Year: 2006

  • Nation & World

    This month in Harvard history

    Feb. 5, 1954 – At the winter meeting of the Massachusetts Bar Association in Springfield, Law School Dean Erwin Griswold discusses the soundness and landmark significance of the Fifth Amendment…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Faculty Council meetings held Jan. 4 and Feb. 1

    At its eighth meeting of the year on Jan. 4, the Faculty Council received a report from Senior Adviser to the Dean Lisa Martin on issues related to tenure-track faculty…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    After Midnight

    This is the first in an ongoing Gazette series giving our readers and viewers a glimpse into life at Harvard after dark. We begin our series with the all-nighter, which is just what photographer Justin Ide pulled not long ago as he spent 24 hours at Lamont Library. The undergraduate library has recently adjusted its…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    HMS creates first known library of breast cancer proteins

    In research that could significantly advance the pace of drug discovery in the fight against breast cancer, Harvard Medical School (HMS) investigators announced in Wednesday’s (Feb. 8) online Journal of…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Complete breast is grown from single stem cell

    A complete, functioning breast has been grown from a single stem cell, by researchers in Australia. It was done in a mouse, but experts believe it won’t be long before…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    When the blues keep you awake

    Your eyes do more than see. Researchers at Harvard Medical School demonstrated this by showing that your eyes are part of a light reception system that can keep you alert…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Science losing war over evolution?

    This just in from the front lines of the battle between evolution and intelligent design: evolution is losing. That’s the assessment of Randy Olson, a Harvard-trained evolutionary biologist turned filmmaker…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Two teams address Harvard planning and development

    To meet the increased physical planning and development needs of the faculties and departments on Harvard’s existing campus while simultaneously preparing for first-phase development in Allston, the Harvard Planning + Allston Initiative (HPAI) – the team that coordinated University-wide physical planning – has been reconfigured into two University organizations.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Brigham pilot program connects people with family histories

    A Harvard Medical School instructor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is spearheading a pilot project to encourage Brigham employees to gather detailed family health histories to give health care officials an edge fighting inherited diseases.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Music Dept.’s beloved Elliot Forbes, 88

    Elliot Forbes, the Fanny Peabody Professor of Music Emeritus, died Jan. 10 at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 88. A member of an old Boston family with numerous Harvard connections, Forbes was the son of Fogg Museum Director Edward Waldo Forbes and the great-grandson of poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Professor shines light on shadowy condition

    Sandra Fallman avoided mirrors. Walking down sidewalks during dates, she would avoid bright storefront lights, walking near the curb to stay in the shadows. She put 25-watt bulbs in her apartment lights, not to set the mood, but to provide cover. Fallman suffers from a little-known mental condition called body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Gwynne Evans, Renaissance lit scholar, at 93

    G. (Gwynne) Blakemore Evans, Cabot Professor of English Literature Emeritus at Harvard University and this country’s most distinguished editor of Shakespeare’s plays and poems, died on Dec. 23, 2005, at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 93. His death was the result of complications that followed a recent stroke.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Divinity School’s Hutchison dies at 75

    William Hutchison, scholar of American religious history and former co-master of Winthrop House, died of cancer on Dec. 16, 2005, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was 75.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Shorenstein announces spring fellows

    The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government recently announced its group of spring fellows.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    The first word on nouns and verbs

    Since humans learned to speak, they have put their words into two basic categories, nouns and verbs. Nouns denote objects; verbs refer to actions. Dictionaries of specialized words have been added by bankers, lawyers, scientists, and clergy, but this core distinction remains.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Controlling long-term memory

    Harvard University biologists have identified a molecular pathway active in neurons that interacts with RNA to regulate the formation of long-term memory in fruit flies. The same pathway is also found at mammalian synapses, and could eventually present a target for new therapeutics to treat human memory loss.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    IOP announces fellows for spring semester

    Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP), located at the Kennedy School of Government, has announced the selection of an experienced group of individuals for fellowships this spring. The following resident fellows will join the institute for the spring semester and will lead weekly, not-for-credit study groups on a range of political topics. Fellows interact with students,…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Harvard senior awarded Mitchell Scholarship

    Harvard College senior Victoria Sprow is among the 12 national recipients of the 2006-07 George J. Mitchell Scholarship. Only the third Harvard student ever to receive the Mitchell award, Sprow will study for a master’s degree in creative writing at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Shorenstein Center names finalists for Goldsmith Prize

    Six entries have been chosen as finalists for the 2006 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, awarded each year by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government. The winner of the $25,000 prize will be named at an awards ceremony on March 14 at the Kennedy…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Computer use deleted as carpal tunnel syndrome cause

    The popular belief that excessive computer use causes painful carpal tunnel syndrome has been contradicted by experts at Harvard Medical School. According to them, even as much as seven hours a day of tapping on a computer keyboard won’t increase your risk of this disabling disorder.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Former deputy secretary of defense named Belfer Lecturer

    John White, former U.S. deputy secretary of defense, has been named the Robert and Renée Belfer Lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG). White has served as a lecturer in public policy at KSG since 1998.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    HMS seeks grant, fellowship nominations

    Each year more than 50 postdoctoral and faculty fellowships/grants are available to the Harvard medical community by invitation only. The private foundations that fund these grants permit a limited number of individuals to be nominated for these awards. (Individuals cannot apply for these directly, but must be nominated by the institution.) In order to choose…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Meditation found to increase brain size

    People who meditate grow bigger brains than those who don’t. Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    MacArthur Foundation awards $3 million to Berkman Center, OpenNet Initiative

    The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded $3 million to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and its partners to advance their collaborative study of state-sponsored Internet filtering worldwide through the OpenNet Initiative.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    University Library receives grant

    The Harvard University Library (HUL) has received a grant of $600,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the development of a registry of authoritative information about digital formats. Detailed information about the format of digital resources is fundamental to their preservation. The two-year project will result in a new Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR),…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    New professorship addresses energy

    HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES New professorship addresses energy William Hogan named first Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy at KSG A new professorship devoted to global energy policy has been created at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (KSG) to help address the enormous challenges of meeting worldwide energy needs in a timely, secure, environmentally responsible,…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sewall named director of Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

    Sarah Sewall was appointed director of the Kennedy School of Government’s (KSG) Carr Center for Human Rights Policy on Jan. 25. She began her appointment immediately and will serve through the 2006-07 academic year.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    HUAM names Ebbinghaus new curator of ancient art

    The Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) recently announced the appointment of Susanne Ebbinghaus as the George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art. Ebbinghaus has been serving as a curatorial research associate in the Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art and Numismatics at Harvard University Art Museums and recently spent a year at the University of…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Gift from Jordans advances FAS, health research

    The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and disease-fighting researchers across Harvard are the recipients of Jerry and Darlene Jordan’s recent $10 million gift to the University. The gift is just the latest expression of the Jordans’ generosity: Over the years, Jerry ’61, M.B.A. ’67, and Darlene Jordan have funded financial aid, athletics, and other…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Herman is assistant dean for communications at HSPH

    Robin Herman has been appointed assistant dean for communications at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). She has served as director of the School’s office of communications for the past six years.

    1 minute