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World Well-being
To better address the possible consequences of climate change, ozone depeletion,
and other problems, Harvard Medical School has launched the Center for Health
and the Global Environment. A forum for discussion and course development
on the health effects of environmental change, it is the first such center
at an American medical school. In a field overrun with abstract science
and highly technical data, the center's goal is "to place human beings
in the center of the global environment," says director Eric Chivian
'64, M.D. '68, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry. "It's to
make that relationship clear to people, and the only way to do that, it
seems, is to talk about health."
Kennedy Quintet
Continuing a round of significant appointments (see "Kennedy Quartet,"
May-June, page 82), the Kennedy School of Government announced the addition
of five more tenured faculty members. John P. Holdren, a physicist
who specializes in global environmental issues and international security,
is the first Heinz professor of environmental policy. Political scientist
Jane Mansbridge, Ph.D. '71, author of Beyond Adversary Democracy,
becomes professor of public policy. Dani Rodrik '79 is the new Hariri
professor of international political economy. Economists Christina Romer
and David Romer, coeditors of Reducing Inflation: Motivation
and Strategy, will come to Cambridge from the University of California
at Berkeley in the fall of 1997. When they arrive, the school's tenured
faculty ranks will have grown by nearly one-quarter.
Nota Bene
Appointed: The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has granted tenure to four
associate professors. Marine biologist Colleen Cavanaugh, Ph.D. '85,
JF '89, is now professor of biology. Cemal Kafadar, a specialist
on the Ottoman Empire, becomes professor of history. Lisa Martin,
Ph.D. '89, who applies game theory to international relations, rises to
professor of government. Ernest G. Peralta, who studies communication
among cells, becomes professor of molecular and cellular biology.
Other new faculty members traveled farther. Number theorist Richard Taylor,
professor of mathematics, crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Oxford University.
And Stephen R. Palumbi traversed part of the Pacific, from the University
of Hawaii, to become professor of biology; he, too, focuses on marine life.
Named: 
Harvard Law School on April 26 renamed the west wing of Langdell
Hall in honor of the late Langdell professor of law, Phillip E. Areeda
'51, LL.B. '54. At the same time, the class of 1996 posthumously honored
Areeda with the Sacks-Freund award for teaching excellence, which was also
conferred upon him by the class of 1994-making him the only two-time recipient.
An antitrust expert, Areeda donated more than $5 million to the law school,
the second largest gift from an individual in its history, shortly before
his death last December.
Fine Fellows: Among the most recent recipients of unrestricted "genius
grants" from the MacArthur Foundation were Dorothy Stoneman
'63, the founder and president of YouthBuild U.S.A., which trains low-income
youths for construction careers; Robert Greenstein '67, founder of
the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which focuses on issues of domestic
poverty; Joaquin C. Avila, J.D. '73, a litigator who specializes
in securing voting rights for the disenfranchised; and 1992 Bunting Institute
fellow Anna Deavere Smith, a performer and playwright whose dramas
often focus on race relations.
Auf Wiedersehen: The Wursthaus, a landmark Harvard Square eatery
founded in 1917, closed July 31 after operating under bankruptcy protection
since 1993. The owner's son said the shutdown was not related to the landlord's
hopes of demolishing the building and putting up an office-retail complex.
Those hopes do threaten The Tasty, the Wursthaus's tiny neighbor. And on
Brattle Street, The Blacksmith House-home of fine Viennese pastries since
1946-has been taken over by an Italian bakery, Panini.
"Candidate Marshall": Boston newspapers have identified
University vice president Margaret Marshall, Ed.M. '69, Harvard's
general counsel since 1992 and a former president of the Boston Bar Association,
as a leading candidate for a vacant seat on the Massachusetts state supreme
court. Governor William Weld '66, J.D. '70 hopes to make a choice from among
the candidates who've applied for the position by the end of August. Asked
about her candidacy, Marshall said only "No comment. I wouldn't touch
that with a 10-foot pole."
Deceased: Michel Breistroff '94 was among the 230 people killed when
Trans World Airlines flight 800 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean
July 17. A former Mather House resident, Breistroff had concentrated in
anthropology and played on the varsity hockey team.