SEAS reflects on its research community during National Postdoc Appreciation Week. Postdoctoral researchers, immersed in theoretical and experimental studies, contribute immeasurably to the life and work of the university. Yet to some extent they are a hidden community—no longer the student, not yet the teacher—bursting with a culture and lifestyle of their own. Those working…

Reducing hospital readmission rates is an important clinical and policy priority but whether those rates really measure the quality of hospital care isn’t clear. In a new study, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found strong evidence of a relationship between surgical readmission rates and quality of surgical care. The finding provides an…

A major effort underway at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) to redesign its educational strategy has received significant new support of $12.5 million from the Charina Endowment Fund and Richard L. (MBA ’59) and Ronay Menschel of New York City. The Transforming Public Health Education Initiative Fund will support development of innovative materials, technologies and approaches…

Countries that are wealthy, have less income inequality, and whose citizens have the highest educational levels are the most likely to develop universal health care systems, according to new research from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study also found that countries run by dictators or those with high levels of ethnic fractionalization are…

This semester, the Harvard Library is holding the second data scientist training course for librarians. Christopher Erdmann, head librarian of the John G. Wolbach Library of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, organized the course so that library staff can upgrade their skills and learn new tools for data management. “The main objectives of the course…

Applications for the Edmond J. Safra Graduate Fellowships in Ethics 2014-2015 are being accepted through Nov. 15. Applicants are invited from graduate students who are writing dissertations or are engaged in major research on topics in practical ethics, especially ethical issues in architecture, business, education, government, law, medicine, public health, public policy, and religion. The…

The Harvard Department of Music and the Office for the Arts at Harvard are pleased to announce the appointment of Jason Robert Brown as Blodgett Artist-in-Residence during the spring of 2014. A celebrated American composer, Brown has been hailed as “one of Broadway’s smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim” (Philadelphia Inquirer). He is…

Rabbi Sally Finestone is the denominational counselor to Jewish students at Harvard Divinity School. Below is an excerpt of sermon for the evening of Kol Nidrei, which marks the beginning of Yom Kippur. We are beautiful, magnificent creations, made in the image of God. And even though we are all made by the same Creator,…

As debate over the national debt and the federal budget deficit begins to heat up again, an analysis of national polls conducted in 2013 shows that, compared with recent government reports prepared by experts, the public has different views about the need to reduce future Medicare spending to deal with the federal budget deficit. Many…

To help ensure clean drinking water for future generations, it is important to understand the links between clean water and sanitation. Antiquated sanitation systems must be replaced in many parts of the world, particularly in developing nations. That was the message delivered at the summer’s final Hot Topics lecture, “Today: Water and Health: A Global…

On Saturday, September 14, from 1 to 7 p.m., students from all over the country and the world will be welcomed to Harvard Square with open arms by alums, fellow students, Harvard administrators, local community leaders, and business owners. The Harvard Graduate Council (HGC), the Harvard-wide graduate student government for the 12 graduate and professional Schools, has…

Blacks are more likely than whites to sleep less than seven hours a night and the black-white sleep disparity is greatest in professional occupations, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). “Short sleep” has been linked with increased risk of health problems, including obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease,…

Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has launched a one-stop shop, “Harvard–Belfer on Syria,” for policy makers, journalists, and citizens who want to further their understanding of the crisis in Syria and the U.S. government’s response. This Web resource was created to provide information on President Obama’s question of whether or not the…

Members of the Faculty of Divinity are expressing doubts about the prospect of a U.S. military strike in response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s reported use of chemical weapons on the country’s civilian population. Ahmed Ragab, William Graham, and Harvey Cox lament the failure of the international community to avert the humanitarian disaster now unfolding…

Preeti Sriratana, M.C./M.P.A. ’12, took the helm of Apex for Youth Inc. (Apex) in early 2009 during a financial crisis and has steered it towards becoming one of the largest mentoring programs for Asian and immigrant youth in New York City today. Founded in 1992, Apex, a nonprofit youth organization originally known as Asian Professional…

