Former Defense Secretary William J. Perry recalls three searing personal experiences that helped him conclude the world must dismantle all nuclear weapons. Perry told a Harvard Kennedy School audience that he spent the early part of his engineering career building the most frightening nuclear weapons systems on earth, from the MX missile to the Trident…

Yiling Chen, assistant professor of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has been named by IEEE Intelligent Systems as among “AI’s 10 to Watch.” Published in the January/February 2011 issue, the honor acknowledges “10 accomplished AI researchers in their early careers … who promise to be the leaders of…

The late great Zora Neale Hurston belted out a juke joint song called “Halimufack”: You may leave and go to Halimufack, but my slow drag will bring you back. Hurston’s singing was just one of many offerings at the Radcliffe Institute’s celebration of Black History Month on Feb. 23. In her tinny voice—Hurston was a…

Vinothan N. Manoharan, associate professor of chemical engineering and physics in Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Department of Physics, has been awarded a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship. The $50,000 award recognizes both Manoharan’s achievements and his potential, and will help to support his research in condensed matter and biophysics. The…

Frank Rich, op-ed page columnist for The New York Times, will address an audience of students, faculty, journalists, and members of the public on Monday, March 7, at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The program begins at 6 p.m. in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge.…

The critical role played by moderate voters and lawmakers in American political life is the focus of a new report co-authored by Harvard Kennedy School Lecturer Elaine Kamarck. “The Still-Vital Center: Moderates, Democrats and the Renewal of American Politics” was released today by the Washington D.C.-based think-tank Third Way. It is co-authored by William A.…

The Harvard Office for Sustainability is once again rolling out the Green Carpet in honor of the many students, faculty, and staff across Harvard who have made significant contributions to Harvard’s Greenhouse Gas/Energy Reduction Goal and other sustainability efforts. Nominations for both individual and team awards are due Monday, Feb. 28t at green.harvard.edu/greencarpet. Last year…

The Harvard Square Farmers Market is gearing up for another season. This year, the market will open at noon Tuesdays beginning June 14. Starting in March, the Cape Ann Fresh Catch (CAFC) Community Supported Fishery (CSF) will return to the corner of Kirkland and Oxford streets as part of the Harvard Square Farmers Market, using…

The Argus Leader in Sioux Falls has won the 2010 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers with “Growing Up Indian,” an eight-part series that examines the daunting challenges faced by children on South Dakota’s Native American reservations. The Taylor Award is presented annually by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Two finalists were…

Last fall, a new special collections request system was introduced to Harvard College Library (HCL) with lofty goals and the promise of creating a better experience for both users and libraries.  With implementation complete in three of the six scheduled libraries, the word from both researchers and staff is “so far, so good.” Students in…

Debra Auguste, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has won a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award honors Auguste as one of the most promising up-and-coming researchers in her field and provides an annual grant of $100,000 to support…

C. Conrad Wright, Professor of American Church History Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School (HDS), died peacefully at home in his sleep on Feb. 17, 2011, at the age of 94. Wright was a prominent scholar of American Unitarianism, and he had a significant relationship with and effect on HDS during his 33-year career. Born on…

Shriram Ramanathan has won the 2011 Robert Lansing Hardy Award on behalf of the The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS). The associate professor of materials science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) was noted for “innovative contributions to the synthesis, study and applications of thin film oxides.” The Robert Lansing…

The Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) today (Feb. 17) named as interim executive director David W. Ellis. Ellis is the former president of Lafayette College and the Museum of Science, Boston. He will temporarily replace Elisabeth Werby, who is slated to become chief of staff to the president of Northeastern University. The museum will…

A stunning photograph of a centipede-inspired robot (called a centipede millibot) developed by Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) graduate student Katie Hoffman and faculty member Robert Wood was chosen as an Honorable Mention (tie) by Science and the National Science Foundation in the Photography category in the 2010 International Science & Engineering…

