The term surveillance may suggest images of high-tech cameras or George Orwell’s ever-watching Big Brother, but surveillance involves more than watching and being watched. To understand surveillance and its consequences, look to data: who collects it, what information is compiled, how it is interpreted, and ultimately, why it matters. The new exhibition, “Surveillance: From Vision…

On any given week throughout the year, Harvard is home to a variety of lectures and seminars on topics of global importance, from addressing climate change to preserving democracy to supporting public health. Our museums and cultural organizations host programs and exhibits that help us broaden our understanding of the world’s cultures and one another.…

Harvard Kennedy School faculty member Elizabeth Linos has been awarded the prestigious David N. Kershaw Award and Prize for her research on how governments can build a more effective workforce and provide better public services. The award, which honors persons under 40 who have made distinguished research-driven contributions to the field of public policy analysis and management,…

Large and atomistic are not words that typically go together but the systems that Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) Professor Boris Kozinsky and his team are most interested in are both— large and complex systems composed of millions or even billions of atoms. Understanding the dynamics of these systems — which can include…

Harvard Business School (HBS) has announced its newest cohort of 55 Executive Fellows for the 2023-2024 academic year. The Executive Fellows Program seeks to leverage the expertise of outstanding practitioners — many of whom are alumni — to enhance teaching and learning at the School. All fellows partner with at least one HBS faculty member…

Cengiz Pehlevan, an associate faculty member at the Kempner Institute and assistant professor of applied mathematics at Harvard, has been awarded the prestigious NSF Career Award for his project titled “Developing Neural Network Theory for Uncovering How the Brain Learns.” The award is part of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Career Program, aimed at supporting…

Sol Carbonell, associate director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, was honored in early September for her continued efforts to uplift the Latinx community in Massachusetts. The local Latinx organization Amplify LatinX honored 100 leaders and advocates from across the commonwealth for their work. “Amplify LatinX is an amazing organization. It’s the…

Stefanie Stantcheva, the Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy, is one of two U.S.-based social science researchers to win the 2023 A.SK Bright Mind Award. Granted by the Berlin Social Science Center for the first time this year, the prize recognizes younger academics who make important contributions to political and economic reforms. “I am truly…

The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research announced its newest cohort of W.E.B. Du Bois Medal honorees on Sept. 26. The eight Hutchins Center Honors recipients will be honored for “contributions to African and African American culture and the life of the mind.” “The Hutchins Center recognizes the eight 2023 Du Bois Medalists…

Nine new senior fellows have joined the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at Harvard Kennedy School. At the center, they will work on individual research projects addressing critical issues at the intersection of business and government. They’ll also hold study groups and, in general, contribute to understanding the rapidly evolving relationship between business…

Jeffrey Abbott is a logical guy. As a graduate student and then a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard, he was already several rungs up the academic ladder. Next rung: professorship. But, after he met fellow Harvard graduate student Vince (Wenxuan) Wu, he decided to leap to an entirely different ladder. In 2019, Abbott and Wu launched…

With responsibilities that ranged from creating promotional content for University outreach efforts, to assisting with laboratory experiments, 43 Cambridge and Boston teens gained valuable work experience and exposure to a variety of possible career paths by working in more than 20 Harvard offices and labs this summer through Harvard’s annual Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).…

Generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing Chat, and Google’s Bard have rapidly emerged as the most talked-about topic in technology, provoking a range of reactions — from excitement to fear — and sparking conversations about their role in higher education. In July, Harvard announced its initial guidelines for the use of generative…

Harvard Athletics has announced the renaming of its men’s basketball locker room for Head Coach Tommy Amaker. The first-of-its-kind honor, effective upon Amaker’s future retirement, was made possible by a generous donation from the Shutzer family as part of the recent Lavietes Pavilion renovation.  “The locker room is one of the more sacred and meaningful…

The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research (GFMR) and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) recently announced the inaugural recipients of the 2023 Glenn Foundation Discovery Awards, including Ya-Chieh Hsu, the Alvin & Esta Star Associate Professor of Stem Cell Biology at Harvard University, and a principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.…

Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has been named a 2023 Citation Laureate by the analytics company Clarivate. Citation Laureates honor researchers who are considered likely to win the Nobel…

Harvard Business School (HBS) announced that Rupal Gadhia, MBA ’04, will be the next managing director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid. In her role, Gadhia will partner with a variety of internal and external stakeholders including current HBS students, alumni, faculty, and administrators. She will oversee an admissions process that aims to deliver a high-quality, MBA…

For the first time, researchers have counted the precise number of US health care regulators who leave for jobs in private industry. A new study, titled “The Revolving Door in Health Care Regulation” and published in the journal Health Affairs, found nearly one-third of appointees to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) leave…

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Alumni Association recently announced the recipients of the 2023 Alumni Awards. The awards will be presented during this year’s Alumni Weekend, which takes place September 28-30. Alumni Award of Merit Megan Murray, MPH ’97, SD ’01 One of the world’s leading experts on tuberculosis, Murray conducted studies that changed…

Internationally renowned scholar of democracy and state-building in Europe, Daniel Ziblatt, has been named the new director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES). Ziblatt, who serves as Harvard’s Eaton Professor of the Science of Government, will begin his three-year term on January 2, 2024. He succeeds Grzegorz Ekiert, Laurence A. Tisch…

Hundreds gathered on an unusually warm fall day to celebrate the 50th year of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. The daylong event included guided tours of the CfA at 60 Garden St., and a celebratory lunch outside the Harvard Science Center. One of the world’s largest astrophysical research organizations in the world…

Ten doctoral candidates from the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences have been selected for the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program. The merit-based award provides financial support to PhD candidates pursuing scholarship outside the U.S. “The Fulbright-Hays is one of the most prestigious fellowships for graduate students conducting doctoral research,”…

Search-and-rescue operations in the central Mediterranean do not lead to more migrant crossings, a new study co-authored by Stefano Iacus, director of Data Science and Product Research at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, revealed. The findings, which were published in Scientific Reports in August, challenged “pull effect” claims that state- and private-led search-and-rescue encourage…

Talia Konkle, professor of psychology and leading vision scientist, has been named faculty director of the Mind Brain Behavior (MBB) Interfaculty Initiative. “I am delighted that Talia Konkle has agreed to serve as the next director of the Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative,” said Vice Provost for Research John Shaw, whose office oversees MBB along…

Theresa Lungu loved walking on the bumpy dirt road to the tiny municipal library in Luanshya, almost four miles from her home in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. She was only 7 but could borrow two books at a time. “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” “Nancy Drew Mysteries,” “Treasure Island,” she gathered just about any book…

Harvard University Health Services (HUHS) recently announced two additions to its senior leadership team. Kathy G. Niknejad will serve as chief medical officer (CMO) and physician in chief, and Kimberly Eng will serve as deputy executive director and chief administrative officer.  HUHS is a multispecialty practice that provides medical and mental health care to the…

Since 1990, the Harvard Alumni Association has bestowed the HAA Awards to distinguished alumni in recognition of their outstanding service to Harvard University through leadership and engagement activities. Continuing this tradition, the HAA has announced six recipients of the 2023 HAA Awards: Michael R. Alderete ’79; Elinor B. Balka ’62; Guy L. Fish ’81; Alice…