Turkle talks technology, intimacy

“Technology proposes itself an architect of our intimacies,” explained Massachusetts of Technology Professor Sherry Turkle to an engrossed audience at the Harvard University Extension School. The event, “The Tethered Life: Technology Reshapes Intimacy and Solitude,” was the concluding public event of the School’s yearlong centennial celebration. “As we instant message, e-mail, text, and Twitter, technology [...]

Harvard Grads Choose Public Service Over Big Bucks

It’s college graduation season in the United States. Even in today’s weak economy, students from prestigious Ivy League universities like Harvard have an extra advantage on the road to financial success. However, not everyone in Harvard College’s Class of 2010 is striving for a lucrative career. Career choices Graduation is just days away, and Robin [...]

Palestinians on the screen

A blend of documentary film and cinematic dream, the subtle and quiet works of Kamal Aljafari convey profound and unsettling emotions. The Benjamin White Whitney Scholar and Radcliffe-Harvard Film Study Center Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Aljafari recently completed his film “Port of Memory” while at Harvard. The evocative work explores the [...]

Color, Commencement-style

Harvard’s Commencement Day, May 27, included myriad sights, sounds, and experiences beyond the main stage. Here are some samples. Early risers Members of Autumn River Brass, the five-piece band that serenaded Dunster House with classical music at 6 a.m., didn’t take the complaints of disturbed sleepers to heart. When someone complained from a window about [...]

Plain language, complex meanings

In a Commencement Day speech to Harvard’s graduates, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter said Thursday (May 27) that judges have no choice but to interpret the U.S. Constitution beyond its plain language, and he criticized those who argue that its meaning “lies there … waiting for a judge to read it fairly.” He [...]

Commencement 2010

Anticipation gave way to celebration today in Harvard Yard as more than 7,000 students graduated during Commencement Day ceremonies. The day was marked with ancient rites and hallowed traditions, with memories and hope for the future. It was a day to spend with family and friends to thank those who supported them in good times [...]

South Asia Initiative offers grants for summer

Since its inception in 2003, the South Asia Initiative (SAI) has raised the profile of South Asian studies at Harvard and internationally; generated interdisciplinary research; sent faculty and students to South Asia for study, research and service learning; and conducted high-profile seminars and conferences. The SAI has forged links and synergies across Harvard’s Schools and [...]

Morning glories

It is the jewel of Harvard’s weeklong Commencement celebration, the morning on which the Yard is crowded with graduates old and new, and in which pomp and play and pride seek full measure. “That’s the idea, that nothing changes,” said Victor Ford ’53 of the Commencement pageantry today (May 27). Ford, pastor emeritus at First [...]

Text of Justice David Souter’s speech

When I was younger I used to hear Harvard stories from a member of the class of 1885.  Back then, old graduates of the College who could get to Cambridge on Commencement Day didn’t wait for reunion years to come back to the Yard.  They’d just turn up, see old friends, look over the new [...]

Korea Institute offers undergraduates Korean study opportunities

The Korea Institute at Harvard University promotes the study of Korea and brings together faculty, students, distinguished scholars, and visitors to create a leading Korean Studies community at Harvard. Harvard is one of the world’s leading centers for the study of Korea, and through the Korea Institute, Harvard offers exceptional resources for undergraduate students to [...]

HAA announces 2010 Board of Overseers election results

The president of the Harvard Alumni Association today announced the results of the annual election of new members of the Harvard Board of Overseers. The results were released at the annual meeting of the association following the University’s 359th Commencement. The five newly elected Overseers follow: Cheryl Dorsey (New York City) is the president of [...]

‘You have to give back’

Portia Kwartema Botchway thought her high school days were behind her when she set her sights on Harvard back in 2006. Little did she know she would spend much of the next several years in that realm, first as a mentor for the Crimson Summer Academy (CSA), then as a Boston schoolteacher. A native of [...]

Harvard Extension School to host general info session on June 15

The Harvard Extension School will host a general information session on June 15 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in Memorial Hall and the Science Center. The session is designed for anyone interested in learning more about the School and its offerings, which include more than 600 courses in liberal arts and professional degree programs. “The [...]

Harvard Extension School to host general info session on June 15

The Harvard Extension School will host a general information session on June 15 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in Memorial Hall and the Science Center. The session is designed for anyone interested in learning more about the School and its offerings, which include more than 600 courses in liberal arts and professional degree programs. “The [...]

