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The Campus, Quieted
If “coronavirus” or “social distancing” becomes the word of the year, Harvard will have had a leg up on the lexicographers. On February 24, the University announced a $115-million biomedical research partnership with scientists in China to investigate the …
Issue: May-June 2020
Ups and Downs
The shadows on the field at Harvard Stadium were lengthening, and so were Harvard’s chances of stealing the 138th playing of The Game from favored Yale, when Crimson quarterback Charlie Dean led his offense onto the field with 1:25 left in the third …
Issue: January-February 2023
Commencement and Alumni Events
Commencement week includes addresses by interim president Alan M. Garber and journalist and leading free-press advocate Maria Ressa, co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. See harvardmagazine.com/commencement for updates. For general information, …
Issue: May-June 2024
Weighing In
The resignation of President Lawrence H. Summers became grist for a torrent of commentary worldwide, much of it highly political, even ideological. On March 12, in the Sunday Telegraph , Tisch professor of history Niall Ferguson—no left-wing …
Issue: May-June 2006
Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D. ’89, and Emmanuelle Charpentier Share Chemistry Nobel
The 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded jointly this morning to Emmanuelle Charpentier, of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, and Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D. ’89, of the University of California, Berkeley, for their development …
The Medical-Robotics Revolution
What if a cardiac surgeon could operate on a beating heart without opening the patient’s chest? Or a flexible robot could navigate the delicate branching of blood vessels, or bronchi in the lungs, and then stiffen to perform surgery at its tip? Or a …
Issue: May-June 2022
Cambridge 02138
A Note to Readers The “7 Ware Street” column does not appear in this issue, which is somewhat shorter than usual, given continuing constraints on our advertising partners. We decided it was important to make space available for more of your letters to the …
Issue: January-February 2021
Has Harvard’s Endowment Stopped Growing?
Trees don’t grow to the sky. Nor, apparently, do financial investments. After several years of relatively robust returns on endowment assets invested by Harvard Management Company (HMC)— 15.4 percent in fiscal year 2014 (ended June 30 of that year); 11.3 …
The Geeky Underground
Before he was the acclaimed author of The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 , Ray Bradbury was just another teenage boy with a science-fiction zine. Pronounced “zeen,” these self-published, often-low-budget magazines are staples in subcultures and …
Issue: July-August 2022
Allston planning options outlined
Harvard released on June 2 a report by New York planning firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners on its long-term visions for an Allston campus. The report is presented here (as a PDF), as well as the official letter from President Lawrence H. Summers , and the …
The COVID-19 Commencement
The novel coronavirus had a powerful downsizing effect on Harvard’s gala week culminating in the formal Commencement rituals—the 369 th iteration of which will be rescheduled. There was no Baccalaureate. ROTC commissioning ceremonies were, for the nonce, …
John S. Rosenberg , Jacob Sweet
Off the Shelf
Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone, by Serhii Plokhy (W.W. Norton, $29.99). The author, Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian history, writes often about Ukraine and about nuclear power and disasters. This journalistic account tells what …
Issue: November-December 2024
How the Endowment Distribution Is Set
The news that the value of the Harvard endowment declined by 5.1 percent in fiscal year 2016 , ended last June 30, refocused attention on how the Corporation determines what funds will be distributed to the University its schools. That determination is …
A Borrower Be
In late 2008 , at the depths of the financial crisis, the University borrowed $2.5 billion, expensively (at tax-exempt and taxable interest rates of 5.4 percent and 5.8 percent) to shore up its liquidity and provide flexibility within the endowment, and …
Issue: November-December 2015
Provincetown in the Off-Off Season
J anuary in Provincetown can’t promise the carnival sizzle of summertime. But with the population whittled to around 1,000, and only 20 or so restaurants and bars open, the tip of Cape Cod offers, instead, “a wonderful, quiet romance,” says David Drake, …
Issue: January-February 2020