Nancy-Ann DeParle ’83, whose nearly four years in the Obama White House included serving as deputy chief of staff for policy until this past January, is best known for her role in the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. As director of the White House Office of Health…

On June 24, 2013, family members of those killed in government-planned massacres in Bolivia in 2003 filed an amended complaint, with extensive new allegations that the defendants, former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and former Defense Minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, had devised a plan to kill thousands of civilians months in advance of the violence. The…

The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University will host Professor Doris Sommer of Harvard’s Cultural Agents Initiative and artist Pedro Reyes this Friday for a ceremonial tree planting, an event which calls attention to the capacity of art to promote social change. Cultural Agents Initiative (CAI) at Harvard University, an interface between academic learning and civic…

Although a groundbreaking 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report suggested that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year as a result of medical errors, recent studies suggest that the real number is likely much higher, according to patient safety expert Lucian Leape, adjunct professor of health policy at Harvard School of Public Health and a…

The Cambridge Archives Project hosted its “Fifth Annual Archives Crawl” June 17 through 21, which included the Harvard University Archives, the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), the Cambridge Public Works Department, the Cambridge Freemasons Lodge and Christ Church. This year’s theme was “Spaces: Sacred & Profane.” The Harvard University Archives has been a stop…

Every week, Marilyn Morgan, manuscript cataloger at Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library, leads chair yoga for librarians. “I find that librarians especially tend to be very service-oriented and put themselves last,” Morgan said. “We often feel guilty about taking time for ourselves. This class is great because anyone can carve out 30 minutes once a week.” The…

Nigeria’s Tope Folarin has won the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award, for his short story entitled ‘Miracle’ from Transition, Issue 109 (Bloomington, 2012). Transition is a publication of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University. The chair of judges, Gus Casely-Hayford, announced Folarin as the winner of the…

Parents and adults working with vulnerable young children and babies must be better equipped to shield the youngsters from “toxic stress” and other adversities that can contribute to the development of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases later in life, Jack P. Shonkoff, Julius B. Richmond FAMRI professor of child health and development and director,…

The Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT) has issued a call for Spark Grant applications. Roughly five awards ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 will be given to ideas that “spark” promising teaching and learning projects from idea to reality, and positions innovations for future success. Harvard faculty, students, and staff are encouraged to apply. Although HILT welcomes any proposals…

A device that can instantly identify unknown liquids based on their surface tension has been selected to receive the 2013 R&D 100 Award—known as “the Oscar of Innovation”—from R&D Magazine. Invented in 2011 by a team of materials scientists and applied physicists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss…

John Quackenbush, professor of computational biology and bioinformatics in the Department of Biostatistics, has received a White House Open Science Champion of Change award in recognition of his efforts to ensure that vast amounts of genomic data are available, accessible, and useful. He was one of 13 people across the nation to be honored at a June 20,…

Preventable emergency room visits and hospitalizations represent only a small part of the health costs among Medicare patients with the highest expenses, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers. The study, appearing in the June 26, 2013 issue of theJournal of the American Medical Association…

How well a hospital performs on three major publicly reported conditions—heart attack, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia—may prove a useful tool in signaling overall hospital mortality rates, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study. Examining Medicare data from 2,322 acute care hospitals from 2008 through 2009, the authors found that mortality…

“Picture a bridge over a river with a hole in the middle,” said Dahianna Lopez, a Ph.D. student in health policy at Harvard. “When people cross it, some are going to fall through the hole and into the water below. There will be people on the river bank who will jump in and pull them out…

Taking even a small amount of iron during pregnancy cuts a woman’s risk of developing anemia and decreases the risk that her baby will be born with a low birth weight, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers and colleagues. In an analysis of data from 92 randomized trials and…

At 625 Massachusetts Avenue, which houses many staff members in Harvard Library’s Information and Technical Services (ITS), lunchtime is an opportunity to slip away from work and take just a few steps to an art museum. Staff discuss the pieces that fill the walls of the room, brightening the space and showcasing the—otherwise hidden—artistic abilities…

Fifteen Harvard archivists presented at or helped to organize the 40th annual meeting of the New England Archivists (NEA)—a number University Archivist Megan Sniffin-Marinoff said may have represented the largest Harvard presence she had seen since she became involved with the organization more than 20 years ago. Presentations by Harvard Library staff members included: Experimental Relations: Using…

The Harvard Library Board recently approved recommendations outlined in “Towards a Collections and Content Development Strategic Plan for the Harvard Library,” fulfilling key recommendations of both the Task Force on the Harvard Libraries and the Library Implementation Working Group. Collections and content development will remain in the domain of the local or School libraries, with…

Every spring after classes end at Norfolk County Agricultural High School (NCAHS), 10 juniors join the crew of the Arnold Arboretum as interns to learn how public gardens and arboreta care for their important plant collections. The students spend a month at the Arboretum working in the landscape and attending specialized classes. Marc Mertz, arboriculture…

A recent study showing that people covered by Medicaid may be less depressed than those who aren’t has prompted new debate about the value of such insurance, according to an article in the June 23 “Ideas” section of the Boston Globe. The article detailed the results of a May 2013 New England Journal of Medicine study co-authored by Katherine…

A new discovery about how cells move inside the body may provide scientists with crucial information about disease mechanisms such as the spread of cancer or the constriction of airways caused by asthma. Led by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), investigators found that epithelial cells…

The efforts of environmental scientist Chensheng (Alex) Lu to study the effects of pesticide exposure on honeybees were chronicled in a Boston Globe Magazine cover story on June 23. The article described how Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology in the Department of Environmental Health, and two Massachusetts colleagues — Northbridge beekeeper Ken Warchol and Holden entrepreneur Dick…

Women in the U.S. exposed to high levels of air pollution while pregnant were up to twice as likely to have a child with autism as women who lived in areas with low pollution, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is the first large national study to examine…

The Nikon Imaging Center at Harvard Medical School is the largest light microscopy facility on the Longwood campus. The staff are busy transitioning the light source for 12 of their 13 microscopes to more efficient solid-state light engines, replacing older metal halide bulbs that contain mercury. For Jennifer Waters, the center’s director, the move was…

Paying up to 40% more for organic food is worth the investment, wrote Chensheng (Alex) Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), in a Wall Street Journal article on June 16, 2013. While researchers have yet to provide a definitive answer about whether more costly and harder-to-find organic food,…

Men who experience restless legs syndrome (RLS) may be at increased risk of dying earlier than men without the condition, according to a study by Xiang Gao, of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Restless legs syndrome is characterized by throbbing, pulling, or…

Two of Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) leading research centers will join forces. HKS Dean David T. Ellwood has announced that the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations will become the Hauser Institute for Civil Society and will reside within the Center for Public Leadership (CPL), effective July 1. The merger will offer an extraordinary opportunity to…

Cynthia Friend, Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has been named as the next director of the Rowland Institute at Harvard. Friend brings extensive leadership experience to the directorship, having previously served as associate director of the Harvard Materials Science…

The International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG) has announced that Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is the winner of the 2012 ICCG Climate Think Tank Ranking in the Global category. The Belfer Center was named by the ICCG as the most influential institution outside of Europe “working in the field…

Scott Evans, senior research scientist in the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health, has been awarded $5.6 million for his role in the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG), a new clinical research network funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Evans…