“Primary care may just be the most exciting place to be in medicine in the near future,” HSPH Professor John McDonough writes in his latest Health Stew blog post, published September 12, 2012 on Boston.com. New models for structuring care that are currently gaining in popularity reimburse providers by the patient rather than the procedure,…

Whitney M. Young Jr., one of the most celebrated – and controversial – leaders of the civil rights era is the subject of a new film, The Powerbroker, being screened by Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute on Sept. 27.  As head of the National Urban League, he helped thousands of people struggling against…

Massachusetts’ six years of experience with health care reform holds valuable lessons for the nation as it prepares to begin fully implementing the Affordable Care Act in 2014. In a September 5, 2012 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Vanderbilt University’s John Graves and Katherine Swartz, professor of health economics and policy at…

Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a cardiologist, was interviewed on NBC Nightly News on September 12, 2012 about a new study on fish oil supplements that suggests they may not be as healthy for the heart as people…

Enjoying the diversity of trees at the Arnold Arboretum may compel visitors to look upward into the canopy for a better view. This Saturday evening, the Arboretum invites visitors to look up even farther, as it partners with the Harvard College Observatory and Boston Parks and Recreation to present a public star viewing on Weld…

Rachel Sklar, founder of Change The Ratio and TheLi.st, spoke to the Shorenstein Center about gender disparity in the tech business, and how the ratio of men to women could be shifted toward more equality. The event was co-sponsored by the Women and Public Policy Program. Sklar, who is a media writer and social media entrepreneur,…

Harvard Law School today announced that the Ford Foundation has committed to fund a new initiative administered by the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising, enabling 25 HLS students to work in the field of public interest law in summer 2013. Open to current 1L and 2L students, the inaugural Ford Foundation Law School…

John Briscoe, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Environmental Engineering and Environmental Health at Harvard University, has been selected to receive the 2012 Stroud Award for Freshwater Excellence. Awarded by the Stroud Water Research Center, an independent, nonprofit research institute, the prize celebrates “outstanding contributions” to the field of freshwater conservation, protection, and stewardship.…

The Siebel Scholars program recognizes outstanding students from the world’s most prestigious graduate schools. Five graduate students dedicated to the study of computer science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) were named among the recipients of the 2013 Siebel Scholars awards. Tunde Agboola, Heather Pon-Barry, Adam Sealfon, Jonathan Ullman, and Thomas…

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow has appointed Michael Fertik ’05, Neil Flanzraich ’68, Anthony Scaramucci ’89 and John Williams ’79 as HLS’s Experts-in-Residence (EIRs) for the 2012-2013 academic year, in partnership with the University-wide Harvard Innovation Lab (i-Lab). Williams served as HLS’s inaugural EIR in 2011-2012 and has been reappointed to a second term. “This year, when…

On the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Shorenstein Center welcomed Dana Priest, national security reporter for The Washington Post, to discuss the cost of secrecy and how it affects the relationship between media and government. In his introduction, Shorenstein Center Director Alex Jones mentioned the New York Times op-ed by Kurt Eichenwald,…

The daughter and wife of prominent Harvard professors, Marian Cannon Schlesinger could have led an insular life. Although she has lived most of her life in a small area of Cambridge near the Harvard campus, she has ranged far and wide through her travels and art. After she graduated from Radcliffe in 1934, Schlesinger lived…

Harvard University Center for the Environment welcomes its 2012 cohort of Environmental Fellows. These six new fellows join a group of remarkable scholars who are in their second year of the fellowship. Together, the Environmental Fellows at Harvard will form a community of researchers with diverse backgrounds united by intellectual curiosity, top-quality scholarship, and a…

For the 50th anniversary of what historians agree was the most dangerous moment in human history, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Foreign Policy magazine today launched  a contest for scholars and citizens to reflect on the lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis and its lessons for current challenges. The…