Steinem to receive Radcliffe Medal

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study has announced that Gloria Steinem, a pioneering feminist, award-winning journalist, and best-selling author, will be awarded the 2010 Radcliffe Institute Medal at the Radcliffe Day luncheon on Friday (May 28). Radcliffe Institute Dean Barbara J. Grosz will give opening remarks and present the medal, and Steinem will deliver the [...]

Steinem to receive Radcliffe Medal

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study has announced that Gloria Steinem, a pioneering feminist, award-winning journalist, and best-selling author, will be awarded the 2010 Radcliffe Institute Medal at the Radcliffe Day luncheon on Friday (May 28). Radcliffe Institute Dean Barbara J. Grosz will give opening remarks and present the medal, and Steinem will deliver the [...]

Parting words

Parting words

Asia Center to support travel for 66 students from Harvard

The Harvard University Asia Center was established in 1997 to reflect Harvard’s deep commitment to Asia and the growing connections between Asian nations. An important aspect of the center’s mission is the support of undergraduate and graduate summer projects abroad. This summer, the Asia Center will support 66 students traveling to East, South, and Southeast [...]

Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies aids student research

The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies supports and promotes advanced research and training in all fields of Chinese studies. The Fairbank Center collaborates with the Harvard University Asia Center to offer undergraduate and graduate student grants for Chinese language study and research travel. In 2009-10 the Fairbank Center also assisted the Graduate School of Arts [...]

Reischauer Institute funds Japanese research, travel

Founded in 1973, the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RI) promotes research on Japan and brings together Harvard faculty, students, leading scholars from other institutions, and visitors to create one of the world’s leading communities for the study of Japan. For the 2009-10 academic school year and summer of 2010, RI has funded [...]

Harvard China Fund supports student efforts

Established in 2006 under the Office of the Provost, the Harvard China Fund (HCF) is a University-wide “academic venture fund” with three core objectives: partnerships, students, and presence. Partnerships: To promote teaching and research about and in China, in collaboration with institutions across Greater China. Students: To prepare Harvard students for their lifelong engagement with [...]

Radcliffe names 48 new fellows

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has announced the 48 women and men selected to be Radcliffe Institute fellows in 2010–11. These creative artists, humanists, scientists, and social scientists were chosen — from a pool of nearly 900 applicants — for their superior scholarship, research, or artistic endeavors, as well as the [...]

David Rockefeller International Experience Grants Program

In the second year of the David Rockefeller International Experience Grants Program, more than 400 Harvard College students accepted funding for international internships, volunteer projects, study abroad programs, and research opportunities in 53 countries across the world. With the generosity of David Rockefeller ’36, LL.D. ’69, this grant program was developed to give students the [...]

Marie-Ange Bunga of HKS starts Congo Initiative at Harvard

Marie-Ange Bunga, a graduating M.P.A./M.C. student at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), has started the Congo Initiative at Harvard, a student organization aiming to increase awareness about the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “The scramble for minerals in eastern Congo is the crux of this tragedy,” she says. “These minerals, used to produce [...]

CES awards travel grants for 2010-11

The Center for European Studies (CES) recently announced its 2010-11 student grant winners, continuing its long tradition of promoting and funding student research on political, historical, economic, social, cultural, and intellectual trends in modern or contemporary Europe. Thirty-four undergraduates will pursue thesis research and internships in Europe this summer, while 18 graduate students have been [...]

Reimers appointed to U.S. National Commission for UNESCO

Fernando M. Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and director of the International Education Policy Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has been appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to serve on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The commission is a federal advisory [...]

FAS names four full professors for 2010-11

The following faculty members have been named full professors with tenure in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences: David Charbonneau, professor of astronomy, is an international leader in the search for planets orbiting stars other than our sun. He has been a member of the Harvard faculty since 2004. Matthew Nock, professor of psychology, is [...]

Two HBS professors win prize for sustainability issues in curricula

John D. Black Professor Forest L. Reinhardt and Assistant Professor Michael W. Toffel, both of Harvard Business School, have won the 2009 D. Alfred N. and Lynn Manos Page Prize for sustainability issues in business curricula. Reinhardt and Toffel were recognized for their second-year M.B.A. elective “Business and the Environment,” which focuses on identifying and [...]