The 23rd Brendan Gill Prize was awarded to Michael Van Valkenburgh, Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, by the Municipal Art Society of New York. Recently opened to the public, Piers One and Six of the Brooklyn Bridge Park provide a variety of programming including a playground with a variety of swinging experiences…

HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe declined by nearly half over the course of a decade (from 29 percent estimated adult prevalence in 1997 to 16 percent in 2007). HSPH’s Daniel Halperin and colleagues explored the causes of this remarkable success story in a paper published online in PLoS Medicine on February 8, 2011. The researchers found…

New findings reported in The New England Journal of Medicine suggest that vaccinating young men against human papillomavirus (HPV), which cause the majority of cervical and anal cancers and a smaller proportion of other cancers, resulted in reduced infections and incidence of external genital lesions, primarily genital warts. In an editorial accompanying the article, published…

A new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers shows bicycle riders have fewer injuries when they ride on cycle tracks — physically separated bicycle-exclusive paths along roads — than in the road. The study, published online Feb. 9, 2011 in Injury Prevention, compares injury rates of cyclists on cycle tracks in…

A Harvard Kennedy School fellow argues that Turkey offers a promising model for Egypt as the dust begins to settle from the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, and the political players confront the challenges of shaping an Egyptian democracy. Joshua W. Walker, an International Security Program fellow in the Belfer Center for Science and…

Ahmed Ragab, physician, historian, and scholar of the medieval and modern Middle East, has been named the Richard T. Watson Assistant Professor of Science and Religion at Harvard Divinity School, effective July 1, 2011. Ragab was a visiting lecturer at Harvard Divinity School for the 2009 fall semester, and since 2008 he has been a…

Join Vi Hart, self-proclaimed recreational mathematician, for an afternoon of fun on Feb. 18 from 3 to 4 p.m. in the lobby of the Maxwell Dworkin Building at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). As for what kind of fun … “I’m certain we’ll think of something spectacular to do … but…

The Harvard community has responded with insight and imagination to a call from the University’s Library Lab to collaborate with the Harvard Library and “to serve as co-creators of the information society of the future.” With generous support from the Arcadia Fund, Harvard’s Library Lab is designed to leverage the entrepreneurial aspirations of individuals across…

Where can one hear the ideas of a Pulitzer Prize winner, a member of the Time 100, a world expert on Egypt’s current upheaval, and the authors of numerous best-selling books … all in one night? At the second annual Harvard Thinks Big event, taking place Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. at Sanders Theatre. The…

For music scholars conducting research online, there is a dizzying array of resources that are literally at their fingertips. The challenge is in determining which to use. To help make sense of the flood of information, and assist scholars in identifying resources with the most extensive and academically-rigorous material, Loeb Music Library has revitalized an…

Harvard’s Office for Sustainability (OFS) is reaching out to students from a variety of backgrounds — everyone from visual artists to musicians to staunch environmental advocates — to involve them in a variety of sustainability initiatives this spring. The most recent projects include drawing cartoons on sustainable practices around campus and performing for this year’s…

Three winners of the Goldsmith Book Prize and six finalists for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting have been announced by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The winner of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, which carries a cash award of $25,000, will be…

The Egyptian political system is in turmoil, with demonstrators calling for change and the government of President Hosni Mubarak trying to maintain control. As events continue to unfold, Harvard Kennedy School faculty members and scholars are lending their varied perspectives on the situation. This page will be updated daily to provide readers with the latest…

The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is pleased to announce its Spring 2011 Askwith Forums, a series of public lectures dedicated to discussing challenges facing education, sharing new knowledge, and generating spirited conversation. Highlights this spring will include a talk by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, a screening of the film “World…

Accountable care organizations (ACOs), legal partnerships between doctors and hospitals that provide financial incentives to providers for more efficient and better care, will be part of Medicare by 2012 and are attracting wider interest among commercial payers and state legislatures. According to a Jan. 27 article in the New York Times, ACOs receive a lump…