Below is a letter, forwarded to me by a friend, one e-mailed to "The Harvard Community" by the current president of Harvard, Drew Faust.

I've put in bold the phrases or words that I find of special note.

Dear Members of the Harvard Community:

In 2008, under the leadership of Dean Jeffrey Flier and his colleague Lee Nadler at Harvard Medical School, the University launched the Harvard Catalyst, which has become a vital online hub for cross-disciplinary activity in clinical and translational science.  I encourage you to visit the website, http://catalyst.harvard.edu/home.html, whether you're a scientist or not, because the Catalyst represents a creative tool for enabling connections among people in the Harvard community with common interests.

I write today to let you know about a novel experiment being launched by the Harvard Catalyst team, with support from a federal stimulus grant.  It takes the form of an innovation contest, inviting people across our community, throughout the schools and disciplines, to suggest "out-of-the-box questions and proposals" relating to juvenile (type 1) diabetes. The hope is that such broad outreach, in this instance and in others to come, will help stimulate innovative thinking and potential new understandings and therapies.

Please have a look at the description of the project in the message directly below from Dean Flier and Dean Nadler.  I hope that many of you will participate.  Even more, I hope that, in the spirit of this novel project, we will continue to multiply the means to connect the remarkable people and ideas across Harvard in imaginative and powerful ways.

Sincerely,

Drew Faust