Newsmakers

MVP Morris named top senior

Harvard wide receiver Carl Morris ’03 – named the Ivy League’s most valuable player for the second consecutive season – received the Harry Agganis/Harold Zimman Award as the top senior I-AA football player in New England at the annual New England Sports Writers’ Dinner on Dec. 5. Ranked second in the country in receptions per game (9.0) and reception yards per game (128.8), Morris made 90 catches for 1,288 yards this season, breaking his own school records from a year ago. He has been invited to play in both the East-West Shrine Game and the Hula Bowl, showcases for the nation’s top senior talent.

Pontifical Academy inducts GSE professor

Antonio Battro, Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor of Latin American Studies at the Graduate School of Education, was inducted into the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at a ceremony with Pope John Paul II in Rome in November. The Academy, founded in 1603 by the Roman Catholic Church, promotes the progress of mathematical, physical, and natural sciences.

Battro’s research concerns the neurodevelopment study of cognition in children and adults. His recent book, “Half a Brain Is Enough: The Story of Nico,” describes the impact of the digital technologies in the education of a hemispherectomized child.

KSG authors finalists for Gelber Book Prize

Two Kennedy School of Government (KSG) faculty members whose recent books examine significant geopolitical and social movements of the modern era have been named finalists for the $30,000 Lionel Gelber Prize for nonfiction writing. Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr. was nominated for “The Paradox of American Power: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go It Alone,” which likens U.S. dominance in the world today to that of ancient Rome in terms of economic, cultural, and military power. Lecturer of public policy Samantha Power was nominated for “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” an examination of the world’s killing fields and American response, or lack thereof. The Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto will announce the winner of the prize on Jan. 15, 2003. For more information, visit the Gelber Prize Web site at http://www.utoronto.ca/mcis/gelber/PR_Shorlist02.shtml.

Edley joins The Century Foundation

The Board of Trustees of The Century Foundation has elected Professor of Law Christopher Edley Jr., co-director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard and author of “Not All Black and White: Affirmative Action, Race and American Values,” as one of its newest members. The Century Foundation, formerly the Twentieth Century Fund, is a policy research foundation that undertakes timely and critical analyses of major economic, political, and social institutions and issues.

– Compiled by Andrew Brooks