November-December 2007

ARGUING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE Joan Wickersham’s exploration of “Bricks and Politics” (September-October, page 50) evokes a famous…

If those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it—as philosopher George Santayana, A.B. 1886, once wrote—and if news…

In the hazardous waters of American race politics, a particular danger shadows the successful black American who achieves status and acclaim in…

Google, which earned $1.1 billion in operating income in the second quarter of 2007 alone, is now the single most important company on the…

In Moscow there are 200 theaters, and the drama students from Cambridge who study there can see plays every night in the company of impassioned…

I’ll Drink to That: Beaujolais and the French Peasant Who Made It the World’s Most Popular Wine, by Rudolph Chelminski ’56…

Editor’s note: “If anything can go wrong, it will,” officially identified as “Murphy’s Law” in our copy of…

In June 1946, Harvard celebrated its long-awaited Victory Commencement. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, alumni and…

James MacGregor Burns, Ph.D. ’47, Woodrow Wilson professor of government emeritus at Williams College, a distinguished scholar, gifted…

Paul Hoffman ’78 was a child chess prodigy and now, after a 25-year break from tournament chess, he has started playing again. He has…

There’s no need to sit at home and rue the darkness at 5 p.m. This winter, Harvard Square offers a range of things to do, from Christmas…

In an unprecedented move that raised the bar for environmental standards, University leaders in September agreed to cut the greenhouse gases…

Sorellina (“little sister”) is a vast open space with a stratospheric, white-tiled ceiling and several white columns as thick around…

Like children waiting with open bags at the door on Halloween, a dozen adults crowded around a table at the Skinner auction house wine preview…

As the second world war drew to a close, two women thought about applying to Harvard Law School. The first was an African-American native of…

The English essayist and critic William Hazlitt gazed on the white marble sculptures of antiquity and thought them cold. “[T]he finest…

A glaring anomaly stares out from the curriculum vitae of Maria Tatar, whose 10 scholarly books and scores of articles otherwise display a…

William Brewster was too frail, his eyesight too poor, said his parents and doctors, for him to attend Harvard. Instead, early each morning, he…

All images courtesy of Roberto Kolter, unless otherwise noted Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton—these are familiar names. During a…

Interdisciplinary science like that supported by the Microbial Sciences Initiative depends heavily on training the next generation of…

Feature Article: The Undiscovered Planet Archaea: One of three major domains, or classifications, of life, archaea are morphologically similar…

Feature Article: The Undiscovered Planet Today, operating out of borrowed space in Harvard’s Center for the Environment, the Microbial…

Honored historian, seasoned scholar steeped in universities’ distinctive role, adept academic administrator—Drew Gilpin Faust…

I stand honored by your trust, inspired by your charge. I am grateful to the Governing Boards for their confidence, and I thank all of you for…

A strong year for investors generally was a very strong year for the University. Harvard Management Company (HMC), concluding its first full…

One risk to continued strong endowment performance not addressed in Mohamed A. El-Erian’s annual letter was the uncertainty arising from…

Photograph by Harrison Janet Browne When Darwin biographer Janet Browne emigrated from University College London a year ago to become Aramont…

The ever-useful Harvard University Fact Book (published annually by the Office of Budgets, Financial Planning, and Institutional Research, and…

After Michael J. VanRooyen finished his residency in emergency medicine in 1991, he went to Somalia. Eager to see how his medical training would…

How lethal are modern methods of warfare? Political scientists affiliated with the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO)—the…

Expect bold ideas from Mohsen Mostafavi when he begins his term as dean of the Graduate School of Design (GSD). On a late September visit to…

The University’s annual financial accounting—usually a forbidding and retrospective document—this year sports a new look and…

1912 The Associated Harvard Clubs have established scholarships for freshmen from southern and western states to ensure greater diversity within…

For the first time, Harvard has asked its faculty members how happy they are. A survey conducted last November by the two-year-old Office of…

The report from the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity published this summer also contains the third annual accounting of gender and…

With speeches and feasting, Harvard celebrated the launch of its new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) on September 20. During a…

Tamara Elliott Rogers ’74 has been appointed the University’s vice president for alumni affairs and development, President Drew…

The Harvard China Fund, established in 2006 to strengthen the University’s academic connections with the People’s Republic, has made…

No one knows when John Harvard was born, but a record book from Southwark Cathedral in London announces his baptism there on November 29, 1607…

2+2 = M.B.A. Harvard Business School (HBS) has launched a deferred-admissions program for future M.B.A. candidates, aiming to attract…

Of all the difficult decisions one confronts as an undergraduate, the selection of concentration is perhaps the hardest. Fortunately, it is also…

It’s now 104 years old, but after a three-stage, $5-million makeover, Harvard Stadium may be one of the nation’s best-equipped…

Yes, there was one gleaming black Bentley (but only one) parked on the greensward at Myopia Hunt Club in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. True…

Men’s Soccer The Crimson (7-1-1), ranked sixth nationally in one September poll, started strongly and tied the defending national…

Tickets are a stiff $40 apiece, but the Sit ’n’ Bull Pub in Maynard, Massachusetts, is full. Folksinger Tom Rush ’63 stands…

Several college programs match students with paid and unpaid jobs and internships. To find out more about how alumni can provide these learning…

The Harvard Alumni Association Awards were established in 1990 to recognize outstanding service to Harvard University through alumni…

Daniel Hoffer ’99 is no stranger to start-ups. A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” he spent a great deal of time creating…

"Your wooden arm you hold outstretched to shake with passers-by." Anniversaries of moment: Tops on the list is the birthday of…

When Harvard curator of fossil insects Frank M. Carpenter dug up this wing in an Oklahoma prairie in 1940, he held a piece of the first evidence…