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May-June 2007
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< previous | 1 | 2 Nota Bene
Petrostate strategist. Lawrence University Professor Michael Porter, perhaps the world’s preeminent corporate strategist, is advising the government of Libya on economic reform. Monitor Group, the consulting firm he founded, is focusing on energy, tourism, and other industries. Other consulting firms are addressing financial reform. Porter was quoted as saying that the country “pretty much needs universal reform” after years of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s leadership.
Currier service concludes. Joseph L. Badaracco Jr., Shad professor of business ethics, and Patricia O’Brien, former deputy dean of Harvard College, have announced that they will relinquish their duties as master and co-master of Currier House at the end of the academic year. They assumed leadership of the House in 2003.
Assessment advances. Continuing research aimed at assessing students’ learning, President Derek Bok has provided funds for a voluntary examination to compare the current writing skill of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to the level of proficiency demonstrated on their initial writing placement tests when they enrolled. Seniors were offered the opportunity to take the Collegiate Learning Assessment, which measures critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and writing. (See “Curriculum, Classroom, Competence,” January-February, page 62.)
Electronic extension. Harvard Extension School courses can be previewed via Apple’s iTunesU, where 10- to 15-minute video clips of several distance-education courses are available. Audios of complete introductory lectures are also available.
Promising (junior) professors. Of the 116 Sloan Research Fellowships distributed for 2007 to support the work of young academics with “outstanding promise,” six went to Harvard scholars: economists Pol Antras, Roland G. Fryer Jr., and Aleh Tsyvinski; and physicist Markus Greiner, bioengineer Maurice Smith, and neurobiologist Rachel Wilson. Each two-year fellowship carries a $45,000 award.
Major mentors. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student council conferred Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Awards on three faculty members: professor of health policy and management Robert J. Blendon; Jayne professor of government and professor of African and African American studies Jennifer L. Hochschild; and associate professor of medicine Raghu Kalluri.
Miscellany. Kenan professor of government Harvey C. Mansfield has been chosen to deliver the annual Jefferson Lecture in the humanities, the highest federal honor in the field. The lecture, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is scheduled for May 8.…Catherine Hutchison Winnie, daughter of former Winthrop House master and co-master William Hutchison (now deceased) and Virginia Quay Hutchison, has been appointed director of the Office of International Programs, the focal point for undergraduates’ study-abroad and international internship activities.…The Stanley Medical Research Institute has made a $100-million gift to support 10 years of psychiatric research—focusing on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder—at the Broad Institute, the genomics center operated by Harvard and MIT.…Harvard Medical School and its principal affiliated hospitals have agreed to boost to $100 per hour the fee paid to physicians for their teaching time, hoping to engage more clinical faculty with students; some have been paid as little as $30 per hour for teaching, discouraging them from fulfilling academic obligations.… Harvard Business School’s annual financial report for fiscal 2006 (www.hbs.edu/about/annualreport/index.html) reveals robust revenue growth—up 11.2 percent, to $368 million—propelled by gains in M.B.A. and executive-education tuition, strong sales growth in the publishing operations, and growing endowment income. As a result, the school boosted expenses even more rapidly, after several years of relative constraint.…Pusey professor of neurobiology Carla J. Shatz, head of Harvard Medical School’s department of neurobiology and a leading figure in promoting interdisciplinary science at the University, is returning to Stanford to direct the collaborative Bio-X program; her research was described in “Brainy Women” (May-June 2002, page 36).…A consortium of nine medical-research institutions, including Harvard, issued a report calling for renewed growth in biomedical research funding, lest promising work be stalled (see “Within Our Grasp—Or Slipping Away?” at http://hms.harvard.edu/public/news/nih_funding.pdf).…Ramsey professor of political economy Richard J. Zeckhauser, playing with full-time bridge player Mildred Breed, of Austin, Texas, captured the North American mixed-pairs bridge championship in St. Louis in March; his last championship came in 1966. This victory came after 104 hands.
Legal Largesse
Bruce J. Wasserstein, J.D. ’70, M.B.A. ’71, chief executive of the Lazard investment banking firm, and the Wasserstein family have given $25 million to Harvard Law School to support construction of the academic wing of the school’s new 250,000-square-foot building (see “Legal Legroom,” January-February, page 61). To recognize the gift, the second largest in school history, the wing will be named Wasserstein Hall. Work has begun to move historic buildings from the site; full construction is scheduled to begin this summer. Construction costs alone for the entire project are estimated at $148 million, with additional expenses to relocate and reconfigure facilities now on or adjacent to the site.  
 
 
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