HEEP awards 2009-10 student prizes

The Harvard Environmental Economics Program (HEEP), a University-wide initiative that seeks to develop innovative answers to today’s complex environmental challenges, recently awarded four prizes to Harvard University students for the best research papers addressing a topic in environmental, energy, or resource economics. HEEP presented one prize for the best undergraduate paper, senior thesis, master’s student [...]

Eck speaker for 138th Berea College Commencement

Diana L. Eck, Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society and professor of comparative religion and Indian studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), was the speaker for Berea College’s 138th Commencement on May 23, and will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Eck, who has taught at [...]

Graduate School of Design appoints three to faculty

The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has named Michael Hooper, Rahul Mehrotra, and Joyce Klein Rosenthal to the GSD faculty, effective July 2010. Hooper, who has been appointed assistant professor of urban planning, will receive his Ph.D. from the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University this month (May). His research [...]

HKS alumni honored

Three accomplished leaders have been named recipients of 2010 Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) alumni awards. The awards were presented during ceremonies at the School on May 14-15. Mehmet Daimaguler, M.P.A. ’05, was named winner of the 2010 Rising Star Award, which recognizes HKS alumni who, within six years of beginning their careers, have “hit the [...]

Thomas T. Hoopes Prize awarded

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has recently awarded the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize to 89 Harvard College seniors, in recognition of outstanding research or scholarly work. The prize is funded by the estate of Thomas T. Hoopes ’19. To view the list of recipients, including their research and advisers.

Eight from Harvard elected to American Philosophical Society

The American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States, recently elected eight new members from Harvard into this year’s class of scholars. The society, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge,” honors and engages distinguished scientists, humanists, social scientists, and leaders in civic and cultural affairs [...]

HBS professor named fellow

Josh Lerner, the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, has been named a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute, an international nonprofit association that provides a forum for debate and dialogue among academics, legislators, and practitioners regarding major corporate governance issues with the intention of promoting best practice. Fellows [...]

Degrees, certificates awarded at 359th Commencement

Today (May 27) the University awarded a total of 6,777 degrees and 81 certificates. A breakdown of the degrees by schools and programs follows. Harvard College granted a total of 1,562 degrees. Bachelor of Arts Cum laude in field of concentration Cum laude Magna cum laude Magna cum laude with highest honors Summa cum laude [...]

Changing lives, including her own

Last summer I met Tom, a bright-eyed and talkative 12-year-old who had an opinion about simply everything. He loved Michael Jackson and would frequently hijack my laptop to watch his music videos, singing along and enraptured with M.J.’s performance. Our communication was a mixture of simple Mandarin and flailing hand gestures and charades, since he [...]

What they’re reading

A survey of top Harvard faculty shows what books they’re reading and enjoying on summer’s edge. Cherry A. Murray Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences and professor of physics “The Siege of Krishnapur” “I am a huge fan of [...]

An explosion of creativity

Diane Paulus sat perched on the back of a chair in a basement rehearsal space in Harvard Square on a recent afternoon, watching the scene play out before her like an entranced cat observing a mouse. Suddenly, she pounced. Springing from her seat, the diminutive director stopped the action to emphasize a line, solicit feedback [...]

Looking Back: 2009-10

June 2009 Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow (Justin Ide/Harvard Staff Photographer) Martha Minow, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (HLS), is announced as the next dean of the Faculty of Law, beginning July 1. A member of HLS faculty since 1981, Minow is a distinguished legal scholar with interests [...]

Looking Back: 2009-10

June 2009 Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow (Justin Ide/Harvard Staff Photographer) Martha Minow, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (HLS), is announced as the next dean of the Faculty of Law, beginning July 1. A member of HLS faculty since 1981, Minow is a distinguished legal scholar with interests [...]

Extension School recognizes outstanding grads

Each Commencement, the Harvard Extension School recognizes the notable accomplishments of its top graduates and outstanding faculty with numerous awards and prizes. Recipients may demonstrate outstanding initiative, character, and academic achievement; show dedication to the arts or public service; or in regard to faculty, be lauded by their students for excellence in teaching. One honor, [...]

Extension School recognizes outstanding grads

Each Commencement, the Harvard Extension School recognizes the notable accomplishments of its top graduates and outstanding faculty with numerous awards and prizes. Recipients may demonstrate outstanding initiative, character, and academic achievement; show dedication to the arts or public service; or in regard to faculty, be lauded by their students for excellence in teaching. One honor, [...]

