As cities find themselves on the frontlines of addressing increasingly global challenges, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative announced on July 17 the seventh class of 40 mayors and 80 senior municipal leaders from nine countries and six continents who will participate in the yearlong professional management training program. Established by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Harvard Kennedy…

Twelve professors in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences have been named 2023 Walter Channing Cabot Fellows. The annual awards honor faculty members for their distinguished accomplishments in the fields of literature, history or art, and for their notable publications. The 2023 award recipients are: Josiah Blackmore, Nancy Clark Smith Professor of the Language and Literature…

EdRedesign, based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), has named Rob Watson to the newly created position of deputy director to support EdRedesign’s expanding footprint in the cradle-to-career place-based partnership field. Watson had served as EdRedesign’s director for Partnerships and Community Impact since June 2021. Watson is also a secondary lecturer in education…

Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) has named Jingru (Cyan) Cheng the winner of the 2023 Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 grant to support investigative approaches to contemporary architecture, with an emphasis on globally minded research. Her project, “Tracing Sand: Phantom Territories, Bodies Adrift,” focuses on the economic, cultural, and ecological impacts of sand mining and…

The American Sociological Association has recognized two Harvard professors for publishing significant journal articles last year. Assistant Professor of Sociology Christina J. Cross and Professor of Sociology David S. Pedulla are winners of the ASA Family Section’s 2023 Article of the Year Award, designed to celebrate major contributions to the field of family sociology. Cross…

On July 1, 1973, the Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory signed an agreement to become the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). The CfA has been responsible for some of the biggest discoveries in astrophysics in the past 50 years and is poised to be at the vanguard throughout the 21st…

Harvard graduate student Vaibhav Mohanty is among the 15 doctoral students named 2023 Hertz Fellows. Founded in 1957, the John and Fannie Hertz Foundation accelerates solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, from enhancing national security to improving human health. Through the Hertz Fellowship, the foundation identifies the nation’s most promising young innovators and disruptors…

On June 17, the rain held off long enough so transit drivers from colleges and universities across the region could compete in the Collegiate Bus Road’eo which featured a lineup of 100 percent electric shuttle buses. The course was constructed at the Harvard Business School parking area. Sixteen professional drivers, who typically shuttle students, faculty,…

The Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard is pleased to announce the appointment of Boaz Barak, Samuel Gershman, Susan Murphy, and Marinka Zitnik as associate faculty members. The four new appointees are current Harvard faculty members whose pioneering work advances the Kempner Institute’s scientific mission of studying the intersection…

Two Harvard professors have won prestigious awards from the American Political Science Association. Theda Skocpol, Ph.D. ’75, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, was selected for the 2023 James Madison Award, a triennial honor recognizing a lifetime of distinguished scholarly contributions to the field of political science. “I understand it’s probably the…

A crowd that included former colleagues and staff, Harvard alums, and Allston community members, gathered at the Harvard Ed Portal recently to celebrate the life and legacy of founder Rob Lue. A memorial plaque also was unveiled to honor Lue’s role in the formation and development of the Ed Portal. Lue, who died from cancer…

More than 700 Harvard IT staff and community members gathered in Sanders Theatre on Tuesday, June 6, for the tenth anniversary IT Summit, hosted by the University’s CIO Council.    The event — the first since 2019 following a pandemic-enforced hiatus — was introduced by Meredith L. Weenick, executive vice president, and Klara Jelinkova, vice president…

The EdRedesign Lab’s Institute for Success Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has announced its cohort of cross-sector teams from across the country joining its Success Planning 2023 Community of Practice. With the generous support of the Barr Foundation and an anonymous gift, and additional financial support for Success Planning from the Carnegie…

The Office of the Provost has announced that a review of the University’s corporate relations and related research policies will take place over the next academic year. Harvard regularly interacts with private corporations and outside entities to support, enable, and inform its scholarship. Academic-industry engagements can provide resources for research programs and facilities, and they…

The Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has chosen the 2024 Class of Loeb Fellows: nine innovators, problem solvers, visionaries, and practitioners who lead the charge for social justice and transformative change. They work in fields as diverse as post-disaster support, cultural infrastructure, land ownership reform, and climate justice. Every academic…

Researchers from The Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (HCPDS), the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the University of the Witwatersrand, and the University of Cape Town have been awarded $27 million from the NIA to further their collaborative program project, Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study in South Africa…

