Campus & Community

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  • Michael D. Smith named next dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

    Michael D. Smith, a distinguished computer scientist, admired teacher, and skilled administrative leader, will become the new Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences this July, President-elect Drew G. Faust announced today.

  • Honorary degrees awarded at Commencement’s Morning Exercises

    Six men and three women received honorary degrees at this morning’s 356th Commencement Exercises. Biographical sketches of the honorands appear below.

  • Jason Luke

    You might not know Jason Luke ’94, but you know his work. He’s associate director for custodial and support services at Harvard’s Facilities Maintenance Operations. That makes him the Commencement superintendent who every June transforms the campus into a well-oiled machine for merriment (and solemnity).

  • Kate Loosian

    Kate Loosian is a senior project manager with Harvard Real Estate Services, where she keeps an educated eye on building renovations at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. (She has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Notre Dame.)

  • ‘Life classes’ teach local, global ways to go green

    In the offices of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI), there is everything you would expect from that arm of University Operations Services: no-glue carpeting, energy-efficient lighting, high-tech windows, and sensors that adjust ventilation by measuring CO2. But in plain sight, next to one of the recycled cubicles, there is also a toilet. The bowl is packed with bottles of water — a reminder of how much H2O is wasted with every flush of a conventional commode.

  • Harvard takes the LEED in green buildings

    If you could fly in a small plane over Harvard, looking down wouldn’t tell you much about the University’s sustainable buildings.

  • Michelle Gray

    Michelle Gray, who has had careers as a cooking teacher and social worker, is a customer service manager at Harvard’s Dunster-Mather combined kitchen operation. One day not long ago, she used a handheld clicker to count the number of people she talked to. The answer: almost 300.

  • Nathan Gauthier

    He’s only 31, but Nathan Gauthier has had an adventurous life so far. He spent two years with the Peace Corps in Ecuador, studied red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, shot underwater video for NASA, and worked as a fisheries biologist in Washington state and Hawaii.

  • Meghan Duggan

    Meghan Duggan knows her way around sustainability. The marine engineer with a master’s degree in facilities management can talk easily about kilowatt hours, solar panels, cogeneration, renewable wood, and high-efficiency lights.

  • The biggest challenge of sustainability: Changing minds

    In 1999, the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) made plans to move its offices to the Landmark Center, a converted Sears, Roebuck and Co. warehouse in Boston. Danny Beaudoin — the School’s manager of operations, energy, and utilities — was asked to look into sustainable design for the renovation: a realm of low-emitting paints, abundant natural light, and high-efficiency lighting and ventilation.

  • Message to the Harvard community from Drew Faust

    Dear Members of the Harvard Community, Harvard has an important role to play in environmental stewardship. Through research, education, and the planning and development of our campus, Harvard contributes every…

  • This month in Harvard history

    May 1976 — Before an overflow crowd in Sanders Theatre, Senior Professor John H. Finley Jr. — the legendary 72-year-old Eliot Professor of Greek Literature Emeritus — gives his final Harvard lecture in “Humanities 103: The Great Age of Athens.”

  • Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending May 28. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

  • In brief

    Allston Room to extend hours Commencement Week The Harvard in Allston exhibit room in the Holyoke Center Arcade will hold extended hours (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) from June 4 to 8. Members of the University community are invited to stop by for free iced tea and lemonade and to have a look at the maps and model of Harvard’s proposed master plan for Allston. Visit http://www.allston.harvard.edu for more information.

  • Newsmakers

    Gomes accepts honorary degrees The Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes has been awarded three honorary degrees this spring, including those of doctor of divinity from The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City and from Lafayette College in Easton, Penn., and the degree of doctor of humane letters from Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. Gomes delivered the baccalaureate sermon at both The General Theological Seminary and Lafayette College. At Augustana College, meanwhile, he gave the Commencement address. The Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, Gomes is the recipient of 36 honorary degrees.

  • Memorial services

    Westheimer memorial set for June A memorial gathering for Frank H. Westheimer, Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, will be held June 29 at 3 p.m. in Pfizer Lecture Hall, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, 12 Oxford St. Westheimer died at his home in Cambridge, Mass., on April 14. He was 95.

  • Gene Ketelhohn, Cabot House building manager, 60

    Gene G. Ketelhohn, the building manager of Cabot House since 1983, died May 26 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He was 60.

