Alvin Curran will bring his thoughts and experiences to Harvard as the Louis C. Elson Lecturer, and will talk about his uncommon music and life on Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 5:15 p.m. in John Knowles Paine Concert Hall on the Harvard University campus (Harvard Square Red Line T stop). Paine Hall is wheelchair accessible, and…

Facebook certainly “likes” Gregory Malecha, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). The social media giant awarded Malecha a 2012-13 Facebook Fellowship. As a fellow, he will enjoy fully paid tuition and fees for the academic year. He will also receive a $30,000 stipend, money towards…

Researchers at Harvard University have launched the Peer Instruction (PI) Network, a new global social network for users of interactive teaching methods. PI, developed by Eric Mazur, area dean for applied physics and Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), is an innovative evidence-based pedagogy…

The Arnold Arboretum is pleased to announce that the Weld Hill Research Building has been awarded LEED Gold in assessments established by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute. Opened in January 2011, the Arboretum’s research and administration facility at Weld Hill was designed and constructed to LEED (Leadership…

Europe’s financial crisis dominated the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting, which wrapped up Sunday (January 29) in Davos, Switzerland. For the first time, growing wealth disparities were a main topic of discussion, thanks largely to the Arab Spring uprisings, the Occupy movement and other protests around the globe. More than 2,500 VIPs, including Harvard…

Seven Harvard-affiliated researchers will receive grants to support collaborative projects in high-performance computing. The seed grants, awarded by the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) under construction in Holyoke, Mass., are intended to support projects in computational science that advance basic knowledge, create new practical applications, and accelerate the development of faster and more…

Until now, a key part of receiving a Ph.D. from Harvard was taking a cab ride to a factory in Charlestown (it was not T-accessible) to have your dissertation bound. Now that scenic journey is a thing of the past. After a pilot program launched by GSAS to great success among March degree candidates, all…

The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center has awarded Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute a $10 million grant to support the expansion of its pioneering cancer imaging research program. The MLSC grant will help fund the establishment of the Molecular Cancer Imaging Facility, a $20 million research initiative to develop new molecular imaging probes. The facility will ultimately…

Whether drafting a plan to help patients make healthier food choices or designing an electronic medical records system, the more public health professionals know about the personal preferences of those who will use the end product, the more likely the initiative will be successful, Patrick Whitney (pictured at right), told an overflow HSPH audience January…

Limiting certain essential nutrients for several days before surgery—either protein or amino acids—may reduce the risk of serious surgical complications such as heart attack or stroke, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study. The study appears in the January 25, 2012 issue of Science Translational Medicine. “Food restriction as a way…

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services recently announced a scheduled cut in physician fees for 2012 using a sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, which determines annual adjustments to payments for services. The SGR formula was implemented in 1998 to curb the growth in expenditures on physicians’ services. In a new paper, “The Sources of the…

The end of the Cold War brought great changes across the political and economic landscapes. But it also affected the academic world in significant ways. In a new research paper titled “The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Productivity of American Mathematicians,” which is to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Quarterly…

The field of comparative effectiveness research, which aims to determine the most effective medical treatments, has drawn criticism from those who believe that it will lead to health care rationing. Now, the nongovernmental board created by the health care reform law to oversee comparative effectiveness research funding— The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)—has released a…

Following a host of public meetings during the fall semester, Harvard College is offering undergraduates another chance to help define the College alcohol policy’s underlying principles. Working with the Office of Student Life (OSL), the committee charged by Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds with revising the College alcohol policy will open an online focus group to…

This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled its new Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM), a development that has been long anticipated by gardeners and researchers. Like its earlier incarnations, the new PHZM provides guidelines to predict a region’s average annual minimum temperature, a vital statistic in determining whether or not a plant may survive…

All eyes are turned toward China, as it continuously grows in global importance. This phenomenon may have a contemporary ring to it, but the eighteenth century was equally enthralled by the Middle Kingdom. Everything about the distant empire was fascinating to the western world, including its music. Fanny Peabody Professor of Music Alexander Rehding, in…