Auditing helps to ensure that those who fall under regulatory structures, like taxpayers and banks, are self-reporting their situations accurately. But auditing is often an expensive process, and not every regulatory agency has the ability to perform it well. “This creates an intriguing interaction between weak and strong [auditing] bureaus,” says Richard Zeckhauser, Frank P. Ramsey…

The HarvardX research team launched a “beta” interactive visualization of worldwide enrollment data for HarvardX courses offered via edX, the not-for-profit online learning enterprise founded by Harvard and MIT. While the data is still being refined, the map gives viewers a sense of the kinds of insights researchers hope to glean with “massive” amounts of…

EdX, the not-for-profit online learning initiative founded by Harvard and MIT, today announced its partnership with Google to jointly develop the edX open source learning platform, Open edX, and expand the availability of the platform and its learning tools to individuals and institutions around the world. In collaboration with Google, edX will build out and…

Harvard School of Public Health announced today the recipients of its Centennial Medals and inaugural Next Generation Award, all of whom will be honored during events celebrating the School’s 100th anniversary on October 24. Recipients of Centennial Medals are: President Bill Clinton, founder of the Clinton Foundation and 42nd president of the United States Jim Yong…

Harvard students may come and go, but since 1960 one hidden gem has remained constant: a family-owned food truck on Divinity Avenue outside the Bio Labs building has been feeding home-cooked meals to generations of students and researchers. Velozo’s Food Service is now operated by Dean Velozo, who joined his father in the business in…

Health care reform in the United States—“Obamacare”—continues to face a bumpy road, according to health policy expert John McDonough of Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Writing in his Boston Globe blog “Health Stew” on September 1, 2013, McDonough, professor of the practice of public health and director of the Center for Public Health Leadership, explored how one Southern official…

According to a recent Strategic National Arts Alumni Project survey of more than 33,000 arts alumni, skills developed as arts majors are “applicable for any vocation and often provides opportunities for arts majors to be major contributors in any environment.” A large percentage of undergraduates with a music degree are successfully employed both in and…

People who live in homes with a gun are two to five times more likely to die by suicide than those who live in homes without guns, said Matthew Miller of Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in an August 30 interview on NPR’s Science Friday that featured Miller and two other experts. “What differentiates people who live in…

People often ask Victoria Fan, S.M. ’08, S.D. ’11, how she ended up in public health after completing undergraduate studies in engineering at MIT. As she sees it, the trajectory is a natural one, rooted in history. In a piece published on August 20, 2013 in the Huffington Post, the Harvard School of Public Health alumna…

Graham Allison and David Sanger of the Harvard Kennedy School will teach a HarvardX course, “American National Security, Strategy and the Press,” this fall. Participants in the free online course will play the role of adviser to President Obama on some of the hardest national security challenges facing the U.S. Made available via edX, the online learning enterprise founded…

Sendhil Mullainathan, a professor of economics at Harvard University, has been elected to serve on the MacArthur Foundation Board of Directors. Mullainathan was, until recently, Assistant Director of Research for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He is also founder of ideas42, a non-profit that applies insights about people from behavioral economics to create novel policies, interventions, and…

The Center for the History of Medicine (CHM) at Countway Library recently debuted 17 online exhibits on their new platform that weave together fascinating stories illustrated by materials from the collections. Most of exhibits are linked to specific events—such as the center’s largest undertaking, Battle-Scarred: Caring for the Sick and Wounded of the Civil War,…

Armed with coffee and energy bars, Lily Tran and Generoso Fierro were still energized after the first two movies in the Harvard Film Archive’s “Noir All Night” movie marathon on August 31-Sept. 1. “I love film noir, and I’m trying to learn more about it,” Tran said. “I am definitely in it for the long…

A discernible gender gap exists in earnings by physicians working across a range of occupations in the United States. That is the finding in a new study, “Trends in the Earnings of Male and Female Health Care Professionals in the United States, 1987 to 2010,” co-authored by Amitabh Chandra, professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy…

In fall 2013, Harvard School of Public Health will celebrate 100 years of discoveries and interventions by its faculty, alumni, and students that together have helped to increase life expectancy by a quarter-century and improved the health of millions worldwide since the School’s founding in 1913. Established 100 years ago as the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers,…