Following visits to Africa, Asia, and Europe, President Drew Faust is extending her tour of the Crimson Commonwealth to Latin America, with a spring-break-and-beyond trip to Chile and Brazil. University officials traveling with her have posted a dispatch from Chile, where she met with that nation's president, Sebastián Piñera, Ph.D. ’76 (whose finance, planning, and justice ministers also hold Harvard degrees); coincidentally, Faust's visit overlapped with that of U.S. president Barack Obama, J.D. '91. In addition to attending alumni functions, Faust was also briefed on Un Buen Comienzo, the Harvard-Chile program on early childhood education, the subject of Harvard Magazine's March-April 2009 cover story, "The Developing Child."
She is opening a discussion this morning on reconstruction and recovery from Chile's earthquake last year; Harvard personnel have been involved through the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS), which maintains a major office in Santiago. A May-June 2004 dispatch from the magazine covers a broad array of the DRCLAS activities in Chile; among the people featured there is urban planner Pablo Allard, M.A.U. '99, D.D.N. '01, who has been deeply involved in the earthquake recovery efforts. Read more coverage of urban development, planning, and related issues in Chile.
Faust next travels to Brazil. Read this magazine's recent coverage of students and faculty members investigating climate-change issues in the Brazilian rainforest, with accompanying video footage of the challenges of conducting scientific research in the jungle.
