Joslin Diabetes Center’s Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that Roberta Herman has been selected as the center’s new president and chief executive officer, effective Jan, 9. 2020. Herman replaces Peter Amenta, who announced earlier this fall that he would be stepping down at the end of this year, after 10 years with Joslin, including more…

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Harvard South Africa Fellowship Program (HSAFP). HSAFP was established for mid-career professionals educationally disadvantaged by past laws and resource allocations in South Africa. Individuals who have shown considerable skill in their chosen fields stand to benefit from advanced training, and, it is hoped, can use that advanced…

The Harvard Innovation Labs has published a summary of achievements from the university innovation center’s community in 2019. This year’s annual list features nearly 50 accomplishments from current and former Harvard Innovation Labs teams. “At the start of 2010, the Harvard Innovation Labs was still just an idea — one that would not turn into…

On Dec. 5, faculty, students, and staff gathered to celebrate the awardees of this year’s Tazuko Ajiro Monane and Noma-Reischauer Prizes. Co-sponsored by the Japanese Language Program and the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the event also included an appearance by newly designated Boston’s Consul General of Japan, Setsuo Ohmori. The Tazuko Ajiro Monane Prize…

A federal policy aimed at improving access in rural areas to buprenorphine, a key medication for treating opioid use disorder, appears to be working, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Known as The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, the legislation allows for nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to obtain…

In a new exhibition at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, installation artist Jonathan Berger uses words and sculpture to explore the importance of relationships beyond romance between individuals, and between people and their environments, based on oral histories and interviews with colleagues, friends, and community members. The exhibition, “An Introduction to Nameless Love,”…

Among hospital patients in Japan, those with a history of even moderate drinking were more likely to have cancer compared to nondrinkers, according to a new study. Researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and colleagues found that consuming one daily drink (defined as six ounces of wine, 17 ounces of beer, or two ounces…

This spring, the greenhouses in the Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University will be overflowing with Phlox, fragrant flowers bursting with hues of violet, pink, red, and magenta. But it’s not their floral beauty or aroma that captivates Robin Hopkins, assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard. Hopkins,…

Some communities have designated certain public spaces, like courthouses and municipal buildings, as gun-free zones. But experts say there’s no conclusive evidence as to whether establishing such zones increases safety. A Dec. 4, 2019 story on WAMU (Washington, D.C.’s NPR station) described a recent decision by the Aspen, Colorado city council to ban openly carrying guns in…

Michael Kremer, Gates Professor of Developing Societies in the economics department, and his colleagues Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of MIT, announced that they will donate their Nobel prize money to the Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics. Banerjee, Duflo, and Kremer received the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their experimental…

For the third year in a row, the Allston-Brighton Winter Market is bringing four days of local vendors, interactive art, food and drink, a beer garden, and holiday cheer to the Harvard Ed Portal.  From Dec. 12-15, the Ed Portal at 224 Western Ave. will host 17 vendors and artisans offering goods ranging from minimalist…

How can American high schools move away from rote learning and testing and help students become critical thinkers ready to take on the challenges of modern life? Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) professor Jal Mehta, Ph.D. ’06, and educator and scholar Sarah Fine, Ed.D. ’17, spent six years researching the issue at 30 U.S.…

A letter signed by 130 faculty members, postdocs, students and staff members of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health urged Massachusetts lawmakers to pass proposed legislation aimed at tightening restrictions for vaccine exemptions in order to improve vaccination rates among children and ensure community protection throughout the state. The letter was spearheaded by Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology,…

The John Templeton Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has funded the Black Hole Initiative for an additional three year term, until September 2022. This new funding of $7.2 million rewards a success story, leading to a graduate student program on black holes at Harvard University and more than a hundred interdisciplinary papers…

For the past 25 years, Phillips Brooks House has collected gifts and donations during the holiday season for several community-based programs in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston.  This holiday season, the House is launching a virtual giving drive to serve a wider variety of community needs during the winter months. More than 40 Harvard-based departments and…

More than 80 artists, instructors, and staff members at the Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard are preparing for their annual Ceramics Program Holiday Show and Sale Dec. 12-15, 2019 in the program’s state-of-the art facility at 224 Western Ave. in Allston. This annual event draws visitors to the studio to view and purchase…

The Harvard Innovation Labs today announced that applications are now open for the 2020 President’s Innovation Challenge, an annual event designed to bring together the Harvard community to work on compelling solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. For the 2020 Challenge, an additional $100,000 will be awarded to the winning teams. This…

Three Harvard research teams have been recognized by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) with funding to support their open source software projects, considered to be “essential to biomedical research.” These grants will support software maintenance, growth, development, and community engagement. Open source software is publicly accessible so that anyone can modify or share it. This…

International development needs scholars from a variety of backgrounds and the input of practitioners, Nobel Laureate Michael Kremer told the audience at a special event organized by Harvard’s Center for International Development. The event took place on Nov. 5 at the Smith Center’s public auditorium. Throughout the evening, Kremer’s insights, the questions posed, and the…

On Tuesday, the Harvard Innovation Labs announced the 12 ventures selected to participate in the second annual Launch Lab X program, a nine-month startup accelerator for Harvard alumni-led companies. “When designing the Launch Lab X program, we had many conversations with Harvard alumni who were founding companies about the need for a startup accelerator that…

Terry Tempest Williams, Harvard Divinity School’s (HDS) writer-in-residence, and film producer Geralyn White Dreyfous have curated a special film series that is open to the Harvard community and to the general public. The series includes the chance for audience members to engage in discussion with directors, producers, and subjects of the films. The film series, “The…

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, has awarded a $650,000 cooperative agreement to a collaborative of experts who will work together to design a roadmap to prepare K-12 students for America’s constitutional democracy. Educating for American Democracy: A Roadmap for Excellence in History and Civics Education…

David Davidson, managing director of Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS), and Crista Martin, director of strategic initiatives and communications at HUDS, were honored with the first ever Visionary Award from Cambridge non-profit Food for Free at its annual Party Under the Harvest Moon. Davidson, Martin and the team from HUDS were instrumental in the launch…

Pakistan’s top government finance officials joined Harvard Kennedy School professors in weighing policy choices to improve economic growth in the wake of the country’s recent debt crisis. At a conference on the Harvard campus this month, Pakistan’s financial authorities struck tones of optimism based on tough steps they have taken, including monetary tightening, even before…

The expansion of medical knowledge, together with advancements in biomedical research, are presenting extraordinary opportunities to train future health care leaders to deliver increasingly complex levels of patient care. At the same time, student preparation for medical school is becoming more and more varied as technology presents new promises and challenges. For this first-of-its-kind exploration…

The Education Redesign Lab (EdRedesign), based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), released a new report today titled, “Sustaining Cross-Sector Systems of Opportunity for Children: Interim Lessons from the By All Means Consortium.” The publication builds on the findings of the first report that documented the By All Means (BAM) communities’ initial efforts…

In a move to offer broader interprofessional training, Harvard Medical School has received an accreditation term from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, making the School an accredited provider of continuing education units (CEU) for nurses. “A large number of the learners who attend our continuing medical education courses are nurses,” said David Roberts, dean for external education at HMS.…

Women scientists were 21 percent less likely to author invited commentaries in medical journals during a five-year period than men with similar scientific expertise, seniority, and publication metrics, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and in collaboration with Elsevier. They found that the disparity was…

Two Harvard scientists have been named to the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Investigator Program. As part of the 2019 class of NYSCF – Robertson Investigators, Ya-Chieh Hsu and Nicholas Bellono are recognized for their cutting-edge research, which has the potential to accelerate the discovery of new treatments and cures for human disease. The…