Year: 2004

Did you hear the one about the psychiatrist who laughs during therapy? Humor was once considered taboo at such times because it might disrupt a patients chain of thought or hurt his or her feelings. But analysis of videotapes of 10 recent sessions reveals that psychotherapy can be a laughing matter.

Planning for Harvards future development in Allston is moving ahead on several fronts this fall. The planning firm Cooper, Robertson and Partners has begun its work, a series of faculty retreats are fleshing out recommendations involving the sciences, and Harvard continues to work with the city of Boston and with Allston in a community-based planning…

A Cambridge holiday tradition since 1971, the Christmas Revels will return to Harvards Sanders Theatre beginning Dec. 10 for 18 performances of music, dance, and rituals in celebration of the winter solstice.

A visiting biology professor showed that the majority of threatened species have low genetic diversity, bolstering the scientific view that genetic factors are a threat to species heading toward extinction.

In 1970, John Misha Petkevich, a Harvard junior, was getting a routine checkup at Childrens Memorial Hospital in Brookline. After meeting some children being treated for leukemia there, Petkevich (a future Olympian) returned to Eliot House and, with the help of other students, organized a benefit skating event called An Evening With Champions.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of Harvards W.E.B. Du Bois Institute and chair of the Department of African and African American Studies, has announced the appointment of 12 new fellows for the 2004-05 academic year.

Twenty new fellows from five different countries have joined the Kennedy School of Governments Center for Business and Government (CBG) for the 2004-05 academic year.

Far below the Pacific Oceans waves, seabed vents spew hot water, minerals, and nutrients into the cold, dark depths, opening a window to the geologic processes driving them and anchoring biological communities that scientists hope can reveal the secrets of lifes beginnings.

After four full quarters of on-field surprises, the Harvard football team may have blown its single biggest secret against visiting Cornell this past Saturday (Oct. 9). Pass it on, this Crimson roster runs deeper than the stat sheets might suggest.

Professor Bernard Bailyn receives Kennedy Medal The council of the Massachusetts Historical Society awarded the Kennedy Medal – given to persons who have “rendered distinguished service to the cause of…

Asking Who am I? may launch a quest to understand ones own identity, but unless one happens to be Michel de Montaigne or Jean Jacques Rousseau, the effort is unlikely to be of much concern to anyone else.

Graham Allison, the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government and director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, has published a new book titled Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe. Allison, an expert on arms control and defense policy, served as assistant secretary of defense for policy and…

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and President Lawrence H. Summers joined forces last Thursday (Oct. 7) to celebrate the partnership that has put Boston after-school efforts in the national arena and to recognize two exemplary Boston-area school principals who have made after-school education a vital and successful part of their schools.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study honored one of its most illustrious pioneers last week (Oct. 7) when the portrait of Elizabeth Cary Agassiz was unveiled in a ceremony inside the Faculty Room at University Hall. Agassiz was one of a group of women closely linked to Harvard who, in the 1870s, designed a new…

Harvard University has announced a set of principles designed to ensure sustainable growth and advance Harvard’s record as a responsible environmental steward.

Last week (Oct. 7 and 8), Harvards Graduate School of Education (GSE) convened an eclectic gathering of biologists, reading specialists, neuroscientists, learning disabilities researchers, geneticists, and child psychologists for a conference looking at the links between the mind, the brain, and education. Called Usable Knowledge: Mind, Brain, and Education, the conference of invited participants aimed…

Safra accepting 2005-06 fellowship applications The Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics invites graduate students who are writing dissertations, or who are engaged in major research on topics in…

When friends, colleagues, and family gathered in the Memorial Church Friday (Oct. 8) to celebrate the life of Archibald Cox 34, Harvard Law School professor emeritus, they honored the memory of a great teacher, courageous public servant, legendary Watergate figure, and devoted husband and father.

A Harvard delegation recently traveled to Ghana to begin building a new partnership with the University of Ghana – the latest manifestation of the growing strength of African studies at Harvard.

Low-dose aspirin proven to offer inflammation protection Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital and colleagues have demonstrated for the first time in humans in a randomized clinical trial that…

If Sholeh Regna had followed the path laid out for her, she would be an American-educated medical doctor practicing in Iran. But because she decided to follow her own vision, she is a sculptor, painter, and video artist practicing in Somerville.

Dimitar Sasselov did what every high school astronomer dreams of doing he went from looking at stars with a backyard telescope to discovering a new class of planets and a new class of stars.

Holly Sargent has been named to a new position in Alumni Affairs and Development as senior associate dean for advancement and senior director for University Womens Initiatives. In this new role, Sargent will be responsible for identifying and engaging new sources of principal gift support for new and ongoing projects related to University priorities, with…

Professor of Geology Emeritus Raymond Siever passed away on Sept. 24 at the age of 81. Siever was first appointed to the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in 1957, serving as chair from 1968 to 1971 and again from 1976 to 1981.

President Lawrence H. Summers will hold office hours for students in his Massachusetts Hall office on the following dates:

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Oct. 11. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor.

Thorn memorial service set A memorial service for Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine George W. Thorn will be held Oct. 18 at 4:30 p.m. in Bornstein…

Oct. 5, 1740 – Fresh from haranguing 15,000 on Boston Common, the dynamic revivalist George Whitefield breezes in to preach at the Cambridge meetinghouse, inspiring division within families and churches,…

A reflection of the Dunster House tower lands on a walkway puddle.