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President Lawrence S. Bacow
Larry Bacow puts Harvard in the perspective of the pandemic.
Sarah Whiting
Photograph courtesy of Harvard Public Affairs and CommunicaitonsThe new dean has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The blue regions are oil palm plantation, while the forest regions (yellows and greens) are colored by tree height, which is a proxy for carbon.
Image courtesy of Global Airborne Observatory, ASU Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science.The world needs tropical forests—but rainforest destruction continues unabated, and it may be even worse than you thought.
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The blue regions are oil palm plantation, while the forest regions (yellows and greens) are colored by tree height, which is a proxy for carbon.
Image courtesy of Global Airborne Observatory, ASU Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science.The world needs tropical forests—but rainforest destruction continues unabated, and it may be even worse than you thought.
Karen Dynan
Photograph courtesy of Karen DynanThe severe economic fallout, in context
Tommie Shelby, chair of African and African-American studies
Photograph by Melissa BlackallSpeakers discuss history, progress, hope, and home.
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Photograph courtesy of Lauren Spohn
“We are the generation that is coming of age in the COVID-19 crisis,” writes Lauren Spohn ’20. “We can we build? What can we sacrifice? What risks can we take?”
Professor and platform: William C. Kirby logs on to Zoom from home for his first remote teaching session.
On taking a Harvard Gen Ed class remotely with William C. Kirby
Photograph by Allison Kern/Harvard Magazine
“I feel lucky that I took for granted my Harvard experience before its abrupt end.”
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Loeb House, where the University's governing boards meet
Photograph by Harvard Magazine/JCThe coronavirus pandemic threatened to disenfranchise alumni balloting.
Tommie Shelby, chair of African and African-American studies
Photograph by Melissa BlackallSpeakers discuss history, progress, hope, and home.
Tracy P. Palandjian ’93, M.B.A. ’97, chair of the Harvard Alumni Association Committee to Nominate Overseers and Elected Directors, and Philip Lovejoy, HAA executive director
Photographs: Courtesy of Tracy P. Palandjian and Will Halsey/Courtesy of the Harvard Alumni AssociationOn the eve of a contested election for the governing board, looking under the hood of the nominating process
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At The Homestead
Photograph by Norman Eggert/Alamy Stock Photo
Delving into the world of Emily Dickinson
Photograph by Ryan Carollo
Contra dancing, Balkan music, sea chanteys—and more!
At the French Windows. The Artist’s Wife, (1897), by Laurits Andersen Ring
Courtesy of the Bruce Museum
Images that help unveil the truth of what we can see
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Photograph courtesy of Lauren Spohn
“We are the generation that is coming of age in the COVID-19 crisis,” writes Lauren Spohn ’20. “We can we build? What can we sacrifice? What risks can we take?”
Photograph by Allison Kern/Harvard Magazine
“I feel lucky that I took for granted my Harvard experience before its abrupt end.”
Photograph by Drew Pendergrass
“What will it mean to end our time on this campus with no closure, no time to reflect on what it all meant?”
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Our favorite stories about Harvard’s rich museums and collections
Our editors curate their favorite literary stories in Harvard Magazine.
Ken Liu
Photograph © Lisa Tang LiuKen Liu’s speculative fiction on maintaining and transcending humanity
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2020 Ivy foil champion Geoffrey Tourette '21 celebrates a point.
Photograph courtesy of Harvard Athletics Communcations
A focus on process leads Harvard fencers to an Ivy championship.
At his seventieth Harvard-Yale game, in 2012, Paul Lee ’46 proudly carried the replica Little Red Flag. Steve Goodhue ’51 is beside him; Spencer Ervin ’54 and Jeff Lee ’74 stand behind.
Photograph courtesy of Judy Goodhue
Are you eligible to carry the (replica) Little Red Flag?
Matt “Happy” Gilmore smiles behind the wheel. Zamboni-driving takes focus, but Gilmore says that he loves waving to children in the crowd and making their day.
Photograph by Jim HarrisonHarvard’s Zamboni operators’ quest for the perfect sheet of ice
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At his seventieth Harvard-Yale game, in 2012, Paul Lee ’46 proudly carried the replica Little Red Flag. Steve Goodhue ’51 is beside him; Spencer Ervin ’54 and Jeff Lee ’74 stand behind.
Photograph courtesy of Judy Goodhue
Are you eligible to carry the (replica) Little Red Flag?
Samuel Eliot Morison
Photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty ImagesMorison, Handlin, and a new view of the Mem Hall fire
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September-October 2017
Letters
Readers comment further on “Fair Harvard,” teaching the liberal arts, celebrity and politics, the middle class, and more.
President Drew Faust on the rise, and significance, of engineering and the applied sciences at Harvard
Making the faculty and research a high priority for the presidential search
The College Pump
Memorial Hall burning in September 1956—with flames beyond the reach of firefighting apparatus
Photograph by William Simon
A fresh source for Harvard humor, a critique embedded in a memorium, and historic photos of a famous campus fire
Treasure
The volume’s front cover features a needle-painted portrait of the young prince Charles Stuart.
