A project to use dirt-powered batteries to charge cell phones in Africa won a $100,000 grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today. Led by Aviva Presser Aiden, Ph.D. ’09, an affiliate of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) who is now a student at Harvard Medical School, the aim is…

Timothy Johnson, one of the nation’s leading communicators of medical healthcare information, will deliver this year’s Lowell Lecture May 4, “The Truth About Getting Sick in America: The Real Problems with Healthcare and What We Can Do.” The lecture explores the thorny issue of health care in the United States, and is based on Johnson’s…

Planning and special projects officer for the Division of Continuing Education Wayne K. Ishikawa, Ph.D. ’78, is the recipient of the 2011 Walton S. Bittner Service Citation from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). The award recognizes a member for outstanding contributions to continuing education at his or her institution, and for service…

More than 30 members of the Harvard community rolled up their sleeves on Saturday April 2, to weatherize the Morton Prince House, home to the Freshman Dean’s Office (FDO). In a workday organized by the the student-run Environmental Action Committee, FDO, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Green Program, Green Building Services, the Harvard Office for…

Wondering what you can do to go green on Earth Day? Check out the Office for Sustainability’s April Green Tip of the Month for 10 tips from the Harvard community for how to help build a healthier, greener campus. From rethinking waste, powering down, and eating locally to asking the right questions and being creative,…

A new effort between researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard has been created to help improve teaching and learning through educational innovation and technology. Steven W. Leslie, executive vice president and provost at the University of Texas, Austin, said the endeavor brings together top educational researchers from the Mazur Group at…

The statistics laid out by the Honorable Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, South African Minister of Health, during the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture at Harvard School of Public Health on March 30, 2011, were stark: South Africa has less than 1 percent of the world’s population but 17 percent of the global HIV-positive population. Nearly one in three…

A new study co-authored by JoAnn Manson, professor in the department of epidemiology at HSPH and chief, division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, found that for menopausal women who have had hysterectomies, the risks of stroke and other health problems associated with estrogen pills diminish after women stop taking them. The researchers also…

Prof. Walter Willett, chair of the Department of Nutrition, joined Boston Mayor Thomas Menino at a City Hall press conference on April 7, 2011, announcing a new executive order requiring a phase out over the next six months of the sale and advertisement of sugar-sweetened beverages from city property. The move is intended to set…

“I’ve never seen a museum inside of a University,” said 10-year old Sabrina Ortiz from Boston Public School’s Elihu Greenwood Leadership Academy standing inside the Harvard Museum of Natural History, “Its amazing and inspiring me to learn.” She summed up the goal of the Harvard visit with those final words. Ortiz was part of a…

Each year since 1995, National Public Health Week has been celebrated during the first week in April. Organized by the American Public Health Association (APHA), the national campaign aims to raise awareness about public health topics among the general public, health care providers, and policymakers. National Public Health Week 2011, which takes place April 4 –…

Esteemed economist Lucas Papademos has been appointed the Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the first faculty member to hold that title. The professorship was established last year with a $4 million endowment via contributions from friends and relatives of Zombanakis…

The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is pleased to announce the establishment of the James R. Schlesinger Professorship of Energy, National Security, and Foreign Policy, an endowed professorship honoring one of the most accomplished public servants of our time. The professorship, which was funded by Schlesinger friends and admirers from around…

Professors Gary King in Government, Joanna Nizynska in Slavic, Anne Pringle in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Christopher Winship in Sociology are the recipients of the 2011 Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Awards, given by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The awards were presented on April 12 in a Dudley House ceremony attended…

According to 9 year old Kiara “KiKi” Daughty of Roxbury, “It feels better when you’re in the water, because it’s too noisy out here.” It was true.  A happy, energetic noise filled the air at Blodgett Pool on Friday evening (April 8) when 225 young swimmers, ranging in age from 5 to 17, displayed their…

Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies, a new report written by a team of researchers from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), outlines ways that aid workers can use technology to tap into information flows during a humanitarian emergency. The report was released on March 28 by the United Nations Office…

In recent days, the reporting on the horrific events unfolding in Japan has shifted from the technical response to issues such as the critical role of leadership and resilience in the aftermath of a disaster. What would happen in the U.S. if there was a similar disaster? One Harvard program is working to prepare leaders for…

The concept of the “demographic dividend” pioneered by Harvard School of Public Health faculty member David Bloom and colleagues is featured in Time magazine’s “Ten Ideas That Will Change the World,” published March 17. Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography and chair of the Department of Global Health and Population, and colleagues…

Every day is Earth Day at Harvard. That’s why during the month of April the Harvard Office for Sustainability will be featuring a Green Tip every day, not just on Earth Day (April 22). Every Monday in April we’ll post the coming week’s five green tips for the Harvard community and beyond. Read them, enjoy…

The conventional definition of the sublime – that which is too large and overwhelming to be accommodated within our restricted consciousness – is one that Emily Dickinson fiercely defied. In Dickinson’s view, the mental sublime, rather than being intimidated by the natural sublime, surpasses it, said Helen Vendler, A. Kingsley Porter University Professor, in a…

Conservators from the University Library’s Weissman Preservation Center and from Conservation Services in the Harvard College Library will offer a preservation “clinic” on Thursday (April 14) from 2 to 4 p.m. in the lobby of Lamont Library. Harvard students, faculty, and staff are invited to bring treasured books, drawings, family documents, photographs, photo albums, comic…

On an early morning in January, eight upper-year Harvard Law School students landed on the lone runway at the sleepy international airport in Lesotho where they were warmly welcomed by officials from the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (“MCC”), an innovative U.S. government foreign assistance agency. Though still recovering from the…

The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations became the first LEED-certified project at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) when it achieved a LEED Silver certification under the LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) version 2.0 rating system on Sept. 2, 2010. It is the 35th LEED-certified project at Harvard. The Hauser Center moved into its current location…

Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), discusses LGBT issues in K-12 education. To listen to the EdCast: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-deal-lgbt-issues-in/id393343331?i=92586128

Every day is Earth Day at Harvard. That’s why during the month of April the Harvard Office for Sustainability will be featuring a Green Tip every day, not just on Earth Day, April 22. Every Monday in April we’ll post a story on our website, green.harvard.edu, with the coming week’s five green tips for the…

In conjunction with regional meetings of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) will host a symposium on “Privacy, Autonomy, and Personal Genetic Information” on Tuesday, April 14, from 2:30…

The indicators paint a sad and disturbing picture of Zimbabwe. The once thriving “bread basket” of Africa has become politically and economically paralyzed, with a falling GDP, life expectancy of just 44 years, and a per capita income of only US$274 per year. Yet there is also reason for hope, with a new coalition government…

Since the 1950s, scientists and scholars from Harvard University have been building bridges between the United States and Russia to help prevent nuclear catastrophe. The early years focused on slowing the nuclear arms race. The last two decades have targeted the risks of nuclear proliferation and terrorism. Carrying forward this legacy, specialists from Harvard Kennedy…

Ask a typical student who is studying epidemiology what she or he is learning, and the overwhelming answer will refer to a set of methods useful for analyzing the distribution and determinants of population patterns of health. Ask the same student to name the epidemiologic theories of disease distribution that give rise to the hypotheses…

Ten years ago, attention given to HIV/AIDS at a United Nations special session was followed by the establishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Now, a growing chorus of public health experts is calling for a movement to address the noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) that are collectively responsible for one-quarter of the…