Harvard Initiative for Learning & Teaching (HILT) awarded five Spark Grants of up to $15,000 intended to “spark” promising teaching and learning projects. Awardees will: Examine podcasting as a learning tool. Natalie DuPre, E. Francis Cook, Myroslava Makuch, and Sejal Vashi (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) will train students to effectively communicate through…

Higher blood concentrations of vitamin D are linked to a lower risk of colorectal cancer, especially in women, according to a large new study from researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and 20 other medical centers and organizations around the world. The research combined…

How much a medical procedure costs depends on where it is performed. Giving birth at a teaching hospital, for instance, costs about $2,000 more than doing so at a community hospital. Cataract surgery at a clinic affiliated with a hospital could cost double than what it would cost at independent surgery center. These are just…

The rapidly evolving field of digital phenotyping involves uncovering specific health-related information in the moment-to-moment data created when people use their smartphones. A recent $517,000 gift from Mindstrong Health is supporting the research of Jukka-Pekka “JP” Onnela, an associate professor of biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who is developing new…

With public trust in the government nearing historic lows, the Advanced Leadership Initiative’s (ALI) Education, Democracy and Human Rights Deep Dive examined how education could promote democratic values in the United States. ALI Faculty Co-Chair Fernando Reimers of the Harvard Graduate School of Education chaired the Deep Dive, convening faculty and nonprofit leaders from across Harvard and…

Nearly 400 Cambridge eighth-graders visited Harvard’s campus last week for the eighth annual Science and Engineering Showcase. The event highlights Cambridge students’ year-end science projects, and allows them to present their findings to classmates, teachers, parents, and even Harvard students and professors. One goal is to build interest in STEM education at an early age…

Since 2017, Margaret Kruk, M.P.H. ’00, associate professor of global health at the Harvard Chan School, has been chair of The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDG [Sustainable Development Goals] Era. In that role, she has led an effort to review current knowledge, conduct new empirical studies, and offer…

The Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative has selected its undergraduate Mary Gordon Roberts Thesis Fellows for summer 2018. These fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis to students who will be conducting thesis research this summer, and include grants to enable this research. Support for these fellowships have been provided by Mary Gordon Roberts, the Gordon…

The Mind Brain Behavior Initiative extended warm congratulations to its undergraduate Class of 2018 at a recognition ceremony held the morning of Wednesday, May 23 at the Harvard Faculty Club. Graduates included 48 seniors completing track or secondary field programs, the largest MBB class in 12 years and including the largest group of MBB secondary…

Gökhan Hotamisligil is on a mission to help us survive our affluence and its attendant cardiometabolic diseases. His prolific laboratory at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Sabri Ülker Center for Nutrient, Genetic, and Metabolic Research has recently generated another line of inquiry that could lead to treatments or prevention strategies for…

Cass Sunstein, J.D. ’78, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University, renowned legal scholar, and behavioral economist, received the prestigious Holberg Prize at the University of Bergen, Norway, on June 6. HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway presented Sunstein with the prize, which is awarded annually to an outstanding researcher in the arts and…

Here at Harvard, we love our technology and devices. It enables so much of what we do — from enhancing the classroom experience, to enabling cutting edge research, to supporting day-to-day operations and the residential experience. But our digital age also comes with challenges. How do we ensure our electronics are being recycled responsibly? Can…

Spin. Clickbait. Exaggerated headlines. The rise of social media such as Facebook and Twitter has changed how health-related research and news is presented to audiences around the world, and it is not unheard of for researchers and reporters to overstate the findings of a study. To better understand this issue, a May 30, 2018 study…

In 1997, Judith Toensing — a sixth-grade teacher in Yuma, Arizona — wrote a note on the report card of one of her star students, 12-year-old Christin Gilmer, which included the line: “Invite me to your Harvard graduation!” Twenty-one years later, Gilmer surprised Toensing with a hand-delivered invitation to attend Harvard T.H. Chan School of…

