Companies spent nearly $10 billion to market prescription drugs and medical services in 2016 — five times more than they spent 20 years ago, according to a new study. The large increase in “medical marketing” includes ads directed at consumers for prescription drugs, treatments, tests, or hospital services, as well as pitches to doctors by…

Millions of children could be getting too much lead in the water they drink at school, according to a new report from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Nutrition Policy Institute at the University of California. More than 40 percent of schools around the country appear to have higher-than-recommended levels of lead in…

Sugar substitutes such as aspartame and stevia may not help people lose weight, according to a review carried out for the World Health Organization by Cochrane, a nonprofit research group. The review did not find any solid evidence of either health benefits or risks from non-sugar sweeteners (NSSs), but the studies they looked at were…

When Alice Hamilton joined Harvard’s faculty in 1919, workplace hazards were plentiful. American manufacturing was on the rise and across the country scores of workers were regularly exposed to myriad toxins, including lead, mercury, and asbestos to name just a few. Hamilton knew the risks workers faced perhaps better than anyone at the time. Prior…

Lowering drug prices, cutting the federal budget deficit, and stanching the rise of domestic hate crimes are among the top issues that Americans want Congress to tackle in 2019, according to a new poll conducted by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Politico. The poll surveyed 1,014 adults in early December, and found…

The new faculty chair of Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) announced the selection of 48 ALI Fellows and 20 ALI Partners to take part in its intensive, multi-disciplinary fellowship program. Meredith B. Rosenthal, faculty chair for ALI and C. Boyden Gray Professor of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, noted that this was…

“Inventur—Art in Germany, 1943–55” at the Harvard Art Museums and “Nine Moments for Now” at the Cooper Gallery were both among Hyperallergic’s top 20 exhibitions across the United States this year. Hyperallergic, which promotes itself as a forum for playful, serious, and radical perspectives on art and culture, said that this year’s best exhibitions focused on visualizing identity…

The Arctic Initiative at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is now accepting applications for its research fellowship in the areas of ocean policy and infrastructure in the Arctic. The deadline to submit is Jan. 15, 2019. The priorities of the Arctic Initiative are to address the challenges and opportunities associated with the…

Joshua R. Sanes, the Jeff C. Tarr Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and founding director of the Center for Brain Science, has been named the recipient of the 2018 Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize. The award, which recognizes seminal discoveries in neuroscience, will be presented to Sanes for his work on cell-surface proteins that control circuit…

Boston Children’s Hospital will receive a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop more efficient gene therapy treatments for sickle cell disease, as well as methods to enable gene therapy to be used in developing regions of the world, where there are high rates of sickle cell disease. Sickle cell…

The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) has named Raj Chetty, Ph.D. ’03, one of its five Fellows of the Academy in 2019. The AAPSS is one of the oldest and most distinguished learned societies in the country. Since 2000 it has inducted yearly fellows based on their contributions to society through research…

How much of a role do genes play in the onset of diseases and how much of a role does an individual’s environment play? It’s a question that has long intrigued epidemiologists. “It’s really the core question we’ve been asking in epidemiology,” said David Hunter, Richard Doll Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at the University…

The Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has published a paper, “A New Approach to the Well-being of Factory Workers in Global Supply Chains: Evidence from Apparel Factories in Mexico, Sri Lanka, China and Cambodia,” which was one of only eight selected papers chosen…

Edgar Grossman ’66, a man who had a pivotal role in establishing the roots of the Harvard Extension Alumni Association community, comprised of 20,000 members worldwide, was honored at a special ceremony inside the Harvard Faculty Club this weekend. A cold Saturday in December was no match for the warmth and festivities taking place inside…

The Harvard T.H. Chan SHINE program, a well-being initiative that unites academic research with business innovation to advance progress for all, was invited to participate in the prestigious Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Sixth World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge, and Policy this November in Incheon, Korea. The OECD World Forums bring together policy…

A study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which found that the death toll from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was likely much higher than initial estimates, was the most popular academic paper of 2018, according to the data science company Altmetric. The Harvard Chan School paper, “Mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane…

On Dec. 6, 2018, faculty, students, and staff gathered to celebrate the awarding of this year’s Tazuko Ajiro Monane and Noma-Reischauer Prizes. Co-sponsored by the Japanese Language Program and the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the event was well attended, including an appearance by Rokuichiro Michii, the consul general of Japan in Boston.…

The Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of State to develop a blockchain-based platform that will enable a holistic and secure approach to tracking workers’ health and well-being.  This is the first-ever opportunity via a…

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a leading research center at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, today named Works Wonders, a job training and placement initiative in Rhode Island aimed at youth who have aged out of — or are about to age out of — state care,…

The Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce the six winners of the 2019 Richard Rogers Fellowship, a residency program at the Wimbledon House, the landmarked residence designed by Lord Richard Rogers for his parents in the late 1960s. Now entering its third cycle, the fellowship is inspired by Lord Rogers’s commitment to cross-disciplinary…

The Center on the Developing Child’s Djokovic Science and Innovation Fellowship supports the research of Harvard advanced doctoral students whose work is related to early childhood health, learning, and behavior. Selected fellows receive a stipend and join an active, interdisciplinary learning community for one academic year. The goal of the fellowship is to create a…

Telehealth — accessing health care via a smart phone, tablet, or computer — is on the rise in the U.S., but it’s still relatively uncommon, even though 32 states have enacted laws mandating insurance reimbursement for such services, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study, which…

At the turn of the 19th century, the idea of women working was a foreign one, but at the Harvard College Observatory (HCO), it was the norm. From 1877 to 1919, Edward Charles Pickering, director of the HCO, led a team of more than 80 women to study glass plate photographs of the night sky.…

The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School has named Malala Yousafzai — the 2014 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and an inspiration across the world — as this year’s recipient of the Gleitsman Award. The award honors Yousafzai, co-founder of Malala Fund, for her courageous leadership of a global movement to equip girls with…

On Nov. 9, 2018, doctors, veterinarians, scientists, and politicians arrived at Boston’s Colonnade Hotel to celebrate trailblazing AIDS researcher Max Essex. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health along with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health AIDS Initiative, hosted the scientific symposium to honor Essex, the Mary Woodard Lasker Professor of Health Sciences, as he…

Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) — a mixture of water, sugar, and salt that is remarkably effective at rehydrating people with cholera or other diarrheal diseases — is credited with saving tens of millions of lives worldwide. On Nov. 19, 2018, a standing-room-only crowd gathered in Kresge G3 at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health…

Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election thanks in large part to overwhelming support from one particular group of folks: white evangelicals. In fact, a whopping 81 percent of self-identified evangelicals voted for President Trump. That’s even more support than President George W. Bush received, and he’s actually an evangelical. And despite what seems to…

In 1802, Jacob Bigelow, the son of a farmer, entered Harvard at the age of 15 to study medicine. By 1818 he was appointed professor of materia medica at Harvard Medical School, a post he retained until 1855. During this time he also lectured on botany and eventually wrote “American Medical Botany,” which combined his passions…