Campus & Community

Earths first life appeared early in the planets history, nearly 4 billion years ago, when primitive bacteria appeared in sulfurous oceans under poisonous skies.

The orchestra of Bostons medical community – the Longwood Symphony Orchestra – will present its first concert of the season at Jordan Hall on Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. The performance will pay tribute to Daniel D. Federman, senior dean for alumni relations and clinical teaching at Harvard Medical School (HMS).

Hanna Holborn Gray, Ph.D. 57, president emerita and Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of History at the University of Chicago, plans to step down from the Harvard Corporation at the end of the 2004-05 academic year, following eight years as a member of Harvards executive governing board and six years previously as a member of the Board of Overseers.

Third-party candidates who never win national elections have played a crucial role throughout the history of U.S. electoral politics, Ralph Nader told an overflow crowd of students Monday night (Oct. 4) at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.

The Real Estate Academic Initiative (REAI) at Harvard is now offering grants to support research in both domestic and international urban development. The REAI research committee will review applications for grants on a rolling basis and will give priority to interdisciplinary and interfaculty collaborative research efforts.

The Harvard-Yenching Institute recently announced the following visiting scholars and fellows for the academic year. Based at the institutes office in Vanserg Hall, the fellows and scholars represent more than 20 institutions in East Asia.

The University has begun planting 71 new trees along six city streets near the campuss eastern edge. The trees, placed in consulta-tion with University neighbors, the Cambridge city arborist, and the Cambridge Committee on Public Planting, are being planted as part of public way improvements related to construction of Harvards new Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS), twin struc-tures now under construction along both sides of Cambridge Street.

At its second meeting of the year the Faculty Council considered, with Dean Peter Ellison (anthropology and GSAS), a proposed Ph.D. program in Chemical Biology. Professor Christopher Walsh (biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, HMS) spoke in support of the proposed program, and Professors David Liu (chemistry and chemical biology) and Suzanne Walker (microbiology and molecular genetics, HMS) were also present for this discussion.

Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) is holding its fourth annual Harvest of Health Fair for students on Oct. 6. Featuring complimentary food, chair massage, bicycle tune-ups, and giveaways, the fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Science Center grounds. Clinician specialists will also be on hand to answers questions, give helpful information, and provide health screenings. Call (617) 495-9629 for more information.

Sept. 19, 1782 – The Harvard Corporation votes to establish the Medical School, following a detailed plan from President Joseph Willard and Professor Edward Wigglesworth. The plan calls for new…

Cox to be remembered on Oct. 8 A memorial service for former Harvard Law School Professor Archibald Cox will be held on Oct. 8 at 2 p.m. in the Memorial…

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Sept. 27. 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:

John E. Mack, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School since 1972 and founding chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Hospital, was struck by a car and killed on Monday evening (Sept. 27) in London. He was 74. Mack was hit as he walked home from a symposium he was attending on adventurer and World War I British officer T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). Mack was the author of a biography of Lawrence, A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1977.

S. Allen Counter appointed honorary consul general of Sweden Associate Professor of Neurology S. Allen Counter has been appointed honorary consul general of Sweden in Boston and New England by…

Give a pint, get a pint The first Harvard University Blood Drive of the academic year continues today (Sept. 30) from noon to 6 p.m., and Friday (Oct. 1) from…

Airway response mechanism in asthma investigated A mechanism that helps explain how airways respond to constriction in asthma has been identified by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. The…

Harvards Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG), together with other leading institutions, will establish the federally funded Center on School Choice, Competition and Achievement.

Harvard researchers have shed new light on how blood clots and say the information can aid the development of better anti-clotting drugs, which are critical to the recovery of patients suffering from heart attacks, strokes, and other ailments.

The American Political Science Association (APSA) recently honored Alan Altshuler and David Luberoffs Mega-Projects: The Changing Politics of Urban Public Investment (Brookings Institution Press) with its best book in urban politics award for 2003.

Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance Eric Kriss cast down the gauntlet to public labor unions last week (Sept. 22), blaming a monopolistic union structure for governments financial woes and calling for a new debate on the unions role.

A rumbling South American volcano has gone wireless: Computer scientists at Harvard University have teamed up with seismologists at the University of New Hampshire and University of North Carolina to fit an Ecuadorean peak with a wireless array to monitor volcanic activity. The sensors should help researchers, officials, and local residents understand and plan for eruptions of Tungarahua, one of Ecuadors most active volcanoes in recent years.

Business and political leader David M. Rubenstein is giving $10 million to establish a fund for excellence at the Kennedy School of Government. A key component of the gift is $1 million earmarked for a loan forgiveness program to encourage talented students to pursue careers in public service.

To someone accustomed to Western art with its vivid colors, its emphasis on the human figure, its use of naturalistic modeling and perspective, East Asian painting may seem a bit pallid at first – pretty enough with its graceful calligraphic lines and its ever-present repertoire of bamboo, plum blossoms, and chrysanthemums, but somehow lacking in individuality and oomph.

For the past five years, Widener Memorial Library – one of Harvards best-known buildings and the heart of its 90-library system – has surrendered its scholarly serenity to the cacophony of construction.

The John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard has announced the scholars who will be resident at the center for the 2004-05 academic year. Each of these scholars will be completing specialized research projects and will present his or her work in a free and open lecture.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told a packed John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum Tuesday night (Sept. 28) that democracy is best served when judges stick to determining the letter of the law and refrain from ruling on moral issues such as abortion and assisted suicide.

A newly appointed Harvard Medical School assistant professor who specializes in the study of cellular mitochondria has been named one of this years 23 recipients of the MacArthur Foundations genius grants: $500,000 over five years, no strings attached.

Harvard biologist Matthew Meselson has won the 2004 Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science. The prize honors a lifetime of solving fundamental biological problems and of helping to curtail the spread of biological and chemical weapons.

Its a computerized jungle out there, with viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other electronic predators waiting to wreak havoc on an unprotected computer.