HSPH establishes new three-year grant program

The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has announced the establishment of the A.G. Leventis Foundation Fellowship Program with a three-year grant to support Cypriot/Greek and Nigerian students and scholars in public health.

Beginning in September 2008, the fellowship program will provide scholarships for a three-year period to qualified students of Cypriot or Greek descent for master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral study in environmental health.

Three scholarships per year will fund qualified master’s-level students enrolled in the Postgraduate Program in Environmental Health offered at the Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public Health in Nicosia, Cyprus.  The institute, established in 2005 as part of a unique partnership between HSPH and the Republic of Cyprus, serves as a regional leader in environmental and public health education and research.

The A.G. Leventis Foundation will also fund one scholarship per year for three years for a qualified doctoral student or postdoctoral fellow from Cyprus enrolled at HSPH.

In addition, the program will support one doctoral student or postdoctoral fellow at HSPH for the next three years from Nigeria to advance the field of HIV/AIDS research in that country. This scholarship is part of the School’s long-standing commitment to provide a critical mass of researchers in Nigeria to fight the HIV epidemic.

The Leventis Foundation Fellowship Scholarships cover both tuition and living expenses.  The goal of the gift is to train regional leaders in public health who will return to their home countries to address critical issues that can improve the health of populations.

“This program reflects a major focus of the A.G. Leventis Foundation on academic research and combines it with the foundation’s interest in public health, particularly in the countries where the foundation has long been active,” said Anastasios P. Leventis, chairman, A.G. Leventis Foundation. “HSPH is to be congratulated for taking the lead in public health research in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, and for its energetic participation in the battle against the HIV epidemic in Africa.”