May 11, 2000

YWCA to honor Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham as Woman Achiever
Professor of History and African-American Studies Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham is among 12 women who will be inducted into the YWCA Boston’s Academy of Women Achievers Class of 2000 in a special ceremony on Tuesday, June 6.

UIS assesses 'love bug' aftermath
University Information Systems (UIS) is still working to assess the damage from last week’s pesky ILOVE YOU virus that struck e-mail systems worldwide.

Seniors are awarded Stride Rite fellowships
While many Harvard graduates will seek their fortunes around the world, three of their classmates will remain in Boston next year living on $25,000 fellowships and pursuing community-based public service work.

Damon, Affleck rally to living wage cause
Former Harvard student Matt Damon and Cambridge native Ben Affleck added their voices – and drawing power – Saturday to the chorus of Harvard students, Cambridge City Councilors, and others calling on the University to adopt a $10.25 per hour living wage.

Research physicist Harrison Radford dies at 72; memorial planned for May 13
Harrison E. Radford, a molecular spectroscopist who conducted research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (formerly the Harvard College Observatory) from 1969 until his retirement in 1992, died on May 5, 2000, after a long struggle with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). A memorial service for Radford will be held on Saturday, May 13, at 11 a.m. at the First Church in Belmont, 404 Concord Ave., Belmont.

Police Log
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department for the week ending May 6. The official log is located at Police Headquarters, 29 Garden St.

24 juniors elected to Phi Beta Kappa
Twenty-four juniors have been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Their names and houses are as follows:

Living legend -- Coach Harry Parker changed college crew forever
Much has been said and written about Men’s Heavyweight Crew Coach Harry Parker over the course of the near half-century he has been involved in crew. He is one of a select few living legends here at Harvard who can still be seen day in and day out just doing his job. Arguably the best-known name in the sport of rowing, and indisputably one of the most successful college coaches of all time, Parker is also the subject of a soon-to-be-released documentary by Michael Masland (’95) of the Harvard Film Study Center.

Notes

Newsmakers

Parents of Navin Narayan endow lecture series
The Navin Narayan Memorial Lecture has been endowed by the parents of Navin Narayan ’99, a Rhodes Scholar and summa cum laude graduate in social studies who died of cancer this past March.

SPH research attacks mosquito-borne virus
A virus that had never been seen in the Western Hemisphere until it killed seven people last fall in New York has re-emerged, and researchers from the School of Public Health (SPH) are working with Massachusetts officials to guard against an outbreak here.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences -- Memorial Minute
Laurence Wylie was born in Indianapolis on November 19, 1909. He was the son of a Methodist minister of Scotch-Irish descent; his mother was of English Quaker stock. He acquired the nickname Red because of his hair. In his early years, he moved from one small town to the other, and later his family settled in Bloomington. He went to Indiana University where he was on the wrestling team and played the piccolo in the University band.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences -- Memorial Minute
Biology lost one of its giants of the 20^th century with the passing of George Wald on April 12, 1997. Wald unraveled the nature of the light-sensing molecules used for vision and was the dominant force in this field for over forty years. Beginning with postdoctoral research in the early 1930s, Wald showed that the visual pigment molecules consist of a protein to which is bound a derivative of vitamin A called retinal. Retinal serves as chromophore for these molecules, absorbing the light and initiating conformational (shape) changes in the protein that lead eventually to the excitation of the photoreceptor cells. Wald’s findings represented the first instance that a biochemical role for a fat-soluble vitamin was established and were widely recognized. Wald was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1967 for his monumental contributions to our understanding of the molecular basis of photoreception.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences -- Memorial Minute
Reed Clark Rollins was born in Lyman, western Wyoming on 7 December 1911, and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 27, 1998. He was one of the most influential botanists of his generation, influence that came from his solid scientific credentials, his superb administrative skills, and his engaging personality.

Liaison to the community -- McCready to oversee relations with Cambridge
As a non-profit lawyer in Minneapolis, Travis McCready managed his share of difficult negotiations.

