2008

Ferran Adrià visits Harvard

World acclaimed chef of El Bulli, Ferran Adrià, discussed the fascinating relationship between modern science and modern cuisine

SEAS plays increasing role in novel energy solutions

Faculty and students turn to bacteria, dirt, and oxides to create clean and efficient energy (Harvard Crimson)

Life sciences meets applied

Harvard takes bioengineering to the next level, bringing together SEAS, FAS, and HMS (Harvard Magazine)

SEAS team finds fungal spores remarkably aerodynamic

Marriage of mycology and applied mathematics highlights Harvard's breadth and depth

Sweet success at annual holiday lecture

"Science of Chocolate" explores how a bitter bean becomes sweet chocolate (Harvard Magazine)

James Rice wins 2008 Panetti-Ferrari prize

Award recognizes achievements in applied mechanics

Crozier lab develops innovative method for fabricating nanoparticle arrays

Advance could improve sensitivity of detecting molecules

Undergrads win gold at '08 iGEM competition

Team builds bacterial biosensor with electrical output

SEAS-based start-up looks to light up Africa

Engineering students use microbial fuel cells to create off-the-grid technology (New York Times)

Evelyn Hu appointed McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Electrcial Engineering

Pioneer in nanoscale electronic and photonic devices will join in January 2009

David Clarke appointed McKay Professor of Materials

Inventive scientist recognized for contributions to ceramics will join in January 2009

Robotic tool may enable surgeons to repair living heart

Howe lab hopes to make surgery easier and safer (Technology Review)

Wood awarded grant from Air Force's Young Investigator Program

Will conduct a comprehensive study of aeroelasticity in flapping-wing MAVs

Novel material black silicon is licensed by Harvard

Mazur's lab's 'accidental' discovery on the verge of commercialization (New York Times)

CS master’s candidates from SEAS named among 2009 Siebel Scholars

Neil Jhaveri and Daniel Shteremberg will each receive a $25,000 award

Harvard receives gift to establish Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

Hansjorg Wyss gives $125 million to create institute for biologically inspired engineering

The Boston Globe profiles scientific "wanderer" L. Mahadevan

Renaissance scholar studies everything from how paint dries to how paper wrinkles (Boston Globe)

Joint colloquium series launched by IIC and SEAS

New series will bring speakers at the frontiers of research in computing and science to campus

Hau awarded prestigious Ledlie Prize

Occasional prize goes to one who makes "the most valuable contribution to science"

David Mooney and Rob Howe appointed associate deans at SEAS

Mooney will oversee Applied Chemical/Biological Sciences and Engineering; Howe will oversee Academic Programs

Electrical engineer Navin Khaneja has been appointed tenure

Khaneja's work in control theory has application in NMR and quantum computing

Parker commands dedicated researchers

Team tackles everything from engineering heart tissue to traumatic brain injury (Science Careers)

Ham and Wood named to Tech Review's TR35 list of top young innovators

Smallest complete NMR system and life-sized robotic fly earn praise

Frans Spaepen named interim dean

The John C. and Helen F. Franklin Professor and director of Harvard’s Rowland Institute will assume role on 9/15

Grad student Erez Lieberman creates iShoe to aid in balance

Harvard-MIT HST student uses NASA know-how to help elderly people avoid catastrophic falls

Applied scientists demonstrate highly directional semiconductor lasers

Innovation opens the door to a wide range of applications in photonics and communications

Computer scientist David C. Parkes has been appointed tenure

Parkes's research applies the power of computing to the design of optimal economic systems

DARPA awards $1.2M grant to study surface enhanced Raman scattering

Researchers will apply advances in optical antennas, laser nanostructuring, and theoretical chemistry

Saving the world's water to avert a global crisis

Peter Rogers' cover story in the August '08 Scientific American presents a six-point plan (Scientific American)

Harry Lewis recalls Bill Gates and the pancake problem

As a College sophomore Gates presented a solution to the problem of how to sort and stack pancakes (NPR)