Ten faculty named Cabot Fellows

Ten professors in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) have been named Walter Channing Cabot Fellows. The annual awards recognize tenured faculty members for distinguished accomplishments in the fields of literature, history, or art, broadly conceived. The 2010 honorees are Janet Beizer, professor of Romance languages and literatures; Mark Elliott, Mark Schwartz Professor of [...]

Ten faculty named Cabot Fellows

Ten professors in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) have been named Walter Channing Cabot Fellows. The annual awards recognize tenured faculty members for distinguished accomplishments in the fields of literature, history, or art, broadly conceived. The 2010 honorees are Janet Beizer, professor of Romance languages and literatures; Mark Elliott, Mark Schwartz Professor of [...]

It’s all about the numbers

Alexander Ahmed was 5 years old when he started playing a board game called Strat-O-Matic Baseball. Armed with stats cards from seasons going back to 1911, players roll dice to pitch, swing, and make defensive plays. “It simulates real-life baseball pretty well,” said the senior from suburban Springfield, Mass. For Ahmed, Strat-O-Matic combined two early [...]

It’s all about the numbers

Alexander Ahmed was 5 years old when he started playing a board game called Strat-O-Matic Baseball. Armed with stats cards from seasons going back to 1911, players roll dice to pitch, swing, and make defensive plays. “It simulates real-life baseball pretty well,” said the senior from suburban Springfield, Mass. For Ahmed, Strat-O-Matic combined two early [...]

Alumni support financial aid

For the first time in Harvard’s history, more than 30,000 students applied to the College; 2,110 were accepted into the Class of 2014. More than 60 percent of the admitted students, benefiting from a record $158 million in financial aid, will receive need-based scholarships — a demonstration of Harvard’s commitment to providing access to a [...]

Alumni support financial aid

For the first time in Harvard’s history, more than 30,000 students applied to the College; 2,110 were accepted into the Class of 2014. More than 60 percent of the admitted students, benefiting from a record $158 million in financial aid, will receive need-based scholarships — a demonstration of Harvard’s commitment to providing access to a [...]

Benefiting society, scholarship

For more than two decades, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) has awarded its Centennial Medal to a select group of graduates who have made significant contributions to society and scholarship. This year’s recipients: one of the world’s foremost scholars of Shakespeare and Renaissance drama; the founder, publisher, and principal editor of a [...]

Benefiting society, scholarship

For more than two decades, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) has awarded its Centennial Medal to a select group of graduates who have made significant contributions to society and scholarship. This year’s recipients: one of the world’s foremost scholars of Shakespeare and Renaissance drama; the founder, publisher, and principal editor of a [...]

Honorary degrees awarded

Harvard will confer 10 honorary degrees today (May 27) during the Morning Exercises.   David H. Souter Doctor of Laws David H. Souter was an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for 19 years before retiring in June 2009. Souter, who graduated from Harvard College in 1961 and Harvard Law School in 1966, will [...]

When the past is present

“Language is identity, language is history, language is culture, language is education, and language is a bridge between the past, present, and future,” said Marcus Briggs-Cloud, a graduating master’s student at Harvard Divinity School, addressing a recent meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Whenever he introduces himself, Briggs-Cloud does so in [...]

Alumni rally behind public service

When Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) President Teresita Alvarez-Bjelland ’76, M.B.A. ’79, took office last year, she had a specific goal in mind: bring together the network of Harvard alumni worldwide to highlight the important role that public service plays in the Harvard community. Over the past year, the HAA joined with thousands of alumni, students, [...]

DRCLAS sponsors summer travel in Latin American Studies

The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) is sponsoring more than 160 students to travel to Latin America for work, research, and study this summer. The DRCLAS awarded research travel grants to nine undergraduates for senior thesis research and 32 graduate students for dissertation research in Latin America. DRCLAS also provided grants to [...]

The good ol’ days

Surgeon John Norman says the difficulty doesn’t come in recalling his Harvard memories, but in stopping himself from talking about them all. A member of the Class of 1950, Norman refers to himself and his one-time housemates as the “Dunster funsters,” and recalls that Radcliffe and Emerson colleges were their “happy hunting grounds to chase [...]

Harvard Business School honors eight for service to society

Eight members of the Harvard Business School (HBS) M.B.A. Class of 2010 have been named winners of the School’s prestigious Dean’s Award. The recipients, who will be recognized by HBS Dean Jay Light at Commencement ceremonies on the HBS campus, are Maya A. Babu, Sean A. Cameron, John W. Coleman, Robert M. Daly Jr., Andrew [...]

