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Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

May-June 2016

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Letters

Harvard's opportunity for strategic planning

Readers respond to articles on eugenics, the Overseers’ election, the Law School shield, and more.

President Faust writes about the Harvard Teacher Fellows

The College Pump

Harvard president James Walker, in caricature and in the flesh

Harvard president James Walker, in caricature and in the flesh

Images courtesy of the Harvard Club of New York

A president who tippled, and an eternally faithful dog

Treasure

First of four photographs showing the “Radio Contact” exhibit at Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

Scenes from an exhibition: “Radio Contact” at Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

Photograph by Samantha van Gerbig/Courtesy of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

Radio was the medium that broke the silence.

In this Issue

Illustration by Sam Falconer

Most people’s jobs are at risk of becoming robotized, argues labor economist Richard Freeman.

Portrait of Danielle Allen

Danielle Allen
Photograph by Jim Harrison

Danielle Allen’s mission to return equality to the heart of American democracy

While on active duty in the Mediterranean Theater in 1944, Dr. Lyons (at left) received the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements.

While on active duty in the Mediterranean Theater in 1944, Dr. Lyons (at left) received the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements.

The National Library of Medicine

Brief life of an innovative surgeon: 1907-1965

Flaminia Catteruccia, shown here in the insectary at Harvard’s school of public health, is plumbing the mysteries of mosquito sex.

Photograph by Stu Rosner.

A technique for pushing genetic alterations through entire species of plants and animals may herald a future in which humans manage ecosystems through molecular biology.

Letters

Harvard's opportunity for strategic planning

Readers respond to articles on eugenics, the Overseers’ election, the Law School shield, and more.

President Faust writes about the Harvard Teacher Fellows

Right Now

Illustration by Adam Niklewicz

Economist Claudia Goldin investigates what causes the gender wage gap, and what doesn't.

Illustration by Jude Buffum

Avoid refined sugars and processed carbohydrates, says endocrinologist David Ludwig.

Transparent zebrafish that develop human melanomas (bottom) facilitate the study of cancer susceptibility and carcinogenesis.

Images courtesy Ellen van Rooijen

Seeing when cancer begins helps Leonard Zon track down factors triggering the disease.

Harvard Squared

Gardens soften the stark look of the Colonial-era House of the Seven Gables

Gardens soften the stark look of the Colonial-era House of the Seven Gables

Photograph courtesy of Frank C. Grace, Trig Photography

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Salem muse was preserved by philanthropist Caroline Emmerton.

“Gracie,” about a grandson and his ailing grandmother, is playing the 2016 Roxbury International Film Festival (at the Museum of Fine Arts)

Gracie, about a grandson and his ailing grandmother, is playing the 2016 Roxbury International Film Festival (at the Museum of Fine Arts)

Courtesy of the Roxbury International Film Festival

Independent films by and about people of color

Scenic trips along the Piscataqua River highlight the region’s ecology and maritime history—along with the beauty of sailing.

Scenic trips along the Piscataqua River highlight the region’s ecology and maritime history—along with the beauty of sailing.

David Murray, Clear Eye Photo/Courtesy of the Gundalow Company

Public boat tours with The Gundalow Company, in Portsmouth, N.H.

The Addison Gallery’s staid façade

The Addison Gallery’s staid façade

Images courtesy of the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy

A day trip to Andover: Addison Gallery of American Art, gardens, and hikes

Photograph by Jim Harrison

Harvard University’s Commencement week events

Study’s simple décor

Study’s simple décor

Photograph courtesy of Study

Restaurants proliferate in Cambridge’s “hi-tech” Kendall Square neighborhood.

John Harvard's Journal

Dance director and senior lecturer Jill Johnson leading Music 12, “The Harvard Dance Project”

Dance director and senior lecturer Jill Johnson leading Music 12, “The Harvard Dance Project”

Photograph by Stu Rosner

A concentration “400 years in the making,” and two semesters old

Portrait of Ethan Lasser

Ethan Lasser
Photograph by Jim Harrison

A Harvard Art Museums curator on how artworks talk to one another, and to us

David Malan

David Malan

Photograph by Rose Lincoln/Harvard Public Affairs and Communications

Harvard’s popular CS50 is being adapted for a new AP course.

