In brief

Bok Center offering postdoc fellowship

The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning is offering a half-time postdoctoral fellowship for the 2003-04 academic year to support a strong scholar familiar with Harvard’s programs. The fellowship is designed to promote a project that improves teaching at Harvard College. Applications will be accepted until March 15.

For more information, visit the Web site at www.bokcenter.harvard.edu/progs/postdoc.html.

Kids Risk Project to sponsor symposium

“Managing Children’s Risks: It Takes a Commitment,” a two-day symposium on current pediatric risk-analysis research, will be held March 26 and 27 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (both days) at Annenberg Hall.

Speakers will include Kimberly Thompson, director of the Kids Risk Project at the Harvard School of Public Health; Hal Stratton, chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission; Neil Shulman, the “real” Doc Hollywood; and several other leaders in business, government, academia, and the health community.

For more information, or to register ($50 for members of the Harvard community), visit www.kidsrisk.harvard.edu/symposium.html.

Applications under way for Kagan Awards

The Harvard Children’s Initiative and the Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative have announced that all Harvard College students with sophomore or junior standing in spring 2003 are eligible to apply for the third annual Kagan Undergraduate Research Awards.

From virtually any discipline, proposed research must relate to children or to issues that affect children. Research with a multidisciplinary approach is particularly encouraged. Students may carry out projects anywhere in the world during the summer of 2003. Grants are for up to $1,500.

Interested applicants should submit four copies of all application materials, including a two-page proposal, budget, transcript, and letter of support from a faculty mentor. Students will conduct their research under the direction of their mentor.

Applications are due to the Harvard Children’s Initiative by April 10. For more information or application forms, visit www.hci.harvard.edu, or contact Ann Haycox at (617) 496-4938.

W.E.B. Du Bois reading series on Web

The first three events of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute’s Black Writers Reading series, which has featured Andrea Lee and Jamaica Kincaid, Zadie Smith and Caryl Phillips, and Helen E. Lee and Randall Kenan, are now available online at www.streams.wgbh.org/forum/forum.php?organization=Harvard+%2F+Du+Bois+Institute.

For more information, or to access the latest Webcast each week, visit www.fas.harvard.edu/~du_bois/.

Career Forum 2003 set for summer

Employment Services Office, collaborating with a University-wide organizing committee, will host Career Forum 2003 on June 17 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy St. For more information, contact Employment Services at (617) 495-2772, or visit www.atwork.harvard.edu/employment.

More than just space

The Harvard Foundation has selected NASA astronaut Ellen Ochoa as its 2003 Honorary Scientist. A mission specialist on three NASA shuttle flights, Ochoa will present a lecture on “Space Exploration in the 21st Century” at Pforzheimer House on March 14 at noon as part of the foundation’s annual two-day science conference – “Advancing Minorities and Women in Science.” Ochoa will be awarded the Harvard Foundation medal for her leadership and notable contributions to the advancement of space exploration, science, and intercultural relations.

On the second day of the conference (March 15), the Harvard Foundation will host “Partners in Science” – an undergraduate mentoring program for area elementary and junior high school students. The daylong program involves lectures for the public school students by some of Harvard’s leading science faculty, and science demonstrations by Harvard College students.

– Compiled by Andrew Brooks