Tom Harkin presented with HSPH’s Healthy Cup Award

The Harvard School of Public Health’s (HSPH) Nutrition Round Table recently presented Sen. Tom Harkin from Iowa with the third annual Healthy Cup Award on May 18 for “his leadership in developing policies that support and promote good nutrition, healthier lifestyles, and disease prevention” and for playing a key role in the national health care [...]

James Houghton: ‘I had the best time in the world’

James R. Houghton, the Harvard Corporation’s senior fellow, member of the College Class of 1958 and of Harvard Business School’s Class of 1962, will step down in June after 15 years on Harvard’s executive governing board. The Gazette chatted with Houghton to gain his perspective on more than a half century’s association with Harvard: Q.  [...]

Alfred Pope

Dr. Alfred Pope, Professor of Neuropathology, Emeritus, at HMS and Senior Neuropathologist at McLean Hospital, died on February 13th 2009, at Fox Hill Village in Westwood, aged 94. Dr. Pope was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 23rd, 1915. His natural intellectual talents, curiosity and drive, led him to pursue and complete, with distinction, the [...]

The art of science

After earning a biochemistry degree from Harvard College in 1983, Susan Mango was on the path to becoming a scientist. She loved thinking about puzzles, the beauty of scientific questions, and the elegance of experimental design. Graduate school in biological science was the clear next step. Then Mango spent a postgraduate year doing something completely [...]

Raymond D. Adams

Raymond Delacy Adams, considered by his peers the pre-eminent neurologist of the twentieth century and Bullard Professor of Neuropathology Emeritus at Harvard Medical School died on Oct. 18, 2008 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Adams was born in spare circumstances in a rural area near Portland, Oregon in 1911, the first child of William [...]

Looking for his big break

Derek Mueller sang and acted his way through four years at Harvard, and now, with Commencement looming, he’s taking his show on the road. Mueller, a senior psychology concentrator and Mather House resident, spent the past three years as a member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the nation’s oldest collegiate theatrical troupe, known for its [...]

Faust emphasizes public service

The academic year that draws to a close today saw renewed emphasis on public service across Harvard. In her Commencement address, President Drew Faust will underscore the University’s mission to serve the common good and will announce enhanced support for students seeking service opportunities, including new Presidential Public Service Fellowships. “It is a fundamental purpose [...]

Daily battle to improve health

Lyle Ignace had been working for the Indian Health Service for years, providing care as an internist at a Navajo health facility in New Mexico and rising to the level of department head. Though his patients were getting adequate care, he felt he didn’t know enough — whether about administration and health systems, or to [...]

Harvard Rituals: Class Day

There were fond farewells, a few chuckles, and best wishes for the future at the annual Class Day ceremonies in Harvard Yard on Wednesday (May 26), the day before Commencement Exercises lay the pomp and circumstance on thickly. Featuring CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour as the main speaker, Class Day brought graduating seniors together in Harvard [...]

‘Remarkable teachers’

Historian Maya Jasanoff and chemist Tobias Ritter are this year’s winners of the Roslyn Abramson Award, given annually to assistant or associate professors for excellence in undergraduate teaching. The award, which includes funding for summer salary or research, goes to “a faculty member in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences [FAS] in recognition of his [...]

Fighting modern slave trade

The day after graduating from Brown University, Katherine Chon and a friend packed a U-Haul trailer and moved to Washington, D.C. It was the summer of 2002, and they were on a mission: to take on the modern slave trade. It seemed like a mission impossible. Human trafficking was the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the [...]

Other notable 1950 graduates

In the 60th Anniversary Report for the Class of 1950, where alumni update classmates on the happenings in their lives, here’s a small glimpse. Robert Bly — Bly, the author of several collections of poetry, including “The Light Around the Body,” which won the National Book Award in 1967, also has authored books of nonfiction, [...]

Creating worldwide change

For Ateeq Nosher, a bloody conflict in the 1980s meant growing up in a refugee camp far from home. But next month he is headed back to his country of birth, Afghanistan, equipped with a master’s degree from Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and a desire to make a difference in his homeland, which is again [...]

Harvey Goldman

Harvey Goldman, M.D. was born on May 25, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city in which he spent his formative years. He received an A.B. degree in mathematics in 1953 and his M.D. in 1957, both from Temple University, where he was elected to membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. After a rotating [...]