Meet David Sengeh '10 and his mentor bioengineer David Edwards

Thanks to a innovative class, Sengeh was able to translate an idea into a solution to light Africa

Watch word on the street reactions to Harvard's emphasis on engineering

Video highlights how Harvard and MIT's engineering programs complement each another

Get an insider's view of student research happening at SEAS

Creating new materials to cure cancer and treating malaria is all in a day's work

Rob Howe's lab is inspired by coffee cups ... and video games

Holding a cup of joe inspired a robotic hand and video games may help surgeons operate on beating hearts (Christian Science Monitor; Harvard Science)

Katie Grosteffon '09 blogs about being a GM engineering intern

Thanks to a Sullivan Fellowship she will spend her summer at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center

End the academic year with two op-eds in the Crimson's Commencement issue

Dean Venky tackles the magic of engineering and Harry Lewis weighs in on copyright

Bioengineering blooms at Harvard thanks to learning lessons from nature

Nature Network Boston reports on research at interface between engineering and biology (Nature)

Harvard and Yale to boost their engineering efforts

Bloomberg news highlights the two institutions in a report about the growth of U.S. engineering programs (Bloomberg News)

Engineers whip up the first long-lived nanoscale bubbles

Bubbles that endure for more than a year could extend the life of common products

The 'Facebook effect' inspires a new generation of Harvard entrepreneurs

The Wall Street Journal profiles "Harvard students who have caught start-up fever"

Shieber named director of new Office for Scholarly Communication

Computer scientist aims to promote open access and a sustainable publishing model

Engineers demonstrate first room-temperature electrically-pumped semiconductor laser source of T-rays

Breakthrough could greatly enhance applications ranging from security screening to chemical sensing

Undergraduates develop ‘dirt-powered’ microbial fuel cells to light Africa

Innovation nets $200,000 prize from the World Bank’s Lighting Africa initiative

Popular Science salutes a plant-based air filter in its 2008 Invention Awards

Bioengineer David Edwards and product designer Mathieu LeHanneur design a greener way to clean (Popular Science)

Harvard's Kavli Institute aims to make nanoscience easy

The Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology has its own idea of the cutting edge: Tools for the non-expert (Kavli Foundation)

Computer scientist David Parkes honored as a top teacher

Roslyn Abramson Awards recognize professors who have demonstrated excellence in undergraduate teaching

Scientists Demonstrate method for integrating nanowire devices directly onto silicon

Fabrication technique could yield low-cost, scalable nanowire photonic and electronic circuits

Minding the gap by land, van, and pixel

Undergrads devised a plan in ES-96 to keep the Harvard campus together as it expands into Allston

Energy efficient computing gets green light thanks to Microsoft

David Brooks, Gu-Yeon Wei and Mike Smith will develop a "dynamic runtime environment" to link power use and load (CNET)

Robert wood wins prestigious NSF CAREER and ONR Young Investigator program awards

Grants will support research on microrobotics

Win-Win for industry & academia

Chemical company BASF officially launched the BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard, based at SEAS (Crimson)

Barbara Grosz named dean of Radcliffe Institute

President Drew Fausts appoints Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at SEAS, has been appointed the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

Bioengineer describes the growing problem of IEDs and his efforts to study brain injury

Kit Parker discusses his ongoing fight to understand and one day treat brain trauma caused by improvised explosive devices (Technology Review)

Scientists study Arctic haze for clues to rapid melting

Atmospheric chemist and environmental engineer Daniel Jacob provides expertise on why "the Arctic is a melting pot for mid-latitude pollution." (AP)

Collaboration explained

The Spring 2008 issue of GSAS's Colloquy features "Engineering Gets Social," a look at how grad students collaborate across fields

I is for Innovation

Bright ideas shined more brightly thanks to the Harvard College Innovation Challenge. Undergrads took home $50k in prizes at an award ceremony (Crimson).

Senior Connie Cheng awarded the 2007 Colonel and Mrs. S.S. Dennis, III Scholarship

$1,000 prize recognizes outstanding academic achievements by an undergraduate in engineering sciences

Harvard Foundation names Scientist of Year

NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson '88 was named Scientist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation

Engineering the Harvard Engineer

"One man's determined quest to make Harvard a contender in engineering—after 372 years." (IEEE Spectrum)

The frustrations (and mathematics) of folding a map

L. Mahadevan talks about the applied mathematics behind folding maps (NPR).

Inhaled tuberculosis vaccine may be more effective than injected vaccine

Animal study very promising

Whale-inspired wind turbines

Mimicking the bumps on humpback-whale fins could lead to more efficient wind turbines

Turning a corner

How Harvard is restoring "engineering to its once-prominent spot." (ASEE's PRISM)

The physics of the familiar

A Harvard Magazine cover story profiles L. Mahadevan's physics of the familiar, from how paint dries to how Nature discovered origami (Harvard Magazine)

Todd Zickler named a 2008 Alfred P. Sloan research fellow

Honor recognizes exceptional researchers early in their academic careers

SEAS dean to step down

Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti will step down as Dean of SEAS effective Sept. 1, 2008

Stuart Shieber spearheads open scholarship at Harvard

Computer Scientist Stuart sponsored a proposal, passed by the members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, to post scholarly research online for free

Jessica Shang '08 awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Engineering sciences concentrator will study at the University of Cambridge

Three faculty elected to the NAE

Barbara Grosz, Frans Spaepen, and Zhigang Suo recieve one of the highest professional distinctions for engineers

Xuanhe Zhaoh wins American Academy of Mechanics Founder's Prize

Ph.D. candidate in Zhigang Suo's group recognized for his essay on soft active materials

Researchers build mini-NMR system

Yong Liu and Nan Sun in collaboration with Hakho Lee at HMS build what may be the smallest complete system (Electronics Weekly)

Lene Hau elected to Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Applied physicist honored for her experiments on the manipulation of photons

E. Allen Emerson '81 wins 2007 Turing Award

Applied Mathematician alumnus honored for co-developing model checking

Two computer science students named Microsoft Research Fellows

Rohan Murty and Ece Kamar among "the best and the brightest academics and researchers"

Nanophotonics expert Kenneth B. Crozier wins NSF CAREER award

Grant will support research on near-field optical forces

Physicist and chemical engineering expert Vinothan N. Manoharan wins NSF CAREER award

Grant will support research on High-Speed 3D Imaging of Colloidal Self-Assembly with Digital Holographic Microscopy

Life in the lab

Following postdoc Adam Feinberg and faculty member Kit Parker in their quest to engineer heart tissue (Technology Review)

Cold frontiers

Watch Lene Hau discuss possible applications from the coldest frontier in applied physics on NOVA's Absolute Zero (PBS)

Outstanding design

Ahmad Khairi and Jian Han from the Ham Lab received the 2008 Analog Devices, Inc. Outstanding Student Design Award

Henry Ehrenreich passes away

Ehrenreich, an expert on condensed matter theory, served as the University's first ombudsman

Choon Fong Shih '73 appointed president of KAUST

Alumnus Shih will be the inaugural president of the newly formed King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia

Winging it

Jessica K. Shang ’08 is working with Prof. Rob Wood to build a microrobotic dragonfly (Crimson)

Favorite things

Editors of Nature chose papers by SEAS graduate student Erez Lieberman and faculty member Lene Hau as among their favorites for 2007 (Nature)

Intersections of art and science

NPR chats with bioengineering faculty member David Edwards about his new book and creative space (NPR)

Natural thoughts

NPR interviewed Steven Wofsy, who monitors carbon activity, as part of a profile of Harvard's 3,000 acre forest laboratory (NPR)

Loving math

Christopher R. Coyne ’99, Sam A. Yagan ’99, and Maxwell N. Krohn ’99 turned to their applied math skills in creating a new online dating site (Crimson)