Campus & Community

An unusual experiment is offering some tantalizing clues about what goes on in the brain before we speak. The study found that it takes about half a second to transform something we think into something we say. And three very different kinds of processing needed for speech are all happening in a small part of the brain called Broca’s area, which lies beneath the left temple.

Regardless of the race’s outcome, Kennelly will be celebrating. The school teacher turned cartoonist, pastry chef and finally sculptor will have her permanent installation, “Endurance,” on display at Radcliffe College’s Weld Boathouse. It was commissioned by the Friends of Harvard and Radcliffe Rowing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the boathouse.

Harvard researchers have created a strip of pulsing heart muscle from mouse embryonic stem cells, a step toward the eventual goal of growing replacement parts for hearts damaged by cardiovascular disease.

A Harvard University professor and one of the US’s most distinguished orators yesterday delivered a far-ranging lecture about the historic relationship between Cambridge and Harvard to commemorate Cambridge’s 800th anniversary.

Harvard President Drew Faust says the University will begin a yearlong commitment to volunteer support of The Greater Boston Food Bank. The announcement comes on the eve of World Hunger Day and as Harvard prepares to launch its Public Service Week, Oct. 19 -25.

Harvard Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was honored Wednesday evening (Oct. 14) as the 10th recipient of the John F. Kennedy Medal of the Massachusetts Historical Society. She is the first woman given the award.

As part of an effort to develop creative solutions to Harvard’s projected long-term budget deficit, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and Harvard College recently launched an online Idea Bank where community members can submit recommendations for reducing costs and generating revenues.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. accepted the 2009 Sarah Josepha Hale Award on Oct. 3 at the Newport Opera House in Newport, N.H.

A test message will be broadcast midday to the nearly 20,000 Harvard community members who have signed up for the MessageMe alert system to date.

Political operative Terry McAuliffe, a visiting fellow this year at the Kennedy School, spoke last week at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum and regaled the audience with some of last year’s election bloopers.

Mary Lee Ingbar, Radcliffe ’46, Ph.D. ’53, M.P.H. ’56, who was a pioneer in applying quantitative and sophisticated computer analysis to the developing field of health economics in the 1950s and 1960s, died in Cambridge, on Sept. 18.

Stephen Lagakos, an international leader in biostatistics and AIDS research and professor of biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), died in an auto collision on Monday, October 12, 2009 in Peterborough, N.H. He was 63 years old.

At the Graduate School of Design, there’s plenty of learning still going on inside classrooms. But, as in many other areas, the Web is also proving to be a gateway to novel ways of sharing ideas and building teamwork.

The guest list for the Radcliffe Institute’s 10th anniversary symposium was a motley mix of former fellows including journalist Susan Faludi ’81, RI ’09, who read from a story she wrote for the Harvard Crimson as a freshman.

James Stemble Duesenberry, an eminent economist who was an authority on monetary policy and a faculty member of Harvard University’s Department of Economics for more than half a century, recently passed away at his home in Cambridge at the age of 91.

Harvard Forest’s David Foster elected to the Trustees of Reservations board of directors at the organization’s annual meeting and dinner on Sept. 26.

Donald B. Rubin was elected a corresponding fellow for distinction in research at the Annual General Meeting of the British Academy on July 16.

Harvard’s Weld Boathouse has been enchanting rowers and residents for more than 100 years.

Harvard Forest recently announced the 2009-10 Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research. The fellowship program was established in 1962 to support the advanced research of individuals who show promise in making important contributions to forestry.

A memorial service for Hanna Machlup Hastings, former House master and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) administrator, will be held at 2 p.m. on Oct. 17.

Jericho Brown, a Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute and assistant professor of English at the University of San Diego, will receive the 2009 Whiting Writers’ Award on Oct. 28 at a ceremony in New York City.

Anderson Lab manager Lenny Solomon is retiring in December after more than three decades helping guide people and projects.

On Oct. 15, Harvard will hold the 55th annual 25 Year Recognition Ceremony in historic Sanders Theatre, honoring faculty and staff from across the University who have served Harvard for 25 years.

The Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics is now accepting applications for 2010-11.

Nathan Glazer will give the Seymour Martin Lipset Memorial Lecture at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 4. Glazer’s talk is titled, “Democracy and Diversity: Dealing with Deep Divides.”

The Business School has named Nobuo Sato (MBA ‘82) executive director for its Japan Research Center in Tokyo.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard will present the 2009 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence to veteran reporter Jon Alpert.

“Since I realize that direct service is only one aspect of assisting, I became more involved with advocacy, working on education issues and with PBHA’s Student Labor Action Movement.”

Volunteers from across the University are lending a hand to the Greater Boston Food Bank from November through May.

Dr. Susan Mitchell of Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research and Harvard Medical School led a study of 323 patients with end-stage dementia at 22 nursing homes near Boston.