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The Harvard-affiliated nominees: (from left) South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry; Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene; and A New Name: Septology VI-VII, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Montage by Niko Yaitanes/Harvard Magazine
An historian, a poet, and a translator
Justice Elena Kagan
Photograph courtesy of the United States Supreme Court, Public DomainEbbing trust in the Supreme Court, and what to do about it
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Icebergs at the end of the Ilulissat Icefjord, Disko Bay, western Greenland
Photograph by iStock
Satellite data reveal the first unambiguous evidence linking a melting ice sheet to a predicted pattern of sea level rise.
Winokur Family Hall, scene of the celebratory science symposium that marked the launch of the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University.
Photograph by JS/Harvard Magazine
Launching Harvard’s Kempner Institute
More than 5,000 years ago, Caucasus hunter-gatherers from the highlands between the Black and Caspian Seas traveled west to Anatolia and north to the steppe, splitting their Proto-Indo-European language into two branches. From the steppe, their Yamnaya horse-herder descendants spread their language and genes into daughter languages and cultures across Eurasia. Border colors indicate the geographic origins of five source populations before their migrations (shown by correspondingly colored arrows), while the pie charts show the post-migration admixtures in these regions.
Figure reprinted with permission from I. Lazaridis et al., Science 377:939(2022).
Ancient DNA sheds new light on the origins of a lingua franca.
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At Freshman Convocation, the class of 2026 banner is unfurled for the first time.
Photograph by Lydialyle Gibson/Harvard Magazine
Speakers’ remarks reflect the urgencies of a turbulent time.
Harvard Business School
Photograph by Niko Yaitanes/Harvard Magazine
Ten percent of MBA students to receive full tuition scholarships
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The Harvard-affiliated nominees: (from left) South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry; Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene; and A New Name: Septology VI-VII, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Montage by Niko Yaitanes/Harvard Magazine
An historian, a poet, and a translator
Justice Elena Kagan
Photograph courtesy of the United States Supreme Court, Public DomainEbbing trust in the Supreme Court, and what to do about it
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Photograph courtesy of @MFAstudioartclasses
Opportunities for discovery this fall
Birches Over Pine (1966)
Painting courtesy of the Shelburne Museum
Exhibit at Vermont's Shelburne Museum offers beauty and vitality
The music center, sited on a bucolic hill in Groton
© Photograph courtesy of Epstein Joslin Architects
A new regional music center opens in Groton, Massachusetts.
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Photograph by Unsplash/edited by Harvard Magazine
An athlete contends with injury and identity.
The commercial "enterprise research campus" will begin rising on the gray parcel at the center, above—but Harvard's broader strategy is not widley known.
Image from Google EarthThe Corporation’s role in communicating University strategies—and the magazine’s 125th
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The Harvard-affiliated nominees: (from left) South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry; Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene; and A New Name: Septology VI-VII, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Montage by Niko Yaitanes/Harvard Magazine
An historian, a poet, and a translator
Translator William Tamplin joined the Marine Corps earlier this year.
Photograph courtesy of William Tamplin
William Tamplin, Ph.D. ’20, on the lyricism and secrecy of an Arabic literary pioneer
Wisteria in Pebble Garden at Dumbarton Oaks
Photograph courtesy of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
The art of conserving an historic garden at Dumbarton Oaks
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Click on arrow at right to view additional images
(1/3) GAME FACES From left, senior defensive lineman David Madzivanyika, captain and defensive lineman Truman Jones, and coach Tim Murphy get ready to lead the team out of the tunnel before kickoff.
Photograph courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications“Too many mistakes” in a stinging non-league loss
Click on arrow at right to view additional images
(1/4) KYM DANDY Even while in the clutches of Brown's Harrison Ochs (5), Harvard's Kym Wimberly (1) reached over the goal for his second touchdown. The senior wideout bedeviled the Brown secondary, making a game-high eight catches.
Photograph by Dylan Goodman/Harvard Athletic CommunicationsStrong offense, vulnerable rushing defense, and painful penalties tortured Crimson fans until the last nine seconds.
Click on arrow at right to view additional images
(1/4) OPENING STRETCH. Sophomore backup quarterback Charles DiPrima and his mates got limbered up for the 148th season of Harvard football.
