Campus & Community

Oct. 15, 1945 — Pulitzer Prize-winning History Professor Paul Herman Buck, PhD ’35, becomes Harvard’s first Provost. Under the terms of the statutory amendment approved on this day by the Board of Overseers, the Provost is also, ex officio, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (the position Buck has held since 1942).

It’s “an inconvenient truth,” but only about 25 people showed up for a Harvard screening Sunday (Oct. 19) of a film by the same name, which earned former Vice President Al Gore ’69 both an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Harvard football team knows drama. They’ve lived it all season. Counting Saturday’s (Oct. 18) win against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, three of Harvard’s first five games this season have been decided by three points or less. And up 24-10 at the half, the game looked to be headed toward an easy victory — one that would avenge last year’s 13-20 loss. But that wouldn’t be dramatic enough.

Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnography will come alive in a unique way Nov. 2 when it joins the Consulate General of Mexico in Boston in hosting a celebration of the traditional Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) has announced the arrival of its 2008 fall fellows. The CES is dedicated to fostering the study of European history, politics, and society at Harvard, and selects visiting scholars that will play an active role in the intellectual life of the CES and the University. While at the center, fellows will conduct research, advise students, and give public talks.

Wilson B. Bishai, professor emeritus of Arabic for the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC), died Aug. 1 from kidney failure at his home in Maryland. He was 85.

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School recently announced the following new 2008-09 research fellows. These fellows conduct research within the Belfer Center’s International Security Program/Program on Intrastate Conflict (ICP) and Project on Managing the Atom (MTA).

Harvard University’s planners are seeking comment on preliminary refinements to several master planning concepts well in advance of filing an Institutional Master Plan (IMP) with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), targeted for 2009.

A chilly Saturday morning outside of Harvard Stadium couldn’t stop the residents of Allston from coming out to mingle at the 19th annual Allston-Brighton Family Football Day (Oct. 18). President Drew Faust and Vice President of Government, Community, and Public Affairs Christine Heenan joined residents of Allston-Brighton for the pregame luncheon.

Dan Shore, director of the University’s Office of Budgets and Financial Planning since 2003 and Harvard’s acting chief financial officer since May 2008, has been named vice president for finance and chief financial officer.

In anticipation of Harvard’s upcoming sustainability celebration, a panel discussion on sustainable food took place Tuesday (Oct. 14) in the Faculty Room at University Hall. It began with a reception at which chefs doled out demitasse cups filled with a chowder of Cape Cod Bay scallops and Berkshires bacon, and wait-staff circulated trays of heavenly appetizers made with locally grown and harvested ingredients. Local cheeses and apple cider rounded out the menu and helped prime the crowd for the roundtable that lay ahead.

If you flew over Harvard University in a small plane, you would see only a few outward and obvious signs of sustainability. You would see a glittering solar array on Shad Hall at Harvard Business School, a landscaped green roof on Gund Hall, home of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and you would see a lot of zero-emission bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Oct. 13. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu.

The University will test its emergency text-messaging system, MessageMe, on Oct. 23. A test message will be broadcast midday to more than 14,000 Harvard community members who have signed up for the alert system.

Ken Gewertz, teacher, editor, and longtime staff writer for the Harvard University Gazette, died of cancer on Sept. 7 at his home in Watertown, Mass. He was 63. Gewertz gave 22 years of service to the University. As a reporter for the Gazette, he covered almost every aspect of life at Harvard, concentrating on the arts and the humanities.

October 1784 — Harvard awards an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to Maj. Gen. Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.

The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has announced the 15th funding cycle for the Kuwait Program Research Fund, which is supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). An HKS faculty committee will consider applications for one-year grants (up to $30,000) and larger grants for more extensive proposals to support advanced research by Harvard faculty members on issues of critical importance to Kuwait and the Persian Gulf. Grants can be applied toward research assistance, travel, summer salary, and course buyout.

The Cornell Big Red, the last unbeaten team in the Ivy League, fell at the hands of a stronger, more talented Harvard Crimson team on Saturday (Oct. 11) by a score of 38-17. The Crimson (3-1; 1-1) got out to a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter and went into the half up 28-7.

Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) will conduct free high-risk flu vaccination clinics throughout the month of October. The clinics will be held for all high-risk individuals every Monday and Tuesday (noon-3 p.m.) at HUHS on the second floor of the Holyoke Center (Monks Library). Students must have their Harvard ID to receive the vaccination.

Crimson field hockey stayed on an upswing, crushing the St. Louis Billikens (4-8) on Monday (Oct. 13) by a score of 6-0. Harvard (6-5; 1-1) jumped out of the gate early, scoring their first goal less than four minutes into the game.

Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn will deliver the inaugural Robert S. McNamara Lecture on War and Peace, titled “A Race Between Cooperation and Catastrophe,” at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) on Friday (Oct. 17).

Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), has received the Warren J. Mitofsky Award for Excellence in Public Opinion Research for 2008. Blendon, who is also a professor in the Harvard Kennedy School and director of the Harvard Program on Public Opinion and Health and Social Policy, will receive the award on Nov. 13 at a “Newseum” dinner in Washington, D.C.

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has announced the following new 2008-09 research fellows. These fellows will conduct research within the Belfer Center’s Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) research project and Dubai Initiative.

Twenty Harvard University faculty members were inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) at a ceremony at the academy on Oct. 11. The AAAS is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers.

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.

Twenty-six doctoral candidates will be supported by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs for the 2008-09 year. The associates come from a multidisciplinary group of advanced-degree candidates in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ departments of Anthropology, Economics, Government, History, Health Policy, Middle East Studies, Social Policy, and Sociology. All of the students are working on dissertations related to international affairs.

Women’s soccer grabs first Ivy win behind freshman’s play The Crimson held nothing back on Saturday (Oct. 4), as Harvard defeated Yale 3-1 at Ohiri Field.

If current levels of smoking and of burning biomass and coal fuel in homes continues in China, researchers estimate that between 2003 and 2033, 65 million deaths will be attributed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 18 million deaths to lung cancer, accounting for 19 percent and 5 percent of all deaths in that country during this period, respectively.

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Oct. 6. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu.

Voting faculty from all of Harvard’s Schools and the Junior Fellows of the Society of Fellows are eligible to apply for grants from the Milton Fund, which supports original research by Harvard faculty. Milton grants have enabled hundreds of Harvard faculty, particularly assistant professors, to explore new ideas and launch innovative projects, often shaping lifelong investigative interests and scientific collaborations.