Newsmakers

Harvard affiliates receive ACLS Fellowships

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) recently announced that 10 Harvard affiliates are among its 2006-07 fellowship winners. This year, ACLS awarded fellowships totaling close to $8.4 million to 232 U.S.-based scholars.

Among the recipients are Harvard faculty members Alison F. Frank, assistant professor of history, and Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies.

Additionally, the following Harvard graduate students were named recipients of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/ACLS Early Career Fellowship Program Dissertation Completion Fellowship:

Jared Winston Hickman, Isaac S. Nakhimovsky, Lindsay Adams Smith, Daniel A. Shore, Heléna Tóth, Adrian Chastain Weimer, and Elizabeth Yale. Jason David LaFountain received a Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art.

Professor Pilbeam to serve as interim dean of College

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Michael D. Smith recently announced that David Pilbeam, Henry Ford II Professor of Human Evolution and Curator of Paleoanthropology at the Peabody Museum, has agreed to serve as dean of Harvard College on an interim basis, effective Sept. 1.

Pilbeam recently served as interim dean of FAS and prior to that was senior adviser to the dean of Harvard College, a member of the Task Force on General Education, and co-chair of the Educational Policy Committee. From 1987 to 1992 and again from 1996 to 1997, Pilbeam was dean of undergraduate education. He served as associate dean of the faculty from 1997 to 2000.

“He brings a deep understanding of both the academic and residential aspects of life in the College, as well as a rare awareness of the important ways in which the College fits into the broader structure of the FAS,” Smith wrote in an e-mail about Pilbeam.

Hanyang University honors Howard Gardner

Howard Gardner, the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, has been awarded an honorary doctor of education degree from South Korea’s Hanyang University. At the July award ceremony, Gardner reflected on his past experiences as a student, researcher, and professor at Harvard, and discussed his involvement in the ongoing GoodWork Project.

Hedley-Whyte honored by ISO

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently awarded a certificate of appreciation to John Hedley-Whyte, the David S. Sheridan Professor of Anaesthesia and Respiratory Therapy. Hedley-Whyte received the certificate for “his considerable contribution to the activity of international standardization and the ISO system” in the field of surgical and medical equipment performance and interoperability.

Polish Academy elects Sevcenko

Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History and Literature Emeritus Ihor Sevcenko was elected a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences at a June ceremony. The president of the republic confirmed the election on July 30.

Founded in 1872, the academy has served from the beginning as a learned and cultural society for the entire Polish nation. It is based in Krakow.

Young scientist Amy Wagers wins distinguished award

Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Pathology Amy Wagers was recently selected among five scientists nationwide to receive this year’s Distinguished Young Scholars in Medical Research grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation. The Los Angeles philanthropy awards grants of up to $1 million each to five junior faculty members in the United States. A principal investigator at the Joslin Diabetes Center’s Section on Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Wagers will study how to slow down or reverse the natural process of aging.

Nieman names narrative director

Writer, editor, and educator Constance Hale has been named director of the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. In her new position, Hale will oversee the annual Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism and the Nieman Seminar for Narrative Editors; edit the Nieman Narrative Digest, a resource-rich Web site devoted to improving the practice of narrative in journalism; and consult with news organizations and journalists on ways to develop narrative skills.

Professors share Gruber prize

The Gruber Foundation recently awarded its Gruber Cosmology Prize to two teams of astronomers — each of which included a Harvard faculty member — for discovering that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. The discovery led to the idea of an expansion force, dubbed “dark energy.” The award includes a $500,000 prize.

The team members from the Harvard Astronomy Department are Clowes Professor of Science Robert P. Kirshner (from the High-z Supernova Search Team) and Julia Lee, assistant professor of astronomy (of the Supernova Cosmology Project). Together, the two teams represented 50 researchers from Australia, Chile, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

— Compiled by Andrew Brooks