Sometimes when obstetrician and gynecologist Alice Han talks with people about the subject of violence against women and girls, she sees them shift about nervously. “Any time you talk about things like sexual violence, it can make people uncomfortable,” she said. “It used to make me uncomfortable too.” Her discomfort didn’t last. The more Han…

Couples who ate more fish were more likely to conceive, and had more frequent sexual intercourse, than those who ate less, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Researchers tracked outcomes over the course of a year from 501 couples in Michigan and Texas trying to get pregnant. The…

The mortality rate in Puerto Rico rose by 62 percent [95 percent confidence interval (CI) 11 percent to 114 percent] after Hurricane Maria, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study was conducted in January and February 2018, in collaboration with colleagues from Carlos Albizu…

The Nobel Prize medal awarded to game theory pioneer and Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) “founding father” Thomas Schelling is being auctioned. The proceeds will be donated to a civil rights nonprofit. Schelling, a 2005 Nobel Prize winner in economics, provided a new way of looking at issues as disparate as nuclear strategy, climate change, and addictive behavior,…

Sheila Jasanoff, the Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard Kennedy School, has been named winner of the 2018 Albert O. Hirschman Prize by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The prize is awarded biannually to scholars who have made “outstanding contributions to international, interdisciplinary social science research, theory, and public communication.” The…

For the past 16 years, Harvard staff and students have recently teamed up with their neighbors in Allston to help clean up the city’s parks, streets, schools, and various community locations as part of the annual Love Your Block event, formerly known as Boston Shines. Through raking leaves, sweeping sidewalks, reviving benches with fresh coats…

Julius Wayne Dudley is the recipient of the 2018 Dean Michael Shinagel Award for Service, given by the Harvard University Extension School. This award recognizes an alumna/us of the school who has made significant contribution in the service of others. Along with Dudley’s contributions in civil rights and his literacy advocacy, the award committee noted…

The year was 1988. People were afraid. A total a 106,994 people had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and 62,101 were dead. Scientists were making progress, but there was no effective treatment. One night the evening news would feature protests by AIDS activists demanding faster drug approval. The next night the news featured parents demanding…

Earlier this month the Graduate Commons community honored President Faust for her commitment as a leader and friend of the program. Throughout the program’s 10 years, organizers say, Faust has continued to put belonging and inclusion at the forefront of Harvard’s values. The Graduate Commons program is a unique interdisciplinary program that provides a “home…

People in low- and middle-income countries are willing to travel and pay for health care at a higher quality facility rather than use a free clinic closer to home — a convention-busting finding that changed the course of Associate Professor Margaret Kruk’s career. She was honored for her work on improving health care quality around…

Experts in public health, faculty from across Harvard, and leaders from the business world came together to examine the role that business can play in addressing public health issues at the Advanced Leadership Initiative’s (ALI) Health and the Role of Business Deep Dive. ALI Faculty Co-Chairs Howard Koh and Meredith Rosenthal led the two-day conference that looked at the…

A team led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health students won this year’s Rabobank-MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize. Students Dan Wexler and Priya Patel, both M.P.H. ’18, and team members were awarded $15,000 for their project — a nonprofit that will sell simple, $15 meal kits in areas with limited access to…

Around the world, Harvard Law School (HLS) alumni, students, faculty, and staff are using their skills and talents to transform communities. On April 20, hundreds of them gathered at HLS to take a closer look at the School’s local and global contributions of service during “HLS in the Community,” the final installment in the series…

HarvardX is offering a free online course focusing on the role businesses play in improving public health. Taught by Harvard faculty and leaders in industry and public health, “Improving Your Business Through a Culture of Health,” demonstrates how promoting the health and well-being of consumers, employees, communities, and the environment improves the bottom line. From…

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 2, 2018. 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.…

Innovative new treatments, improved health care delivery systems, and a coordinated global response are among the strategies needed to help the world prepare for future pandemics, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, told Michelle A. Williams, Dean of the Faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, on April 27,…