The Harvard Innovation Labs has opened applications for Launch Lab X GEO (LLX GEO), a virtual program designed to help early-stage Harvard alumni-led ventures grow into sustainable and disruptive businesses.   “Over the first three years of running Launch Lab X GEO, we’ve seen Harvard alumni founders make extraordinary progress on their ventures — advancing their product development, scaling their teams, growing their…

Life expectancy in Brazil declined by approximately 1.3 years in 2020 as a result of COVID-19, reversing decades of progress in the country, according to a new study in Nature led by Marcia Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography and chair of the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public…

With outdated funding models and questions about whether riders care more about fares or service, opinions are divided on the future of public transportation. With companies addressing how their employees will return to the office as the pandemic recedes, public transportation is a key part of the policy dialogue. Would free ridership keep autos off the…

It was evident soon after the onset of COVID-19 that it disproportionately harmed Black and Latino communities in the United States — hardly the great equalizer that some predicted the pandemic would be. Now three health economists have measured those inequities by analyzing and comparing death rates over the first year of the pandemic, and their results are especially stark, with challenging implications for health care policymakers. One…

The Harvard Innovation Labs (i-lab) has announced that 278 student-led ventures have been accepted into its 2021 Summer Venture Program. “Summer is a time when Harvard students have an opportunity to focus more deeply on a project or pursuit about which they’re passionate, and I am thrilled that hundreds of students with entrepreneurial aspirations will…

To prepare and support a new generation of education leaders seeking to expand their impact at a critical time for learners of all ages, the Harvard Graduate School of Education today announces the launch of a transformative online master’s degree for professionals advancing in the field of education. The online Master’s in Educational Leadership is a two-year,…

When grocery shopping online, people tend to spend more money and purchase more items than when they shop in person, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers also found that participants spent less money on candy and desserts when shopping online. Spending on sugar-sweetened…

Harvard professor Eugene Demler was awarded this year’s Hamburg Prize for Theoretical Physics by the Joachim Herz Foundation, the Wolfgang Pauli Centre, and the University of Hamburg. The prize, which is awarded for outstanding research achievements in theoretical physics, goes to Demler for his work on quantum fluids and solids, and especially for his contributions to…

The Harvard Chan SHINE initiative on well-being through work has published new research in “A Handbook of Theories on Designing Alignment Between People and the Office Environment,” which focuses on the employee as a user of the work environment and seeks to address the very fragmented academic study of workplace design and management. The book,…

Horace D. Ballard has been appointed as the new Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. Associate Curator of American Art at the Harvard Art Museums, effective Sept. 1, 2021. Ballard is currently curator of American art at the Williams College Museum of Art, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he was previously assistant curator from 2017 to 2019. He…

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced this week that it is collaborating with multiple industry partners to discover more effective approaches to deliver drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) for the treatment of brain diseases. The main goals of the initiative will be to identify transport target proteins in the…

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, recently announced the selection of the 2021 Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography. Following an international search, the Gardner Fellowship committee awarded the fellowship to photographer Wendel White. The fellowship provides a $50,000 stipend to begin or complete a proposed project followed by the publication of a…

What better way to share knowledge than to give the Harvard community all the news that’s fit to print? Thanks to a new agreement between the New York Times and Harvard Library, all HarvardKey holders are now able to activate a free New York Times digital subscription. The Harvard-sponsored subscription includes access to a personal…

Three Harvard researchers have been selected for the fourth cohort of Schmidt Science Fellows, a postdoctoral fellowship program focused on harnessing the power of interdisciplinary science for the public benefit. The Harvard winners include graduate students Kevin Zhao, Bryan Wilder, and Jenelle Wallace. Zhao is Ph.D. candidate in chemistry and chemical biology in the lab…

The amount of tobacco a person with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) consumes is associated with the type and amount of genetic mutations found in their tumors, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. NSCLC is a heterogeneous cancer associated with several so-called driver mutations, such as KRAS and…

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, under the leadership of Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Producer Diane Borger, celebrates the return of live, in-person theater with a free outdoor experience for all at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University beginning in August 2021; dance, music, and theater events at…

Alessandra Canta ’21, a joint chemistry and astrophysics concentrator with a secondary field in MCB, has won the Captain Jonathan Fay Prize. Gregg Tucci, director of undergraduate studies, recently shared this news with the Department citing that this is the first time a chemistry concentrator has won in more than 30 years. Her thesis, “Unlocking the…

The Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government is pleased to announce two winners of the 2021 John T. Dunlop Prize in Business and Government. Sewon Park won for her thesis, “Jobs Saved by the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP): The Importance of Smaller Loans, Flexible Program Requirements, and Targeting.”…

Dirty emissions from coal-fired power plants have been declining in recent years. But other sources of air pollution — including soot from the burning of gas, biomass, and wood in buildings — now have more negative health effects than coal combustion, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The…

The Growth Lab is announcing the launch of Metroverse, an Urban Economy Navigator designed to provide policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, business organizations, civil society, and the general public with unprecedented economic data for more than 1,000 cities in 79 countries. The platform vividly illustrates the technological capabilities that underpin a city’s economy and its opportunities for…

Eleven Harvard faculty members received 2021 Walter Channing Cabot Fellowships for their achievements in “literature, history or art, as such terms may be liberally interpreted.” The group includes: Rosie Bsheer Assistant professor of history “Archive Wars: The Politics of History in Saudi Arabia” (Stanford University Press, 2020) David Damrosch Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Comparative Literature and…

Silkroad, the non-profit arts and social-impact organization that is home to the Grammy Award-winning musical ensemble founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and now led by Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, announced today the appointment of Alicia Robinson as its first director of education and social impact. In this role, Robinson will advocate for and ensure that…

Professor Evelynn Hammonds has achieved many “firsts” in the space of diversity, inclusion, and belonging: she is the first openly gay, female, African American dean of Harvard College; first senior vice provost for faculty development and diversity at Harvard; founding director of the MIT Center for the Study of Diversity in Science Technology and Medicine;…

For Harvard’s Lawrence D. Bobo, the month of May made for notable additions to his academic trophy case. The W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences and dean of social science was awarded two major prizes in the field of public opinion research and received an additional honor from his alma mater, Loyola Marymount…

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, a center internationally recognized for its fellowships, publications and programs, has selected 22 Nieman Fellows from across the globe for a year of on-campus study. The journalists will focus their work on some of the most urgent issues facing the industry, ranging from racial justice to disinformation.…

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs are pleased to announce the results of the 2021 competition for awards from the Lemann Brazil Research Fund. “We were tremendously impressed by the caliber of applications received,” said Rick McCullough, vice provost for research and professor…

Having attended private tutoring centers as a child and worked at them throughout high school and college, Ph.D. candidate Edward Kim was surprised that such an integral part of his own upbringing had not been heavily studied. He entered HGSE’s Ph.D. Program intending to learn more about private tutoring, an industry that has steadily grown over the last 20…

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation announced this week that James (Jim) G. Anderson is the recipient of the organization’s highest honor and only international prize, the 2021 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences. This year, the $250,000 biennial prize was awarded for work in environmental chemistry. Anderson, the Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, was chosen for…

Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) has named writer and author Jia Tolentino as its 2021 Class Day speaker. Tolentino will address GSD’s Class of 2021 and their families during Harvard’s 2021 graduation exercises on Thursday, May 27. The talk is currently scheduled to begin approximately at 1:10 p.m. EST, to be streamed live on GSD’s YouTube…

Exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) has been linked with significantly increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children, particularly if exposure occurs during the third trimester of pregnancy or during early childhood, according to a meta-analysis from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study was published April 29, 2021, in…