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Harvard College Professors

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Photograph by Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office

Virginie Greene

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Photograph by Jon Chase/Harvard News Office

John Shaw

Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean Michael D. Smith has named six colleagues Harvard College Professors, recognizing excellence in undergraduate teaching: professor of Romance languages and literatures Virginie Greene; professor of economics David Laibson; Cabot professor of the natural sciences Douglas Melton; Johnstone Family professor of psychology Steven Pinker; Dudley professor of structural and economic geology John Shaw; and Loker professor of English James Simpson. The five-year appointments provide funding for further professional development, through either research support or supplemental summer salaries. Separately, Smith recognized two junior faculty members for their teaching, conferring the Abramson Award on Lisa Brooks, assistant professor of history and literature and of folklore and mythology, and David Parkes, Loeb associate professor of the natural sciences.

 

ART Alumna

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Photograph courtesy of the ART

Diane Paulus

Diane Paulus ’87 has been appointed artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre. She will begin working this fall on planning the 2009-2010 season. A social studies concentrator at Harvard, Paulus received an M.F.A. in directing from Columbia; she has been teaching at Barnard/Columbia and the Yale School of Drama. Her directing credits include plays, musical theater, and numerous opera productions.

Endowment Expert

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Photograph by Justin Ide/Harvard News Office

Jane Mendillo

Jane Mendillo has been appointed president and chief executive officer of Harvard Management Company (HMC), effective July 1, succeeding interim CEO Robert S. Kaplan. HMC oversees investment of the endowment and other University assets. Mendillo has served as chief investment officer at Wellesley College since early 2002. From 1987 to 2002 she was a senior investment officer at HMC, ultimately overseeing external assets then totaling roughly one-third of the total funds under management. University treasurer James F. Rothenberg cited her investment and leadership skills, knowledge of Harvard, and devotion to higher education. In her recent roles, Mendillo has had broad responsibility for asset allocation, perhaps the most important task for HMC’s senior officer. Although fiscal year 2008 results will not be reported until this autumn, there are indications as Mendillo arrives that, despite turbulent financial markets, Harvard’s diversified portfolio again yielded positive investment returns.

Undergraduates Overhead

Massachusetts Hall—Harvard’s oldest building, home to the president and her senior staff—will once again house College freshmen on its upper floors. The building was sold by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to the central administration in 2006, and was taken out of service for housing during the past academic year. Beginning this fall, however, FAS has rented the unoccupied space back, and 14 entering freshmen are expected to room there during each of the next two years. Undergraduate housing is a scarce commodity—apparently a factor in the decision not to admit any transfer students for the next two years. On the other hand, given the difficulties in judging student preferences in the first year when the College did not offer early action but did substantially increase financial aid, Harvard offered fewer students regular admission than in years past, and then, atypically, went well into its waiting list to fill out the class of 2012.

 

Nota Bene

Museums makeover. The Harvard University Art Museums (the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Sackler) and associated research centers have renamed themselves as a single entity—the Harvard Art Museum—with graphic devices meant to indicate the continuing identity of the constituent parts.

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Photograph by Jon Chase/Harvard News Office

Ronald S. Kessler

Phototo of Gary Ruvkun

Photograph courtesy of Gary Ruvkun

Gary Ruvkun

National academy notables. Eight faculty members have been elected members of the National Academy of Sciences: Lars E. Hernquist, professor of astronomy; Eric N. Jacobsen, Emery professor of chemistry; Lisa J. Randall, professor of physics; Theda Skocpol, Thomas professor of government and sociology, and past dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; and from Harvard Medical School, Michael E. Greenberg, professor of neurology; Ronald S. Kessler, professor of health care policy; Anjana Rao, professor of pathology; and Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics.

Guggenheim fellows. The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded fellowships for 2008 to: Torben Iversen, Burbank professor of political economy (on the representation of economic interests); Nicholas Watson, professor of English and American literature and language (vernacular theology and the secularization of England, 1050-1550); and Harvard Kennedy School’s John G. Ruggie, Kirkpatrick professor of international affairs (multinational corporations and human rights).

