Campus & Community

All Campus & Community

  • Faust installation, Oct. 12

    Incoming President Drew G. Faust will be formally installed as Harvard’s 28th president on Oct. 12 at an outdoor ceremony in the Tercentenary Theatre. An academic procession, featuring representatives of universities from around the world, will begin at 2 p.m. The installation will begin at 2:30 p.m. The event will be open to all faculty, staff, and students.

  • Four faculty recognized with Cabot Fellowship

    Faculty of Arts and Sciences interim Dean David Pilbeam has announced that Allan Brandt, Kathleen Coleman, Jeffry Frieden, and James Robinson are the Walter Channing Cabot Fellows for the current academic year. The fellowships are awarded annually to selected faculty members in recognition of their achievements and scholarship in the fields of “literature, history or art, as such terms may be liberally interpreted.”

  • Historical Commission recognizes Radcliffe

    The Cambridge Historical Commission recently awarded its Preservation Recognition Award to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study for its renovation of the Radcliffe Gymnasium, which preserved the historical fabric of the building while focusing on accessibility, quality, and sustainability. Cambridge Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves, along with Historical Commission Chair William B. King and Vice Chair Bruce A. Irving, presented the award to representatives from the Radcliffe Institute and Bruner/Cott & Associates — the Cambridge architecture firm that designed and planned the renovation — at a May 23 ceremony held at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.

  • Conference examines values and global health

    In an age where the health of those in one country can affect that of others around the world, scholars from Harvard, Boston University, and Northwestern University gathered at Harvard’s Barker Center last week to examine the importance of values in driving efforts to address global health concerns.

  • Commencement feasting, customs, color date to medieval Europe

    The sheriffs still ride up to Harvard’s Johnston Gate on horseback. The free beer flows freely. It’s the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Harvard, the first benefactor of the University, and the 356th Commencement at the nation’s oldest institute of higher learning.

  • Writers support Hoffman Breast Center

    Harvard’s American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) hosted a very special event on May 21, “An Evening With Your Favorite Authors,” to benefit the Hoffman Breast Center at Harvard-affiliated Mt. Auburn Hospital.

  • This month in Harvard history

    May 1967 — More than 800 guests fill the Palmer Dixon Tennis Courts to celebrate John Finley’s 25th anniversary as Master of Eliot House.

  • Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending May 21. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

  • In brief

    BSC summer session upcoming The Bureau of Study Counsel will offer its summer session course in reading and study strategies from July 2 to 19. Through readings, films, and classroom exercises, students learn to read more purposively, selectively, and with greater speed and comprehension. One-hour sessions will be held Monday through Friday beginning at 4 p.m. (no class July 4). The cost is $150. To register, contact the Bureau of Study Counsel at (617) 495-2581.

  • Newsmakers

    Kargère awarded advising award The Student Affairs Committee of the Undergraduate Council recently awarded Lecturer on History and Literature Stephen Kargère the 2007 John R. Marquand Award for exceptional advising and counseling for a faculty member. Now in its sixth year, the prize — honoring legendary Dudley House senior tutor John H. Marquand — is annually awarded to one faculty member and one nonfaculty adviser.

  • Memorial service

    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.

  • Homebodies

    Ana Vollmar ’08 of Pforzheimer House and Matt Drazba ’08 of Kirkland House have been named this year’s David Aloian Memorial Scholars. The two will be honored at the Harvard Alumni Association’s (HAA) fall dinner. Established in 1988 to honor the late David Aloian ’49, a former HAA executive director and master of Quincy House, the scholarships recognize two rising seniors who have made unique contributions to their Houses and to undergraduate life, thus making Harvard ‘an exciting place in which to live and study.’

  • School volunteers honored with Mack Davis award

    Cambridge School Volunteers (CSV) recently honored more than 900 volunteers who have served in grades K-12 of the Cambridge Public Schools (CPS) during the 2006-07 school year. The special reception, hosted by Harvard at the Faculty Club, was held May 14.

  • Undergraduate book collecting winner announced

    A family activity rare in this day and age — singing around the piano — inspired the collection of this year’s winner of the Visiting Committee Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting. Harvard student Robin Worth Reinert ’10 has been awarded first prize for her entry “Songs That Never Die: Community Songbooks in America.”

  • Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus announces Respect Award recipient

    The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus (HGLC) announced that Kevin Jennings ’85 will receive the HGLC Respect Award. It will be presented to Jennings at the caucus’ annual Commencement Day dinner, this year to be held in Lowell House on June 7. In the evening’s keynote speech, best-selling author Andrew Tobias ’68, M.B.A. ’72 will address the timely issue of politics, money, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

  • Harvard Foundation honors Knowles, students

    The Harvard Foundation recently honored members of the University community who have made outstanding contributions to improving intercultural and race relations at the College. More than 40 students and one distinguished faculty member were presented with awards at the annual Harvard Foundation Student/Faculty Awards Dinner held on May 4 at Quincy House in memory of David S. Aloian, former Quincy House master. Faculty, administrators, and House masters nominated the award recipients, who were then chosen by the faculty and student advisory committee of the Harvard Foundation.

  • Reunions

    This Commencement season, reunion activities for the Classes of 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002 will be held June 7-10. Members of those classes can contact Jen Halloran at (617) 495-2555 with any reunion questions. Individuals planning on attending their fifth Harvard reunion can register for events and housing at http://classes.harvard.edu/college/2002.

  • Rothschild, Enlightenment scholar, named FAS professor

    Emma Rothschild, one of the leading historians of the Enlightenment whose extensive scholarly career has focused on the history of European economic ideas, has been appointed professor of history in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), effective July 1, 2007.

  • Holiday hours for workout facilities…and more

    Harvard Recreation has announced its hours of operation for the Memorial Day weekend for the following facilities: Hemenway Gym, Gordon Track and Field Center, Blodgett Pool, and the Quadrangle Recreational Athletics Center (QRAC).

  • School volunteers honored with Mack Davis award

    Cambridge School Volunteers (CSV) recently honored more than 900 volunteers who have served in grades K-12 of the Cambridge Public Schools (CPS) during the 2006-07 school year. The special reception, hosted by Harvard at the Faculty Club, was held May 14.

  • Eggs, nests make colorful bedfellows at HMNH

    Large and small, plain and colored, splotched and dotted, eggs from the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology’s vast collection are on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in a new exhibition of eggs and nests.

  • ‘I want to know what it is to be a human being’

    One day earlier this month, Sean Dorrance Kelly was at work in his sunny Emerson Hall office. On one side of his desk were books — a ceiling-high, room-wide stack of tomes ranging from Greek editions of Homer and contemporary works of neuroscience to books on twenthieth-century French, German, and Anglo-American philosophy.

  • In a first, scientists develop tiny implantable biocomputers

    Researchers at Harvard and Princeton universities have taken a crucial step toward building biological computers, tiny implantable devices that can monitor the activities and characteristics of human cells. The information provided by these “molecular doctors,” constructed entirely of DNA, RNA, and proteins, could eventually revolutionize medicine by directing therapies only to diseased cells or tissues.

  • Vogel hopes to help expedite Sino-Japanese détente

    In 1978, Deng Xiaoping visited Japan. Although the trip made little impression on the West, Ezra Vogel calls it one of the greatest meetings between national leaders of the 20th century. In fact, it was the first meeting between top leaders of the two countries in 2,500 years.

  • Tehran’s building murals recreated

    When Fotini Christia, a Ph.D. candidate in public policy at the Kennedy School, first arrived in Tehran to study Persian, she was struck by the enormous murals that dominated the city.

  • A long way from summer camp — building hope for refugees in settlement

    How much can a few college students really accomplish during two months in Africa? Turns out, quite a lot.

  • Harvard, Cambridge establish Joint Center for History and Economics

    Crossing academic disciplines and the Atlantic Ocean, the Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and King’s College, Cambridge, have established the Joint Center for History and Economics (JCHE). The JCHE will facilitate and encourage interdisciplinary research and learning in the social sciences and the humanities.

  • Amartya Sen talks about the importance of ethics in academe

    In 1976, in the education journal Change, President Derek Bok famously asked, “Can ethics be taught?” At the time, few universities and even fewer faculty specialized in ethics; philosophers rarely applied their moral insights to real-world problems; and doctors, lawyers, businesspersons, and policymakers usually had little or no ethics training, even as the world was becoming increasingly complicated in matters of often long-ranging moral import.

  • Robert Darnton named Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and director of the University Library

    Robert Darnton, currently the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of European History at Princeton University, will become Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and director of the Harvard University Library, effective July 1, 2007, Provost Steven E. Hyman announced today (May 22).

  • Longtime employee, teaching assistant, student Carroll dies at 65

    Charles “Chuck” Carroll, longtime Harvard Division of Continuing Education (DCE) employee and a Harvard graduate, died on May 21, after succumbing to a rare blood disease. He was 65.