Reknown scholar and author Joseph Horowitz will give the 2012 Louis C. Elson lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 5:15 p.m. in John Knowles Paine Concert Hall. Horowitz, a cultural historian and concert producer, will present “Rethinking What Orchestras Do: A Humanities Mandate.” The talk is free and open to the public. John Knowles Paine…

The poor are disproportionately afflicted with a wide range of health problems, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma, infant mortality, and dental disease. Sleep deficiency and disorders including sleep apnea also are particularly common among minority groups and those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, according to Harvard School of Public Health’s Michelle Williams, Stephen B.…

Russell Phillips, director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Primary Care, has been appointed the William Applebaum Professor of Medicine. Phillips was promoted to HMS professor of medicine in 2004, and served as chief of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center between 2002 and 2012. The William…

On Saturday, Sept. 29, five Harvard University museums —the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Museum of Natural History , Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Semitic Museum, and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments — will open their doors free of charge along with 1,400 other participating museums nationwide during the eighth annual Museum Day Live!…

For wiring up the human body with “electronic tattoos,” Nanshu Lu, a 2009 Ph.D. graduate of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has been recognized by Technology Review magazine as among the world’s 35 top innovators under the age of 35. A panel of expert judges and the editorial staff of Technology…

Acclaimed academic, author and former politician Michael Ignatieff will rejoin Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in January 2013 in a half-time faculty appointment as professor of practice. He will also assume a half-time appointment as professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Born in Canada, educated at the University of…

Susan Hockfield, who served as the 16th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been named the Marie Curie Visiting Professor at Harvard Kennedy School,  Dean David T. Ellwood announced Sept. 7. Hockfield is a distinguished life scientist who has focused much of her research on the development of the brain and on…

Within the past decade, health care costs have risen by 88% and are expected to account for 18% of GDP in 2012. Many patients can no longer afford their health care and 40% of patients with a serious medical condition face financial hardship because of the cost of their care, according to the Institute of…

Leslie and Abigail Wexner, founding and sustaining donors of the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard’s Kennedy School, announced today an additional gift of $3 million to the center. Their gift, an extension of the couple’s longtime commitment to inspiring, preparing, and connecting tomorrow’s global leaders, brings the Wexners’ total commitment to the center…

The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, located at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is pleased to announce its 2012 Fall Fellows and Visiting Faculty. “This fall we have an outstanding group of fellows and visiting faculty representing both broad experience and cutting-edge work and scholarship,” said Alex Jones, the…

Earlier this summer, 29 undergraduate students from three countries and 10 states came to Harvard’s campus for advanced training in Arabic language and culture teaching. They were here for an intensive three-week workshop, the Arabic Institute for the Next Generation, run through the Outreach Center at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Funded by a…

Pratheev Sreetharan ’06, Ph.D. ’12, a pioneer in pop-up robotics, has been recognized by Technology Review magazine as among the world’s top innovators under the age of 35. A panel of expert judges and the editorial staff of Technology Review, published by MIT, selected him from more than 300 nominees. Sreetharan recently graduated with a…

The Harvard Art Museums are pleased to announce the appointment of Ethan Lasser as Margaret S. Winthrop Associate Curator of American Art, effective Sept. 18, 2012. Lasser will join the Art Museums’ Division of European and American Art. Lasser’s innovative work as a curator and academic experience align well with the Art Museums’ teaching and…

Inspired by one of the most talked-about Harvard College courses in recent history, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” the Science & Cooking public lecture series will return on Sept. 4. Members of the general public are once again invited to attend talks by world-class chefs and eminent food…

Is Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans, a costly program that doesn’t work well? Or is it an essential program vital to the health of millions? The debate over Medicaid has heightened in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2012 health care ruling, which made Medicaid expansion optional for states. While some…

Harvard School of Public Health experts Leonard Marcus and Ashish Jha commented on the new bill passed by Massachusetts lawmakers on July 31, 2012 aimed at controlling health care spending in the Commonwealth, in a Boston Globe story published the following day. Gov. Deval Patrick has said that he will sign the bill, which includes among its cost-control strategies payment system…