A device that can instantly identify unknown liquids based on their surface tension has been selected to receive the 2013 R&D 100 Award—known as “the Oscar of Innovation”—from R&D Magazine. Invented in 2011 by a team of materials scientists and applied physicists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss…

John Quackenbush, professor of computational biology and bioinformatics in the Department of Biostatistics, has received a White House Open Science Champion of Change award in recognition of his efforts to ensure that vast amounts of genomic data are available, accessible, and useful. He was one of 13 people across the nation to be honored at a June 20,…

Preventable emergency room visits and hospitalizations represent only a small part of the health costs among Medicare patients with the highest expenses, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers. The study, appearing in the June 26, 2013 issue of theJournal of the American Medical Association…

How well a hospital performs on three major publicly reported conditions—heart attack, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia—may prove a useful tool in signaling overall hospital mortality rates, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study. Examining Medicare data from 2,322 acute care hospitals from 2008 through 2009, the authors found that mortality…

“Picture a bridge over a river with a hole in the middle,” said Dahianna Lopez, a Ph.D. student in health policy at Harvard. “When people cross it, some are going to fall through the hole and into the water below. There will be people on the river bank who will jump in and pull them out…

Taking even a small amount of iron during pregnancy cuts a woman’s risk of developing anemia and decreases the risk that her baby will be born with a low birth weight, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers and colleagues. In an analysis of data from 92 randomized trials and…

At 625 Massachusetts Avenue, which houses many staff members in Harvard Library’s Information and Technical Services (ITS), lunchtime is an opportunity to slip away from work and take just a few steps to an art museum. Staff discuss the pieces that fill the walls of the room, brightening the space and showcasing the—otherwise hidden—artistic abilities…

Fifteen Harvard archivists presented at or helped to organize the 40th annual meeting of the New England Archivists (NEA)—a number University Archivist Megan Sniffin-Marinoff said may have represented the largest Harvard presence she had seen since she became involved with the organization more than 20 years ago. Presentations by Harvard Library staff members included: Experimental Relations: Using…

The Harvard Library Board recently approved recommendations outlined in “Towards a Collections and Content Development Strategic Plan for the Harvard Library,” fulfilling key recommendations of both the Task Force on the Harvard Libraries and the Library Implementation Working Group. Collections and content development will remain in the domain of the local or School libraries, with…

Every spring after classes end at Norfolk County Agricultural High School (NCAHS), 10 juniors join the crew of the Arnold Arboretum as interns to learn how public gardens and arboreta care for their important plant collections. The students spend a month at the Arboretum working in the landscape and attending specialized classes. Marc Mertz, arboriculture…

A recent study showing that people covered by Medicaid may be less depressed than those who aren’t has prompted new debate about the value of such insurance, according to an article in the June 23 “Ideas” section of the Boston Globe. The article detailed the results of a May 2013 New England Journal of Medicine study co-authored by Katherine…

A new discovery about how cells move inside the body may provide scientists with crucial information about disease mechanisms such as the spread of cancer or the constriction of airways caused by asthma. Led by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), investigators found that epithelial cells…

The efforts of environmental scientist Chensheng (Alex) Lu to study the effects of pesticide exposure on honeybees were chronicled in a Boston Globe Magazine cover story on June 23. The article described how Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology in the Department of Environmental Health, and two Massachusetts colleagues — Northbridge beekeeper Ken Warchol and Holden entrepreneur Dick…

Women in the U.S. exposed to high levels of air pollution while pregnant were up to twice as likely to have a child with autism as women who lived in areas with low pollution, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is the first large national study to examine…

The Nikon Imaging Center at Harvard Medical School is the largest light microscopy facility on the Longwood campus. The staff are busy transitioning the light source for 12 of their 13 microscopes to more efficient solid-state light engines, replacing older metal halide bulbs that contain mercury. For Jennifer Waters, the center’s director, the move was…

Paying up to 40% more for organic food is worth the investment, wrote Chensheng (Alex) Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), in a Wall Street Journal article on June 16, 2013. While researchers have yet to provide a definitive answer about whether more costly and harder-to-find organic food,…

Men who experience restless legs syndrome (RLS) may be at increased risk of dying earlier than men without the condition, according to a study by Xiang Gao, of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Restless legs syndrome is characterized by throbbing, pulling, or…

Two of Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) leading research centers will join forces. HKS Dean David T. Ellwood has announced that the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations will become the Hauser Institute for Civil Society and will reside within the Center for Public Leadership (CPL), effective July 1. The merger will offer an extraordinary opportunity to…

Cynthia Friend, Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has been named as the next director of the Rowland Institute at Harvard. Friend brings extensive leadership experience to the directorship, having previously served as associate director of the Harvard Materials Science…

The International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG) has announced that Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is the winner of the 2012 ICCG Climate Think Tank Ranking in the Global category. The Belfer Center was named by the ICCG as the most influential institution outside of Europe “working in the field…

Scott Evans, senior research scientist in the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health, has been awarded $5.6 million for his role in the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG), a new clinical research network funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Evans…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)and edX, the not-for-profit online learning initiative founded by Harvard University and MIT, announced a collaboration today to strengthen economic expertise worldwide. The collaboration will extend the reach of the IMF’s training courses in macroeconomics and finance to governments and the public through the edX platform. Pilots of the first two online courses—Financial Programming…

Harvard is planning to offer a dozen new online courses in the 2013-14 school year through HarvardX—the University’s branch of the online education platform edX— including new courses taught by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) faculty. The new courses are: PH201x, “Health and Society,” Ichiro Kawachi, lead instructor, professor of social epidemiology and chair of…

The Research Excellence in Administration Certificate at Harvard (REACH) program, a University-wide sponsored research training series for research administrators, is currently accepting applications for the fall 2013 offering of the Foundations level course. Applications for fall 2013 are due August 2, 2013. Please apply here. For more details, please visit the REACH website. If you would…

Mary Clare Altenhofen has been named the Herman and Joan Suit Librarian for the Fine Arts Library, while Sarah Adams has been named the Richard F. French Librarian of the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library. Both had been serving in those respective roles on an interim basis. “Sarah and Mary Clare have done an outstanding…

Harvard’s Library Lab, which enhances knowledge and library services with generous support from the Arcadia Fund, will launch its Showcase Year in December 2013. The Showcase Year will involve refining coding and development, creating documentation, sharing projects across Harvard and with other institutions, usability testing and comprehensively documenting the Library Lab program and process. The…

The Harvard Library, in collaboration with the Office of the Provost, IQSS Dataverse Network and HUIT, is launching the Research Data Collaborative (RDC) to develop research data management services. The RDC program’s FY14 goals include creation of tiered data management training for researchers and librarians, a University-wide data compliance network, effective data management plan support…

Can for-profit health ventures be an effective way to improve the health of poor people around the globe? Teams of students at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Harvard Business School (HBS), and Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) sought to answer that question during a semester-long course during which they worked with partner organizations in Nicaragua,…

A proposal for a mobile phone app to help college students manage their sexual health was named second runner-up in Harvard’s inaugural Deans’ Health and Life Sciences Challenge, hosted by the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab). The mobile phone app proposal came from one of two teams with HSPH students represented that were among eight finalists vying for funding…

At age four, Talita Jordan told her mother — a young, single parent — that she wanted to be a doctor. She stuck with the plan, becoming chief resident at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Now, a new graduate from Harvard School of Public Health with an M.P.H. in health policy, Jordan has…