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Photograph by Justin Ide/Harvard News Office

Susan Athey

photo of Lawrence Buell

Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News Office

Lawrence Buell

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Photograph by Jon Chase/Harvard News Office

Daniel Gilbert

American academy honorands. A bumper crop of faculty members has been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Susan Athey, professor of economics; Mahzarin Banaji, Cabot professor of social ethics and Pforzheimer professor at the Radcliffe Institute; Janet Browne, Aramont professor of the history of science; Benjamin Buchloh, Mellon professor of modern art; Lawrence Buell, Cabot professor of American literature; Nancy F. Cott, Trumbull professor of American history and Pforzheimer Foundation director of the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute; Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology; Gulru Necipoglu-Kafadan, Aga Khan professor of Islamic art; Jeremy Stein, Safra professor of economics; William J. Stuntz, Friendly professor of law; Elizabeth Warren, Gottleib professor of law; and Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, professor of chemistry and chemical biology.

Newly elected Harvard Medical School faculty members include: Jerome Groopman, Recanati professor of medicine; Rakesh K. Jain, Cook professor of radiation oncology (tumor biology); Judy Lieberman, professor of pediatrics; Timothy J. Mitchison, Sabbagh professor of systems biology; Norbert Perrimon, professor of genetics; Kevin Struhl, Gaiser professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology; and Leonard Ira Zon, Grousbeck professor of pediatrics.

On other campuses. Like Harvard Law School, which has waived third-year tuition for students who commit to public service, and Harvard Medical School, which eliminated parental tuition payments for students whose families earn less than $120,000 per year, their Yale counterparts are acting, to0—building on the wave of more generous undergraduate financial aid launched last December by Harvard. Yale Law School has liberalized income limits for loan forgiveness and increased funding for public-service opportunities. Yale Medical School eliminated family tuition contributions below the $100,000 level. And Tufts University has extended the principle of loan forgiveness to alumni and forthcoming graduates of all its schools (including its undergraduate program) who pursue nonprofit or public-service careers, not just of graduates from certain professional schools—the practice at Harvard and other universities. And the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine began making grants for 12 campus stem-cell research facilities; Stanford received the largest award, $44 million, toward a planned $200-million center.

Bridge to Citizenship

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Photograph by Martha Stewart

The Harvard Bridge Program, begun in 1999, offers University service workers instruction in subjects ranging from English as a second language to college-preparation and career-development skills. Some 550 service employees now participate, and those who are preparing to take the citizenship examination receive tutoring from undergraduate volunteers involved in the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School. A ceremony this April celebrated 24 newly minted United States citizens from the program. Shown here are 13 of the celebrants. Standing (left to right) are Santos Molina, Secundina Alvarez, Ines Da Silva, Juan Gonzalez, Doris Lopera, Brenda Quant, Vanessa Delleville, Julius Kubai, and Blanca Hurtado; seated (left to right) are Tananya Deus, Ruth Melgar, Maria Andrade, and Vincenta Aleman.

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Photograph by Justin Ide/Harvard News Office

Arthur Kleinman

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Photograph courtesy of Prestson Scott Cohen

Preston Scott Cohen

Miscellany. Rabb professor of anthropology Arthur Kleinman, who is also professor of medical anthropology and psychiatry, has been appointed director of the University Asia Center (www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr), effective July 1, succeeding Daewoo professor of international affairs Anthony Saich. Kleinman has conducted medical, mental-health, and anthropological research in Taiwan and China for three decades.…Cogan University Professor Stephen Greenblatt has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The second edition of The Norton Shakespeare, for which he serves as general editor, will be published in September. Also elected was Robert A. Caro, NF ’66, biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.…McCue professor in architecture Preston Scott Cohen has been appointed chair of the Graduate School of Design’s department of architecture, succeeding Toshiko Mori, Hubbard professor in the practice of architecture. Cohen designed several buildings now under construction in China and Israel.…Following the lead of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (see “Open Access,” May-June, page 61), the Harvard Law School faculty has voted to make professors’ scholarly articles available on line for free.

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