A resurgence of malaria in parts of Africa is raising questions about whether current control mechanisms are failing. It could be, some researchers say, that mosquitoes are becoming resistant to the insecticide used on bed nets. Or that people are losing their partial immunity to malaria, gained from repeated exposure to the parasite that causes…

Alum Robert Taube helps homeless people build healthier lives—and self-esteem. Casey Hubbs’s world crumbled after her husband died, and she wound up living under a bridge in Boston. Her existence was grim, and she felt ashamed. “I smelled bad, I looked bad, and I lived in constant fear,” she remembers. “There was no food half…

With the world’s population projected to reach a staggering 9.3 billion by 2050, it’s imperative that there be a thoughtful and vigorous response to the challenges posed by such demographic upheaval, says David Bloom, HSPH professor of economics and demography and chair of the Department of Global Health and Population. In a syndicated commentary, Bloom…

Nearly  400 incoming students at Harvard Kennedy School will participate in “HKS Serves” on Aug. 26, a day of community service at 17 locations across the Boston area from South Boston to Newton. The student volunteers will be joined by over 40 Kennedy School staff, faculty members, and student leaders. “This event will be a…

Two years after Boston schools prohibited the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas and sports drinks, local high school students were consuming significantly fewer sugary drinks, according to a new study published in Preventing Chronic Disease. In contrast, the average consumption of sugary beverages did not decline among teens nationwide. This is the first major…

School-based programs that teach middle schoolers about healthy foods, encourage less TV and other screen time, and urge more physical activity can reduce eating disorders among girls and help save on medical costs, according to a study co-authored by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Associate Professor S. Bryn Austin. Analyzing data from a mid-1990s…

Eating in moderation, cutting calories, and avoiding fatty foods isn’t enough to prevent weight gain; rather, it’s important to pay attention to what you’re eating as well, a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) professor said Aug. 3 in separate interviews on two National Public Radio programs. Dariush Mozaffarian, HSPH associate professor of epidemiology, spoke…

Even a small amount of exercise may significantly lower your risk of getting heart disease, according to a new study conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). A team led by Jacob Sattelmair, who did the research while a doctoral student at HSPH, found that as little as 2.5 hours of exercise a…

The sustainability efforts and environmental initiatives of Harvard University have earned it a place on the Princeton Review’s Green Rating Honor Roll for the fourth consecutive year, Harvard’s Office for Sustainability announced today. The 2012 honor roll was announced earlier this month and is comprised of schools that received the highest possible score in the…

Madelaine “Maddie” D. Boyd ’12, a computer science concentrator in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), was among 20 female undergraduates from across the globe awarded a 2011 Facebook Grace Hopper Women in Computing Scholarship. Boyd and her fellow winners will receive an all expenses paid trip to attend the Grace Hopper…

Global population is expected to hit 7 billion later this year, up from 6 billion in 1999. Between now and 2050, an estimated 2.3 billion more people will be added—nearly as many as inhabited the planet as recently as 1950. New estimates from the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of…

The World Health Organization (WHO) needs major reform to regain its leadership as a trusted provider of scientific and technical knowledge, according to Barry Bloom, Jack and Joan Jacobson professor of public health at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), who has been associated with WHO in various capacities for 44 years. Bloom, a former…

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has been awarded a $14.1 million, four-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test the effectiveness of an innovative checklist-based childbirth safety program in reducing deaths and improving outcomes of mothers and infants in 120 hospitals in India. The program was developed by the World Health…

Materials scientists and applied physicists collaborating at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have invented a new device that can instantly identify an unknown liquid. The device, which fits in the palm of a hand and requires no power source, exploits the chemical and optical properties of precisely nanostructured materials to distinguish liquids…

Gordon Dester Kaufman, Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School, died on Friday, July 22, at age 86. A member of the Faculty of Divinity since 1963, Kaufman was a renowned liberal theologian whose research, writing, and teachings had a profound influence on constructive and systematic theology. He argued for a…

