Month: November 2011

  • Nation & World

    Italian honor

    Martin Karplus, Theodore William Richards Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and Professeur Conventionne at the Universite de Strasbourg, has been awarded the Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize in Chemistry by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. The award was presented at the Academy in Rome on Nov. 11.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    ‘House, Home’ and the spaces between

    A new art show at the Student Organization Center at Hilles (SOCH) Penthouse Gallery not only explores concepts of house and home, but homelessness as well.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Moot points, well made

    The Harvard Law School teams in the showdown round of the Ames Moot Court Competition tried to persuade a panel headed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to change the law of the land.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Conservatism is in ‘crisis’

    Andrew Sullivan, political commentator and blogger with The Daily Beast, gave the 2011 Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on Thursday.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Harvard Innovation Lab opens

    Harvard University officially launches the Harvard Innovation Lab today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and remarks by President Drew Faust, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and Business School Dean Nitin Nohria. The ceremony will be followed by an open house and self-guided tours of the Allston facility.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    A National Book Award

    “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern,” Harvard Professor Stephen Greenblatt’s book describing how an ancient Roman philosophical epic helped pave the way for modern thought, has won the National Book Award for nonfiction.

    2 minutes
  • Nation & World

    To stop and say thanks

    A series of open houses will give staff in Harvard’s Central Administration, Business School, Law School, School of Public Health, Kennedy School of Government, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Graduate School of Design the chance to thank their colleagues with personal notes and share messages of appreciation.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Write right, right?

    The Harvard Writers at Work lecture series, in its third year, offers public conversations on craft, collaboration, and even challenges to writing in the digital age.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Neurons in youth

    A group of researchers is working to map how the brain is wired in an effort to pinpoint the causes of — and potential treatments for — schizophrenia, autism, and a host of other disorders.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Tailored to fit

    The dramatic diversity of columbine flowers can be explained by a simple change in cell shape. To match the pollinators’ probing tongues, the flowers’ cells in floral spurs elongate, driving rapid speciation.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Rewarding nation’s problem-solvers

    Finalists for the Innovations in American Government Award presented their initiatives today at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) before the National Selection Committee, chaired by Anthony Williams, the former mayor of Washington, D.C.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Lost in translation

    Israeli author David Grossman spoke Tuesday about becoming immersed in his writing and his characters during a packed talk in the Science Center.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Obama’s narrative

    Mixing historical perspective, personal reminiscence, and psychological analysis, Harvard Law School Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. kicked off a three-part lecture series titled “Understanding Obama” Tuesday at the Barker Center as part of the Nathan I. Huggins Lecture Series.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Making ‘Nixon in China’

    Three major players in contemporary music reconvened at Harvard, their alma mater, to discuss their groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China,” based on Nixon’s seminal visit in 1972.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    SEAS brings good things to light

    By nestling quantum dots in an insulating egg-crate structure, researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have demonstrated a robust new architecture for quantum-dot light-emitting devices (QD-LEDs).

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Organist wins music battle

    Harvard’s Associate University Organist and Choirmaster Christian Lane was recently named the winner of the prestigious 2011 triennial Canadian International Organ Competition.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    IOP welcomes former Chicago mayor

    The Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School has announced the fall visiting fellowship of Richard M. Daley, mayor of Chicago from 1989 to 2011.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Wyss Institute hosts competition

    The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering hosted an inaugural biomolecular design competition on Nov. 5.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    A theology of culture

    Philosopher Paul Tillich once denied there was a gap between religion and culture. Today, he might reach for another convergent ideal: utopia.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Jasanoff’s book wins honor

    Harvard History Professor Maya Jasanoff has been named the winner of a Recognition of Excellence Award as part of the 2011 Cundill Prize in History at McGill University for her book “Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World.” The prize recognizes history books that have a profound literary, social, and academic impact.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Nobel laureate Norman Ramsey, 96

    Norman Ramsey, Harvard physics professor since 1947 and Nobel laureate in 1989, died at age 96 on Nov. 4, 2011.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Following the clues

    Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston have retraced the evolution of an unusual bacterial infection as it spread among cystic fibrosis patients by sequencing scores of samples collected during the outbreak, since contained.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Phillips Brooks House launches gift drive

    Beginning Dec. 1 Phillips Brooks House will launch Harvard’s annual holiday gift drive — an effort to collect more than 1,500 gifts for children in Boston and Cambridge.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Student making a global difference

    The Forward has recognized the efforts of Rebecca Kantar ’14 to stop the sex trade of children into the United States.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Innovations in American Government finalists named

    The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School on Nov. 9 announced the finalists for the Innovations in American Government Award.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Yannatos memorial on Dec. 10

    A memorial service for composer and conductor James Yannatos will be held on Dec. 10 in Harvard’s Sanders Theatre.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Website updates Yard situation

    To keep the Harvard community informed about its operational response to the camp set up by protesters in the Yard, the University has created a new Web page.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Thinking local

    On a visit to Harvard, an African architect imparts a Third World lesson: more for less.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Nice guys can finish first

    Nice guys can finish first — a new paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found that complex social networks like those of everyday life encourage members to be friendlier and more cooperative, with the possible payoff coming in an expanded social sphere. The study said selfish behavior can lead…

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Impact of cutting co-pay on meds

    Researchers from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital evaluated whether eliminating co-payments for specific medications following a heart attack would increase adherence and improve outcomes in patients.

    3 minutes