  • Wacker, former Cabot House co-master, dies

    Ann MacMillan Wacker, co-master of Cabot House from 1978 to 1984, died May 18. Wacker was married to Warren E.C. Wacker, Henry K. Oliver Professor of Hygiene Emeritus and, from 1971 to 1989, the director of University Health Services.

  • KSG faculty group names recipients of Stone Fellowship and prize

    The Kennedy School of Government’s Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Group recently announced that the 2006 Stone Fellowship has been awarded to Fan Zhang, a Ph.D. candidate in public policy, for her paper “Does Electricity Restructuring Benefit the Environment? Theory and Evidence of Intertemporal Emission Trading in the U.S. SO2 Allowance Market.” The Stone Fellowship is given for the best paper written by a doctoral student in the area of environmental and resource policy.

  • Schweitzer Fellows commit to community service

    Honoring the legacy of Albert Schweitzer, area graduate students are committing to a year of service with a community agency. In a competitive selection process, 29 students — including six from Harvard — were recently selected as 2007-08 Boston Schweitzer Fellows.

  • Humanists, scientists, artists among new fellows at Radcliffe

    The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has announced the names of 32 women and 19 men selected to be 2007–08 Radcliffe Fellows. The fellows — among them 18 humanists, 13 scientists, 12 creative artists, and eight social scientists — will work individually and across disciplines on projects chosen for both quality and long-term impact. Their projects range from the production of a film and photographic series on 21st century American workers to research into deriving heart cells from stem cells to improve cardiovascular development.

  • Radcliffe Institute announces distinguished alumnae award winners

    The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has named 11 recipients for its annual alumnae awards. Selected by the Radcliffe Institute’s Alumnae Recognition Awards Committee, winners have distinguished themselves in both their service to Radcliffe and in their careers. The awards will be presented and the recipients will speak at the “Women Shaping Power: From the Grassroots to Head of State” symposium on June 8. This event, scheduled for 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the American Repertory Theatre, 64 Brattle St., occurs annually as part of Harvard-Radcliffe Commencement Week.

  • Rappaport Institute names fellows

    The Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston has awarded 12 summer public policy fellowships to graduate students from seven local universities, including five students from Harvard. The fellows will spend 10 weeks working on projects for public agencies and elected and appointed officials. Additionally, they will help design and carry out a seminar series for their colleagues on key issues facing the region.

  • Reischauer’s grant, internship recipients

    The Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies has announced its support of 73 undergraduate travel grants/internships and 51 graduate student grants for travel or dissertation research/completion.

  • DRCLAS awards internships, research grants

    The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) is sponsoring a record number of students traveling to Latin America for research and internships this summer. DRCLAS made a total of 156 summer travel awards that resulted in support for Harvard students across the University.

  • Career forum, June 12

    Employment Services, collaborating with a University-wide organizing committee, will host its ninth annual career forum on June 12. The event will be held at the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Gund Hall, 48 Quincy St. and will be open to the public from 4 to 6:30 p.m.

  • Healthy and wise: Farmers’ market will return to campus on June 19

    Beginning June 19, the Harvard community can once again enjoy weekly access to freshly harvested fruits and vegetables, handmade breads and pastries, and other healthy, homemade options, when the Farmers’ Market at Harvard reopens. Started by Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) in 2006, the market will be held every Tuesday through October.

  • Children can perform approximate math without arithmetic instruction

    Children are able to solve approximate addition or subtraction problems involving large numbers even before they have been taught arithmetic, according to a study conducted at Harvard University by researchers from the University of Nottingham and Harvard.

  • Coop honors public service programs at Harvard

    The Harvard Coop, continuing its tradition of contributing to public service in Greater Boston communities, has awarded $10,000 in grants to a total of 22 student-led public service organizations at Harvard. Nine grants will support summer programming in 2007 and 13 grants will support term-time service for the 2007-08 academic year. Harvard Coop public service grants help students to launch projects and special initiatives, upgrade equipment, design new materials, and provide services to youth and low-income, sick, homeless, or otherwise disadvantaged clients. The Harvard Coop hosted a reception ceremony April 23 to honor grant awardees.

  • Traditional tintinnabulation

    A peal of bells will ring throughout Cambridge next week, on June 7. For the 19th consecutive year, a number of neighboring churches and institutions will ring their bells in celebration of the city of Cambridge and of Harvard’s 356th Commencement Exercises.