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  • A tale of two scholars: The Darwin debate at Harvard

    Few people have left a more indelible imprint on Harvard than Louis Agassiz.

  • Yield for the Class of 2011 nears 80 percent

    Nearly 80 percent of the students admitted to the Class of 2011 will enter Harvard in September, identical to last year’s Class of 2010. The yield may rise slightly once the final returns are in, including about 35 students who will be admitted from the waiting list over the coming weeks.

  • Barbara J. Grosz named interim dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

    Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and dean of science at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will serve as interim dean of Radcliffe, effective July 1, 2007, President-elect Drew G. Faust announced today (May 11).

  • FAS approves new General Education curriculum

    The Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences approved Tuesday (May 15) a motion that sets the stage for the implementation of the first complete overhaul of general education for undergraduates in nearly 30 years. By voting to put in place a new program in General Education, the FAS is replacing the Core Program established in the late 1970s.

  • GSD students troubleshoot local problems

    Back in March, at Cambridge’s King Open School, Matthew Gillen and José Terrasa-Soler asked fifth-graders how to make the city a nicer place to live in.

  • Harvard wins Cambridge Go Green Award for Blackstone project

    Harvard University has been awarded a city of Cambridge Go Green Business Award, which recognizes business and institutional leaders for their efforts to create a more sustainable city.

  • Heavyweights battle

    The Harvard heavyweight crew scored a three-for-one this past Sunday (May 13) at the 62nd annual Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) Sprints. In capturing three gold and a pair of silver medals, Harvard seized the Rowe Cup (given for the best-overall team), reclaimed the Worcester Bowl (given to the winner of the varsity eight event), and won the Ivy League title. Now, all that’s remaining for the Crimson rowers, whose varsity eight contingent remains undefeated on the season, is the big one — the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships May 30-June 2 in Camden, N.J.

  • Sports briefs

    Black and White heavies to vie for national title The NCAA rowing committee has named the Radcliffe heavyweight crew as one of a dozen squads to receive a team-bid to the national championships May 26-27 at Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Coming off a 10-5 dual racing season and a fourth-place finish at the EARC Sprints, the Black and White will make their 10th NCAA appearance in the 11-year history of the championship.

  • Commencement exercises June 7

    Morning Exercises To accommodate the increasing number of those wishing to attend Harvard’s Commencement Exercises, the following guidelines are proposed to facilitate admission into Tercentenary Theatre on Commencement Morning:

  • Phillips Brooks House Assoc. celebrates public service and honors seniors with awards

    The Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) held its sixth annual Public Service Celebration on May 7 in the masters’ residence of Lowell House. A capacity crowd of 240, including PBHA public service leaders and volunteers, Harvard faculty and staff, and invited guests, attended the ceremony. The keynote address — traditionally comprising the reflections of three seniors — was presented by Chimaobi Amutah, Rabia Mir, and Aidan Madigan-Curtis.

  • Professors Goldin, Sampson, students honored by AAPSS

    The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) recognized its new group of fellows for 2007 at an April 29 ceremony held in Washington, D.C. The 2007 fellows include four Harvard students and Harvard faculty members Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics, and Robert J. Sampson, the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences.

  • Center for Public Interest launches program for NYC youth

    Eleven Harvard undergraduates will embark on an intense internship experience this summer, working alongside New York’s most innovative nonprofit organizations and government agencies to solve challenging problems facing children today.

  • Senior, junior named Joseph L. Barrett Award recipients

    Two Harvard students were recently named Joseph L. Barrett Award recipients. Administered by the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC), the award commemorates Barrett (Class of ’73) and is given in recognition of promising young people at Harvard College who have enhanced the learning of others “with the vigor and openness so characteristic of Joe.”

  • Daniel Gilbert’s ‘Stumbling on Happiness’ lands top book prize

    Daniel Gilbert’s pursuit of the scientific basis of happiness has won him the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, it was announced on Tuesday (May 15). “Stumbling on Happiness,” which draws on psychology and neuroscience, as well as personal experience, explores the various ways people attempt to make themselves happy. Gilbert, who is a professor of psychology and a Harvard College Professor, uses science to show that it is not always through conventional routes that we find happiness.

