Year: 2006

Charles W. Dunn, the Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures Emeritus, died July 24 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston at the age of 90.

Pioneering statistician Frederick Mosteller, a retired Harvard professor whose broad-ranging work influenced public health, medicine, education, and even American history, died Sunday (July 23) at age 89.

Darwin’s finches are the emblems of evolution. The birds he saw on the Galapagos Islands during his famous voyage around the world in 1831-1836 changed his thinking about the origin of new species and, eventually, that of the world’s biologists.

Women who try to ease the symptoms of menopause by taking a testosterone-estrogen mix raise their risk for breast cancer, according to a Harvard Medical School study.

The career of a literary scholar often takes strange and unexpected turns. Starting out in a conventional, well-defined field, a scholar may suddenly veer off into new territory, guided by a compelling insight or the realization that some relatively neglected body of work is ripe for academic exploration.

Joseph J. Schildkraut, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and founding director of the Neuropsychopharmacology/Psychiatric Chemistry Laboratory at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (MMHC), died with his family at his side on June 26.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) on July 10 at the societys 116th annual convention, held in Addison, Texas.

Mary Jo Bane, Thornton Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Management, has been named the new academic dean at Harvards Kennedy School of Government (KSG). Bane will succeed Stephen M. Walt, who served in the role over the past four years. The appointment began July 1.

In honor of Harvard Universitys military veterans (including the more than 1,000 individuals who have died in armed conflict since the founding of the College, the Harvard Veterans Alumni Organization (HVAO) is now formalizing their group. Apolitical in purpose, HVAO is looking to earn recognition as a shared interest group and as an adjunct to…

It could be your chance to spot the next Matt Damon, the next Traci Bingham, the next Aerosmith, the next New Kids on the Block.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation named postdoctoral fellow in molecular and cellular biology Brendan N. Lilley one of its 18 postdoc fellowship recipients at its May scientific advisory committee review. According to the foundation, the recipients of this award are outstanding young scientists conducting theoretical and experimental research that is relevant to the study…

Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus Theodore (Ted) Levitt, a monumental and iconoclastic figure in the field of marketing and former editor of Harvard Business Review, who influenced generations of both scholars and practitioners with his groundbreaking, always provocative, and often controversial books and articles, died June 28 at his home in Belmont, Mass., after a…

Harvard University undergraduate students Pierpaolo Barbieri 09 and Samuel Chang 09 were recently accepted as 2006-07 undergraduate fellows with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, D.C. – a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to educate Americans about the terrorist threat to democracies worldwide. As foundation fellows, Barbieri and Chang will…

The Belfer Centers Managing the Atom Project has produced two new publications on resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis. Senior research associate Matthew Bunn has written Placing Irans Enrichment Activities in Standby, an examination of warm and cold standby options for the suspension of Irans 164-centrifuge cascade at Natanz. Warm and cold standby approaches offer options…

On July 7 at approximately 2:45 a.m., two Harvard University Summer School students reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) that they were robbed while walking on Shepard Street. The victims reported that four males (one of whom was armed with a knife) approached them and demanded that they hand over their belongings.  The…

Peabody, Natural History Museums announce price increase Effective July 1, the admission price at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Harvard Museum of Natural History has increased.…

Free University of Berlin awards Kirby honorary doctorate The department for the history of science and cultural sciences of the Free University of Berlin awarded an honorary doctorate on June…

It’s one thing to theorize about an exploding star the size of our sun, it’s another to look up in the sky and watch one getting ready to blow.

A committee of 24 leading scientists from across Harvard University – five department chairs and one dean – have produced a preliminary set of proposals for ‘enhancing science and engineering at Harvard’ that range from continuing to invest in traditional ‘core disciplines’ to transforming the teaching of science by implementing ‘hands-on learning as a cornerstone…

Harvard researchers have identified a protein that helps regulate bone growth and may lead to new drug targets to fight osteoporosis, the bone loss condition that the National Institutes of Health terms ‘a major public health threat’ to more than half of people age 50 or older.

Alan Symonds, technical director for Harvard College Theatre Programs under the Office for the Arts at Harvard, died of heart failure on June 20 in Cambridge, Mass. He was 59.

Outgoing Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers has been named Charles W. Eliot University Professor of Harvard University effective July 1, 2006.

Experts seeking to explain the amazing diversity of the tropical rain forest have typically done so in two ways, viewing forests as either