Sparking a passion

Study, research, and public service have taken Melissa Tran ’10 around the world. You’d never guess that four years ago she was reluctant to leave her home near San Jose, Calif., to attend college 3,000 miles away. She said that during her first year she felt insecure and wondered if she might be an example [...]

HAA names Harvard Medalists

The Harvard Alumni Association has announced the recipients of the 2010 Harvard Medal: Nina Archabal ’62, M.A.T. ’63, Paul Buttenwieser ’60, M.D. ’64, C. Kevin Landry ’66, and Dean Whitla, Ed. ’60. The Harvard Medal was first given in 1981, and the principal objective of the awarding of the medal is to recognize extraordinary service [...]

Harvard Theatre Collection Curator Fredric Woodbridge Wilson dies at 62

Fredric Woodbridge Wilson, curator of the Harvard Theatre Collection and resident of Watertown, Mass., died on May 15 of pancreatic cancer. He was 62. In his 13 years at Harvard, Wilson curated more than 40 exhibitions, many of which explored his favorite corner of theatrical history, 19th century British theater, including theatrical caricatures, pantomime, Toy [...]

Daniel Tosteson

At a Meeting of the Faculty of Medicine, May 20, 2010, the following Minute was placed upon the records. Daniel Charles Tosteson, former Dean of the Harvard Faculty of Medicine and Caroline Shields Walker Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology died on May 27, 2009, after a long and courageous struggle with Parkinson’s disease. His 20 [...]

From Ivy to military

On the eve of their graduation from Harvard College, 11 of the military’s newest officers received their commissions at a ceremony today (May 26) in crowded, sun-splashed Tercentenary Theatre. Honored from the Class of 2010 were David F. Boswell, Josue Guerra, Sarah A. Harvey, and Karl J. Kmiecik (U.S. Army second lieutenants); Talya Havice and [...]

Harvard continues Yellow Ribbon Program

Harvard President Drew Faust has renewed the University’s partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to assist eligible veterans in meeting the costs of their education through the Yellow Ribbon Program. Last year, in the program’s inaugural year, 69 Harvard student-veterans received more than $350,000 in institutional assistance that was matched by the VA [...]

Baccalaureate service 2010

Take your passport and go, Amanpour says

CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour urged Harvard’s graduating class to take a year before plunging into the job market and head overseas to work on the myriad problems facing the world. “I hope you will take this moment to think about traveling,” Amanpour said. “There is so much opportunity out in the developing part of [...]

Commence wonderment

Ah, Harvard lore. It can be befuddling if you don’t know the history behind these age-old Commencement conventions. Salvete omnes! That’s “Hello, everyone!” in Latin, in case you didn’t know. And during Morning Exercises, when degrees are conferred and Tercentenary Theatre is overtaken by thousands of guests, that greeting will be shouted, ushering in two [...]

Embracing the unscripted life

In a time of global change and uncertainty, Harvard continues to support, encourage, challenge, and prepare its students to face times of calm and crisis and help them to understand that “life never follows a script,” Harvard President Drew Faust told the College’s Class of 2010 on Tuesday (May 25). Faust’s remarks in the Memorial [...]

Intellect, rigor, tradition

In the welcome shade of the verdant trees outside Harvard Hall on this scorching morning (May 25), Trevor Bakker ’10 and 71 other Phi Beta Kappa honorees lined up in their caps and gowns for the traditional fife-and-drum procession to Sanders Theatre. “It’s the beginning of a celebration,” said the Holland, Mich., senior, who said [...]

Phi Beta Kappa elects 99

Ninety-nine seniors from the Class of 2010 were recently elected to the Harvard College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (PBK), Alpha Iota of Massachusetts, in the senior final election on May 11. Other members of the graduating class were inducted in two previous elections. The following seniors, including their Houses and concentrations, were inducted: Adams [...]

Fostering a dream

On May 27, thousands of students are graduating from Harvard. Each has a successful past to relate, and a promising future to embrace. In a series of profiles, Gazette writers showcase some of these stellar graduates. Kim Snodgrass clearly remembers Dec. 11, 1998. It was her first day in the sixth grade, and the beginning [...]

The man with a Commencement plan

Inside an office where Julia Child used to film her cooking show, Jason Luke is whipping up another kind of dish: Commencement. It’s a historic backdrop like Child’s set that adds extra mystique to Luke’s job as associate director of custodial and support services for University Operations Services. That’s a mouthful, but behind the long [...]