Photographs by Jim Harrison/Object courtesy of the Houghton Library
Embroidery fit for a prince
In this Issue
Carl Thorne-Thomsen in high school (with fellow student-council member Linda Jones Docherty)
Photograph from Lake Forest High School 1964 Yearbook/Courtesy of Linda Docherty
Brief life of a man of principle: 1946-1967
To simply say that the White Cliffs of Dover are made of chalk would miss the point of Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World. The chalk giving the famous cliffs their white appearance was formed from the exoskeletons of plated marine microbes called coccolithophores.
All images from Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World, by Scott Chimileski and Roberto Kolter. Copyright ©2017 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
On Earth, microbes run the show.
Photograph by iStock Images
Alec Karakatsanis puts “human caging” and “wealth-based detention” in America on trial.
Letters
Readers comment further on “Fair Harvard,” teaching the liberal arts, celebrity and politics, the middle class, and more.
President Drew Faust on the rise, and significance, of engineering and the applied sciences at Harvard
Making the faculty and research a high priority for the presidential search
Right Now
A surgical technique designed to preserve proprioceptive signals after amputation should allow patients to sense the location of their prostheses, feedback that is often compromised by convential surgery.
Image courtesy of Shriya Srinivasan
Improved surgical techniques enhance prosthetic function.
Illustration By Doug Panton
The combination of certain factors can determine whether a city is plagued with disease, or is a hub for innovation.
Harvard Squared
The village grew up around the Meeting House, built in 1792.
Photograph by Alamy Stock Images
The Canterbury Shakers’ enduring appeal
A view of the State House dome and downtown’s towers, from the Charles River
Courtesy of the Charles Riverboat Company
Boat tours of architectural gems
World’s End offers stunning views of Hingham Harbor…
Courtesy of the Trustees of Reservations
A day trip to Hingham
Branch Line, which pairs fresh fare with craft beers on tap, has transformed part of an historic building at the former Watertown Arsenal.
Photograph by Melissa Ostrow
Branch Line serves brasserie-style fare in an historic Watertown setting
John Harvard's Journal
Assembling the science and engineering complex in Allston (with work on the district energy plant distantly visible to the rear of the site)
Image from the SEAS Construction Cam
A campus construction program of unprecedented proportions
President Drew Faust
Photograph by Kris Snibbe/Harvard Public Affairs and Communications
President Faust’s exit timetable, and the search for her successor
HarvardX project leader April Opoliner with Kolokotrones professor of biostatistics and epidemiology Miguel Hernán and teaching assistant Barbra Dickerman
Photograph by Stu Rosner
HarvardX transforms a popular course in epidemiology to serve a global audience.
Sunil Amrith
Photograph by Jim Harrison
The Bay of Bengal is central for this South Asia scholar.
A Harvard committee proposes eliminating unsanctioned student social organizations.
Derek Bok and other scholars weigh in on improving universities and colleges—and why that’s hard to do.
Illustration by Mark Steele
A Channel first, a voluntary U.S. history exam, and more from the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine
Harvard’s business and engineering faculties join forces on a new technology-design degree—before they co-locate in Allston.
George Andreou
Photograph by Michael Lionstar
New University Press director, new University Professor, changing Harvard Square, and more
Illustration by Rebecca Clarke
The Undergraduate contemplates cycles in college friendships.
Natasha Lasky and Tawanda Mulalu
Photograph by Stu Rosner
The Ledecky Fellows provide an undergraduate perspective on life at Harvard.
Tjerk van Herwaarden
Photograph by Gil Talbot/Harvard Athletic Communications
Under coach Tjerk van Herwaarden, Harvard field hockey ascends.
Montage
Though songwriter Dan Wilson mostly stays out of the spotlight these days…
Photograph by Devin Pedde
The Grammy Award-winning songwriter Dan Wilson reclaims his catalog.
The young Rachel Carson (1940); Abraham Lincoln, wearied by the Civil War (1864); and the Endurance in the crushing grip of polar ice
From Left: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Library of Congress (2)
The Business School’s Nancy Koehn analyzes the personal stakes that propel leaders.
Ensemble members reminisce in Party People, about the Black Panthers and Young Lords.
Photograph by Jenny Graham
Historical plays for a nation “stuck in the middle”
The artist as master colorist: Henri Matisse, Woman with a Hat (Femme au Chapeau), 1905
Wikimedia Commons
John Kenneth Galbraith’s letters, Linda Greenhouse, color in art, and more
The world’s most famous fruit-plucking: detail from Hugo van der Goes, The Fall (after 1479)
Painting detail from Bridgeman Images
Stephen Greenblatt explores the myths and meanings of Adam and Eve.
Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words
Alumni
James Coe’s backyard and frog pond are worthy of their own plein air paintings.
Photograph by Stu Rosner
Landscape and bird artist James Coe reflects the Hudson Valley
Susan Morris Novick
Photograph by Jim Harrison
Harvard’s new alumni leader touts its global reach.
The College Pump
Memorial Hall burning in September 1956—with flames beyond the reach of firefighting apparatus
Photograph by William Simon
A fresh source for Harvard humor, a critique embedded in a memorium, and historic photos of a famous campus fire
Treasure
The volume’s front cover features a needle-painted portrait of the young prince Charles Stuart.
Photographs by Jim Harrison/Object courtesy of the Houghton Library
Embroidery fit for a prince