Mathematician Jacob Lurie, whose expertise ranges across algebraic geometry, topology, and algebra, has been named professor of mathematics in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2009.
As schools around the country work to meet academic requirements in reading and math set by the No Child Left Behind Act, some educators worry the trend ignores a critical part of a child’s learning: civic and moral education.
The W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, Harvard’s highest honor in African American Studies, was presented on Friday (Dec. 12) to Ingrid Saunders Jones, Richard L. Plepler, Tamara Robinson, and Tavis Smiley, at a ceremony at the Harvard Kennedy School to honor their outstanding “contributions to culture, art, and the life of the mind.”
Renowned legal scholar Lawrence Lessig has been appointed to the faculty of Harvard Law School, and as the faculty director of Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Dec. 8. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.
Alfred Goldberg, cell biology professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS), recently received a $15,000 cash prize as the recipient of the 11th annual Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award for Biotechnology and Medicine from Brandeis University.
There will be a memorial service honoring Richard Darman ’64, M.B.A.’67 from 11 a.m. to noon on Dec. 16 at the Memorial Church. Darman, who died Jan. 25, was a member of the faculty at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) where he received the Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching and Distinguished Public Service, having served as lecturer in Public Policy and Management (1977-80) and as Public Service Professor (1998-2002). A John Harvard Fellow, Darman served also as a member of the Governing Boards’ Committee on University Resources (1992-2008), the Harvard Fund Council, the Belfer Center’s Board of Directors (1998-2008), and the Overseers’ Committees to visit the Kennedy School (1989-98 and 2003-2008) and the Medical School (1993-98).
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on November 18, 2008, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Zeph Stewart, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Stewart was an effective and beloved teacher.
Twenty-nine foreign scholars and professionals have been named Fulbright Scholar Program grant recipients for the 2008-09 academic year. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, participating governments, and host institutions in the United States and abroad, these grants allow scholars from across the globe to lecture or conduct research at the University.
Beginning this week and continuing through the early winter of 2009, Harvard is distributing new, high-technology ID cards to the University community. The Harvard ID card is used in more than 400 systems across campus, and the new card will make those systems more secure by segregating key information and encrypting it in card-based technologies that are unique to Harvard.
Harvard’s All-American cornerback Andrew Berry ’09 was honored as one of 15 finalists for The Draddy Trophy by the National Football Foundation (NFF) on Tuesday (Dec. 9) at the 19th annual NFF Awards Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York.
Bicyclists across the University have a new way to protect their rides. University Operations Services’ Transportation Services and CommuterChoice recently unveiled a covered bike shelter near the newly completed Francis Avenue parking lot close to the Divinity School.
It was only last year that a crowded room in Salem, Mass., chuckled as the Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes of the Memorial Church remarked that the city had erected a statue of “Bewitched” actress Elizabeth Montgomery — an irony as her sole relationship to Salem was her role as a TV witch. Salem’s real hero was, in fact, Caroline Plummer, Gomes declared at a city-sponsored celebration of her life. Plummer, a lesser-known figure by pop culture standards, was one of the two posthumous honorees at the Memorial Church’s annual Commemoration of Benefactors and of the War Dead on Nov. 9.
“Look at that blue! Look at it! Isn’t it pretty?” exclaims Adriana, a sixth-grader from Mother Caroline Academy in Dorchester. Four of Adriana’s peers rush to see the plastic paint tray she’s pointing at. They’re eager to share in Adriana’s excitement: after all, she’s just discovered a new shade of blue. This color, a luminous aqua, quickly makes it onto Adriana’s painting, titled “Me, Myself, and I.” This self-portrait, along with 15 others created by the students at the school, will be on exhibit at Harvard’s Gutman Library from Dec.14 to Jan. 5.
When the mayor of Somerville needed help with his city’s fiscal crisis in 2004, he looked to Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) for assistance. Four years later, in today’s uncertain economic climate, the city of Boston is turning to the institution for aid.
Officially complete this month, Harvard’s ambitious new Northwest Science Building — located just north of the Harvard Museum of Natural History — houses some 520,000 square feet of laboratories, classrooms, and offices.
A Harvard College senior from Zimbabwe has become the fourth Harvard student to be named a Rhodes Scholar this year, accepting the prestigious award to study at Britain’s Oxford University.
One could measure Stanley Hoffmann’s achievements in book publications (more than 18), academic titles (University Professor, chair, co-founder of the Center for European Studies) or honors (Commandeur in the French Legion of Honor, to name one). But the broad smiles and teary eyes at the Center for European Studies last Friday (Dec. 5) indicated the true caliber of this man, a profound influence on five generations of students, colleagues, and friends.
Harvard marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Wednesday (Dec. 10), highlighting both the document’s power and its unfulfilled promise through theater, song, and ideas.
A concerted effort should be made to put the arts at Harvard University on par with the study of the humanities and sciences, according to a report released today (Dec. 10) by a University-wide task force that examined the role the arts play in campus life.
“The arts are something we all care deeply about, whether we are artists ourselves, whether we are social scientists, or whether we are scientists,” Senior Vice Provost Judith Singer told an audience of about 120 Harvard faculty of all stripes and ranks gathered at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Dec. 1. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.
Obama names Summers director of National Economic Council; Honorary degree awarded to Professor Wei-Ming Tu; Retsinas honored by the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame; Lu wins grand prize in the 2008 Collegiate Inventors Competition; Business School’s Kanter receives honorary degree from Aalborg University
At its fifth meeting of the year on Dec. 3, the Faculty Council discussed the Summer School course list for 2009, undergraduate foreign language requirements, and the finances of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The council next meets on Jan. 7. Due to the holiday schedule, the preliminary deadline for the Jan. 13 Faculty meeting is Dec. 24 at noon.
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