Newsmakers

Altshuler to stay through fall

Alan A. Altshuler, who announced last fall that he will step down as dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), has agreed to stay on as dean for the fall semester until a new dean is selected. Altshuler was appointed acting dean of the School in July 2004 and assumed the deanship in February 2005.

Mellinger award presented to James Collins ’07

James Collins ’07 has won the Rachel Mellinger Memorial Award, presented each year to an outstanding undergraduate member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra who has made a significant contribution to the orchestra, demonstrating leadership abilities and dedication to the highest ideals of the group.

Collins, who is the orchestra’s premier percussionist, has also performed with more than a dozen other Harvard musical groups in a wide variety of genres. A visual and environmental studies concentrator, he has had numerous photo exhibitions at Harvard and has made several documentary films. After graduation he plans to travel to South Africa where he will work with the Field Band Foundation teaching music to children.

The Mellinger Memorial Award was established by former U.S. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger A.B. ’50, A.M. ’52, Ph.D. ’56 in memory of his late wife, Rachel Mellinger Schlesinger A.B. ’52, who played violin in the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and later played in the Arlington (Virginia) Symphony Orchestra.

Stein to speak at Open Theology and Science Seminar

Associate Professor of Neurology Ross Stein has been invited to speak at the first Open Theology and Science Seminar, hosted by Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass., from June 17 to July 6. Program organizers selected Stein, who is the director of the Laboratory for Drug Discovery in Neurodegeneration at the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair, to present a lecture titled “Chemistry and Openness” because of his contributions to the emerging field of open theology and science.

The seminar will bring together acclaimed open theologians to converse with prominent scientists, building a new field in the science and religion discussion to explore the issues of cosmology, biology, and human sciences as they relate to open theology.