Month: April 2008

  • Nation & World

    Museum of Science to honor McCarthy with Walker Prize

    James McCarthy, the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, will accept the 2008 Walker Prize from the Boston Museum of Science on April 7. The prize recognizes “meritorious published scientific investigation and discovery” in any scientific field.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Gabrielse to receive physics prize

    George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Physics Gerald Gabrielse has been named the winner of the 2008 Premio Caterina Tommassoni and Felice Pietro Chisesi Prize. The prize, which includes 13,000 euros, will be officially presented April 7 at the University of Rome.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Brandt awarded prestigious Bancroft Prize

    “The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America,” by Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine Allan M. Brandt, has been selected to receive a Bancroft Prize from Columbia University.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Faculty Council

    At its 10th meeting of the year on April 2, the Faculty Council considered a proposal to rename the Department of English and American Literature and Language and discussed several items on the dean of the Faculty’s agenda. The council next meets on April 23. The preliminary deadline for the May 6 Faculty meeting is…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Rambelje, Physics Department, 90

    Harry Rambelje, an assistant in the department of physics, died on March 1. He was 90.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Byse memorial set for April 4

    A memorial service for Byrne Professor of Administrative Law Emeritus Clark Byse will be held April 4 at 11 a.m. in the Memorial Church. A reception will follow at Loeb House, 17 Quincy St.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Former fellow establishes program at Weatherhead

    The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs has established a new Program on Transatlantic Relations, thanks to a donation by Pierre Keller of Geneva. Keller was a fellow in 1979–80 at the then–Center for International Affairs, as part of a program that welcomes senior-level diplomats, politicians, military officers, and private-sector professionals to the University for a…

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Sports in brief

    CRIMSON SWIMMERS COMPETE AT NATIONALS IN WASHINGTON, TIGERS TRIP UP POSTSEASON RUN FOR MEN’S HOCKEY, FRESHMAN SAILORS PACE CRIMSON AT CENTRAL SERIES TWO, CWPA SELECTS 12 HARVARDIANS TO ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Capturing the Kazmaier

    Just one day after dropping a 4-1 heartbreaker to the University of Wisconsin in NCAA semifinal action (March 20), the Harvard women’s hockey team, still reeling from their fifth defeat in as many Frozen Four appearances, was thrust into a festive mood. And though the source of that joy — junior Sarah Vaillancourt’s selection as…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    ‘To whom much is given …’

    Melinda Gates is likely the happiest woman alive. That is, if a recent study, co-conducted by a Harvard Business School (HBS) scholar, is any indication — it shows that people who spend money on others are happier than those who spend it on themselves.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Undergrad Houses to be renovated

    Following a comprehensive assessment, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will begin planning a major renovation of Harvard University’s undergraduate residential Houses. The renovations, a significant, long-term project that is anticipated to involve all 12 Houses, will unfold over 15 years.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Panel discusses history, future of alternative therapies

    The history of alternative and complementary medical treatments can inform the medicine of today. That was the message of “Sectarian (to Unorthodox to Alternative) to Complementary Medicine: What Historical Perspectives can Tell Modern Medicine,” an afternoon of talks sponsored by the Countway Library’s Center for the History of Medicine on March 26.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Harvard Foundation names Scientist of Year

    The Harvard Foundation will present its 2008 Scientist of the Year Award to Stephanie D. Wilson, a NASA astronaut and 1988 Harvard College graduate, at this year’s annual “Albert Einstein Science Conference: Advancing Minorities and Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics.” Wilson will be honored for her outstanding work in engineering and space exploration with…

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    The beauty of computer science

    As a sophomore at Harvard College in 1992, Salil Vadhan skeptically and rather grudgingly enrolled in an introductory departmental course that a friend had cajoled him into taking. The course was “Computer Science 121: Introduction to Formal Systems and Computation,” a class that he would revisit a little more than a decade later — as…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    FDA deadlines may compromise drug safety by rushing approvals

    Many medications are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the brink of congressionally mandated deadlines, and those drugs are more likely to face later regulatory intervention than those approved with greater deliberation, researchers at Harvard University have found. Drugs fast-tracked by the FDA are more likely to eventually be withdrawn from…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Eating meat led to smaller stomachs, bigger brains

    Behind glass cases, Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology displays ancient tools, weapons, clothing, and art — enough to jar you back into the past. But the venerable museum offered a jarring moment of another sort in its Geological Lecture Hall last month (March 20). Paleoanthropologist Leslie Aiello delivered a late-afternoon talk on diet, energy, and…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Common aquatic animals show resistance to radiation

    Scientists at Harvard University have found that a common class of freshwater invertebrate animals called bdelloid rotifers are extraordinarily resistant to ionizing radiation, surviving and continuing to reproduce after doses of gamma radiation much greater than that tolerated by any other animal species studied to date.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Laser precision to help find new Earths

    Harvard scientists have unveiled a new laser-measuring device that they say will provide a critical advance in the resolution of current planet-finding techniques, making the discovery of Earth-sized planets possible.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Medical School to reduce student debt burden with new financing plan

    Harvard Medical School (HMS) Dean Jeffrey Flier announced March 21 that the School is taking steps to reduce the cost of a four-year medical education by up to $50,000 for families with incomes of $120,000 or less.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Scientists learn what’s ‘up’ with retinal cells

    Harvard University researchers have discovered a new type of retinal cell that plays an exclusive and unusual role in mice: detecting upward motion. The cells reflect their function in the physical arrangement of their dendrites, branchlike structures on neuronal cells that form a communicative network with other dendrites and neurons in the brain.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Hospital brings hope to Haiti

    A hospital opened in January where a year earlier cows grazed. There were banners and bands that bright day in the tiny community of Lacolline, Haiti.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Shapiro named Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum

    The World Economic Forum has selected Daniel L. Shapiro as a 2008 Young Global Leader. The founder and director of the Harvard International Negotiation Initiative and associate director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Shapiro is on the faculty at Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Gellman, Becker are awarded Goldsmith Prize

    The $25,000 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting has been awarded to Barton Gellman and Jo Becker of The Washington Post for their investigative report “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency.” The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy administers the award.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    From Law School to Business School — evolution of the case method

    On a recent Wednesday morning, 90 high achievers from around the world prepared to get down to cases. Their professor buzzed through the classroom like a worker bee. Armed with large, multicolored pieces of chalk, he organized his notes, copied pastel-coded facts and figures on the blackboard, and set up a film screen. Soon his…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Laser precision added to search for new Earths

    Harvard scientists have unveiled a new laser-measuring device that they say will provide a critical advance in the resolution of current planet-finding techniques, making the discovery of Earth-sized planets possible.…

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Louise Ivers: ‘I can’t sleep at night because of the things that I see.’

    Louise Ivers gently lifted the 7-month-old by his forearms, hoping he would pull himself up as a healthy child a third his age might. But his head hung limply back,…

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A record pool leads to a record-low admissions rate

    A record applicant pool of 27,462 has led to an admission rate of 7.1 percent, the lowest in the history of Harvard College. Traditional admission letters (and e-mails) were sent on March 31 to 1,948 students. Last year 2,058 applicants were admitted from a pool of 22,955.

    10 minutes