In a new paper from researchers at SHINE, the Human Flourishing Program, and the Harvard Chan Department of Epidemiology titled Psychometric Properties of Flourishing Scales From a Comprehensive Well-Being Assessment published in Frontiers in Psychology, authors Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Piotr Bialowolski, Matthew T. Lee, Ying Chen, Tyler J. VanderWeele, and Eileen McNeely develop a measure of…

Gender-affirming surgeries are associated with numerous positive health benefits, including lower rates of psychological distress and suicidal ideation, as well as lower rates of smoking, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study examined data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, which included nearly 20,000 participants, 38.8 percent…

Yulander Wells, Jr. has been named Harvard’s deputy athletic director for external operations and relations, Erin McDermott, the John D. Nichols ’53 Family Director of Athletics, announced this week. In his role, Wells will provide strategic leadership and be responsible for broad supervision of the athletic department’s external units, which includes communications, business development, ticketing, marketing,…

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University announced this week the 2021-22 class of fellows. “We are happy to welcome an extraordinary cohort of W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellows,”…

During the past 30 years, the world’s top medical journals have rarely published scientific articles about the impact of racism on health, according to a new analysis co-authored by Nancy Krieger of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Of more than 200,000 articles published over the last 30 years in the New England Journal…

The 2021 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize has been awarded to scientists Lynne Maquat and Joan Steitz for seminal discoveries in the biology and function of RNA, the workhorse molecule of cells. Their discoveries have reshaped the understanding of RNA’s myriad roles in healthy cell function and in disease-causing dysfunction and have informed the conceptualization and…

Policies aimed at protecting people from adverse health impacts related to unconventional natural gas development (UNGD), or fracking, may not work as intended, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study, conducted with colleagues from the research institute PSE Healthy Energy and Duke University, looked at the…

Harvard College’s Advising Programs Office virtually awarded advisers from throughout the University with the prestigious Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising. The Star Prizes were established by James A. Star ’83 to recognize and reward individuals who contribute to the College through their exemplary intellectual and personal guidance of undergraduate students. Prizes are awarded…

The risk of childhood undernutrition varies widely among villages in India, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in collaboration with researchers at Harvard’s Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard’s Center for Population and Development Studies, Korea University, Microsoft, and the Government of India. The study is the first to…

Sahil Lauji ’21 was one of 12 students and recent graduates selected to participate in the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows program run by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Lauji is a government concentrator from Georgia whose senior thesis, “Global Power Building: The Transnationalization of the Movement for Black Lives,” explored international relationships to historical…

Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) announces the establishment of the R. Buckminster Fuller Professorship of Design Science, thanks to the generosity of Amy C. Edmondson ’81, A.M. ’95, Ph.D. ’96, and George Q. Daley ’82, M.D. ’91. Edmondson and Daley both have long-standing ties to Harvard University — Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of…

Among pregnant women who use a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drug called tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) — which is also being evaluated for the treatment of COVID-19 — there does not appear to be any greater risk of malformations in their newborns than from other antiretroviral therapies (ARTs), according to new research from Harvard T.H. Chan…

Indoor dust mimics sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone in human cells, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The dust contains a stew of dozens of chemicals that migrate out of furnishings and that can interfere with sperm counts, fertility, successful birth, and the timing of puberty…

Critical pre-literacy skills are developed long before elementary school, through play and interactive conversations with caregivers at home. Three new early-literacy apps — released for free from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and its Reach Every Reader initiative — are designed for parents and caregivers to use with their children to encourage fun and rewarding…

Four Harvard affiliates were awarded fellowships from the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation last week. They are among a group of 184 total recipients lauded for their exceptional work in the arts and scholarship. Classics Paul J. Kosmin is the Philip J. King Professor of Ancient History. His research centers…

“Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case” has won the 2020 Harvard Business Review (HBR) McKinsey Award, which honors the best HBR article of the year. The article, by Harvard Business School Professor Robin Ely and Morehouse College President David A. Thomas, critiques the off-cited economic case for diversity and argues that contrary…

The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School awarded the 2021 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting to “Mississippi’s Dangerous and Dysfunctional Penal System” by Joseph Neff, Alysia Santo, Anna Wolfe, and Michelle Liu of The Marshall Project, Mississippi Today, Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, and the USA TODAY Network. The project investigated why…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans’ opinions on a variety of health and social issues have shifted, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. An analysis of 18 polls conducted during 2020 found that confidence in U.S. health care increased during the pandemic. In 2019, only 36 percent of survey…

The board of directors of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, a merit-based graduate school program for immigrants and children of immigrants, announced the program’s 2021 Fellows, including a dozen with Harvard connections. Chosen from a pool of 2,445 applicants — the most the program has ever received — the 30 fellows will each receive…

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian will host several NASA Hubble Fellows beginning in the fall of 2021. This year, more than 400 applicants applied to the prestigious NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP); 24 awardees were ultimately selected, three of whom will soon conduct research at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA). The NHFP…

Ellen Price, a doctoral student at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, has been awarded the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship from the Heising-Simons Foundation. Price is one of only eight students in the nation to receive this prestigious award. The fellowship will provide up to $375,000 in support for Price to conduct independent…

Elizabeth Warren, U.S. senator, former presidential candidate, and longtime Harvard Law School professor, will be this year’s speaker for the Class Day ceremonies at Harvard Law School, the class of 2021 class marshals announced today. Class Day, which will take place on Wednesday, May 26, will be virtual this year because of the ongoing pandemic.…

Isabel Gibney ’20 was recently named a winner in the 38th annual Illustrators of the Future Contest and will be published in the international bestselling anthology, “L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 37.” Health and safety measures permitting, Gibney will travel to Hollywood this fall to attend a weeklong workshop and the awards…

This week, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs, in collaboration with the Center for African Studies, announced the inaugural awardees of the Motsepe Presidential Research Accelerator Fund for Africa. This fund, supported by the Motsepe Foundation, will significantly strengthen the University’s relationship with…

Registration is now open for the conference Art Museums and the Legacies of the Dutch Slave Trade: Curating Histories, Envisioning Futures, presented by the Center for Netherlandish Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Harvard Art Museums, and Harvard University’s Department of History of Art and Architecture. This four-part program explores efforts by…

The Harvard Innovation Labs today announced two new additions to the University innovation center’s leadership team: Rebecca Xiong, managing director of programs and engagement, and Meagan Hall, senior director of administration. “Over the last decade, the Harvard Innovation Labs evolved from a university-wide experiment for bringing together Harvard’s community of innovators and entrepreneurs, to a…

The Harvard Business School Doctoral Programs and their faculty chair, David Scharfstein, the School’s Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Finance and Banking, have announced three recipients of the 2020-2021 Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research and one winner of the Martin Award for Excellence in Business Economics. The prizes are presented each year based…

Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce Harvard Design Press, a book-publishing imprint based at Harvard GSD and distributed in collaboration with Harvard University Press. Harvard Design Press challenges, broadens, and advances the design disciplines and advocates for the value and power of design in making a more resilient, just, and beautiful world.…