Campus & Community

Indias ambassador to the United States hailed a growing partnership between the two nations Tuesday (Feb. 8), saying the diversity of their populations and strength of their democracies align the two countries interests.

Using a new computer model of galaxy formation, researchers have shown that growing black holes release a blast of energy that fundamentally regulates galaxy evolution and black hole growth itself. The model explains for the first time observed phenomena, and promises to deliver deeper insights into our understanding of galaxy formation and the role of black holes throughout cosmic history.

Grover, the furry blue monster of Sesame Street fame, held a press conference at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) Tuesday (Feb. 8) to announce the Harvard School of Grover, a new school of all the major majors, including not only law, medicine, and business but also hotel and restaurant management and air conditioning and refrigeration repair.

Despite – and because of – their very different approaches, policy-makers and education specialists from UNESCO, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) convened on Saturday (Feb. 5) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) to discuss how to facilitate better interagency cooperation. They were joined by activists from several grassroots organizations. The conference, which was also concerned with evaluating and even challenging existing notions of development, was put together by Voices for Africa, a student organization at the HGSE.

At a meeting of the Committee of Memorial Minutes of the Faculty of Medicine Dec. 16, 2004, the following Minute was selected.

At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences December 14, 2004, the following Minute was placed upon the records.

For Charles Busch, author of The Tale of the Allergists Wife, the dark side of having a play on Broadway was that people would come up to him and ask how it felt to finally become mainstream.

The choir loft, or cantoria, in the Sistine Chapel is a smallish, 8-foot-by-12-foot nook carved into the stone of the chapel wall and dimly illuminated through its original colored glass window. For the first three and a half centuries of the chapels history (it was built in the 1470s), only singers were allowed to enter the cantoria. One of the things they did in there, aside from music, has only recently come to light: Signatures, hundreds of them, were uncovered during the Vaticans restoration – among them, the only extant signature of the turn-of-the-16th-century composer Josquin. Carved and scratched over several centuries of singing, the signatures now stand as a whos who of the papal choir.

Some years ago, a student who had graduated with excellent grades from one of the traditional black colleges applied for admission to Harvard Medical School (HMS). Alvin Poussaint, faculty associate dean of student affairs, urged the admissions committee to accept him, but many were skeptical.

Ernst Mayr, the Harvard University evolutionary biologist who has been called “the Darwin of the 20th century,” died yesterday morning (Feb. 3) at a retirement community in Bedford, Mass. A member of the Harvard faculty for more than half a century, he was 100.

Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers has announced the establishment of two University-wide task forces to develop concrete proposals to reduce barriers to the advancement of women faculty at Harvard and in academic careers more broadly.

Male doctors take their own lives at a higher rate than the general population of white men in the United States. That’s been known for some time. Now, the largest,…

It’s a world hard to imagine. Some 650 million years ago, Earth’s land and oceans were almost completely covered by ice and snow. The planet’s population – primitive plants and…

Using the environment to help address the nation’s pollution problems. That’s the focus of a new report from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and researchers at the Kennedy…

Assistant Professor of Astronomy Bryan Gaensler and colleagues have discovered the source of powerful magnetic objects in the universe called magnetars, finding that some of the biggest stars in the…

A record total of 22,717 students have applied for entrance next September to Harvard College. This unprecedented applicant pool is due in large measure to the new Harvard Financial Aid Initiative (HFAI) announced by President Lawrence H. Summers last February in his keynote address to the American Council on Education, said William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid. The new program sends a strong message that Harvard is accessible to all students, regardless of family financial resources, he said.

President Lawrence H. Summers announced Wednesday (Feb. 2) the appointment of Alan A. Altshuler, Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor of Urban Policy and Planning in the Harvard Graduate School of…

A team of researchers has solved the riddle of one of the plant kingdoms fastest and most ferocious movements: the blink-of-an-eye closing of the Venus flytrap.

Robert M. Johnson, an employee of the University for 35 years, died on Dec. 18, 2004, in Sandwich, Mass. Johnson was 83. Johnson, who retired in 1979, worked at Harvard for buildings and grounds. He was a World War II veteran and a VFW commander.

The Honorable Joyce London Alexander delivers the keynote address at a Memorial Church service to celebrate the life and message of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Jan. 31. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor.

President Lawrence H. Summers will hold office hours for students in his Massachusetts Hall office on the following dates:

On Jan. 26 at approximately 11:50 p.m., a male undergraduate student reported that he was the victim of an armed robbery while walking on Chauncy Street near Massachusetts Avenue. The victim stated that he was approached by three males who robbed him of his wallet, cell phone, and watch. During the robbery the victim was struck on the arm with a blunt metal object but was not physically harmed. The offenders then fled the area in a green sports utility vehicle.

As part of a nationwide candlelight vigil for victims of the tsunami, the University community is invited to gather in Copley Square on Feb. 4 from 7 to 8 p.m. Representatives from various aid organizations will discuss progress in relief efforts and speak about short- and long-term needs. At 7:45 p.m., the mayor of Cambridge, Michael A. Sullivan, will lead a moment of silence in memory of those who have died, in support of the survivors, and in gratitude to the relief workers.

An Allston community meeting Jan. 20 gave Harvards Allston neighbors a chance to voice opinions on the areas future, touching on everything from access to open space to traffic congestion to the location of utilities.

Wondering why his relatives went bald stimulated an interest in genetics for Craig Hunter.

The University Committee on Human Rights Studies (UCHRS) has announced the details of its 2005 summer internship program for undergraduates. Up to 10 summer internships will be available to qualified students seeking to work for eight to 10 weeks in a human rights organization in the United States or abroad.

The Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) recently named Ross L. Prentice of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Public Health Sciences, the 2005 recipient of its Marvin Zelen Leadership Award in Statistical Science. Prentice will deliver a lecture on June 3 at the School and be presented with a citation and an honorarium.

Harvard entomologist Edward O. Wilson believes hes solved twin centuries-old mysteries of Caribbean island ant plagues that devastated local agriculture.

Following the record snowfall that befell Boston last month, its hard to imagine (though not for a lack of trying) that spring will ever arrive. Thankfully, with Harvards annual Daffodil Days fundraiser now under way, the art of seasonal visualization becomes a whole lot easier.