Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have discovered how beetles and bacteria form a symbiotic and mutualistic relationship — one that ultimately results in the destruction of pine forests. In addition, they’ve identified the specific molecule that drives this whole phenomenon.
The Harvard China Fund, under the Office of the Provost, has announced its fiscal year 2010 grants program for Harvard faculty, programs, and Schools. The purpose of the fund is to support interdisciplinary research and teaching in and about China, focus Harvard’s considerable strengths toward tackling the challenges that China faces, and improve communication and collaboration between Harvard’s faculty and Schools, and Chinese universities and research institutes.
Former Vice President Al Gore will be coming to campus on Oct. 22 for the first-ever University-wide celebration of sustainability. The event, hosted by President Drew Faust, will mark the official launch of the University’s new greenhouse gas reduction effort and will also celebrate Harvard’s broader environmental initiatives, including the critical role the University plays in teaching and research in this area.
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Sept. 29. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu.
Initiated in the 1960s, the Harvard-Yenching Institute’s Doctoral Scholars Program (DSP) now consists of two branches, the Harvard-DSP and Non-Harvard DSP. Each year the institute invites Harvard departments in the humanities and social sciences to nominate candidates for the Harvard doctoral scholarships. To be eligible for this program, candidates must be from Asia.
There was not enough rain to keep the women’s golf team from winning its third tournament in three appearances this season at the Fall Intercollegiate at Yale University (Sept. 27-28). Competing against elite teams from the Northeast, the Crimson placed first out of 19. Crimson top performer, junior Claire Sheldon, finished tied for fourth, shooting a 73 (+2).
President Drew Faust will hold office hours for students in her Massachusetts Hall office on the following dates: Thursday, Oct. 16, 4-5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, 4-5 p.m. Monday, March…
Two Harvard Medical School (HMS) professors of ophthalmology are co-principal investigators of a gene project that has received funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Lou Pasquale and Janey Wiggs, both glaucoma researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, are leading the grant-winning team of researchers that includes Vincent L. Gregory Professor in Cancer Prevention David Hunter of the Harvard School of Public Health, and Jae Hee Kang, an instructor in medicine.
Voting faculty from all of Harvard’s Schools are eligible to apply for grants from the Milton Fund, which supports original research by Harvard faculty.
Herbert C. Kelman, the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics emeritus and co-chair of the Middle East seminar at Harvard University, has received the 2008 Peace Award from the International Peace Research Association (IPRA). The award, honoring the founders of peace research, was announced this past July at IPRA’s global conference in Leuven, Belgium.
Last week, more than 5,700 books were shipped from TriLiteral, the warehouse that holds inventory for Harvard University Press, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press, and Yale University Press, to help replenish the Iraqi National Library. The three presses have partnered with the Sabre Foundation, whose book donation program has a long history of helping get educational materials to countries in need — often those engaged in or recovering from conflict. The Sabre Foundation (working with a grant from the United States Embassy in Baghdad) covered the logistics and shipping of the titles.
The 18th First Annual Ig Nobel winners will be showered with applause and paper airplanes at Sanders Theatre on Thursday (Oct. 2). Traveling from four continents, the 10 award recipients will be honored for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.”
Oct. 17, 1640 — The Great and General Court grants Harvard the revenues of the Boston-Charlestown ferry, which plies the shortest route between Boston and Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Medford, and the plantations of Middlesex County. (From Charlestown, travelers could head for Connecticut.)
Paul W. Goldhaber, dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) for 22 years, died this past July 14 from complications of pancreatic cancer. He was 84.
Julio Frenk, who will become dean of the Harvard School of Public Health in January 2009, has received a Clinton Global Citizen Award. In naming Frenk, along with four other individuals, former President William J. Clinton said, “The Global Citizen Awards are about honoring and inspiring service to humanity. Our award recipients were chosen from a pool of remarkable candidates. Their innovation, dedication, and determination have changed lives, and their actions serve as models of what each of us can do to make a difference in the world.”
Nearly 150 years ago, the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam was known by another name — Mzizima, meaning “healthy town” in the local language. But over the decades, the city and the country of Tanzania have experienced mounting challenges to that health.
A new education research and development laboratory at Harvard University will identify and advance strategies to improve student achievement in America’s public schools, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced Sept. 25 at the Clinton Global Initiative.
From snail shells to bird feathers to the changing skin of a chameleon, nature uses colors in ways that range from the electric blue of a poison dart frog’s warning to the invisible ultraviolet patterns of flowers that call bees to pollinate. The development, use, and perception of color is the subject of a new exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History called “Language of Color,” which opened Sept. 26 and runs until September 2009.
Researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT announced Sept. 30 that they have received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to map the epigenomes of a variety of medically important cell types, including human embryonic stem cells.
Harvard University has been named one of the best employers in the nation for workers age 50 and over by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Joining first-place selection Cornell, Harvard — which was ranked 34th — was one of only two Ivy League schools to be named to the list by AARP.
Every fall, Harvard Yard comes alive with conversation as students greet old friends and recount how they spent the summer break. This year, with nearly 300 students participating in study abroad programs run by the Harvard Summer School, these encounters likely featured more foreign phrases and more exotic locales than in days past.
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).
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