Campus & Community

A joyous peal of bells will ring throughout Cambridge today (June 9). In celebration of the city of Cambridge and of the countrys oldest university – and of our earlier history when bells of varying tones summoned us from sleep to prayer, work, or study – this ancient yet new sound will fill Harvard Square and the surrounding area with music when a number of neighboring churches and institutions ring out at the conclusion of Harvards 354th Commencement Exercises.

Brandon Terry 05 never wanted to come to Harvard. Ivy League schools were for students who are wealthy and white. Terry is neither.

A search for balance in his life has led Ashutosh Jadhav from a house with a leaky roof in rural India toward Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from Harvard.

Harvard quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick 05 takes on the game of life much the same way he approaches football: with a quick wit, keen instincts, and a talent for adapting to his surroundings. Beginning with his days as an Arizona All-Star with Highland High School in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, to his four seasons of rewriting the Harvard record books, to his most recent coup – garnering the 250th pick in Aprils NFL Draft – Fitzpatrick has always made the most of second-chance opportunities, dusting his opponents and naysayers along the way.

While still a graduate student, Wendy Winckler took part in a major discovery about the nature of the human genome. She worked in the laboratory of David Altshuler, an associate professor of genetics at the Medical School, on recombination, the process by which a father and mothers DNA gets reshuffled to create new variations of genes in their children. Although this is one of lifes most basic processes, surprisingly little is known about how it happens and how it can be used to study the risk of genetic diseases.

For Erika de Lone, todays graduation was a long time coming. So long, in fact, that classmates with whom she began her Harvard journey are going to be back on campus – for their 10th reunion.

Few things please fiction writers more than having readers tell them that the fictional worlds theyve created possess the ring of truth.

Since 1994, Tucker McCravy has made Sri Lanka his second home, first as a Peace Corps volunteer and then as the catalyst for several educational ventures there. So when areas of the nation were devastated by the December tsunami, McCravy knew just what children in refugee camps needed.

Mathematicians have a reputation for being a bit detached from the concerns of ordinary mortals. Living in a realm of abstract ideas, of seductive puzzles and tantalizing conundrums, they tend to regard the ordinary physical world as so much clutter, annoyances to be perfunctorily dealt with before returning to their equations and proofs.

In the Indian state of Orissa, Dharitri Patnaik has loomed large, fighting for the rights of poor women and children.

The Afghan province of Badakhshan has the highest maternal death rate ever recorded, with 6,500 women dying in childbirth out of every 100,000 births.

Nathaniel Fogg, graduating from Harvard Business School this year, is something not often found on an Ivy League campus in this age of an all-voluntary military: a veteran of the United States Navy.

The Harvard Committee on African Studies has awarded 11 research grants for undergraduate and graduate students to travel to sub-Saharan Africa during the summer of 2005.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) recently presented five outstanding educators in the Boston and Cambridge public school systems with James Bryant Conant Fellowships. The awards, which were given…

Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies has announced the recipients of its 2005-06 fellowships, prizes, research travel grants, and internships. A total of eight postdoctoral and senior fellowships have…

The committee of the Howard T. Fisher Prize in Geographical Information Science (GIS) at Harvard has announced the recipients of the award for the 2004-05 academic year.

Today the University awarded a total of 6,580 degrees and 224 certificates. A breakdown of the degrees by schools and programs follows. Harvard College granted a total of 1,590 degrees.

This year, the Harvard University Extension Schools Commencement Speaker Award will go to Monica Antoinette Brooker A.L.B., cum laude. Brooker will speak on the topic Commencement as Perfection this afternoon (June 9).

So much happens at Harvard University during the year, its quite a task to winnow all thats worth noting into a two-page summary.

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

Mary Ellen Avery Doctor of Science Mary Ellen Avery, recipient of an honorary doctor of science degree, received the National Medal of Science in 1991 for her discovery of the…

Harvard Business School Dean Kim B. Clark announced Monday (June 6) that he will step down on July 31, in order to accept the role of president of Brigham Young University, Idaho, shortly thereafter. Clark was named dean of Harvard Business School (HBS) in 1995 he is the eighth dean in the Schools 97-year history.

PBHA and Class of ’55 fete 100 years of service More than 100 members from the Class of 1955 kicked off their 50th reunion at a June 5 dinner reception…

…in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing….

Professor Felton Earls, director of the Harvard South African Fellowship Program, recently awarded special certificates signed by President Lawrence H. Summers to eight South African Fellows who studied in various programs throughout the University this past year. The Harvard South African Fellowship Program is funded by the Presidents Office and the individual Schools that the fellows attend as part of the Universitys commitment to the building of a new South Africa.

Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) is currently seeking volunteers interested in public art education for its museum docent program. The program consists of approximately 35 volunteer guides who give tours of the Fogg Art Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University will honor, among others, writer and editor Ann Fadiman 75, pianist Ursula Oppens 65, and biologist Susan Lindquist Ph.D. 76 at its annual Radcliffe Day celebration on Friday (June 10). The awards will be presented and the recipients will speak at the Radcliffe Awards Symposium, Discovering Different Truths: In Search of Common Ground. In addition, Distinguished Service Awards will be presented. Lincoln Professor of History and Radcliffe Institute Dean Drew Gilpin Faust will address alumnae, their guests, and the award recipients at the Radcliffe Annual Luncheon in Radcliffe Yard following the symposium.

Harvard alumni celebrating their 50th reunion have been out of school more than twice as long as most graduating seniors have been alive. What have they learned in all that time? What do they remember of their student days? How does life look from the perspective of 50 years out? We talked to some members of the Class of 1955 and found them to be a vital, enthusiastic, and generally satisfied group of guys.

Nobodys perfect, not even Harvard students, Alicia Menendez 05 will tell graduates and their families today.