Campus & Community

In 2012, Fanelesibonge Mashwama ’17 and Bo Seo ’17 met on a bus in South Africa en route to an international debate tournament. Little did they know that fate would lead them from two different continents to Harvard, to Pforzheimer House, and ultimately to triumph earlier this month at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC), the world’s largest debating competition.

Combating pregnancy discrimination. Reducing racial disparities in obesity rates. Working on the front lines of the opiate epidemic. These are a few of the experiences undertaken by Harvard’s Presidential Public Service Fellows. The deadline to apply for the 2016 fellowships is Feb. 8.

Harvard University and the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers announced today that they have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract to provide HUCTW employees with an annual pay increase program, changes in health plan design, and other constructive policy initiatives.

Harvard professors C. Ronald Kahn and Stuart L. Schreiber have won the Wolf Prize, considered the most prestigious award in science after the Nobel Prize and the Lasker Award.

The 2015 Annual Report of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR), a subcommittee of the President and Fellows, is now available on the Shareholder Responsibility Committees’ website.

Six Harvard students were chosen to study in Beijing as part of first class of Schwarzman Scholars.

Walter Kaiser, Harvard’s Francis Lee Higginson Professor of English Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus, died on Jan. 5.

This spring, alumni can vote for a new group of Harvard Overseers and Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) elected directors.

The Council on Library and Information Resources, through its Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives awards program, has awarded a grant of $275,795 to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, in collaboration with a Yale partner, to create the Digital Archive of Native American Petitions in Massachusetts.

Helmut Koester, John H. Morison Professor of New Testament Studies and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History Emeritus, died on Jan. 1 at age 89.

Local high school students looked at life in the deep sea as they explored the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s “Marine Life” exhibit. The visit was part of Cambridge Rindge and Latin’s Marine Science Internship Program.

Jene Golovchenko and John Johnson are the 2015 winners of the Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching.

A look back at some of the Gazette’s best stories of 2015.

The constellations of stained-glass windows that grace Memorial Hall create a magical feeling above the building’s halls as they transform the space into a veritable museum of American stained glass, with a variety of designers, manufacturers, and techniques on display.

Harvard Quincy House residents Rebecca Panovka and Bianca Mulaney were recently selected to receive Marshall Scholarships. They will be joined in the United Kingdom by Yen Pham ’15-’16, who recently received a Rhodes Scholarship in her native Australia.

Three Harvard professors and scientists have been named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad has been named professor of history, race, and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School and appointed the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. He will begin at Harvard on July 1.

Harvard College admits 918 under Early Action program to the Class of 2020.

Harvard physicist Federico Capasso is the co-recipient of the 2015 Rumford Prize, awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He shares the prize with Alfred Cho in recognition of their contributions to the field of laser technology.

On Dec. 9 the members of the Faculty Council heard a proposal to create a joint program in jazz with the Berklee College of Music.

For the students, staff, and faculty at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, wearing black is an announcement of their craft. But increasingly, color has found its way back into vogue.

Harvard’s Midyear Graduates Recognition Ceremony pays tribute to more than 100 seniors.

Inaugural study shows that Harvard alumni worldwide create vast businesses and nonprofit organizations, accounting for millions of jobs, economic impact, and volunteering success.

Principal for a Day program allows local leaders, including Harvard Vice President Paul Andrew, to see the changes that have occurred in the way students learn. Andrew visited Thomas Edison K-8 School in Brighton.

“But I Don’t See Color! Consequences of Racial Color-Blindness,” was the topic of a talk by John Dovidio, the Carl Iver Hovland Professor of Psychology at Yale University. The discussion was part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Diversity Dialogue series.

The inaugural Official Harvard Military History Tours in November brought together 50 veterans who toured the many landmarks significant to Harvard’s distinguished military past.

Shirley M. Tilghman, president emerita and professor of molecular biology and public affairs at Princeton University, will become the newest member of the Harvard Corporation.

In a question-and-answer session, two Harvard deans sat down with the Gazette late last week to talk about the impending change to the House master title that was announced at the Dec. 1 faculty meeting, and to give the thinking behind the switch.

Harvard professors reflect on a few of their favorite things, and what makes them so.

Harvard Global Institute seeks applicants for grants to help tackle international concerns.