When considering ways to reform the U.S. health care system, the U.S. Congress did not give adequate consideration to a single-payer, state-based like the one being considered by the Vermont State Legislature, Harvard School of Public Health Professor William Hsiao writes in the March 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. While the…

The Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) wants to know what you think about education, technology, and innovation. As part of its upcoming Education Think Tank, people from outside of Harvard University are invited to join in the conversation about how to make education more relevant. “If we are serious about reinventing education, it is going to…

While hawks have traditionally found a home in a pine tree near Pierce Hall at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), a nesting pair of hawks decided to switch venues for 2011. The birds constructed a nest atop Maxwell Dworkin, using the building’s iconic curtain wall for support. A team of SEAS…

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, recognized 36 government initiatives as Bright Ideas recipients on March 29. This cohort of Bright Ideas addresses a host of pertinent issues including health care, education, performance management, civic engagement, and service delivery, and represents the creative…

Originally built in 1960 as a hotel, Harvard Law School’s (HLS) North Hall has recently earned LEED Gold certification through the LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) version 3.0 rating system for its conversion into a 112 room dormitory for students at Harvard Law School. North Hall is Harvard University’s 44th LEED certification and the third…

A team composed of undergraduate students from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Central Connecticut State University is among 10 U.S.-based software design team finalists for the 2011 Imagine Cup. Dubbed TTHV, the group is composed of Alexander Ryu, University of Pennsylvania; Annemarie Ryu ’13 and Brandon Liu ’14, both of Harvard College; and David…

The Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library at Harvard University, in collaboration with the Julliard School and the Library of Congress, recently launched the Music Treasures Consortium, a website that provides a single point of access to some of the world’s most valued music manuscript and print materials from six esteemed institutions in the U.S. and…

Growth in India’s economy since 1992 has not ended undernutrition among children in that country and may require the Indian government to directly invest in appropriate health interventions such as food aid, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the School of Public Health at the University…

Everyday activities such as drinking alcohol or exercising strenuously can raise an individual’s risk of a heart attack, and exposure to more potent triggers such as cocaine can significantly raise risk. But a new study finds that exposure to traffic and air pollution contributes to 12 percent of heart attacks worldwide—the most of any factor.…

Dean Julio Frenk, who served as Mexico’s minister of health from 2000 to 2006, contributed to the Harvard Business Review’s “Innovations in Health Care” blog. As countries from Ghana to the United States grapple with expanding health care coverage for their citizens, policy efforts in Mexico have lessons to offer, he writes. As minister of…

Mark D. Jordan, Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School (HDS), has been named one of seven Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology for 2011-12. The announcement was made in February by the Association of Theological Schools. In his year-long Luce project, Jordan plans to write a book on Thomas Aquinas’ teaching…

A delegation of Harvard School of Public Health friends and faculty – including HSPH Dean Julio Frenk and Dean for Academic Affairs David Hunter – visited HSPH programs in Tanzania and Botswana recently, meeting with government officials in both countries and learning more about the School’s longstanding efforts around AIDS and nutrition in East and…

HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe declined by nearly half over the course of a decade (from 29 percent estimated adult prevalence in 1997 to 16 percent in 2007). HSPH’s Daniel Halperin and colleagues explored the causes of this remarkable success story in a paper published online in PLoS Medicine on Feb. 8. The researchers found that…

The Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) and the Harvard Art Museums are pleased to announce an unprecedented three-part exhibition that addresses the converging domains of contemporary art and design practice. Titled The Divine Comedy, this exhibition is comprised of major installations by internationally acclaimed artists Olafur Eliasson, Tomás Saraceno, and Ai Weiwei, and…

Reporter Michael J. Berens of The Seattle Times is winner of the 2010 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism for his comprehensive six-part series “Seniors for Sale: Exploiting the aged and frail in Washington’s adult family homes.” During his lengthy investigation, Berens found that thousands of vulnerable elderly adults had been abused, neglected, or exploited…

