Scenes from Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and Cambridge

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being back in Cambridge, MA so I had to visit Brattle Street, Radcliffe,  and Harvard Square.

I spent the 2005-2006 year as a Science Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and that year I wrote my Supply Chain Network Economics book

I have wonderful memories of that year --  of the people that I met, the friends that I made, and of the research  and writing that I did.

I lived on 83 Brattle Street in the building below on the 6th floor.

My office was in Putnam House a few buildings down from my apartment, where, in the Fall that year, one of my neighbors was the French mathematician, Pierrette.Cassou-Nogues from Bourdeaux. 
In the Spring, my collaborator Professor Patrizia Daniele, who is an operations researcher, joined me for several months and Radcliffe provided her with an office in Putnam House, which was terrific! Patrizia is from the University of Catania in Italy and she is also a Supernetwork Center Associate.

Below is a photo taken in front of Putnam House.

Radcliffe Yard looked beautiful and I enjoyed checking out the award-winning sculpture.

The sculpture is an installation called Saturate the Moment.

We wandered over to Bartley's, a Cambridge institution but it was closed.

 

 Cardullo's in Harvard Square had the beautiful gingerbread house in its window below.

Burdick's was open so we enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate! 

We had traveled to eastern MA, since my daughter wanted to meet a friend who had returned from a semester abroad at the University of St Andews in Scotland.  The head (known as the Principal and Vice-Chancellor) of St Andrews is Dr. Louise Richardson, who was the Executive Dean of Radcliffe when I was there. You can see her at our Radcliffe Fellows "graduation" ceremony  in the top photo in my blogpost here.

You may recall that Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, the Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge (in England), were recently in NYC for a fundraiser for St Andrews, since they met at this university, and Dr. Richardson can be seen with them here. The 600th anniversary gala for the University of St Andrews took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

And, when I returned back to Amherst last night, I had a message from none other than Dr. Pierrette Cassou-Nogues, wishing me a Happy New Year!

When Favorite Restaurants in Harvard Square Close

A favorite restaurant is more than a place for good food. It is a place where memories are made and great times and conversations treasured.

On Friday, my family and I were in Boston, and we were very much looking forward to have dinner in Cambridge, after hours of walking.

Having spent a full year as a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard on my previous sabbatical, and having also been at MIT for two years as a Visiting Scholar and Visiting Professor, earlier, I am very fond of Cambridge. Of course, I could even go back to my Brown University days when running track at the Harvard stadium was great fun. I used to do the two mile.

We were especially looking forward to dining at the Cafe of India, which has (and as we found out "had")  the best Indian food this side of the UK. In the summer, the windows of the restaurant would be open and the delicious smell of curry would permeate Brattle Street. It was located next door to Burdick's, with delicious chocolates and pastries. My year at Harvard I had an apartment on 83 Brattle Street and my office was in Putnam House where most of the other Science Fellows (only 12 of us that year) were based.

I had dined so many times while in Cambridge at the Cafe of India and even took my most recent PhD student, who is now an Assistant Professor, Dr. Min Yu, there after the NetSci 2010 conference at MIT in May. This was the first time she had ever eaten Indian food and she loved it. The photos above were taken at that dinner.


We were shocked to see that Cafe of India had closed, after two decades of operation,  and I found an article on its closure in the Boston Business Journal.

So up the street we marched only to find that Casablanca had also shuttered its doors and it had been an institution since 1955! Today's Boston Globe has an article on this closing.

Within a few months of one another, these two favorite restaurants of ours had shuttered their doors.

Below,  I have posted some photos of wonderful meals with great friends form the US, France, and even Italy, all with whom I had spent time during that great year at Harvard.

We are left with memories and, luckily, a few photos, and papers written as well as books. We'll have to find new places to meet and to make new traditions.

As for other favorite restaurants that have also left Harvard Square, perhaps some of you remember Cafe Paradiso for gelato and Italian cookies, Greenhouse for great breakfasts, and Swiss Alps, for delicious dinners.