As part of Commencement festivities this week, the Harvard Graduate School of Education hosted two members of the change-making 2018 Congressional class, Representatives Jahana Hayes (D-CT) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). Both dynamic lawmakers have a strong interest and track record of leadership in education — Pressley from a community-building, whole-child-sustaining point of view, and Hayes…

Harvard University is part of an international team of theoretical physicists from the United States and Austria to investigate fundamentally new quantum mechanical behavior arising in systems of large numbers of electrons or atoms. The collaboration, entitled “Ultra-Quantum Matter,” is supported by the Simons Foundation under the Simons Collaborations in Mathematics and Physical Sciences program,…

Event to highlight accomplishments of ventures that graduated from Harvard’s nine-month accelerator for alumni-led startups   The Harvard Innovation Labs, an ecosystem that supports Harvard students and select alumni in exploring innovation and entrepreneurship, is hosting its first annual Launch Lab X Startup Showcase on May 23 at 5:15 p.m. The event will feature five-minute pitches…

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. A generous donation was recently made to Harvard Medical School (HMS) in an effort to target addiction prevention and treatment strategies in communities hard-hit by the opioid epidemic. Eugenio Madero, chief executive officer of Rassini…

Sunday services at the Memorial Church conclude with final prayers and the benediction, but as some congregants make their way toward the exits, many stay seated each week listening to Thomas Sheehan fill the sanctuary with eloquent music from the church’s pipe organ. Fans of the acclaimed and versatile organist have just a few more…

Caren and her son Moses are Kenyan-born restaurant and cultural center owners filling stomachs and hearts in Durham, North Carolina. Uli is a German-raised, Peru-born microbrewer uniting and energizing the quiet coastal town of Grandy. And Caro is an El Salvador-born fashion designer sparking pride and style in Raleigh and Sanford. These three immigrant entrepreneurs,…

For the past 17 years, Harvard staff and students team up each spring with neighbors in Allston for the annual Love Your Block event, (formerly known as Boston Shines). Dozens of volunteers helped paint, clean, rake leaves, sweep sidewalks, lay mulch and plant flowers in various locations across the neighborhood. Schools and departments from all…

Nature has a knack for producing things that seem to be perfectly designed for their place in the world: the sticky pads on geckos’ feet that help them grip slick surfaces, the way sunflowers turn to ‘follow” the sun throughout the day, the shape of snakes’ scales that allow them to grip the ground when…

On May 6, 2019, the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC) presented the Joseph L. Barrett Award to Deja Morehead ’20, Andrew Perez ’20, and James Bedford ’20. The award commemorates Joseph L. Barrett ’73 by honoring exceptional students who give their time to support their peers in developing more meaningful college experiences. Deja was honored…

Harvard College’s Advising Programs Office awarded 12 advisers from throughout the University with the prestigious Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. 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…

In 2001, Janet Connors’ son, Joel James Turner, was stabbed to death in his Dorchester apartment. While three of the men charged in the killing received prison sentences, a fourth — the one who Connors believes was mainly responsible — was released on reasonable doubt. The grieving mother felt she needed to create her own…

Ever wondered how university innovations start the journey toward becoming products that the world can use? Very often, at Harvard, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers have a hand in it. At the third annual Bench-to-Business Boot Camp, hosted by Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD) on May 1–2, early-career researchers gained the skills to engage…

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard has selected 27 Nieman Fellows for the class of 2020. The group includes local reporters, foreign correspondents, editors, a photographer, a bureau chief, television producers, newsroom executives, and others who specialize in data investigations, digital development, and innovative forms of reporting across all platforms. The class includes Nieman’s…

The William James Hall Coffeehouse is a semiannual event, sponsored by WJH Building Operations, and the departments of Psychology, Sociology, and Social Studies. Now in its 12th year, it provides an opportunity for staff, students, and faculty to showcase their talents. Building manager Bill Santoro created the event in 2007 at the request of several staff…

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School today announced its call for nominations for the 2019 Innovations in American Government Award. This year the Innovations in American Government Awards Program is specifically seeking nominees focused on creating economic opportunity for all. To be eligible to apply, programs must be designed to…

Through its 2019 Future of Cities Deep Dive, the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) used cities as a laboratory to explore complicated, cross-sector problems and potential solutions to address those problems. For many people around the world, cities are a source of hope. They are engines for innovation and economic growth. They are hubs for…

The Graduate Commons Program (GCP) will soon bid farewell to faculty directors Jim and Doreen Hogle, after seven years of service and mentorship to the Peabody Terrace community. They will retire to Vermont following a year of research at the University of Leeds (U.K.) where Jim Hogle — currently the Edward S. Harkness Professor of…

The Harvard-Yenching Institute (HYI) is pleased to welcome more than 50 visiting scholars and fellows from major universities in Asia. Affiliates will spend the 2019-20 academic year in residence at HYI. Established in 1928, the Harvard-Yenching Institute is an independent foundation dedicated to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with…

Do you want experience working at Harvard’s longest-running arts festival and get behind the scenes with the arts? The Office for the Arts invites you to be a part of Arts First, on Saturday, May 4, 2019! We are seeking volunteers to help set up, clean up, greet audience members, hand out Arts First guides,…

Harvard Kennedy School has named David Deming as the faculty director of the School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. Deming serves as a professor of public policy at the Kennedy School and a professor of education and economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He will start his additional appointment as director of…

Technology has reached a critical juncture in American society. The unfettered optimism of recent decades is now tempered by rising concerns over privacy and security, the impact of disinformation campaigns, and increasing calls for digital accountability. It is clear that the 116th Congress will face pressure to shape technological innovation through policies that protect and…

The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and the Novak Djokovic Foundation announced today that four Harvard doctoral students have been awarded the Djokovic Science and Innovation Fellowship for the 2019-20 academic year. Each Fellow will receive a grant to support their independent dissertation research. The Center and the Novak Djokovic Foundation launched…

When Lindsey Gaudet and her husband Ed Thill decided to open a gourmet bagel shop in Medford, they recognized that taking care of their employees’ mental and physical well-being would be just as important to their company’s success as the variety of choices on their menu. This prompted Gaudet to take part in a free…

A new paper on the effects of secondhand smoke on never-smokers has been published recently by SHINE Harvard researchers working on a Flight Attendant Health Study. The study reports associations between legacy secondhand tobacco smoke (SHTS) exposure going back decades and several severe cardiovascular and respiratory outcomes, including MI, PAD, and repeated pneumonia. The researchers…

According to Matthew Meselson, professor in Harvard’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, biological warfare could erase the distinction between war and peace, with no clear line between its beginning and its end. “You don’t know what’s happening, or you know it’s happening but it’s always happening,” the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences…

While many believe that every day should be treated as Earth Day, April 22 feels just a little more special: It is a time of true celebration and appreciation for the planet. The Office for Sustainability Earth Day Festival will kick off the week from the Science Center Plaza (rain location: Smith Campus Center) on…

Hansjörg Wyss has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the field of business, corporate, and philanthropic leadership. He joins more than 200 other new members for 2019, who are world leaders in the arts and sciences, business, philanthropy, and public affairs.…

Ten thousand pounds — that’s hundreds of computers, keyboards, printers, mobile phones, cameras, stereos, power cords, and other electronic items that would otherwise have taken up space in filing cabinets, conference rooms, or in a landfill. Instead, that’s the amount of electronics collected at the Secure and Sustainable Electronics Recycling event last year. “This event…