Photograph by Dylan Goodman Photography/courtesy of Harvard Athletic CommunicationsOvertime theatrics, as the Crimson defense and running back Aidan Borguet pull one out.
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Prince Charles with Francis H. Burr at the 350th
Photograph by Mike Quan
The Prince of Wales’s star turn at Harvard’s 350th anniversary gala, in 1986
Wisteria in Pebble Garden at Dumbarton Oaks
Photograph courtesy of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
The art of conserving an historic garden at Dumbarton Oaks
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September-October 2022
Kallaugher’s “Dark Web” (2021), published in The Economist
Cartoon by Kal Kallaugher
Kevin Kallaugher on the art of editorial cartooning
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From the archives
Nell Painter, a professor emerita of American history at Princeton, now works as an artist in Newark, New Jersey.
Photograph by John Emerson
Painter, Anew
Nell Painter reflects on leaving the ivory tower for art school at age 64.
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September-October 2016
Letters
Readers comment on Harvard and slavery, scientists and sex, final clubs, Seamus Heaney, and more
President Faust on Harvard Divinity School's bicentennial
How Harvard might better explain itself to faculty, friends, and the world at large
A distinctive Harvard Magazine voice remembered
Welcoming an accomplished new editorial colleague
The College Pump
Robert M. Pennoyer, age 19, on duty in 1944
Photograph courtesy of Robert M. Pennoyer
A member of the class of 1946 on the horrors, and humor, of World War II.
Treasure
Common thistle (Cirsium vulgare) found in an open pasture in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, in 1921
Image courtesy of the Harvard University Herbaria
Digitized herbaria collections data allow researchers to predict future plant ranges.
In this Issue
Illustration by Andrew MacGregor
Colson Whitehead ’91 plays for higher stakes in his new novel.
Illustration by Adam Niklewicz
Making the case for charter schools and other choice options to boost educational performance
George Bucknam Dorr on the Beachcroft Path on Huguenot Head
Photograph courtesy of Friends of Acadia and the National Park Service and NPS/Archive
Brief life of a persistent conservationist: 1853-1944
As Jerry Mitrovica demonstrates, the weight of ice sheets in polar regions can actually flatten the earth’s rocky mantle, altering the speed of the planet’s rotation and changing sea levels.
Photograph by Jim Harrison
Connecting climate change to the planet’s shifting crust
Nancy Rosenblum in her Greenwich Village apartment building
Portrait by Robert Adam Mayer
Nancy Rosenblum studies neighbors and the power of proximity.
Letters
Readers comment on Harvard and slavery, scientists and sex, final clubs, Seamus Heaney, and more
President Faust on Harvard Divinity School's bicentennial
How Harvard might better explain itself to faculty, friends, and the world at large
A distinctive Harvard Magazine voice remembered
Welcoming an accomplished new editorial colleague
Right Now
Illustration by Wesley Bedrosian
Evolution shaped humans to rest—and to run only when absolutely necessary.
A 3-D printer “draws” a coiled antenna in the air. What allows the printer to work this way is a laser that hardens an “ink” of silver nanoparticles as they emerge from the nozzle.
Image courtesy of Mark Skylar-Scott
A new kind of 3-D printer forms wires in midair.
Anthony Jack is interested in diversity among low-income students.
Photograph by Jim Harrison
Sociologist Anthony Jack studies two types of low-income students.
Harvard Squared
The Saugus Iron Works sits on a tidal basin about a 10-minute drive off Interstate 95.
Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service
The Saugus Iron Works highlights early U.S. industrial history
Workers flood the cranberry bog, then collect and bag the berries that float to the top.
Photograph by Andrew W. Griffith/A.D. Maekpeace Company
Learn how New England’s iconic berries are cultivated at this annual event.
Harold Edgerton captured the interface between art and science, as in his photograph of a bullet passing through an apple.
Image courtesy of the Bruce Museum
The Bruce Museum highlights “Science in Motion” in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Figureheads, like this 1970s reproduction, often adorned fire stations in the 1800s.
Photograph by Harvard Magazine/JC
Children and adults alike are drawn to this eclectic array of firefighting artifacts.
Sevan’s Murat and Nuran Chavushian hold up a batch of feta.
Photograph by Stu Rosner
Ethnic markets serve up a world of food.
