Featured series 
Tag: Faculty of Arts and Sciences
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Campus & Community
Ernest Edward Williams
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on May 19, 2009, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Ernest Edward Williams, Professor of Biology, Emeritus, and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Ernest Williams’ work on anole evolution synthesized a wide variety of fields.
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Campus & Community
SEAS, FAS professor Allan R. Robinson dies at 76
Allan R. Robinson, Gordon McKay Professor of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Emeritus died on Sept. 25, at the age of 76.
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Science & Tech
Why leave it to nature?
Amid calls for transformative change in the world’s energy supply, Harvard chemist Ted Betley is taking a back-to-basics approach and examining the mother of all energy supplies — photosynthesis — for clues to how nature runs a power plant. Betley, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, says he’s convinced that solar power must become…
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Campus & Community
Leslie Kirwan ’79, M.P.P. ’84, appointed FAS dean for administration and finance
Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Dean Michael D. Smith today (Sept. 25) announced the appointment of Leslie Kirwan as the new FAS dean for administration and finance, effective Nov. 2, 2009.
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Health
Opposites attract – but they may not stay together
Opposites may always attract. But they may not remain together long-term. In a counter-intuitive discovery published in the current edition of the journal Nature, researchers from Harvard, the University of California at Davis, Princeton, and Penn State University report that oppositely charged drops of water will not attract permanently, but instead will bounce off each other indefinitely when…
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Science & Tech
Huybers and Mahadevan named MacArthur Foundation Fellows
Two Harvard faculty members who study present and past ice sheets and the science behind familiar objects and everyday events have been named recipients of prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants. This year’s awards, announced today by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, go to Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Peter Huybers…
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Campus & Community
Opening Days makes the most of it
The arrival of first-year students in Harvard Yard is always accompanied by the hustle and bustle of activities during freshman orientation — or Opening Days as it’s known at Harvard.
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Campus & Community
FAS names six full professors with tenure
From a professor of comparative literature to a professor of Chinese history, the FAS has announced six new tenured professors.
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Campus & Community
Around the Schools: Faculty of Arts and Sciences
What’s small, four-legged, and leaves dusty paw prints on telescope mirrors? That’s what astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian’s Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona were trying to find out.
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Campus & Community
Around the Schools: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
President Drew Faust and FAS Dean Mike Smith welcomed Cherry A. Murray as the new dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences with a formal reception on Sept. 8. Murray began her post as dean on July 1.
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Campus & Community
FAS ends fiscal year under budget
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has ended fiscal 2009 under budget by $6 million after targeted budget cuts were implemented and current-use financial gifts to the endowment increased.
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Science & Tech
Genetic sex determination let ancient species adapt to ocean life
A new analysis of extinct sea creatures suggests that the transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed these ancient species to adapt to and thrive in open oceans. The evolutionary sleuthing is described today in a letter in the journal Nature by scientists at Harvard and the University of Reading…
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Campus & Community
Fundraising results signal continued strength
Despite a global economic downturn, Harvard University raised $602 million through fundraising efforts in fiscal year 2009.
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Campus & Community
Around the Schools: Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered a record-breaking gamma-ray burst located 13 billion light-years from Earth.
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Campus & Community
Class of ’13 launches into Gen Ed
As the newly arrived Class of 2013 settles into the brick dormitories of Harvard Yard, they are already distinguished as the first matriculating class to study exclusively under the new requirements of Harvard College’s Program in General Education.
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Campus & Community
Taking the next step
Melissa McCormick reflects on her journey from modern dance to her current position as a newly tenured professor of Japanese art and culture in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
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Nation & World
Bringing science back to Liberian classrooms
Adam Cohen, assistant professor in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Ben Rapoport, a student at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are bringing science to war-torn Liberia.
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Science & Tech
Research team at Harvard to develop small-scale mobile robotic devices
A multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, engineers, and biologists at Harvard received a $10 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Expeditions in Computing grant to fund the development of small-scale mobile robotic devices. Inspired by the biology of a bee and the insect’s hive behavior, the researchers aim to push advances in miniature robotics and the design of compact…
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Health
New steps forward in cell reprogramming
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have substantially improved the odds of successfully reprogramming differentiated cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) by blocking the activity of the gene that instructs the cells to stop dividing. Konrad Hochedlinger and colleagues at the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine also found that…
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Nation & World
‘Inventing Equal Opportunity’
New research from Harvard University traces the history of how human resource managers, not legislatures or courts, have defined equal opportunity and anti-discrimination policies in the workplace.
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Health
Maternal, paternal genes’ tug-of-war may last well into childhood
An analysis of rare genetic disorders in which children lack some genes from one parent suggests that maternal and paternal genes engage in a subtle tug-of-war well into childhood, and possibly as late as the onset of puberty. This striking new variety of intra-family conflict, described by Harvard researchers in today’s edition of the Proceedings…
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Science & Tech
Scientists expect wildfires to increase as climate warms in the coming decades
As the climate warms in the coming decades, atmospheric scientists at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and their colleagues expect that the frequency of wildfires will increase in many regions. The spike in the number of fires could also adversely affect air quality due to the greater presence of smoke. The study,…
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Campus & Community
Damrosch named professor of comparative literature
David Damrosch, a scholar of world literature, has been appointed professor of comparative literature in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), effective July 1, 2009.
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Campus & Community
Kirschner and King named University Professors
Gary King and Marc W. Kirschner have been named University Professors, Harvard’s highest professorial distinction.
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Health
First molecular steps to childhood leukemia identified
A Harvard research based at Massachusetts General Hospital has identified how a chromosomal abnormality known to be associated with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) – the most common cancer in children – initiates the disease process. In the July issue of Cell Stem Cell, they describe how expression of this mutation in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs),…
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Science & Tech
Four from Harvard win Presidential Early Career Awards in Science and Engineering
Four Harvard researchers have been named among the winners nationwide of this year’s Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). They are Roland G. Fryer Jr., Patrick J. Wolfe, Robert J. Wood, and Nonie K. Lesaux. The announcement came today from the White House. The PECASE program recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers who,…
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Health
Human cardiac master stem cells identified
Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have identified the earliest master human heart stem cell from human embryonic stem cells – ISL1+ progenitors – that give rise to a family of cells that form the essential portions of the human heart. The discovery, by a group led by Kenneth Chien, director of…
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Science & Tech
Massachusetts Lt. Governor tours Harvard research facilities
Massachusetts Lt. Governor Timothy Murray on Wednesday toured Harvard labs in both Cambridge and Boston. “The Patrick Administration has been very supportive of the university research sector in Massachusetts and we welcomed the opportunity to show him the range of projects ongoing at Harvard, in both Cambridge and Longwood, that are cutting-edge, multidisciplinary and often…