Campus & Community

Harvards Task Force on Science and Technology, which last spring outlined a future for science at the University characterized by innovative, interdisciplinary initiatives, is nearing the conclusion of its work that will bring these broader ideas into clearer focus.

Sometimes a harp is more than a harp.

Last month, a scientific report commissioned by the eight Arctic nations, including the United States, concluded that the Arctic is experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on Earth. Changes in arctic climate will cause sea levels to rise and drive many species toward extinction, including polar bears. You have organisms that have been pushed beyond their limits, says James McCarthy, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography and an author of the study.

The seasonal extreme sport known as holiday shopping is underway in a twilit Harvard Square.

Several hundred participants were treated to a view of the marvels of modern neuroscience Nov. 30, thanks to the marvels of modern communications technology during a New York conference telecast to audiences in Chicago and Boston.

Theoretical physicist Subir Sachdev, whose research has shed light on quantum wonders arising from the collective behavior of vast numbers of electrons in complex and novel materials, has been appointed professor of physics in Harvard Universitys Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2005. Sachdev comes to Harvard from Yale University, where he is currently professor of physics and applied physics.

Golden retriever August relaxes in his home-away-from-home at 8 Prescott St., where he has been attending expository writing classes taught by his owner Chris Grenier, since he (August) was 3 months old. Here, he wonders if the Barker Center in the background could fit under the literary definition of irony.

Fifteen Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and Longwood buildings will win renewable energy in the 2004 Go Cold Turkey Energy Conservation Challenge. The wind energy certificates purchased for these buildings will move Harvard from third to second place in terms of green power purchased by American institutes of higher education, according to the records of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Green Power Partnership.

The 2004 Annual Report of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR), a subcommittee of the President and Fellows, is now available upon request from the Office for the Committees on Shareholder Responsibility. Please call (617) 495-0985 to request copies.

At its fifth meeting of the year on Wednesday (Dec. 8), the Faculty Council heard a report on the Harvard College Library from Professor Sidney Verba, Department of Government and director of the University Library Professor Kathleen Coleman, Department of the Classics and vice chair of the Faculty Standing Committee on the Library and Nancy Cline, librarian of Harvard College.

Stephen Prinas artwork is full of unsuspected surprises, secret compartments that pop open to release compressed bundles of meaning or coiling strands of narrative.

The board of directors of the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University recently announced the names of 12 composers selected to receive 2004 commissions. These composers were chosen from 207 applicants.

Center for Health and Global Environment honors Moyers The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School (HMS) recently presented broadcast journalist Bill Moyers with its 2004…

Scholars at Risk Fellowship nominations sought The Harvard Scholars at Risk committee is now accepting nominations from Harvard faculty, staff, and students for its fellowship for persecuted scholars. The fellowship…

It is the moment of truth for the Republican Party and American conservatism, journalist William Kristol told a Kennedy School audience Wednesday night (Dec. 1). President George Bushs narrow but clear re-election victory supplemented by GOP gains in both the House and Senate provide a unique opportunity, he said, for dynamic change in Washington.

War and truth telling dominated last weekends Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism (Dec. 3-5). The ongoing violence in Iraq and postelection timing lent a sense of urgency to the many lectures, panel discussions, and question sessions about improving the craft and content of news writing.

Ashwini Vasanthakumar 04 and Silas Xu 05 have won International Rhodes Scholarships to Oxford University in England, bringing to eight the number of Harvard students or alumni to win a Rhodes Scholarship this year.

In honor of International Human Rights Day (Dec. 10), the Program on Negotiation (PON) – a consortium of faculty, students, and staff at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, and other area universities – together with Harvard Friends of Amnesty International, the Human Rights Program, and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, is sponsoring a special advance screening of Hotel Rwanda today (Dec. 9) at 9 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St.

Keep your word, build relationships in both parties, and find meaningful issues to work on. That was the advice from current and former congressional and White House staffers to 23 newly elected members of Congress during a four-day conference at the John F. Kennedy School of Government last week.

Nothing will come of nothing, said King Lear. Obviously, he hadnt heard about Zero Arrow Street.

As the Boston Red Sox swept their way to a World Series victory this past October, innumerable messages of support began appearing all over the metropolitan area. There was one, however, that outshone the rest. Each night, the words Go Sox in letters 20 feet high, glowed on the side of Chelseas enormous salt pile, repository for all the highway salt in eastern Massachusetts.

As an early autumn dusk approaches, the Memorial Church glows warmly in Tercentenary Theatre.

A new report titled Innovation and Opportunity: Harvard Universitys Impact on the Boston Area Economy describes Harvards broad economic impact, generating more than 48,000 jobs at many levels, from the service industry to construction to highly skilled scientific research positions.

Four Harvard undergraduates, a recent graduate, and a graduate student have been named Rhodes Scholars this year. The scholarship trust made the announcement on Nov. 21. The winners of this prestigious award are Peter Buttigieg 04, South Bend, Ind. seniors Melissa L. Dell, Enid, Okla., and Sarah J. Hill, Bismarck, N.D. graduate student Rachel Y. Mazyck, Laurel, Md. and seniors Swati Mylavarapu, Gainesville, Fla., and Kazi Sabeel Rahman, Scarsdale, N.Y.

Dec. 29, 1627 – John Harvard enters Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, England. Dec. 20, 1672 – Leonard Hoar, Class of 1650, is formally installed as Harvard’s third President and the…

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

A remembrance gathering for friends and family of Professor of Geology Emeritus Raymond Siever will be held in the Hoffman Laboratory (20 Oxford St.), fourth-floor faculty lounge, on Dec. 4 at 2 p.m.

In response to a peeping incident report involving an unknown male looking into the shower stall at Dane Hall taken by the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) on Nov. 29, HUPD would like to remind members of the University community to take the following precautions to keep yourself and your valuables safe:

As professor of the practice of Romance languages and literatures and director of the languages programs, Kimberlee Campbells unusual titles bespeak her unusual place in the halls of academia. Campbell, who joined Harvards Romance Languages and Literatures Department this fall after a long career at New York University, describes her work as a sort of clinical professor.

Its one of the strangest sights in nature: lizards running upright across water. Watching their thin hind feet dip into the liquid, you expect them to sink or fall over, but they just keep going like a human sprinting for a bus.