A new dean for public health, a new director for the art museums, and more

Illustration by Mark Steele

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

Lawrence H. Summers

Lawrence H. Summers
Photograph by Jim Harrison

On matters economic, educational, and political

Free Harvard/Fair Harvard and the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard square off in the Board of Overseers election.  

Merrick B. Garland

Merrick B. Garland

Photograph by Rex Features/Associated Press

A Supreme Court nominee, Spielberg at Commencement, the class of 2020, and more

Action against sexual assault, the Law School drops its shield, “Faculty Deans” now lead the Houses, and more

Desmond Green ’17, Peryn Reeves-Darby ’18, Lethu Ntshinga ’18 (obscured), Genesis De Los Santos ’19, Angelica Chima ’19, Caleb Lewis ’17, and Jonathan Sands ’17 in rehearsal for Black Magic, a student-written and -directed show on the Loeb mainstage

Photograph by Stu Rosner

The Undergraduate looks at 1969 and Reclaim HLS

Agunwa Okolie ’16, the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, helped the Harvard men’s basketball team remain competitive during an injury-plagued season.

Agunwa Okolie ’16, the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, helped the Harvard men’s basketball team remain competitive during an injury-plagued season.

Photograph courtesy of Harvard Athletics Communications

The men’s basketball streak comes to an end—and the women look ahead.

Montage

Ellen Harvey’s “Metal Painting,” 2015

Metal Painting, 2015

Photographs by Etienne Frossard

Ellen Harvey's installations offer "complicated gifts" to the viewer.

President Obama welcomes the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. But U.S. politics can pressure a president to use military, rather than diplomatic, foreign-policy tools.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Political scientists demystify unseen institutional tensions.

Hopkinson Smith playing the German theorbo built for him by Joel van Lennep

Hopkinson Smith playing the German theorbo built for him by Joel van Lennep
Photograph by Philippe Gontier/Courtesy of Hopkinson Smith

A lutenist pursues what he calls his “lifelong task.”

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Photograph 152, from Agoston’s untitled series

Photographs by Anna Agoston

Artist Anna Agoston grows into her medium with her photographic studies of plants.

Illustration by Susan Hunt Yule

Definitive economic history—and a debatable, despairing forecast

Male blue ghost fireflies (Phasis reticulata) weave glowing paths in the forest as they search for wingless females.

Photograph by Spencer Black

Fireflies, dating and love, growing old, and other recent books with Harvard connections

Alumni

Sylvester Turner

Sylvester Turner
Photograph by Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Houston’s new mayor, HLS alumnus Sylvester Turner, promises a “transformative” tenure.

Candidates for Harvard Overseers and HAA elected directors

Fred Crafts (at right), with classmate Bob Krumveida (left) and a friend, Bob Ciccone, at Monomoy in November 1949

Fred Crafts (at right), with classmate Bob Krumveida (left) and a friend, Bob Ciccone, at Monomoy in November 1949
Photograph courtesy of Frederic A. Crafts Jr.

Fred Crafts ’50 combines memoir and appreciation of Cape Cod’s natural wonders in Remembering Monomoy.

Portrait photograph of Leslie Tuttle

Leslie Tuttle
Photograph courtesy of Sarah Cotrill

Photographer Leslie Tuttle ’72 focuses on women’s work. 

Shared Interest Group gatherings 

The College Pump

Harvard president James Walker, in caricature and in the flesh

Harvard president James Walker, in caricature and in the flesh

Images courtesy of the Harvard Club of New York

A president who tippled, and an eternally faithful dog

Treasure

First of four photographs showing the “Radio Contact” exhibit at Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

Scenes from an exhibition: “Radio Contact” at Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

Photograph by Samantha van Gerbig/Courtesy of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

Radio was the medium that broke the silence.