Campus & Community

What are the challenges facing emerging democracies? Thats the complex question asked, and partially answered, by a panel of Kennedy School professors on May 13 as part of the 2005 Kennedy School Spring Conference.

A federal judge and a respected social policy writer and scholar were recently honored during the inaugural Richard E. Neustadt and Thomas C. Schelling Awards ceremonies at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass. The Kennedy School of Government (KSG) hosted the event.

Harvard’s Task Forces on Women Faculty and on Women in Science and Engineering, appointed three months ago to address concerns of women faculty and women in science throughout the University, today released reports calling for large-scale changes in the way the University recruits faculty and supports women and underrepresented minorities pursuing academic careers.

njuries to the upper spinal cord can take a victim’s breath away. Most people don’t know that breathing difficulties are the leading cause of disease and death after such injuries.…

The consumption of low-fat dairy foods may reduce men’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study in the May 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. The…

With the rapid advance of technology opening new frontiers of knowledge, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study looked at the increasingly detailed understanding of biological systems last week (May 6)…

The topic of health statistics took center stage last week as practitioners from around the world discussed the critical role statistics play in identifying and addressing health disparities during a…

n a new scientific report titled “Wildlands and Woodlands: A Vision for the Forests of Massachusetts,” David Foster, director of Harvard University’s Harvard Forest, is calling, along with his colleagues,…

Type 1 diabetes, diagnosed in children and adults, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the pancreas no longer produces insulin. Diabetes, which ranks as the fifth-deadliest disease in the…

After neuroscientist John Dowling presented his last lecture at the Science Center on Tuesday (May 10), he was treated to a surprise party in honor of three decades of exemplary teaching. Provost Steven E. Hyman praised Dowling, who was then presented with a cake decorated with a picture of a brain, the Harvard veritas symbol, and a likeness of the professor himself.

They were turning away people at the door as President Lawrence H. Summers and S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, unveiled six portraits as part of the Harvard Foundation Minority Portraiture Project, an initiative to recognize faculty members and administrators of color who have served Harvard with distinction for more than 25 years. More than 400 attended the unveiling ceremony, which was held in the Naumberg Room of the Fogg Museum on May 6. The portraits are of former Dean Archie C. Epps III professors Rulan Pian, Stanley Tambiah, Eileen Southern David L. Evans, senior admissions officer and Kiyo Morimoto, Bureau of Study Counsel. At the ceremony, family members and friends of the portrait subjects mingled with honored guests, alumni, and current undergraduates.

Nearly 80 percent of the students admitted to the Class of 2009 will enter Harvard in September. The current yield is 78.5 percent, slightly above last years 77.6 percent.

At its 15th meeting of the year on May 11, the Faculty Council received a report on the Allston Initiative from Vice President for Administration Sally Zeckhauser, Dean Alan Altshuler of the Graduate School of Design, and David MacGregor, project manager for Cooper, Robertson & Partners.

The Kennedy School of Government has presented the 2005 Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership to the FedEx-Environmental Defense Future Vehicle Project. The Future Vehicle Project – a public/private collaboration of Environmental Defense, FedEx Express, and the Eaton Corporation –  has introduced a hybrid delivery truck that increases fuel efficiency by over 50 percent and reduces particulate emissions by 96 percent. FedEx plans to make the hybrid vehicles the standard replacement in its weight class of 30,000 medium-duty trucks. Before the May 4 presentation, senior vice president of Eaton Corporation James Sweetnam (from left) David Bronczek, president and CEO of FedEx Express Ellen Roy Hertzfelder, representative of the Roy family and state secretary of environmental affairs and Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, gather for a chat.

May 1879 – The committee on women’s education (chaired by Elizabeth Cary Agassiz) announces its first course offerings (51) in the following subjects: English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Spanish,…

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department for the week ending May 9. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor.

Art historian Frank Fehrenbach, a prolific and expansive scholar who is one of the worlds leading intellects in the field of Renaissance art, has been named professor of the history of art and architecture in Harvard Universitys Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1.

For James Robinson, recently appointed to a tenured position in the Government Department, the desire to understand the world from a broad intellectual perspective began when he was a boy in England in the 1970s.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) has named Elisabeth Werby its new executive director. Currently senior director of government relations and strategic project development at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York, Werby will join the HMNH in July.

Edward J.P. Hall, a leading philosopher of physics and quantum mechanics and an eminent analyst of the philosophical notion of causation, has been appointed professor of philosophy in Harvard Universitys Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1.

Tim Russert, managing editor and moderator of Meet the Press (MTP) and political analyst for NBC Nightly News and the Today program, is the 2005 Class Day speaker, announced the Harvard College Class of 2005 Senior Class Committee and the Harvard Alumni Association Wednesday (May 11). He will address the senior class and guests on Class Day, June 8, at 2 p.m. in Tercentenary Theatre.

One hundred forty-five Harvard faculty and staff members will be honored today (May 12) for reaching a milestone: 25 years of service to the University. The 51st annual 25 Year Recognition Ceremony – a unique event in that it recognizes both faculty and staff from across the entire University – will be held at the Ropes-Gray Room, Pound Hall, Harvard Law School.

Joslin Diabetes Center scientist elected to NAS Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School Christophe O. Benoist, co-head of the Section on Immunology and Immunogenetics at Joslin Diabetes Center, was…

Stephen Lewis named HSPH Commencement speaker Stephen Lewis, United Nations special envoy of the secretary-general for HIV/AIDS in Africa and director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, will be the Harvard…

Last weekends stormy weather turned up roses for Harvard baseball, as the host Crimson swept two games from Cornell in Mondays (May 9) rescheduled Ivy League Championship, handing the home team its first league title in three years. Harvards pitching crew – well rested after Saturdays and Sundays rainouts – limited Cornell to two runs over a pair of contests to dismiss the Big Red, 2-0 and 4-2.

Lecturer on social medicine Carola Eisenberg, one of the five founding members of Physicians for Human Rights (an organization that shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to the campaign for banning land mines), and her husband, Leon Eisenberg, the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine Emeritus in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, will receive the American Psychiatric Associations (APA) 2005 Human Rights Award at APAs annual meeting in Atlanta on May 23.

If laughter is the best medicine, then Harvard Divinity School student Zachary Warren is hoping that for Afghan children, performance will help the medicine go down.

They could be called the above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty prizes.

Glenn Patton Pat Wright, teacher, editor, and mentor, died of cancer in his Cambridge, Mass., home on May 4. He was 58 years old.

Can a roomful of Harvard students meeting for three hours on a Friday afternoon help to ease the deep historical tensions between China and Japan? Ronald Heifetz thinks so.