Campus & Community

Eighteen faculty members at Harvard and Harvard-affiliated institutions are among 115 scientists nationally whose promising and innovative work was recognized today with the announcement of three grant programs by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The importance of the University’s mission has been heightened by the challenges of our times, President Drew Faust said Thursday (Sept. 24), but Harvard must foster a new culture of collaboration across the University in order to meet those challenges.

On Sept. 25, the market will host a number of local musicians and artists from 3-7 p.m. to ring in the fall while displaying some of the season’s best crops.

THERE is an underground revolution spreading across Harvard University this fall. It’s occurring under the soil and involves fungi, bacteria, microbes and roots, which are now fed with compost and compost tea rather than pesticides and synthetic nitrogen.

When members of 12 consulting teams at Boston Consulting Group were each required to take a block of “predictable time off” during every work week, “we had to practically force some professionals” to get away, says Leslie Perlow, the Harvard Business School leadership professor who headed the study.

A memorial service for Brendan A. Maher, the Emeritus Edward C Henderson Professor of the Psychology of Personality in the Department of Psychology, will be held on Sept. 25.

On Sept. 24 the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies will host the annual Human Rights at Harvard Welcome Reception.

“Although housing affordability for newly purchased homes has improved, overall affordability for renters or owners is unchanged or worse because of the economy,” says Daniel McCue, research analyst at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. “People are still hurting.”

The fear of lawsuits among doctors does seem to lead to a noticeable amount of wasteful treatment. Amitabh Chandra — a Harvard economist whose research is cited by both the American Medical Association and the trial lawyers’ association — says $60 billion a year, or about 3 percent of overall medical spending, is a reasonable upper-end estimate.

The justices were recognized for their long service and significant contributions. Brandeis served 22 years, the shortest tenure of the four. Brennan and Story were on the court more than 33 years. All four justices went to Harvard, and Frankfurter had personal ties to two of the others.

Harvard installs two tall turbines on the top deck of its Soldiers Field Road parking garage, the University’s largest wind power installation to date.

Before closing the book on William R. Fitzsimmons’s turn answering reader questions about Harvard, we wanted to reflect a bit more on the content of those questions — which ultimately topped 900.

Junior quarterback Collier Winters threw for 195 yards and two touchdowns in the Crimson’s 27-20 loss to Holy Cross.

Senior forward Andre Akpan of the Harvard men’s soccer team was named Top Drawer Soccer National Player of the Week on Monday (Sept. 21).

Daniel J. Socolow, the director of the MacArthur fellows program, noted that while about half the fellows are technically in the sciences, their work often touches on other areas. “We focus on the work, not the field,” he said.

Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences Peter Huybers and England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan are named MacArthur Foundation Fellows.

Thanks to an NHL Hall of Famer, the Harvard University men’s ice hockey team will be the first in the country to test a new helmet designed to further limit the sport’s instances of concussions.

The Harvard study suggested aspirin could prevent tumors from growing by inhibiting Cox-2, an enzyme that may play a role in the initial growth of a tumor.

The medical record has traditionally been viewed by the medical establishment as something that they own,” says Dr. Tom Delbanco of Harvard Medical School. “They think: ‘It’s my private notes. This is my stuff.'”

The University opened a new telephone hotline Friday (Sept. 18) to serve as a clearinghouse for real-time information about major issues of interest to the Harvard community.

At Harvard, a freshman seminar Greg Mankiw is teaching had 15 slots, and 200 applicants — getting into it, he notes, was about a hard as getting into Harvard all over again.

Leon Kirchner came to Harvard in 1961, after teaching at Mills College, and eventually assumed an endowed chair previously held by the composer Walter Piston.

The Harvard study found that people without health insurance had a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with private health insurance — as a result of being unable to obtain necessary medical care.

A national tax of 1 cent per ounce of soda and other sugary drinks could stem the United States’ obesity epidemic, while generating $14.9 billion the first year alone, health experts say.

The arrival of first-year students in Harvard Yard is always accompanied by the hustle and bustle of activities during freshman orientation — or Opening Days as it’s known at Harvard.

In March, the three Harvard students along with senior Kelly Peeler, who has since left the group because of other commitments, were among several winners at the university’s business plan competition.

At its second meeting of the year on Sept. 16, the Faculty Council considered candidates for Parliamentarian for 2009-2010 and reviewed a draft of the Dean’s Annual Letter to the Faculty.

Today, The Choice presents the fifth (and final) installment of its reader Q&A with William R. Fitzsimmons, the longtime dean of admission and financial aid at Harvard College.

Weissman fellow spends 10 weeks in South Africa empowering youth through soccer and education.

Annenberg Hall, arguably the most extraordinary 9,000 square feet on Harvard’s campus, has served since 1874 as a gathering place, dance hall, Commencement location, reception venue, exam hall, and, since 1994, as the dining hall reserved for freshmen in Harvard College.