Coming off a six-day break from soccer, the Harvard men’s foot club handed regional rival University of New Hampshire (UNH) a 3-1 defeat this past Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 23) to wreck the Wildcats’ unbeaten run. With the win, the Crimson squad picks up its third victory out of five outings in the early going of this 2008 season, while UNH falls to 5-1-2.
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, recently appointed bioengineers David Mooney and Rob Howe as associate deans in SEAS.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has recently awarded Pardis Sabeti, an assistant professor in the Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University, its Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. The $875,000 fellowship will be paid over five years beginning in November. As one of 20 Packard Fellows selected, Sabeti will be invited to an annual conference in September 2009 to meet with other fellows, as well as with the advisory panel and members of the foundation’s board of trustees.
Fall was grandly ushered in by local residents on Sunday (Sept. 21) with RiverSing, a unique arts festival along the Charles River in Boston and Cambridge.
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Sept. 22. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu.
Helen T. Ouellette has been appointed the administrative dean at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, effective Sept. 22. With a distinguished career in administration, Ouellette’s leadership in higher education includes chief financial roles at Williams College and the New England Conservatory. At Radcliffe, she will succeed Louise Richardson (who was appointed principal and vice chancellor of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland) and will help the dean oversee administrative areas, such as operations and finance, and align them with Radcliffe’s programmatic agenda and academic mission.
Nine Harvard faculty members are among 47 scientists nationally whose promising and innovative work was recognized Monday (Sept. 22) with the announcement of two grant programs through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The Harvard Map Collection presents its fall exhibition, “From the Amazon to the Volga: The Cartographic Representation of Rivers,” which opened Wednesday (Sept. 24). For centuries, cartographers have wrestled with the difficulties of depicting rivers, and in the process they have devised many ingenious ways of answering the challenge — from streambed profiles to bird’s-eye views, ranging in format from portfolio atlases to strip maps, accordion books, and scrolls. This exhibit examines how mapmakers from the 15th century to the early 20th century sought to measure, track, and frame some of the major rivers of the world, including the Tigris and Euphrates, Amazon, Don, Danube, Nile, Congo, Rhine, Volga, and Mississippi. The exhibition runs through Jan. 30, 2009, in Map Gallery Hall, Pusey Library.
In early 2007, Lene Hau’s “trick of the light,” stopping and switching off a light pulse in one part of space and then rekindling it in another location, gave the public and experts alike pause — just enough time to let in wonder.
Theodore Roosevelt is considered a principal architect of the U.S. national park system. To help mark his 150th birthday this fall, noted filmmaker Ken Burns will come to Harvard to offer remarks and show clips from his upcoming documentary, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” due out in fall 2009. Scheduled for Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. in Sanders Theatre, Burns’ talk, “Distance in His Eyes,” is free and sponsored by the Theodore Roosevelt Collection of Houghton Library.
Houthakker memorial today The University community is invited to attend a memorial service at the Memorial Church for Henry Lee Professor of Economics Emeritus Hendrik Houthakker today (Sept. 25). A reception at Loeb House will follow the 2 p.m. service.
September 1951 — Outside Memorial Hall on registration day, WHRB-Radio conducts a new programming feature: sidewalk interviews of freshmen, who explain why they have come to Harvard and what they think of it.
The Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has announced that the 2008 Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award will go to Billy Shore, co-founder of Share Our Strength. The award and the $100,000 prize that accompanies it will be presented to Shore on Nov. 19 at a reception in Cambridge, Mass.
Lewis Ranieri of Hyperion Private Equity Funds will deliver the ninth annual John T. Dunlop Lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (HGSD) on Oct. 1. The title of Ranieri’s lecture is “Revolution in Mortgage Finance.”
At its second meeting of the year on Sept. 24, the Faculty Council considered candidates for Parliamentarian for 2008-2009 and heard a proposal from the Standing Committee on Research Policy concerning principal investigators. The council next meets on Oct. 8. The preliminary deadline for the Oct. 21 Faculty meeting is Oct. 6 at 9:30 a.m.
The Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC) and Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) recently announced the inauguration of a new joint colloquium series that will bring speakers at the frontiers of research in computing and science to the Harvard campus.
The Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE) recently published “Healthy Harvest: Regional Food Guides for New England and Mid-Atlantic States.” These comprehensive guides (available at http://www.healthyharvest.org) include detailed information about when produce is available regionally both fresh and from storage, as well as food-specific information on varieties, nutritional content, how best to prepare each food item, and tips on how to store the produce.
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is sponsoring a focus group survey on Dec. 3 at Phillips Auditorium, 60 Garden St., to gather information on how NASA scientists create astronomical imagery. CfA experts will be on hand for the 3 p.m. talk and discussion. Astronomy enthusiasts are invited to register for the survey, which will last approximately 15 minutes, at http://astroart.cfa.harvard.edu/focus/. Food, drinks, and souvenirs will be provided for all participants. For more information, visit http://astroart.cfa.harvard.edu/.
This past May, the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) selected two rising seniors to receive the David and Mimi Aloian Memorial Scholarships for their senior year (2008-09). The criteria for the awards reflect the traits valued and embodied by the late David and Mimi Aloian — thoughtful leadership that makes the College an exciting place in which to live and study, and special contributions to the quality of life in the Houses.
The 2008 Venice Biennale award committee has conferred on James S. Ackerman, the Arthur Kingsley Professor of Fine Arts Emeritus at Harvard University, its prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The award citation praised Ackerman’s contributions to architecture, calling him “the doyen of the international community of historians of Renaissance architecture,” adding, “He is one of the scholars to have created the modern history of architecture, founded on a systematic approach and making use of a critical examination of all written and visual sources.”
Given the convenience and widespread acceptance of text messaging, the University is offering this form of correspondence as another technological solution for communicating with students, faculty, and staff in the event of an extreme emergency on campus. As part of the University Emergency Management Plan, the Harvard community can now sign up to receive text message alerts in addition to traditional methods of notification.
Three biologists — one current and two future faculty members at Harvard — have won MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants, $500,000 no-strings-attached awards intended to encourage creativity, originality, and innovation in a broad array of fields.
At its annual dinner on Sept. 5, the Hippocrates Society honored Harvard Medical School Associate Professor of Medicine Michael VanRooyen with the 2008 Humanitarian Award. VanRooyen, who is also associate professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), was recognized for his extensive work in humanitarian assistance in more than 30 countries affected by war and disaster, as well as for his efforts in the United States.
Many University Hall offices were relocated this summer as part of an effort by Harvard College and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to better meet the needs of students and faculty. These changes occur as plans take shape for the College to open additional offices in Holyoke Center.
As an undergraduate, Scott Mead ’77 was a talented and versatile athlete for the Crimson, a letter-winner in both squash and lacrosse. He was also a gifted tennis player, but because tennis season overlapped with that of lacrosse, he chose to compete in the tennis tournament circuit during the summer.
The Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard is currently seeking applications for its Faculty Fellowships in Ethics program for the 2009-10 academic year. Applications are invited from teachers and scholars who wish to develop their ability to address questions of moral choice in the professions and public life more generally. Applicants should hold a Ph.D. in philosophy, political theory, theology, or related discipline, or an advanced professional degree, and should be no more than 10 years from their first academic appointment.
Later this month, the Revels and the Charles River Conservancy will again team up for RiverSing, a free and open-to-the-public event celebrating the beauty of the Charles River and the first day of fall. Featuring seasonal music and communal singing, the Sept. 21 event will be held on the John W. Weeks Footbridge linking Allston and Cambridge.
A memorial service honoring the life of Julius B. Richmond will be held Oct. 27 at 10 a.m. at the Harvard Club of Boston, 347 Commonwealth Ave. A reception will follow. A former U.S. surgeon general, Richmond held appointments at the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard Kennedy School. He died on July 27.