Arnold Arboretum blooms for Lilac Sunday
They are bright and beautiful, aromatic, and full of life.

First string -- Violinist Joseph Lin '00 and friends to perform benefit concert for PBHA
This isn’t your ordinary student concert.

Ira Jackson '70 is named director of Center for Business and Government
Ira A. Jackson ’70, former executive vice president of BankBoston Corporation, has been named director of the Center for Business an Government at the Kennedy School of Government, Dean Joseph S. Nye announced on Monday, May 8.

Room for North House at the top
When they started jammin' together two years ago, Al Bennett, a Harvard senior concentrating in East Asian studies, and Becky Warren, a Wellesley College senior studying Russian history, knew they had something special. So they solicited help from a few friends and cut an album at the Quad Sound studio in the basement of the Pforzheimer House.

Three Harvard students win Hofer Prize in collecting
Diana I. Williams ’95, a doctoral candidate in the history of American civilization; Daniel S. Adler, a doctoral candidate in anthropology; and Jason Vigna, Harvard Law School Class of 2000 have been awarded the Philip Hofer Prize in Collecting by the Harvard University Art Museums. Williams won first prize for a collection of books on race and ethnicity in 19th-century Louisiana. Sharing second prize were Vigna, who collects art and books about art, and Adler, who collects books on the history of evolutionary theory.

Traveling fellows
An unprecedented four Harvard seniors won the George Peabody Gardner Traveling Fellowship for 2000. Pictured are (left to right) Rosylyn Rhee, Luke Fischbeck, and Maxie Blue Rogers. Not pictured is Alexander Olch, who graduated in March.

Faculty council notice -- May 10
At its 15th meeting of the year the Faculty Council received the annual report of the Coordinating Committee on Sexual Harassment. Representing the Committee, Deans Garth McCavana (Student Affairs in GSAS), chair, and Elizabeth Doherty (Academic Planning in FAS) were present for this discussion.

Exercise reduces cancer risk
Being an athlete in college can win women a competitive edge against breast cancer, according to a new Harvard study.

Dudley's budding celluloid heroes
Olivia walked in the room, one hand clutching three beer bottles by the neck. She handed the bottles to friends sitting around a cluttered coffee table and settled on the arm of the couch, joining the conversation expertly, as if she’d heard it all before.

Mental health care doesn't meet standards, study finds
Only 14 percent of patients treated for three common mental illnesses – depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic disorder – received care that met with accepted standards, according to a new Harvard Medical School study titled "Recent Care of Common Mental Disorders in the United States" published in this week's Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Memorial service for Blank set for May 19
A memorial service to celebrate the life of Irvin H. Blank will be held on Friday, May 19, at 5 p.m. in the Wellman 1 Conference Room, Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston.

Art of entertainment
Artists and performers in the Harvard community ushered in spring last week with the annual four-day arts extravaganza, Arts First 2000. Audiences had a wide variety of performances and exhibits to enjoy, and were led in the festivities by actor John Lithgow ’67 and comedian Al Franken ’73. Students and faculty staged dozens of plays, concerts, films, art installations, dance performances and comedy sketches from Thursday to Sunday. The Arts First 2000 parade on Saturday morning, was led by Lithgow as its grand marshal and featured stilt walkers, jugglers, actors, musicians, and more. Hundreds of people turned out for the events, which were staged throughout the Harvard campus, both indoors and outside.

Report focuses on impact of power plant pollution
According to researchers at the School of Public Health (SPH), air pollution from two Massachusetts coal-fired power plants contributes to particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone exposure over a large region. Using a sophisticated model of how particulate matter and its precursors are dispersed in the atmosphere, SPH scientists Jonathan Levy and John D. Spengler have calculated exposures to 32 million residents living in New England, eastern New York, and New Jersey from these older plants.

College admissions yield is nearly 80 percent
Nearly 80 percent of students admitted to the Class of 2004 have chosen to enroll, the highest yield since the early 1970s, according to the Undergraduate Admissions Office.