In Brief

School of Public Health to host symposium on bioterrorism

School of Public Health (SPH) Dean Barry R. Bloom invites members of the Harvard community to attend a special symposium on bioterrorism on Thursday, Oct. 25, and Friday, Oct. 26, in the Snyder Auditorium at SPH. The conference will run from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on both days.

Thursday’s program will deal with public heath perils, and Friday’s program will focus on the public health response. Speakers will include David Frantz of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases; Margaret Hamburg, vice president for biological programs, Nuclear Threat Initiative; Matthew Meselson, Harvard professor of natural sciences and a consultant on chemical and biological weapons; Jonathan Burstein, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Howard Koh, Massachusetts commissioner of public health.

For more information about the symposium, visit the Web site at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/bioterrorism/.

Committee on Honorary Degrees to consider 2003 nominees

The Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees will meet during the fall and spring to consider nominees for honorary degrees to be awarded in 2003. Members of the Harvard community are invited to submit names of likely honorary degree candidates.

Nominations may be sent to Conrad K. Harper, fellow of the Harvard Corporation and chair of the advisory committee, or Marc Goodheart, secretary to the corporation, at Loeb House, 17 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138.

New nominations received will be considered for degrees to be awarded in June 2003 and afterward. Nominations should be submitted by Oct. 31. Biographical material and comments in support of recommendations should accompany submissions

CASE Fellowship Program now accepting applicants

Harvard’s Alumni Affairs and Development is seeking candidates to apply for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Fellowship Program. This fellowship is a CASE program and the successful candidate may be placed at another participating area college or university. The CASE Program is designed to increase the number of minority professionals in institutional educational advancement.

Applicants should have a college degree and a minimum of three years of full – time work experience in a field other than their institutional advancement, and identify themselves as Asian, black, Hispanic, Native American, or Native Canadian. Preference will be given to candidates who reside in New England, Quebec, or the Atlantic provinces of Canada. During the nine – month paid fellowship, the fellow will maintain a full – time work schedule and rotate through a broad range of advancement areas. At the end of the program, fellows are expected to apply for a professional position in advancement at the host institution or another educational institution.

Interested candidates should send a cover letter and resume to Barbara Nadeau, director of Human Resources, Alumni Affairs and Development, Harvard University, 124 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, MA 02138. The application deadline for the fellowship is Nov. 9. For more information, call (617) 496-6187.

PIC hosts diamond trade conference

The Program on Intrastate Conflict (PIC) of the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) is sponsoring an intensive two-day conference on the diamond trade this Oct. 19-20 at KSG. The meeting – “Diamonds in Peace and War” – will examine the role of the diamond industry in fueling brutal hostilities in Angola, the Congo, and Sierra Leone. Forty experts from Congress, the General Accounting Office, De Beers Ltd., Amnesty International, Global Witness, and interested organizations and parties from Belgium, Israel, and Africa will take part in the meeting.

Conference members will analyze the world diamond trade (and the exploitation of timber) in international conflict zones, and discuss ways the diamond industry and Congress could remedy the problem, including such methods as central processes, and passport schemes devised by the diamond industry and pending legislation in the U.S. Congress.

The director for the PIC, Robert I. Rotberg, will chair the meeting. Deborah West of the program will handle all questions.

‘Sackler Saturdays’ promotes arts

This fall, the University Art Museums is sponsoring “Sackler Saturdays,” a new program for families with children aged 6-11. Each Sackler Saturday is based on a new theme, and the program promotes the appreciation of works of art from cultures and lands distant in time and space. The next happening, this Saturday (Oct. 20), will celebrate “Fun With Faces,” while Nov. 17 will honor “Animals in Art.”

Activities for children include gallery games and discussions, hands-on art projects, sketching, and self-guided activities families can do together.

“There is no better way to encourage artistic development with children than hands-on activities in the natural surroundings of a museum as intimate as ours,” said Lynne Stanton, coordinator of public education at the University Art Museums.

The program, which is free and open to the public, runs from 10 a.m. to noon on a drop-in basis. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is located at 485 Broadway, at the corner of Broadway and Quincy streets in Cambridge. The program is sponsored by the Public Education Department of the Harvard University Art Museums. For further information about Sackler Saturdays, call (617) 495-4402.

HRO to kick off 194th season

Senior Lecturer on Music James Yannatos will launch his 38th season as the music director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) on Saturday, Oct. 27, at 8 p.m. in Sanders Theatre. The performance, the first in a series of four subscription concerts this academic year, will feature the world premiere of “Essay” by Jonathan Russell ’00, and Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” with narration courtesy of Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers.

For subscription information, call the HRO office at (617) 469-6276 or e-mail hro@hcs.harvard.edu.

– Compiled by Andrew Brooks