The U.S. Army invaded the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory one day earlier this month (March 3). A group of 16 cadets served as study subjects to help inform researchers on the ways in which opinions are formed and decisions are made by young military leaders. The session was organized by the lab’s executive director Mark Edington…

Few people could have survived the kind of brutal attack that killed the parents of Brooks Douglass, M.C./M.P.A. ’02, and severely injured both him and his sister. Douglass, whose Baptist missionary parents spent several years in Brazil before settling in Oklahoma, was only 16 when two men made their way into the family home in…

Before Annie Leibovitz and Margaret Bourke-White, there was Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942). A pioneer of photojournalism in the late 1880s and early 1900s, Beals is recognized as the first woman photographer hired on a newspaper staff. In 1902, after she had proven herself as an accomplished freelance photographer (and taught her husband the trade), Beals…

After months of discussion and collaboration, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) has unanimously approved Harvard’s plans to transform a vacant building in Allston into the Harvard Innovation Lab. The Harvard Innovation Lab is a new and innovative initiative that will foster team-based and entrepreneurial activities and deepen interactions among students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of…

The White House is a small and very frenetic place packed with people who have no time to read, David Gergen, senior political analyst for CNN, told a group of HSPH students on Feb. 15. An adviser to four U.S. presidents, Gergen gave his insider’s view of policymaking under pressure as part of the ongoing…

As of February 2011 there are now compost bins available in every dorm, academic, and administrative building on the Harvard Law School (HLS) campus. The expansion is a result of a partnership between the HLS Green Team, Green Living Program, and FMO custodians that will make compost drop-off points more accessible members of the HLS…

The Faculty of Engineering (LTH) at Lund University has decided to appoint Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), as an honorary doctor. Capasso will be among five individuals receiving honorary doctorates at the…

John McDonough, director of the Center for Public Health Leadership, discusses his recent op-ed in the The Baltimore Sun that said repealing last year’s health care reform law would damage the potential to address the longstanding racial and ethnic health inequalities in the U.S.

The World Bank and World Health Organization have voiced fears that policymakers will break their commitments to support desperately needed global health services in low- and middle-income countries because of the ongoing global economic downturn. Yet, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), there is surprisingly little historical evidence…

Three technology proposals from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have been selected for presentation at the University Research and Entrepreneurship Symposium (URES). Graduate students Sam Kesner, Qimin Quan, and Wonyoung Kim will have the opportunity to present their innovative research to an audience of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs on March 31,…

You no longer have to choose between cost savings and energy savings when you purchase for your lab. That’s what equipment specialists said at the “Efficient Lab Equipment Vendor Display” organized by VWR and the FAS Green Program in the basement of NW Labs last week. At the event, purchasing managers from university research laboratories…

As the annual job search for seniors and graduate students heats up, employers in green tech fields are leveraging alumni connections and flocking to Harvard to court students for jobs. “Green” employers are zeroing in on future hires who have the right mix of talent and flexibility to find success during difficult economic times. “The…

Five alumni of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences were among the 10 eminent scholars who were awarded the 2010 National Humanities Medal by President Obama at a White House ceremony on March 2, 2011. The five medalists with GSAS connections are: Daniel Aaron, Ph.D. ’43, history of American civilization; Bernard Bailyn, Ph.D. ’53,…

An environmentally friendly co-generation system was recently installed at the Doubletree by Hilton in Boston. Co-generation, also known as combined heat and power, is an environmentally friendly way to generate electricity, because the heat created during that process is captured and put to good use – such as heating a building. In a conventional power…

Jan Merrill-Oldham, Harvard’s Malloy-Rabinowitz Preservation Librarian from 1995 through 2010, has received the Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS). Widely acknowledged as the driving force in developing Harvard’s renowned preservation programs, Merrill-Oldham received her award from Nancy M. Cline, Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College,…