  • Kissel grant recipients to take on ethical issues

    For the second year, Harvard College students have been awarded Lester Kissel grants in Practical Ethics to carry out summer projects on a range of ethical issues. The seven grant winners will conduct research in the United States or abroad, and write reports, articles, or senior theses. Three of the students will carry out their projects on internships or foreign study. Each grant supports living and research expenses up to $3,000.

  • Memorial services

    Musgrave memorial May 18 A memorial service for Professor Emeritus Richard Musgrave will be held on May 18 at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Church. Musgrave died Jan. 15 in Santa Cruz, Calif., at the age of 96.

  • Newsmakers

    Lecturer Chapman named Levenson winner Lecturer on anthropology Judith Flynn Chapman has been named the junior faculty recipient of the Levenson Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Undergraduate Council. Chapman (who is also the Allston Burr Senior Tutor in Quincy House) was selected to receive the award by the Student Affairs Committee of the Undergraduate Council, based on nominations by students.

  • In brief

    Conference to celebrate two decades for Safra Foundation The Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics will celebrate its 20th anniversary this weekend (May 18 and 19) with panel discussions featuring former and current members of the center. The conference will kick off with a keynote address by Thomas W. Lamont University Professor Amartya Sen on Friday (May 18) at 4:15 p.m. The title of the talk, which will be held in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum Lecture Hall, is “Can Justice Help Practice?” To view the complete agenda, visit http://www.ethics.harvard.edu or call (617) 495-1336 for more information.

  • Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending May 14. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

  • This month in Harvard history

    May 5, 1960 — Fine Arts Associate Professor Seymour Slive begins a visit to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Moscow, and Odessa as the first participant in a faculty exchange program between Harvard and the State University of Leningrad. Slive spends most of the month studying the celebrated collections of The Hermitage in Leningrad and lectures at the famous museum on 17th-century Dutch painting.

  • HBS Professor Alfred Chandler Jr., pre-eminent business historian, dead at 88

    Alfred D. Chandler Jr., the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard Business School (HBS) historian whose greatest accomplishment, according to HBS professor emeritus Thomas K. McCraw, was to “establish business history as an independent and important area for study,” died on May 9 at Youville Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., at the age of 88. In his long and legendary career, Chandler chronicled and analyzed big businesses around the globe in a prolific and influential corpus of books and articles. At the time of his death, he was the School’s Isidor Straus Professor of Business History Emeritus.

  • Scholars probe changing legal, cultural status of animals

    “We are in an animal moment in the 21st century,” Marjorie Garber announced to her audience in Harvard Hall last Wednesday evening (May 9).

  • Colloquium attracts scholars, witches

    What does the word “witchcraft” mean to you? If it’s Elizabeth Montgomery’s twitching nose or something some hapless woman in Colonial Salem was put to death for, you’ve got some catching up to do.

  • 21st century technology takes students back to 17th century

    In 1998 cellist Yo-Yo Ma took to the road, and a growing number of people have followed him.

  • This month in Harvard history

    May 25, 1951 — The Medical School attracts some 250 graduates to its first Alumni Day.

  • Police reports

    Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending May 7. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

  • Newsmakers

    YWCA Boston names Gomes Racial Justice Award winner The YWCA Boston has named the Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes the recipient of its 2007 Racial Justice Award. The YWCA’s board and guests will fête Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, at the 13th annual Women’s Leadership Gala and Benefit Auction, “A Night With the Academy,” on June 13 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

  • Faculty council

    At its 15th and final meeting of the year on May 9, the Faculty Council held a review of the Ph.D. Program in Biological Sciences in Public Health, considered a proposal to create a standing committee on life sciences education, and voted on proposed changes to the Handbook for Students for 2007-2008 and on the proposed Courses of Instruction for 2007-2008.

  • Memorial Minute

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences October 17, 2006, the following Minute was placed upon the records.

  • Commencement Exercises, June 7

    Morning Exercises To accommodate the increasing number of those wishing to attend Harvard’s Commencement Exercises, the following guidelines are proposed to facilitate admission into Tercentenary Theatre on Commencement Morning: