Harvard University

Nobel Prize in medicine honors American duo for their discovery of microRNA

The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. The Nobel Assembly said that their discovery is “proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.” Ambros performed the research that led to his prize at Harvard University. He is currently a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Ruvkun's research was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, where he’s a professor of genetics, said Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Committee. Perlmann said he spoke to Ruvkun by phone shortly before the announcement. The Nobel Prize in medicine opens 6 days of award announcements “It took a long time before he came to the phone and sounded very tired, but he quite rapidly, was quite excited and happy, when he understood what, it was all about,” Perlmann said. Last year, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that were critical in slowing the pandemic. The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The announcement launched this year’s Nobel prizes award season. Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 14. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

1 month ago

Free Online AI Courses by Harvard University from Basic to Advanced Levels

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly transforming field and learning AI opens vast career opportunities across industries. If you are interested in learning AI, there are lots of free resources online. What if you can do an AI course from one of the most prestigious universities in the world? Harvard University offers several free AI courses online. These courses can help a lot to boost your AI knowledge and skills. Free Artificial Intelligence Courses by Harvard University Introduction to Computer Science Students can explore the intellectual realms of computer science and grasp programming fundamentals through this course. Designed for beginners, it introduces the basics of computer science and programming, focusing on computational thinking and problem-solving with technology. Open for enrollment until December 31, 2024, this course is taught by David J. Malan. It offers a comprehensive entry-level experience for majors and non-majors, with or without prior programming knowledge. Over 11 weeks, students learn to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently, covering topics such as abstraction, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, resource management, security, software engineering, and web development. Read more: Humane’s Ai Pin: Incredible Features of the ‘Smartphone Killer’ Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python This course explores the fundamentals of AI and machine learning, focusing on Python programming, making it perfect for those interested in this rapidly evolving field. Through this course, you will uncover foundational AI concepts and machine learning algorithms, diving into the ideas behind technologies such as game-playing engines, handwriting recognition, and machine translation. Open for enrollment until December 31, 2024, the course is 7 weeks long. Data Science: Machine Learning This self-paced course offers a hands-on learning experience, guiding participants through the creation of a movie recommendation system and demonstrating the practical application of machine learning within data science. Ideal for those seeking insights into machine learning, a cornerstone of data science, the course culminates in building a functional movie recommendation system. Read more: What Is Google Gemini AI? How to Use the New Chatbot Model As part of the Professional Certificate Program in Data Science, you will learn popular machine learning algorithms, principal component analysis, and regularisation techniques. This course can help you gain practical experience and deepen your understanding of machine learning. Web Programming with Python and JavaScript Elevate your web development skills with this 12-week course, expanding upon CS50 basics to delve into Python, JavaScript, and SQL for advanced app design and implementation. Ideal for those looking to enhance their programming skills, it offers a thorough exploration of modern web application development techniques. Covered topics include database design, scalability, security, and user experience. Through hands-on projects, you will learn to develop and use APIs, create interactive user interfaces, and utilise cloud services such as GitHub and Heroku. By the course's end, you will have the knowledge and experience to design and deploy applications on the Internet. You can enrol this course to advance your web development skills. Read more: How to Answer “Why Did You Choose this Job?” Effectively Understanding Technology The Understanding Technology course demystifies everyday technology by exploring its functionality and implications in daily life, perfect for curious minds. Ideal for those seeking deeper insights into how technology shapes our world without needing a computer science or engineering background, this course is an introduction to technology for students who do not (yet) consider themselves tech-savvy. Designed for individuals who use technology daily but may not understand its inner workings or know how to troubleshoot issues, this 6-week course fills in the gaps, empowering you to use and solve problems with technology more effectively. Additional Course Description These free AI courses from Harvard University provide learners with the opportunity to grasp AI fundamentals and understand the intricacies of technology without any financial burden. Designed to expand knowledge and shape individuals’ tech journeys, these self-paced courses allow participants to learn at their convenience. Read more: How to Customize Your Resume for Each Job Application Enrolment is currently open, with courses available until December 31, 2024, offering ample time to partake in this educational opportunity. Harvard University’s free AI courses, available via Coursera, are a significant contribution to the democratisation of AI education, blending the institution’s academic prestige with the benefits of digital learning platforms. Closing Lines Online courses can significantly advance your career prospects. Free online courses by Harvard University can open limitless opportunities for people of all ages and cultures around the world. The above-mentioned free and open courses from Harvard University can provide a strong foundation for understanding AI. With dedication and further exploration, you can pursue a rewarding career path in the growing field of AI. Read more: Distance Learning: Top Universities Offering Online Courses for International Students

5 months ago

Harvard president Claudine Gay resigns amid plagiarism claims, backlash from antisemitism testimony

Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school's conduct policy. Gay is the second Ivy League president to resign in the past month following the congressional testimony — Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned Dec. 9. Gay, Harvard's first Black president, announced her departure just months into her tenure in a letter to the Harvard community. Following the congressional hearing, Gay's academic career came under intense scrutiny by conservative activists who unearthed several instances of alleged plagiarism in her 1997 doctoral dissertation. The Harvard Corporation, Harvard's governing board, initially rallied behind Gay, saying a review of her scholarly work turned up "a few instances of inadequate citation" but no evidence of research misconduct. Social media companies made over $11 billion in US ad revenue from minors: Harvard study Days later, the Harvard Corporation said it found two additional examples of "duplicative language without appropriate attribution." The board said Gay would update her dissertation and request corrections. The Harvard Corporation said the resignation came "with great sadness" and thanked Gay for her "deep and unwavering commitment to Harvard and to the pursuit of academic excellence." Alan M. Garber, provost and chief academic officer, will serve as interim president until Harvard finds a replacement, the board said in a statement. Garber, an economist and physician, has served as provost for 12 years. Gay's resignation was celebrated by the conservatives who put her alleged plagiarism in the national spotlight — with additional plagiarism accusations surfacing as recently as Monday in The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication. Christopher Rufo, an activist who has helped rally the GOP against higher education, said he's "glad she's gone." "Rather than take responsibility for minimizing antisemitism, committing serial plagiarism, intimidating the free press, and damaging the institution, she calls her critics racist," Rufo said on X, formerly Twitter. "This is the poison" of diversity, equity and inclusion ideology, said Rufo, who has led conservative attacks on DEI both in business and in education. Gay, in her letter, said it has been "distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus." But Gay, who is returning to the school's faculty, added "it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge." Yoel Zimmermann, a visiting research undergrad from Munich, Germany, studying physics at Harvard, said that as a Jewish student he's noticed fellow members of the Jewish community have felt uncomfortable with the climate on campus. Whistleblower allegation: Harvard muzzled disinfo team after $500 million Zuckerberg donation "I think it was about time that Claudine Gay resigned," Zimmerman said. "She just did too many things wrong, especially with her testimony in Congress. I think that was just the kind of final tipping point that should have led to her removal immediately." Supporters of Gay lamented her resignation. "Racist mobs won't stop until they topple all Black people from positions of power and influence who are not reinforcing the structure of racism," award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi, who survived scrutiny of an antiracist research center he founded at Boston University, said in an Instagram post. The Rev. Al Sharpton in a statement called pressure for Gay to resign "an attack on every Black woman in this country who's put a crack in the glass ceiling" and an "assault on the health, strength, and future of diversity, equity, and inclusion." Critics welcomed her decision. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx called Gay's resignation welcome news but said the problems at Harvard are much larger than one leader. "Postsecondary education is in a tailspin," the North Carolina Republican said in a statement. "There has been a hostile takeover of postsecondary education by political activists, woke faculty, and partisan administrators." Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, in a statement on X, also weighed in on Gay's resignation. "A little context. A failure in leadership and denial of antisemitism have a price. I hope that the esteemed Harvard University will learn from this dismal conduct," he wrote. Gay, Magill and MIT's president, Sally Kornbluth, came under fire last month for their lawyerly answers to a line of questioning from New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who asked whether "calling for the genocide of Jews" would violate the colleges' codes of conduct. The three presidents had been called before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce to answer accusations that universities were failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of antisemitism worldwide and fallout from Israel's intensifying war in Gaza, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting Palestinian death toll. Gay said it depended on the context, adding that when "speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies." The answer faced swift backlash from Republican and some Democratic lawmakers as well as the White House. The hearing was parodied in the opening skit on "Saturday Night Live." 1 in 2 individuals likely to develop mental disorder by age 75: University of Queensland and Harvard Medical School study Gay later apologized, telling The Crimson student newspaper that she got caught up in a heated exchange at the House committee hearing and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students. "What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged," Gay said. The episode marred Gay's tenure at Harvard — she became president in July — and sowed discord at the Ivy League campus. Rabbi David Wolpe later resigned from a new committee on antisemitism created by Gay, saying in a post on X that "events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony reinforced the idea that I cannot make the sort of difference I had hoped." The House committee announced days after the hearing that it would investigate the policies and disciplinary procedures at Harvard, MIT and Penn. Separate federal civil rights investigations were previously opened at Harvard, Penn and several other universities in response to complaints submitted to the U.S. Education Department.

10 months ago

Ex-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to join Harvard

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who led her country through a devastating mass shooting, will be temporarily joining Harvard University later this year, Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf said Tuesday. Ardern, a global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, has been appointed to dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School. She will serve as the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and a Hauser Leader in the school’s Center for Public Leadership beginning this fall. “Jacinda Ardern showed the world strong and empathetic political leadership,” Elmendorf said in statement, adding that Ardern will "bring important insights for our students and will generate vital conversations about the public policy choices facing leaders at all levels.” Also Read: Hipkins sworn in as New Zealand PM after unexpected resignation of Jacinda Ardern Ardern, who was just 37 when she became prime minister in 2017, shocked New Zealanders when she announced in January she was stepping down from the role after more than 5 years because she no longer had “enough in the tank” to do it justice. She was facing mounting political pressures at home, including for her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which was initially widely lauded but later criticized by those opposed to mandates and rules. She said she sees the Harvard opportunity as a chance not only to share her experience with others, but also to learn. Also Read: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern to leave office next month, sets October election "As leaders, there’s often very little time for reflection, but reflection is critical if we are to properly support the next generation of leaders,” she said. Ardern's time at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university will also include a stint as the first tech governance leadership fellow at the school's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. The center has been an important partner as New Zealand worked to confront violent extremism online after a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch in 2019, Ardern said. The gunman livestreamed the slaughter for 17 minutes on Facebook before the video was taken down. Two months after the shooting, Ardern launched the Christchurch Call with French President Emmanuel Macron. The initiative's goal is to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. More than 50 countries joined the initiative, including the United States, Britain, Germany and South Korea, as well as technology companies like Facebook parent company Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, YouTube, Zoom and Twitter. "The Center has been an incredibly important partner as we’ve developed the Christchurch Call to action on addressing violent extremism online," Ardern said, adding that the fellowship will be a chance not only to work collaboratively with the center’s research community, but also to work on the challenges around the growth of generative AI tools. Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of the Berkman Klein Center, said it's rare for a head of state to be able to immerse deeply in a complex and fast-moving digital policy issue. “Jacinda Ardern’s hard-won expertise — including her ability to bring diverse people and institutions together — will be invaluable as we all search for workable solutions to some of the deepest online problems," he said in a statement. Ardern said she planned to return to New Zealand after the fellowships.

1 year ago