Pumping up sports spirits

On May 27, thousands of students are graduating from Harvard. Each has a successful past to relate, and a promising future to embrace. In a series of profiles, Gazette writers showcase some of these stellar graduates. It would have been hard to miss Cheng Ho ’10 at Harvard’s athletic events. He’s usually the one mixed [...]

Art, printmaking, and science

Printmaking was a new technology in the 16th century, and artists who created prints for scientific texts not only illustrated the books, they enabled scientific advances by helping early scientists to visualize findings in ways they hadn’t before, according to curators of a new exhibit sponsored by the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. The exhibit, [...]

Poetry on ice, paper

On May 27, thousands of students are graduating from Harvard. Each has a successful past to relate, and a promising future to embrace. In a series of profiles, Gazette writers showcase some of these stellar graduates. There’s ice-skating, and there’s poetry. And then there’s ice-skating poetry written by a former professional athlete who is a [...]

Rolling back the forest canopy

Forests are declining in all six New England states for the first time in 150 years, threatened by urban sprawl in the south and by recreational development and forest ownership fragmentation in the north, according to a new report released by researchers at the Harvard Forest. The report, “Wildlands & Woodlands: A Vision for the [...]

Leading the way

On May 27, thousands of students are graduating from Harvard. Each has a successful past to relate, and a promising future to embrace. In a series of profiles, Gazette writers showcase some of these stellar graduates. As a young computer whiz, Lahiru Jayatilaka learned a lasting lesson about the importance of precision. His father agreed [...]

Radcliffe Institute awards Captain Jonathan Fay Prize to Diana C. Wise

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has awarded its 2010 Captain Jonathan Fay Prize to Diana C. Wise, a Harvard senior concentrating in history and literature. Wise was selected for her thesis “Mere Trifles: Lord Hervey’s ‘Memoirs’ and the Significance of the Insignificant,” an incisive analysis of the writings, life, and sociopolitical [...]

Hardened Arteries, Elderly Falls Linked

A stiffening of the aging brain’s blood vessels reduces their ability to respond to changes in blood pressure, increasing the risk of falls by as much as 70%, researchers reported Monday… Dr. Farzaneh A. Sorond, a neurologist at Harvard University’s Institute for Aging Research, and her colleagues studied 420 people over the age of 65. [...]

Faust calls global health one of her main priorities

Declaring the University’s efforts to improve the state of global health knowledge, education, and capacity building to be one of her “very highest priorities” as president of Harvard, Drew Faust today (May 18) announced the appointment of Sue J. Goldie, Roger Irving Lee Professor of Public Health and director of the Center for Health Decision [...]

Trudeau Foundation awards scholarship to Lisa Kelly of HLS

Harvard Law School doctoral candidate Lisa Kelly has been named one of the 15 recipients of this year’s Trudeau Foundation scholarships, presented by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. The prestigious doctoral award offers each Trudeau Scholar up to $180,000 to advance his or her research into critical issues such as labor, mental health, conflict resolution, [...]

Trees tell of shifting world

Rising global temperatures could cause the vast Amazonian rainforest — sometimes viewed as the lungs of the Earth — to give off significant carbon dioxide, worsening the climate-changing problem of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, an authority on tropical forests said Thursday (April 29). Deborah Clark, a researcher at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said [...]

Helping Haiti

The world mobilized to help Haiti after that country suffered the deadliest earthquake in this hemisphere in over a century on Jan. 12, 2010. Faculty, staff, and other members of the Harvard community, including affiliates of Partners In Health and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, played a pivotal role in the worldwide effort to provide aid.

Triple appointment for historian

Award-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed, J.D. ’84, will become a professor at Harvard Law School (HLS) and a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in July. She also will become the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Gordon-Reed — recipient of the National Book Award, the Pulitzer [...]

The nature of reality

A panel discussion with photographer/artist/essayist Allan Sekula quickly turned into a discourse on the nature of reality, a direction that fazed neither those presenting the conversation nor those listening in Emerson Hall. Indeed, Sekula, who explores questions of capitalism, globalization, and social reality in a variety of media, characterized his approach as “realism in a [...]

Hogarty named Vice President for Campus Services

Lisa Hogarty, a seasoned administrator with experience in academia and the health care industry, has been named Vice President for Campus Services at Harvard University. “This position demands an executive who can manage the daily operations of a large institution while pursuing a strategic vision that bolsters the University’s teaching and research mission,” said Executive [...]