Tag: Faculty of Arts and Sciences

  • Campus & Community

    HUSEC examines interdisciplinary and interSchool science efforts

    When the Harvard University Science and Engineering Committee (HUSEC) gathered for its first meeting late last April, it was charged by not one, but two Harvard presidents. Then president-designate and now president Drew Faust told the 18 members of the new committee that theirs is both a unique and “historic” body, created to forge meaningful…

  • Health

    Sobering look at ‘mind-body connection’

    Mind-body medicine goes by many names today — including holistic, complementary, or alternative medicine. Regardless of what it’s called, many people embrace the ideas behind the mind-body connection and its effect on health, sometimes despite a lack of supporting scientific evidence. In her recently published book, “The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine” (W.W.…

  • Health

    Inhaled tuberculosis vaccine may be more effective than injected vaccine

    A novel aerosol version of the most common tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, administered directly to the lungs as an oral mist, offers significantly better protection against the disease in experimental animals…

  • Science & Tech

    President Faust testifies for increase in NIH funding

    With the careers of a generation of young researchers threatened by five years of flat National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, Harvard President Drew Faust and leaders of six other…

  • Science & Tech

    “…An important experiment for Harvard.”

     When the Harvard University Science and Engineering Committee (HUSEC) gathered for its first meeting late last April, it was charged by not one, but two Harvard Presidents. Then President-designate and…

  • Campus & Community

    Transition under way

    Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith and Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Tamara Elliott Rogers have announced details of a transition that is under way in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and University development offices.

  • Campus & Community

    Hammonds named dean of Harvard College

    Evelynn Hammonds, the University’s senior vice provost for Faculty Development and Diversity and the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, has been appointed dean of Harvard College, effective June 1, 2008.

  • Arts & Culture

    New Ph.D. film program launched

    The study of moving images has always been viewed through a wide lens at Harvard. Since the beginning, film studies at the University has sought to incorporate a broad range of disciplines in order to appreciate and understand the visual experience. The rich fields of philosophy, psychology, and the fine arts were all mined early…

  • Campus & Community

    Charles William Dunn

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on February 12, 2008, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Charles William Dunn, Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Dunn had an impeccable sense of dramatic timing and an inimitable laugh.

  • Campus & Community

    George Francis Carrier

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on February 12, 2008, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late George Francis Carrier, T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Applied Mathematics, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Carrier was one of the world’s leading applied mathematicians.

  • Science & Tech

    Roads not taken disappear more quickly than we realize

    Researchers have identified a key reason why people make mistakes when they try to predict what they will like. According to the findings presented Sunday at the annual meeting of…

  • Science & Tech

    Solar evidence points to human causes of climate change

    It’s getting harder and harder to blame the sun for causing the gradual increase in global temperatures that are now being seen in the climate record, scientists said today. In…

  • Science & Tech

    Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences to step down

    Venkatesh Narayanamurti, dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), who for 10 years has directed the renewal and expansion of the former division and its transition…

  • Campus & Community

    Frank Henry Westheimer

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on December 11, 2007, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Frank Henry Westheimer, Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Westheimer was one of the key figures in twentieth-century chemistry.

  • Campus & Community

    Harvard to collect, disseminate scholarly articles for faculty

    In a move to disseminate faculty research and scholarship more broadly, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) voted Tuesday (Feb. 12) to give the University a worldwide license to make each faculty member’s scholarly articles available and to exercise the copyright in the articles, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit.

  • Science & Tech

    Hauser presents theory of “humaniqueness”

    Shedding new light on the great cognitive rift between humans and animals, a Harvard University scientist has synthesized four key differences in human and animal cognition into a hypothesis on…

  • Campus & Community

    John Kenneth Galbraith

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on December 11, 2007, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Galbraith served under or advised every Democratic president from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Bill Clinton.

  • Campus & Community

    Stephen Ansolabehere appointed professor of government at FAS

    Stephen Daniel Ansolabehere, an accomplished scholar of American elections, public opinion and voting behavior, has been appointed professor of government in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) effective July 1.

  • Science & Tech

    Neuroimaging fails to demonstrate ESP is real

    Psychologists at Harvard University have developed a new method to study extrasensory perception that, they argue, can resolve the century-old debate over its existence. According to the authors, their study…

  • Science & Tech

    Turning on cells with magnetic switches

    Harvard scientists have figured out how to turn cells on and off using magnets, an advance with potentially broad applications as researchers around the world work to find new ways…

  • Science & Tech

    Sulfur dioxide may have helped maintain a warm early Mars

    Sulfur dioxide (SO2) may have played a key role in the climate and geochemistry of early Mars, geoscientists at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggest in…

  • Science & Tech

    Living in disadvantaged neighborhood equivalent to missing a year of school

    Childhood exposure to severely disadvantaged communities is linked to decreased verbal ability later in childhood, a lasting negative effect that continues even after moving out of the neighborhood, according to…

  • Science & Tech

    Chimps in wild appear not to regularly experience menopause

    A pioneering study of wild chimpanzees has found that these close human relatives do not routinely experience menopause, rebutting previous studies of captive individuals which had postulated that female chimpanzees…

  • Health

    Even in healthy elderly, brain systems become less coordinated

    Some brain systems become less coordinated with age even in the absence of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from Harvard University. The results help to explain why advanced…

  • Campus & Community

    Standing committees of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

    Upon the recommendation of the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), Harvard President Drew Faust has approved and announced the following Standing Committees. Standing Committees of the faculty are constituted to perform a continuing function. Each committee has been established by a vote of the faculty, and can be dissolved only by…

  • Arts & Culture

    Scholar looks at abiding interest in the ‘Great American Novel’

    Literary critics tend to discredit the concept of a “Great American Novel” as nothing more than media hype — an arbitrary appellation that has more to do with pipe dreams than merit. And yet, what would-be author hasn’t imagined, when putting pen to paper, what it would feel like to be hailed as the greatest…

  • Campus & Community

    Charles Frederick Mosteller

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on October 16, 2007, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Charles Frederick Mosteller, Professor of Mathematical Statistics, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Mosteller made indelible contributions to statistics, to education and educational policy, and to health research.

  • Nation & World

    Researcher finds roots of fundamentalism in 16th century Bible translations

    The English Reformation — heyday of religious change — spurred a fundamentalist approach to Bible reading, according to new research by a Harvard professor.

  • Arts & Culture

    Tools for ‘navigating childhood’

    The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen have enchanted children the world over for more than two centuries with their verbal sorcery and expressive intensity. Now their iconic power has drawn the attention of a Harvard professor, who hopes to broaden our understanding of how those eye-widening fairy tales expand the imaginations of children.

  • Campus & Community

    David Clarence McClelland

    At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences October 16, 2007, the following Minute was placed upon the records.