John Harvard's Journal
Assembling the Harvard Life Lab, on Western Avenue, at the edge of the Business School campus
Photograph by Jim Harrison
Harvard's sweeping building boom.
Michael Brenner
Photograph by Stu Rosner
Applied mathematician Michael Brenner on not knowing anything
An existing frame home begins its transformation into the new Winthrop House faculty dean’s residence.
Photograph by Jim Harrison
Three projects in, some physical and financial assessments
Illustration by Mark Steele
From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine
Douglas Elmendorf
Photograph by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Public Affairs and Communications
New HKS dean Douglas Elmendorf talks progressive policy and economics.
“P” with Mary surrounded by 12 stars, from Richard de Saint-Laurent, De laudibus beatae Mariae virginis, late 1200s
Courtesy of Wellesley College
Little-known treasures from Houghton Library and other collections
Advocate editors playing to the camera circa 1900-1910
Courtesy of Harvard University Archives
The Harvard Advocate turns 150.
Chao Center
Photograph by Jim Harrison
Chao Center, a Law School alumnus as vice-presidential nominee, sexual-assault lexicon, Gen Ed transition, and more
Photograph by Harvard Magazine/JB
Continuing challenges to undergraduate-admissions policies, and diversifying faculties
The magazine’s Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellows for the 2016-2017 academic year will be Matthew Browne ’17 and Lily Scherlis ’18.
Photograph by Stu Rosner
The magazine's Ledecky Fellows provide an undergraduate perspective.
Anne Cheng
Photograph by Jim Harrison
Anne Cheng anchors Harvard's new golf prowess.
Montage
Could Science Prove There’s a God? (2014) is part of artist Judith Brodsky's ongoing series about science and philosophy, The Twenty Most Important Scientific Questions of the 21st Century.
Image courtesy of Judith Brodsky
From the beginning, artist and advocate Judith Brodsky felt “pulls in different directions.”
Composer Nicholas Britell has written scores for films including Moonlight, A Tale of Love and Darkness, and The Seventh Fire. He is also a pianist and producer (most recently of Whiplash, by Damien Chazelle ’07).
Courtesy of Nicholas Britell
A film composer's career, from annotating Sneakers to doing “archaeology” for 12 Years a Slave
Autumn harvest: a honeybee on Solidago gigantea (goldenrod)
Photograph by Helga R. Heilmann
Thomas D. Seeley on the craft and science of bee hunting
Melanerpes lewis, Meriwether Lewis’s woodpecker, in the MCZ’s collections
Photograph by Mark Sloan/Courtesy of the Museum of Comparative Zoology/Harvard University
Recent books with Harvard connections
Joseph Finder at the Boston Athenaeum, a membership library. The private investigator hero of his Nick Heller series is also based in the city, where Finder lives with his family.
Photograph by Stu Rosner
Joseph Finder makes technology the texture of his new thriller, Guilty Minds.
Illustration by James Steinberg
A focused briefing on degree-attainment, democracy, and economic opportunity
Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words
Alumni
Posing with a tool of the trade, Alcorn can revel in her job’s reflection of film noir.
Photograph by Jim Harrison
Boston-based private investigator Sarah Alcorn is “a bit of an oddball in this business.”
Martin J. Grasso Jr.
Photograph by Jim Harrison
President Martin J. Grasso boosts alumni volunteerism.
The Harvard Club of Boston’s renovated Harvard Hall foyer
Photograph by Richard Mandelkorn/The Harvard Club of Boston
The Harvard Club of Boston’s makeover, and new president
(From left) Annalee Perez ’17 and Brittany Wang ’17
Courtesy of the Harvard Alumni Association
The Aloian Memorial Scholars contribute to House life.
Harvard Alumni Association awards honor volunteer service to the University.
Paul Zeitz visiting with Proof School students last fall
A private San Francisco middle school and high school nurture a passion for numbers.
The College Pump
Robert M. Pennoyer, age 19, on duty in 1944
Photograph courtesy of Robert M. Pennoyer
A member of the class of 1946 on the horrors, and humor, of World War II.
Treasure
Common thistle (Cirsium vulgare) found in an open pasture in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, in 1921
Image courtesy of the Harvard University Herbaria
Digitized herbaria collections data allow researchers to predict future plant ranges.