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July-August 2009

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Montage

A blinding sandstorm is part of <em>Journey to Mecca.</em>

The Hajj, Screened Large

“Journey to Mecca,” co-produced by Taran Davies ’93, is a new IMAX film about the Hajj.

Cultures in Conflict

Paul M. Barrett reviews “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West,” by Christopher Caldwell ’83

Shuttered Behind Bars

In a new book, photographer Bruce Jackson presents old ID photo portraits from an Arkansas prison.

Letters

Right Now

Robert Patterson’s letter to Thomas Jefferson included a worked example of his cipher. He began by writing his message in lower-case letters and in columns, running top to bottom like Chinese. This example begins with the words “Buonaparte has at last given peace to Europe,” legible in the first two columns.

Jefferson's Conundrum

Mathematician Lawren Smithline ’94 has decrypted an encoded message sent to Thomas Jefferson in 1801.

New England Regional

John Harvard's Journal

Giving a spell-out for <a href="http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement/2009-speeches">Graduate English orator Joseph Claghorn</a> were fellow landscape-architecture students Vanessa Lindley Palmer (J; the ringleader), Katie Jean Powell (O), Sisi Sun (S), Joonhyun Kim (E), Simon Mark Bussiere (P), and Adrienne Re Heflich (H). Design School students still play with blocks.

A Worldly Week

Commencement celebrants and celebrations faced up to real world problems.
David Malan

David J. Malan

Expert multitasker David Malan introduces students to computer science.
Dining halls (such as Eliot's) are "the hub of House life," says a report on the residences, and every House should have its own.

Renewing the Houses

Harvard has released a report on the role of the Houses in undergraduate life, in preparation for a major renovation.

Brevia

Short takes on recent news

Ghosts

As senior year winds down, a look forward—and back.

Play at the Plate

Baseball catcher Tyler Albright ’11 explains how to play his position.

Alumni

Gregg Hurwitz

Slaying Dragons

A crime novelist explores the deepest cracks in the human heart.
This year’s honorands are (from left) Nobel Prize-winning astronomer <strong>Joseph Hooton Taylor,</strong> Ph.D. ’68, McDonnell professor of physics at Princeton; Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of slavery and abolitionism <strong>David Brion Davis,</strong> Ph.D. ’56, Sterling professor of history emeritus at Yale; noted art historian <strong>Svetlana Leontief Alpers</strong> ’57, Ph.D. ’65, professor of Northern Renaissance art emerita at the University of California, Berkeley; and Nobel laureate in economics <strong>Thomas Crombie Schelling</strong>, Ph.D. ’51, Littauer professor of political economy emeritus at Harvard and now Distinguished Professor at the Maryland School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland, College Park, an expert on national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control.

2009 GSAS Medalists

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal honors alumni whose contributions to society emerged from their graduate study at Harvard.

Treasure

The College Pump