Among pregnant women infected with HIV, the use of antiretroviral (ARV) medications early in pregnancy to treat their HIV or to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV does not appear to increase the risk of birth defects in their infants, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is one…

Young adults in America are plagued with debt, low-paying jobs, poor physical health, and psychological burdens, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. Titled “Investing in the Health and Well-Being of Young Adults,” the report recommends viewing 18- to 26-year-olds as a distinct group when it comes…

“Don’t throw the past away / You might need it some rainy day,” sang Peter Allen. “Everything old is new again.” The adage has certainly proven true for libraries’ special collections. Their transformation from untapped wilderness into researchers’ wonderland was the focus of a recent Harvard Library Strategic Conversation with Sarah Thomas, vice president for…

Librarians and faculty from across Harvard, the United States, and even across the pond gathered to share problems and brainstorm solutions around the long-term life of print materials in a digital age at the Harvard Library’s Symposium on Sustainable Models for Print Storage in 21st-Century Libraries. Large themes and issues such as funding and institutional…

Doctors don’t have good ways to talk to their patients about guns — and that’s why an upcoming conference aimed at helping them do so is important, according to David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Hemenway was quoted in an op-ed column in the New York Times on November 3, 2014. The…

Congressional efforts to undermine school lunch nutrition standards implemented in 2012 could threaten progress in the fight against childhood obesity, according to an opinion piece in the October 29, 2014 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Critics of the standards, including some school officials and food-industry advocates, have raised concerns about increased food waste, decreased…

Women are more likely than men to dismiss chest pain that signals heart problems and to delay seeking medical help, even though heart disease is a leading cause of death for both women and men, according to a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) expert. Studying patients with suspected coronary artery disease who were about…

Young adults in America are plagued with debt, low-paying jobs, poor physical health, and psychological burdens, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. Titled “Investing in the Health and Well-Being of Young Adults,” the report recommends viewing 18- to 26-year-olds as a distinct group when it comes…

Pardis Sabeti has been a leader in the effort to analyze Ebola’s genetic code and track its mutations. Sabeti, who is an associate professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard School of Public Health, associate professor, Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and senior associate…

Approximately 120 guests gathered at the Barker Center Saturday to celebrate the retirement of English and African and African American Studies Professor Werner Sollors, in an event hosted by the Department of English. “Keywords in American Literary Studies: A Conference for Werner Sollors,” began at 9 a.m., featured four panel discussions and was followed by…

The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) is pleased to announce the appointment of two distinguished technological leaders, Aneesh Chopra and Nick Sinai, as the inaugural recipients of the newly established Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellowship. Chopra and Sinai will work in partnership as joint Walter Shorenstein…

Nearly half (48 percent) of firearm retailers in New Hampshire displayed materials from a firearm suicide prevention campaign generated by a coalition of gun owners and public health professionals, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. It is the first collaboration between firearm retailers and public health professionals…

Members of the Optical Society (OSA), a leading professional organization for those who study the science of light, have elected Harvard physicist Eric Mazur to serve as OSA vice president in 2015. He will serve one year as vice president, followed by one year as president-elect, president in 2017, and past-president in 2018. Mazur is…

The death of a mother in pregnancy or childbirth is not an isolated tragic event, but one that also can devastate the health and economic wellbeing of her family. A panel discussion held October 7, 2014 at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) explored new findings documenting these repercussions in five African countries where maternal…

A comprehensive analysis of data from 27 public opinion polls conducted by 14 organizations, including a poll in September of those most likely to vote, shows an electorate polarized by political party when it comes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A majority of Republican likely voters want the next Congress to repeal the law…

Paula Johnson, professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health was one of 70 new members elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the National Academies announced October 20, 2014. Johnson also is executive director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology; and chief of the division of…

People who swap 5% of the calories they consume from saturated fat sources such as red meat and butter with foods containing linoleic acid—the main polyunsaturated fat found in vegetable oil, nuts, and seeds—lowered their risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) events by 9% and their risk of death from CHD by 13%, according to…

The Harvard Art Museums are inviting all Cambridge residents to preview the newly renovated museums – free of charge – before they officially open to the public. Cambridge Community Day will take place on November 15th from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. “The Harvard Art Museums have many different constituents — from faculty who constantly…

Switching from nonprofit to for-profit status appears to boost hospitals’ financial health but does not appear to lower the quality of care they provide or reduce the proportion of poor or minority patients receiving care, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Critics of for-profit…

Standing on the roof of the Center for the Study of World Religions (built in 1960), you can see Jewett House (1913), Andover Hall (1911), and now, solar panels (2014). The juxtaposition highlights the Center’s and Harvard Divinity School’s commitment to sustainability and embracing a very modern technology on a campus steeped in history. “We, of…

Harvard University Graduate School of Design professor and alumnus Hashim Sarkis has been appointed as Dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Sarkis is currently the Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies at the GSD, and has been on the faculty since 1998. The Aga Khan Program is a joint endeavor between Harvard…

Harvard has received Gold level Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) designation making it the highest-ranked BFU in the Ivy League and New England, and one of only 10 gold level BFUs nationwide. The League of American Cyclists, which gives out the awards, noted the University’s deep commitment to biking as well as its employee benefits that…

The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, located at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is pleased to announce that this year’s Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics will be jointly delivered by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, managing editors of Bloomberg Politics. The lecture will take place Monday, December 1, 2014…

Meredith Rosenthal, professor of Health Economics and Policy at Harvard School of Public Health, was one of 70 new members elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the National Academies announced October 20, 2014. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals…

Ability Explosion presented Harvard with an award “in recognition of its commitment to accessibility, in particular, online learning and website design.” Lisa Coleman, chief diversity officer and special assistant to the president, accepted the honor on behalf of the university at a ceremony in Miami Beach that featured special guest speaker Actor Steve Guttenberg. “Harvard…

CopyrightX aims to redefine all aspects of online – and on-campus, for that matter – learning. The networked course explores the current law of copyright; the impact of that law on art, entertainment, and industry; and the ongoing debates concerning how the law should be reformed. Through a combination of recorded lectures, assigned readings, weekly seminars, live interactive webcasts, and…

Society and modern medicine’s approach to aging and end-of-life care needs to be more focused on extending patients’ quality of life and human connection, according to Atul Gawande, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard School of Public Health and author of a new book, Being Mortal. Gawande, a surgeon,…

Maryam S Farvid, a visiting scientist and Takemi fellow at Harvard School of Public Health, was first author on two recent studies that found that young women who ate higher amounts of red meat had a higher risk of breast cancer. She answers three questions about her work. Q: How strong of a link did…

Thanks to the generous support of Mitchell Lasky and Cecilia Barajas, the Lasky-Barajas Dean’s Innovation Fund supports original projects at the forefront of digital arts and humanities at Harvard University. Explore each project (links below) to learn more about their scholarly contributions and to witness intimate portraits of the work of the digital humanist. The…

The 11-member ethio pop group Debo Band has been tearing up stages from SXSW to the Lower East Side since 2006. This month they’ll play Sanders Theatre in a free concert as part of the Harvard Music Department conference, Out of Bounds. Ethnography | History | Music. Led by Ethiopian-American saxophonist Danny Mekonnen and fronted…