Campus & Community

Harvard Universitys Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) William C. Kirby and Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Thomas M. Reardon announced that Beth Balmuth Raffeld has been named associate vice president and dean for development for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

As a social historian, Emmanuel Akyeampong focuses on those aspects of life that often escape the attention of scholars who chronicle the large-scale events that shape a nations political destiny.

Responding to student requests that fall term exams be held before the winter break, the School of Public Health (SPH) has adopted a new fall schedule this year that not only pushes the exams up, but provides for new learning options during a monthlong January session.

Joseph S. Nye Jr., dean of the Kennedy School of Government, has announced the creation of a program to educate new leaders for the free and prosperous development of Armenia and the good of her citizens and countrymen around the world. The Manoukian Public Service Program for Armenia is supported by a gift from the Manoukian Foundation in London and will provide funds for three areas of collaboration:

Widener Library main entrance to close for six months Starting Oct. 19, the main entrance of Widener Library will be closed for six months in order to renovate the first…

Observing hospital nurses for 239 hours, Anita Tucker watched them solve problems all day, every day.

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Helen Whitney will present portions of her PBS Frontline documentary Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero, at the Memorial Church on Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m. The New York Times calls the film an extraordinary work, adding that it is an elegantly made, unsentimental look at the widely varied ways in which the terror attacks affected religious beliefs, an important issue no other program has dealt with so thoroughly or thoughtfully. Several individuals who appear in the film will join Whitney at the screening, including theology professor Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete of St. Johns Seminary, and attorney Terry McGovern, whose mother was killed in the World Trade Center.

Ostrich lust, belly button lint, and creative corporate accounting took honors at the Twelfth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony in Sanders Theatre on Oct. 3, an event that celebrates scientific achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced.

For the first time, paid undergraduates will fan out into Harvards dorms and houses this year, teaching and preaching and shepherding fellow students into greater environmental awareness and action.

Among recent gatherings on campus was a rally against war on Iraq (above) on Monday (Oct. 7), where Derrick N. Ashong, a Ph.D. candidate in Afro-American Studies, spoke. At the Law School – where, because of a threat to federal funding, military recruiters have recently been allowed access to the School – an Oct. 7 event organized by HLS LAMBDA protested the militarys stance toward gays and lesbians. HLS Dean Robert C. Clark (below) addressed the crowd. Commenting on the issue, President Lawrence H. Summers said, Generations of Harvard alumni have served with distinction in the U.S. armed forces. Consistent with the ideal of nondiscrimination, I believe that our gay and lesbian students and graduates should have that honorable opportunity as well. Military service is a noble and vitally important calling. Current federal policy not only denies openly homosexual individuals a crucial opportunity to serve their country, it denies all of us the benefit of their service in so important a cause.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School (HMS) have discovered that dual genetic signals are required to disrupt the framework of normal breast tissue during early tumor development. While most genes associated with breast cancer can only deliver one of those signals, one common breast cancer gene, HER2 (also called ErbB2), is able to provide both culprit signals.

Assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School Perry Rosenthal has been selected as a finalist for the JP Morgan Chase Health Award at the Tech Museum of Innovation Awards, presented by Applied Materials, Inc. The founder of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmarys Contact Lens Service, Rosenthal was elected for his involvement in the development of vision-rehabilitating contact lenses.

In 1967 the Arno river overflowed its banks and Florence, Italy, became flooded. The rising water spelled disaster for many libraries and museums. Priceless books, manuscripts, and other objects were soaked. Many were ruined.

The mother dinosaur in the Harvard Museum of Natural Historys new exhibit died crouching over her eggs protectively, probably in a Gobi Desert sandstorm, exhibiting parenting instincts that until recently scientists didnt believe she had.

Courting the Cambridge farm vote

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Harvard University will honor the legacy of a beloved member of the Allston-Brighton community with the new Brian Honan Scholarships, which offer to Boston municipal employees full tuition scholarships for Harvards Division of Continuing Education (DCE). Honan, a Boston city councilor representing Allston-Brighton, died suddenly in July at age 39.

An economist who has conducted groundbreaking research on information technology and economic growth, energy and the environment, and applied econometrics, and a music scholar whose studies of Bach and Mozart have incorporated research in architecture, theology, medicine, and economics have both been named University Professors.

Senior adviser to the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Ann Berman has agreed to serve as acting vice president for finance while the search for a permanent successor to Elizabeth Beppie Huidekoper proceeds. Berman will assume her new role on Oct. 10.

Robert Dorfman A memorial service for Robert Dorfman, David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy Emeritus, will be held at the Memorial Church on Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. The…

President Lawrence H. Summers and Provost Steven Hyman will hold office hours for students in their Massachusetts Hall offices from 4 to 5 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) on the following dates:

Theres no praise sweeter than that from ones colleagues, says Frank Westheimer, Morris Loeb Professor of Chemsitry Emeritus. After a lifetime of research, Westheimer, 90, has gotten this kind of sweet thrill to add to his many other laurels.

With a brilliant outing from backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick 05, the Harvard football team overcame a 12-point deficit to edge Brown, 26-24, this past Saturday (Sept. 28) at Brown Stadium. The win improved the Crimson to 2-0 on the season, while keeping the overall streak alive and well at 11 straight.

Walter H. Annenberg, businessman, statesman, philanthropist, and Harvard benefactor whose donations helped finance undergraduate scholarships and the renovation of Annenberg Hall, died Tuesday (Oct. 1) at his home near Philadelphia from complications due to pneumonia. He was 94.

Academic performance is a key benchmark in our society. Success or failure in this area can profoundly affect future opportunity, how we are perceived by others, and the way we see ourselves. Using 15 years of his own research to identify the unseen pressures affecting the academic performance of particular groups, Claude Steele, the Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences at Stanford University, will discuss this knotty subject at the Agassiz House Theatre in the Radcliffe Yard on Oct. 10 at 4 p.m. The talk is free and open to the public.

Thesis fellowship available from CSWR The Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) invites students enrolled in any Harvard doctoral program whose research involves the substantive study of religious…

A huge electronic resource of materials on architecture, urbanism, landscape design, and related issues of concern to the Muslim world – and people interested in it – went online Sept. 27 when the presidents of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) came together with His Highness the Aga Khan to launch http://www.ArchNet.org.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded a $1.2 million grant to a consortium of investigators and health care organizations for a national bioterrorism syndromic surveillance demonstration program, a kind of computer early warning system that initially will sweep, in real time, 20 million patient records in all 50 states for clusters of symptoms associated with bioterror agents.

An old joke asks the question, What do you call a 200-pound black man with a gun? The answer, of course, is Sir, the subtext being that it is only by physical intimidation that blacks can gain respect in the white world.

The first publisher of the signed Declaration of Independence was a woman.