Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

November-December 2012

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Letters

Letters on American competitiveness, free will, climate change, and more

Additional November-December issue letters to the editor

The College Pump

The Pennoyer schoolhouse bell, from Pulham St. Mary in England, now at Leverett House

Of the Pennoyer bell, and Harvard Bandsman Allan R. Robinson, Latin librettist

Treasure

The Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital

Putting a warm face on an intimidating proposition

In this Issue

Housing for workers at a construction site in Gurgaon, near Delhi.

Theresa Betancourt studies the world’s most neglected and traumatized youths.

The rise in the use of C-sections

Helen Vendler on how to welcome and nurture the poets and painters of the future

<i>Portrait of a Hunter in a Landscape,</i> attributed to Louis Gauffier (1762-1801), is said to be a portrait of General Dumas.

Brief life of the soldier who inspired <i>The Count of Monte Cristo:</i> 1762-1806

Letters

Letters on American competitiveness, free will, climate change, and more

Additional November-December issue letters to the editor

Right Now

Arctic mercury pollution flows from rivers, not the atmosphere.

A Harvard School of Public Health study links soda to teen violence.

The General Social Survey asks Americans about issues from race to free speech, confirming some trends and contradicting popular reports of others.

New England Regional

Art from the lecture “Strange Planetary Vistas from Kepler,” at the Center for Astrophysics

Harvard arts and cultural events

Faculty members reflect on the most meaningful gifts.

Curing disease, improving lives

Ambient lighting and comfy chairs star in the second-floor dining room.

Fine French fare within sight of the Public Garden

John Harvard's Journal

The Peabody Museum's Alexandre A. Tokovinine, a lecturer on anthropology and research associate, is shown at work within a protective tent during the scanning of the Chinese stele—conducted at night for optimal results.

Preserving an historic Chinese monument, long neglected

Jay Harris

The College investigates more than 100 students in an exam-cheating case—and explores broader teaching and learning concerns

Meg Rithmire

Young Chinese scholar at Harvard Business School

Jessica Tuchman Mathews and Ted Wells

Harvard's senior governing board completes its expansion to 13 members, electing Jessica Tuchman Mathews '67 and Theodore V. Wells Jr., J.D.-M.B.A. '76

In a year of flat investment returns, the endowment declines as distributions support Harvard University operations

David J. Malan in Sanders Theatre, teaching the wildly popular Computer Science 50

Harvard begins massive online courses through its edX venture with MIT and Berkeley, aiming to improve education on and beyond campus

Tozzer Library, today

Consolidating the anthropology department by raising the roof and renovating the library

In the dean's annual report for 2012, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences achieves a budget goal—and sketches its ambitions

Headlines from Harvard history

Kathryn C. Reed

The Undergraduate ponders her hometown, Harvard, and a village in Tanzania.

Jones professor of statistics Xiao-Li Meng, Ph.D. ’90 has been appointed dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Harvard news: Graduate School dean Xiao-Li Meng, Marc Hauser, University Professor Eric Maskin, and more

Tailback Treavor Scales scored four touchdowns in a 45-31 slugfest at Brown. His offensive line, said Scales, opened holes "as wide as an 18-wheeler."

Bite down. Grind it out. And score profusely.

Olympian and Harvard sophomore Temi Fagbenle at Lavietes Pavilion, where women's basketball Ivy championship banners hang in profusion

Basketball’s Temi Fagbenle—from London to Lavietes

Montage

David and Jackie Siegel relaxing at home in <i>The Queen of Versailles</i>

A documentary film turns a lens on the “1 percenters.”

Ike, in a photo likely taken in the late 1940s when he was Army Chief of Staff, playing bridge with General Alfred Gruenther and others

In Evan Thomas's new biography, President Eisenhower emerges as a canny nuclear strategist.

Peter Agoos ’75 brightened Boston’s public art scene this summer.

On high: The Alden, 225 Central Park West, in Manhattan, from <i>Up on the Roof</i>

Recent books by John Updike, Marjorie Garber, George Vaillant, Thomas McGraw, and others with Harvard connections

Presto Pesto No-Bake Lasagna

Plant-based pleasure with spirit and sizzle

<i>Firebird, </i>1971: Morton Bradley's first successful sculpture

The geometric works of sculptor Morton C. Bradley

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Alumni

Bernard Lee at the card table, with a picture of his children beside him, as usual

Bernard Lee calls, raises, deals, and explains the booming card game.

Drew Faust

A letter from President Drew Faust

From left: Abiola Laniyonu, Laura Hinton, Meghan Smith, and Matthew Chuchul

Aloian Scholars improve living communities at Harvard

Ellen Faran and Gita Manaktala

Ellen Faran ’73 and Gita Manaktala ’87 advance knowledge through publishing.

Shared Interest Group events in November and December

Harvard alumni may sign in to view class notes and obituaries.

The College Pump

The Pennoyer schoolhouse bell, from Pulham St. Mary in England, now at Leverett House

Of the Pennoyer bell, and Harvard Bandsman Allan R. Robinson, Latin librettist

Treasure

The Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital

Putting a warm face on an intimidating proposition