Matthew L. Potts has a really long commute to work. Since 2013, when he was appointed Assistant Professor of Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School (HDS), Potts has been driving over 75 miles from Falmouth, Mass. — where he lives with his family and serves as the priest of Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church — to…

Alyssa A. Goodman, Harvard professor of astronomy and research associate of the Smithsonian Institution, has been selected the 2015 Scientist of the Year, part of the Harvard Foundation Albert Einstein Science Conference: Advancing Minorities and Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics.  The award will be presented at the annual conference luncheon on March 27. The…

Mary Caswell Stoddard,  a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and member of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, is one of three U.S.-based women scientists who will be recognized in Paris on March 18 as International Rising Talents for their ongoing and exceptional contributions to the fields of science,…

The new journal Health Systems and Reform (HS&R) launched in March 2015 with an issue featuring authors affiliated with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The quarterly peer-reviewed journal aims to bridge theory and practice in the field by including research articles with national and cross-national perspectives on health systems around the world, as…

The recent measles outbreak that spread through 17 states brought the issue of childhood vaccination into the headlines, leaving some with the impression that a growing movement of parents is questioning this cornerstone of public health. But there is good news, said K. “Vish” Viswanath, professor of health communication at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public…

Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean James Ryan announced today the appointment of Eric Shed and Stephen Mahoney – both long-term educators with experience teaching and heading teacher preparation education efforts in higher education and K–12 schools – as director and associate director of the Harvard Teacher Fellows (HTF) program, respectively. HTF, launching this fall,…

The 2015 recipients of Harvard Divinity School’s Peter J. Gomes STB ’68 Memorial Honors include a diplomat, a chaplain, an activist, an adviser, and a scholar. While these individuals—and their professions—may seem disparate, Dean David N. Hempton says that the group embodies HDS’s effort to “illuminate, engage, and serve.” “The Gomes Honorees exemplify Harvard Divinity…

Controversy over fluoride levels in drinking water in Massachusetts has made headlines in recent months as Cambridge, Gloucester, Newburyport, and other towns in Massachusetts relook at the decades-old practice of adding fluoride to public drinking water to reduce dental caries (cavities). Some of the controversy between scientists, dental professionals, anti-fluoride activists, town officials, and others…

Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) is estimated to cost the European Union more than €150 billion ($209 billion) a year in health care expenses and lost earning potential, according to studies by a team of 18 international researchers, including two Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty. Conditions linked to the chemicals included lowered…

Anne Peretz, founder of Parenting Journey (formerly The Family Center, Inc.), and Chris Byner, interim executive director of Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF), will be honored at this year’s Summer Urban Program Auction, an annual fundraiser held by Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA). The auction, which will take place at Harvard University’s Knafel…

Samples of the Wyss Institute’s human organs-on-chips were acquired by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and are on display in MoMA?????s latest Architecture and Design Exhibition, “This Is For Everyone: Design For The Common Good”, until January 2016. The human organs-on-chips were recognized by Paola Antonelli, the museum’s senior curator in the Department of…

Reducing air pollution was associated with increased lung function in children ages 11 to 15, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The new findings suggest that it’s important to continue efforts to improve air quality, say two Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professors who wrote an editorial…

Ebola continues to afflict West Africa, with a spike in infections reported in February blamed on unsafe burials. Infectious disease expert Barry Bloom recently looked back at the early days of the current epidemic to dissect the global health response and highlight the contributions of researchers affiliated with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.…

Drug resistance is a major public health challenge for malaria treatment and eradication. In new research, Dyann Wirth and colleagues have found new ways that the parasite that causes malaria—Plasmodium falciparum—is able to develop resistance to the antimalarial drug halofuginone over time. It’s been known that P. falciparum develops resistance to antimalarial drugs through genetic…

A new NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll finds that more than six in ten people living in the U.S. (62%) are concerned about their future health. Nearly four in ten (39%) said that they had one or more negative childhood experiences that they believe had a harmful impact on…

