Scholars and social media experts convened at Harvard Law School Feb. 6 to examine the ways in which electronic interactive media can sway human decision-making and behavior. The conference, “Social Media and Behavioral Economics,” was sponsored by Harvard Law School’s new Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy and created by the program’s director, Cass…

On Feb. 15, Harvard Law School hosted “Gun violence after the Newtown tragedy: What can legal, public health and other efforts do?” The panel discussion, moderated by HLS Dean Martha Minow, featured David Hemenway, professor of health policy and management and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center; Clinical Professor Ron Sullivan, director of…

If you’re examining the impact of air pollution control efforts in Denver, how do you statistically account for the fact that air pollution travels east—and that pollution reduction in the western United States could affect air quality in New England? Likewise, if you’re measuring the effectiveness of a particular HIV-prevention strategy in a village in…

Beginning last October, thousands of students from around the globe began studying at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in a totally new way. They studied biostatistics and epidemiology, the building blocks of public health research, at home or in cafés, at any time of day or night, for a few minutes at a time…

Biomedical engineer Sujata Bhatia and computer scientist David C. Parkes were honored today with the Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Established at SEAS in 2008 by Capers W. McDonald and Marion K. McDonald, the award recognizes leaders in engineering…

The large antiretroviral treatment (ART) scale-up in a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has led to a rapid and dramatic increase in population adult life expectancy—a gain of 11.3 years over eight calendar years (2004-2011)—and the benefit of providing ART far outweighs the cost, according to new research from Harvard School of Public Health…

The national debate about gun violence has focused on mass shootings and assault weapons, but statistics show that most gun deaths are suicides. A number of recent articles and interviews featured Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) experts commenting on the topic. A February 13, 2013 New York Times article reported that nearly 20,000 of the 30,000…

EdX, the not-for-profit online learning enterprise founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced today the international expansion of its X University Consortium with the addition of six new global higher education institutions. The Australian National University (ANU), Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, McGill University and the University of Toronto in Canada,…

The amount of added sugars in soda and other sweetened beverages needs to be regulated, according to a Washington, D.C.-based nutrition advocacy group—and many Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers agree. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration calling for the agency…

About two dozen students, faculty and staff recently gathered for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Sound Studios Lab (S-Lab) in the Woodworth Listening Room of the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library. The new S-Lab features cutting-edge tools for research, composition, ethnographic field research and more. The state-of-the-art equipment and software was provided through the…

In a week-long January 2013 trip to China, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Dean Julio Frenk brought an important message about public health: that it’s essential to continued human progress. Frenk’s trip, which took him to Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong, was aimed at strengthening HSPH’s existing ties in China, connecting with health sector leaders, and…

Krzystzof Gajos, assistant professor of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has been named a 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. He is among 126 fellows, including four others at Harvard, selected from the United States and Canada this year on the basis of their “independent research accomplishments, creativity,…

Amid news of Time Warner possibly selling off most of its print magazines, Nancy Gibbs, deputy managing editor of Time magazine, told the Shorenstein Center that she is “enormously optimistic” about the future the journalism industry as a whole. Gibbs began by looking back at Time‘s history, with its founders inventing “curation and aggregation” of the…

The largest public health initiative in history dedicated to a single disease was announced unexpectedly during President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address in 2003: $15 billion over five years to fund a new international AIDS effort. For AIDS researchers at HSPH, the program known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief…

A study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers that used for the first time a randomized, controlled study design to answer questions about how access to public insurance affects health, health care use, and other outcomes, has received a Health Services Research (HSR) Impact Award from Academy Health. The award recognizes outstanding research that…

On the go? Taking your lunch with you and conscientious environmental practice merge thanks to a new partnership with the Food Literacy Project and Harvard University Dining Services. Starting this February, Dudley House began piloting a reusable container program in Dudley Café aimed at reducing excess waste from disposable food containers and packaging. Graduate and…

Margaret Sullivan, public editor of The New York Times, outlined two opposing sides on the issue of how social media is changing traditional reporting and objectivity. To illustrate the distinction, Sullivan used examples written by two thought-leaders in journalism: Tom Kent, standards editor for the Associated Press, Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York…

Data from the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) study of greenhouse gases and aerosols are now available to the atmospheric research community and the public. This comprehensive dataset provides the first high-resolution, vertically resolved measurements of over 90 unique atmospheric species collected during a series of nearly pole-to-pole flights over the Pacific Ocean, across all seasons.…

Research has shown that using a checklist in operating rooms makes surgery safer and more successful. Now, a new study co-authored by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) student and surgeon Scott Ellner found that use of a surgical safety checklist, paired with training to improve communication in the operating room, reduced complications in the 30-day period…

Justice Clarence Thomas has become known as a quiet presence on the Supreme Court. But on Jan. 29, members of the Harvard Law School community got to hear him speak—and he did so with great humor and warmth. As part of the Herbert W. Vaughan Lecture series, Thomas participated in a conversation with HLS Dean…

For nursing mothers returning to work or pursing their education, having a  private space to allow them to continue breast-feeding their child can help ease the transition. As part of Harvard’s commitment to supporting a mother’s choice to breast-feed, a new lactation room has opened on the ground floor of Widener Library. The new room joins…

Winners of the Goldsmith Book Prizes have been announced by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. The 2013 Book Prize winners are “Why Americans Hate the Media and How It Matters” by Jonathan M. Ladd in the academic category, and “Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom”…

Since the 1980s, infectious disease specialist Anne Goldfeld has worked to ban landmines, treat victims of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in Cambodia and Ethiopia, and conduct research aimed at eradicating those diseases. A professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard School of Public Health and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Goldfeld…

Men’s sperm quality may be significantly affected by their levels of physical activity, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). They found that healthy young men who were sedentary, as measured by hours of TV viewing, had lower sperm counts than those who were the most physically…

In purchasing The New Republic, Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder, said he not only wants to help stabilize the financially troubled magazine by 2015 but to put the publication in the service of a wider mission. “It’s a double bottom-line business,” he told Alex Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and…

Harvard’s Technology Products and Services announces a valentine promotion. For great savings and to enter a raffle, visit the online shopping site at and select the store that is for you (Shop for Yourself or Shop for a Department), select the “Shop Now” link, and log in with your HUID and PIN or the Campus…

The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) is pleased to welcome 17 fellows as part of their Visiting Scholars Program during the 2013 spring semester. Every year, CES is pleased to host a number of visiting scholars on a competitive basis from the U.S. and abroad who are postdoctoral social scientists and historians…

Every year, millions of women in developing countries miss up to 50 days of work or school due to the unavailability of sanitary protection. This isn’t just a loss to the women, but it harms the economies and resources of entire communities. Elizabeth Scharpf, M.B.A. & M.P.A./ID ’06, founder and chief instigating officer of Sustainable…

This year’s World Economic Forum at Davos was a more sober, but also more optimistic affair than in recent years, which found political leaders preoccupied with the usual matters such as economic growth and environmental sustainability but also struggling to adjust to a world transformed by social media and communications. That was the consensus offered…

Carotenoids—the substances that give many vegetables and fruits their vivid red, orange, and yellow colors and are also found in many dark green vegetables—may play a key role in preventing or delaying amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, according to new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) research. The study was…