“Toxic stress,” or adversity, in early childhood can lead to a lifetime of mental and physical problems—including disruption of the body’s metabolism or brain development —and pediatricians should take a leading role in providing care that addresses the problem, according to two reports in the journal Pediatrics co-authored by Jack P. Shonkoff, Julius B. Richmond…

In today’s economy data is power. “Open data leveraged by networks is the fuel that powers important decisions at each level of society,” writes Vivek Kundra, “from government to business to community to households.” In a new Shorenstein Center discussion paper titled “Digital Fuel of the 21st Century: Innovation through Open Data and the Network Effect,” Kundra…

Mark McKinnon wonders if the course of history would have been altered had P.T. Barnum moderated the famed Lincoln-Douglas debate in 1858, implying that today’s political debates are a bit of a circus. In his new research paper, “Gone Rogue: Time to Reform Presidential Primary Debates,” the author asks: Does the current primary debate process…

Many school administrators, parents and policymakers advocate on behalf of improving the quality of teaching, but there is much debate over how best to do it. One method of evaluating teachers is based on students’ test scores, commonly referred to as the “value added” (VA) approach. But there are two fundamental questions about this approach.…

Two Harvard Kennedy School research centers have been recognized as among the best think tanks in the world. The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is ranked number one and the Center for International Development (CID) as the third best university-related think tank in the 2011 Global Go To Think Tanks Index, released on…

Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, announced today that they will officially launch the Born This Way Foundation (BTWF) on Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012 at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre. Lady Gaga will be joined by some very special guests as she personally unveils BTWF before a crowd of policymakers, nonprofit organizations, foundation leaders, and…

The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, located at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is pleased to announce its 2012 Spring Fellows and Visiting Faculty. “This semester the Shorenstein Center will once again be bursting with brain power and talent,” said Alex Jones, the center’s director. “Pulitzer Prize–winner Ron…

The Harvard Kennedy School community is mourning the loss of Edith Stokey – economist, teacher, administrator, and “founding mother” of Harvard Kennedy School – who died during the evening of Jan. 16. She was 88. Stokey was a true believer in the Kennedy School’s mission. Since being recruited by Richard Zeckhauser in 1971, Stokey served…

Harvard University today launched Harvard Skate, part of the University’s yearlong 375th anniversary celebration. Scheduled to open on Jan. 17, Harvard Skate is a 40-foot-by-60-foot ice skating rink that will be temporarily located in the plaza adjacent to the Science Center.  It will be open and free to members of the Harvard community and the…

Playtime (Spielzeit), a film produced by Harvard Extension School graduate Ryan Slattery, A.L.B. ’09, has been selected to screen at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival International Shorts program in Park City, Utah, January 19 through 29. Slattery’s film is one of only 64 short films selected from a record 7,675 submissions for this year’s Sundance…

Medical historian Allan Brandt, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, has authored the “Perspective” article in the 200th anniversary edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, published this January. Discussing the history of the Journal, Brandt tracks its seminal role in observing and investigating disease, reporting innovations in medicine, and educating the medical…

It’s one thing to understand the public health implications of scientific evidence. It’s quite another to use that information to successfully implement real public health improvements. The challenge of leaping from theory to practice has prompted the creation of new programming, offered through the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for Public Health Leadership, that…

Michael VanRooyen and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) team he directs are working hard to develop new ways to offset the miseries of humanitarian disasters. In a January 2012 Boston Magazine article titled “The Saving Game,” VanRooyen talked about how relief workers — if their efforts aren’t properly coordinated—can sometimes do more harm than good.…

Nan Laird was appointed the new Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of Public Health. This honor recognizes her more than 35 years developing statistical methodology, teaching, and doing applied research. Laird succeeds the first holder of the professorship, Howard Koh, who is now Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.…