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been appointed as a Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow for the fall term at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. During her tenure as mayor, which ended May 15, Lightfoot led a coordinated, citywide response across government, business, and community organizations to safeguard public…

New research has uncovered a surprising bias in the risk assessment instruments (or RAIs) widely used in criminal justice settings. It turns out, their predictive powers are quick to erode. Social scientists found that RAIs trained on one birth cohort vastly overestimated the probability of arrest in late adolescence and early adulthood for a slightly…

The Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence announced the 22 students chosen as the inaugural cohort of Kempner Graduate Fellows. This year’s recipients include eight incoming and 14 continuing graduate students enrolled across nine Harvard Ph.D. programs. The 2023 recipients of the Kempner graduate fellowship are: Natalie Abreu, Gustaf Ahdritz, Usha…

The Shaw Prize Foundation awarded the 2023 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences in equal shares to Shint-Tung Yau, director of Yau Mathematical Sciences Center at Tsinghua University and professor emeritus at Harvard University, and Vladimir Drinfeld, Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor of Mathematics at the University of Chicago. The two laureates were chosen for…

When I pull into the lot at the Harold Parker State Forest in North Andover at 8 a.m., the early morning fog still burning off, people in camouflage and combat boots unload boxes alongside my car. Straight ahead is a roadblock erected out of boards, its scrawled, red-painted letters ordering passersby to stop and have…

Cassidy Wald, from the Harvard Business School (HBS) M.B.A. Class of 2023, has been named the recipient of the School’s Dean’s Award. This award celebrates the extraordinary achievements of a graduating student who, during their time in their program, has made a positive impact on Harvard, Harvard Business School, and/or broader communities through exceptional acts…

Students from the Harvard Business School (HBS) graduating Class of 2023 honored five faculty members with Faculty Teaching Award honors. Tony Mayo, Sophus Reinert, Charlotte Robertson, Tom Nicholas, and Meg Rithmire were recognized for their excellence and dedication to teaching, and for the positive impact they had both in and out of the classroom. Students were asked to identify professors…

Baker Lawn was filled with smiles, applause, and sunshine as all 984 members of the Harvard Business School (HBS) M.B.A. Class of 2023 gathered to celebrate Class Day on Wednesday. Typically taking place the day before Commencement, Class Day is planned and conducted by a committee of graduating M.B.A. students. Along with family, friends, and…

Two Harvard Business School (HBS) faculty members, Professor Michael Norton and Associate Professor Alison Wood Brooks, have been awarded Wyss Awards for Excellence in Mentoring. Now in its 15th year, the Wyss Awards winners are chosen by doctoral students for their work in the Doctoral Programs. Additionally, senior faculty member Feng Zhu, MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business…

Harvard Business School (HBS) held its 113th Commencement exercises Thursday with a diploma ceremony on its campus in Boston. After an all-University celebration in Harvard’s Tercentenary Theatre in the morning, 984 students received their M.B.A. degrees in front of the School’s Baker Library | Bloomberg Center. The top 5 percent of the M.B.A. Class of…

Harvard Business School has announced the 2023-24 cohort of its Leadership Fellows Program. The program is based on University Professor Michael Porter’s vision of developing a network of HBS graduates with cross-sector experience who are committed to addressing societal issues throughout their careers. For over 20 years, it has placed 267 fellows at organizations such…

The SHINE Summit returns to campus this fall bringing together researchers, leaders of industry, and public policy advocates to explore what organizational flourishing means in the post-pandemic workplace. “Revisiting the Productivity Dilemma: The Humanity of Work and What It Means for Sustainable Business” will feature critical interdisciplinary conversations on how the meaning and metrics of…

The Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government is pleased to announce the 2023 winner of the John T. Dunlop Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Business and Government. Ishan Bhatt has won for his thesis, “Yes, Literally, In My Backyard: The Effect of ‘Gently’ Upzoning Single-Family Neighborhoods.” He is graduating…

Seniors Isaac Heller, Cecilia Zhou, and Deepak Singh have been awarded this year’s Taliesin Prize for Distinction in the Art of Learning. The prize, named for the sixth-century poet, was established by the Division of Arts & Humanities in 2020. It is awarded to three graduating seniors who show a “spirit of intellectual adventure” in…