Harvard’s Tsai Auditorium in CGIS South was filled to the brim on Monday evening for Microemgas: The Very Small, the Very Large and the Object of Digital Humanities, a lecture presentation by Franco Moretti. Moretti, professor of humanities at Stanford and author of six books including “The Bourgeois” and “Distant Reading,” is considered a forerunner in…

The $25,000 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from the Shorenstein Center has been awarded to Carol Marbin Miller, Audra Burch, Mary Ellen Klas, Emily Michot, Kara Dapena, and Lazaro Gamio of the Miami Herald for their investigative report “Innocents Lost.” Additionally, the Shorenstein Center awarded the Career Award for Excellence in Journalism to Marvin Kalb,…

A new teaching case developed by the STRIPED program (Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health exploring issues around eating disorders among college athletes was chosen by the NCAA Sport Science Institute as part of the educational materials it made available for universities during National Eating Disorders Awareness…

What should we eat to be healthy — and to stay that way? More fruits and vegetables. Less red and processed meat. Whole grains instead of refined. Nonfat dairy foods, legumes, nuts, and seafood. Fewer foods with added sugars or high levels of saturated fat and sodium. And foods with cholesterol, like eggs — long…

India’s air pollution is among the worst in the world, as ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO). Now, a Harvard Kennedy School professor is helping to bring the massive scale of the problem to public attention and test possible solutions. A new study published in this week’s Economic & Political Weekly shows that India’s high…

Far too often, and seemingly more and more in recent months, conversations and headlines are driven by death, fear, and hate. There’s much less focus on cooperation, service, and peace. With that in mind, and while also recognizing the need to highlight and enable peacebuilding actions around the world, Harvard Divinity School Dean David N.…

Sexual biology may be the key to uncovering why Anopheles mosquitoes are unique in their ability to transmit malaria to humans, according to researchers at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and University of Perugia, Italy. Through analysis of 16 Anopheles genomes, they found that these mosquitoes’ reproductive traits evolved along with their…

On a clear day, the air outside Anthony Cortese’s office in downtown Boston is filled with the unmistakable smell of the ocean — a pungent, brinelike perfume that hangs in the morning air. It floats in from the Inner Harbor, where fishing boats lazily motor out to lobster traps set just offshore. It’s a pure…

Bob Scalise, The John D. Nichols ’53 Family Director of Athletics, and Harvard University are pleased to announce the endowment of Harvard Athletics’ 19th coaching position: The Thomas G. Stemberg ’71 Family Endowed Coach for Harvard men’s basketball. Made possible through the generosity of Thomas G. Stemberg ’71, MBA’73, a long-standing Friend of Harvard Basketball…

Under the facade of Venetian masks, Harvard students and alumni will congregate at the Sheraton Hotel ballroom in Back Bay for the fifth annual Harvard Masquerade Ball. With over 2,000 guests expected to attend, the Feb. 28 black-tie affair is set to be the largest university-wide event of the year. Guests will be treated to…

Most lenses are, by definition, curved. After all, they are named for their resemblance to lentils, and a glass lens made flat is just a window with no special powers. But a new type of lens created at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) turns conventional optics on its head. A major…

Computer scientist Ryan Adams and applied mathematician Ariel Amir, assistant professors at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), have been named 2015 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows. They are among 126 Fellows, including two others at Harvard, selected from the United States and Canada this year “in recognition of distinguished performance and a…

Scientists have found a biological clock that can provide clues about how long a person might live. The researchers found that people whose biological age was greater than their true age were more likely to die sooner than those whose biological and actual ages were the same — regardless of other factors such as smoking,…

Allergies affect 30% of people around the world and asthma afflicts 10% of all children. Now, a new study has uncovered more than 30 genes that have strong effects on allergies, asthma, and Immunoglobulin E (IgE), an antibody that triggers allergic responses. Among these genes are promising new potential drug targets for treating allergies and…

Two apparently well-meaning legal initiatives from Europe aimed at fighting falsified or substandard medicines could have the unintended consequence of exposing medical researchers and drug manufacturers to criminal prosecution, according to a new commentary in the journal Harvard Public Health Review (HPHR). Under one of the new proposals, the Council of Europe (CoE) would enact…