Following last year’s successful effort to achieve, at minimum, Green Leaf One certification for all staff workspaces in Widener, Houghton, Lamont, Pusey, and Tozzer libraries, six additional Harvard College Library (HCL) units have been recognized by Harvard’s Office for Sustainability for Green Leaf Four, the program’s highest level. Most recently, the Fine Arts Library (FAL)…

Wafaie Fawzi will assume the role of chair for the Department of Global Health and Population on September 1. Fawzi succeeds David Bloom, the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography at HSPH, who served for 10 years. Bloom will continue as a faculty member in the Department, pursuing his research and global collaborations…

On August 29-30, the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) will host a conference in celebration of computer scientist Michael Rabin’s 80th birthday. Speakers will include Yonatan Aumann, Michael Ben-Or, Richard Karp, Dick Lipton, Silvio Micali, Michael Mitzenmacher, David Parkes, Tal Rabin, Ron Rivest, Dana Scott, Madhu Sudan, Salil Vadhan, Moshe Vardi, and…

Several months after “The Social Network” pushed Facebook’s Harvard origins into the national spotlight, Harvard President Drew Faust visited the company’s headquarters in California to discuss how social networking could and should shape the future of higher education. Faust spoke at Facebook’s Palo Alto campus on June 16 at an event hosted by Elliot Schrage…

The Harvard University Archives has launched an online guide to the 17th- and 18th-century records of the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. “Harvard in the 17th and 18th Centuries” provides an online key to locating thousands of items — diaries, commonplace books, correspondence, legal documents, University records, drawings, maps, student notebooks,…

Nieman Foundation curator Bob Giles retired at the end of June after 11 years on the job. During his tenure, he found new ways to strengthen the Nieman Fellowship program and expand the foundation’s critical role in discussions about the future of serious journalism. At a time when the profession was going through a period…

For students and scholars studying early American literature, Anne Bradstreet, is a hugely important figure, considered by many to be the first American poet, and the first woman to publish a book in America. Following the digitization of the only substantial surviving Bradstreet manuscript, scholars around the world will now have the opportunity to study…

The earthquake of January 12, 2010 turned the already critical shortage of housing in Haiti into a brutal crisis. A year and a half later, 80% of the rubble has yet to be cleared, and an estimated 680,000 residents still live in tent camps. Because of this precarious situation, political leaders are pushing hard for…

Members of the National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine and American Academy of Arts and Sciences gathered at the American Academy’s facility in Cambridge, Mass., on April 14, 2011 for a symposium on “Privacy, Autonomy, and Personal Genetic Information in the Digital Age,” organized by Cherry A. Murray, dean of the Harvard School of…

Two Latin American journalists will receive Nieman Fellowships at Harvard University to help them discover new ways to inform and engage their communities and foster a free press in their own countries, thanks to a new grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. The funding expands…

The Arab Summer follows the Arab Spring: Join us for this Harvard summer lecture series, starting on July 13. The Middle East and Islam Summer Series is a collaboration of the Middle East Initiative, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Outreach Center, and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program.   This summer, there…

Tracing the cultural, political and demographic roots of audience disengagement and mistrust of the media, Bob Calo examines the role of journalists in a new paper, Disengaged: Elite Media in a Vernacular Nation. Calo researched and wrote the paper while a fellow at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard…

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School has announced the 2011–2012 Stanton Nuclear Security Fellows. Supported by a generous gift from the Stanton Foundation, the  three fellows will spend a year in residence at the Belfer Center where they will conduct research under the auspices of the center’s International Security…

The global economy last year spent an estimated $300 billion on newly diagnosed cancer cases, $400 billion on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and billions more on diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer, and other noncommunicable diseases that are increasing in the developing world. The increase is thought to be related to rising risk factors, such…

A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and University of California, San Francisco, researchers suggests that men with prostate cancer who smoke increase their risk of prostate cancer recurrence and of dying from the disease. A link also was found between smoking at the time of prostate cancer diagnosis and aggressive prostate…