.

Five Harvard graduate students — Meghan Haggerty, Devin Lyons-Quirk, Jessica Hohman, Antoniya Owens, and Michael Long — are among the 12 local graduate students who will spend the summer working in key state agencies as Rappaport Public Policy Fellows.

The Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics has announced this year’s recipients of the Lester Kissel Grants in Practical Ethics. Five Harvard College students have been awarded grants to carry out summer projects on a variety of important subjects.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard has selected 24 journalists from the United States and abroad to join the 72nd class of Nieman Fellows. The group includes print and multimedia reporters and editors; radio and television journalists; photographers; book authors; a filmmaker; and a columnist.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has announced the 2009 Radcliffe Alumnae Award winners, who will be honored at the Radcliffe Awards Symposium on June 5 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the American Repertory Theater’s Loeb Drama Center. The event will also feature a panel discussion by alumnae award winners, titled “Seeking Harmony in a Tumultuous World: How Does an Individual Make a Difference?”

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has announced the women and men selected to be Radcliffe Fellows in 2009-10. These creative artists, humanists, scientists, and social scientists were chosen for their superior scholarship, research, or artistic endeavors, as well as the potential of their projects to yield long-term impact. While at Radcliffe, they will work both within and across disciplines.

While at Harvard, should you experience any symptoms consistent with H1N1 flu, you should contact Harvard University Health Services (HUHS).

VISITOR TIPS AND SERVICES The following services will be in effect at the University on Commencement Day, June 4.

MORNING EXERCISES To accommodate the increasing number of those wishing to attend Harvard’s Commencement Exercises, the following guidelines are proposed to facilitate admission into Tercentenary Theatre on Commencement Morning (June 4):

A peal of bells will ring throughout Cambridge next week, on June 4. For the 21st consecutive year a number of neighboring churches and institutions will ring their bells in celebration of the city of Cambridge and of Harvard’s 358th Commencement Exercises.

Five years from now, at high school graduation, the memory of their first visit to Harvard might not be as vivid, but it’s one that will last. The 40 young, inquisitive students who flocked to Cambridge on May 20 got a brief glimpse of a university with three and a half centuries of history — and a reminder of why they are pushed to work so hard in school.

The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) has announced the recipients of the 2009 Harvard Medal: John “Jack” F. Cogan Jr. A.B. ’49, J.D. ’52; Harvey V. Fineberg A.B. ’67, M.D. ’71, M.P.P. ’72, Ph.D. ’80; and Patti B. Saris A.B. ’73, J.D. ’76.

Four professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences have been named Harvard College Professors in recognition of their contributions to undergraduate teaching, advising, and mentoring.