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    Faculty Council meeting — Sept. 11, 2019

    On Sept. 11 the Faculty Council welcomed new members, reviewed history and policies, chose subcommittees for 2019–20, and discussed the work of the Council in the new academic year. The Council next meets on Sept. 25. The preliminary deadline for the Oct. 1 meeting of the Faculty is Sept. 17 at noon.

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    Harvard Chan School partners with NIH and Apple for Women’s Health Study

    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Apple, and the National Institutes of Health announced this week a collaboration for the Apple Women’s Health Study, a large-scale longitudinal study led by a team of researchers at the Harvard Chan School that will leverage participants’ voluntary use of a smartphone research app to advance our understanding…

    birth control
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    Recipients named for President’s Administrative Innovation Fund

    Harvard has announced  the nine projects that were awarded funding in the fourth year of the President’s Administrative Innovation Fund Challenge. The Fund was created to foster a culture of innovation and to catalyze administrative innovation and collaboration across Harvard by investing in staff-generated, creative solutions that recognize staff expertise, and advance administrative excellence. The…

    Graduate School of Education
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    Australia-Harvard Fellowships applications close Sept. 10

    Australia-Harvard Fellowships are seeking applications through Sept. 10, 2019. The fellowships are offered by the Harvard Club of Australia Foundation supporting learned exchange between Harvard University and Australia and are aimed at creative scientists normally based at Harvard who have a persuasive plan for collaborative work in Australia with the country’s  best bioscience researchers and educators.…

    veritas gate
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    Report highlights unique methods of funding youth programs

    Today, the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Education Redesign Lab and The Children’s Funding Project released their new collaborative report Innovative Financing to Expand Programming and Services So Children Can Thrive Final. The report highlights 10 innovative methods to finance children’s services, giving communities a roadmap to ensuring their youth programming is expansive, effective, and…

    children's rainbows
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    Harvard students explore ethics in tech

    Seventeen students representing nine schools across Harvard convened with one common goal: to combine their diverse expertise to tackle the biggest issues in tech today.  The students, from both undergraduate and graduate programs, composed the first cohort of the Assembly Student Fellowship, which formally launched in fall of 2018 under the inaugural title “Techtopia.” The…

    Techtopia program students and advisors
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    Harvard launches online resource for birth control choices

    Among the most monumental decisions many people make is whether — and when — to try to have children. Quite likely, a 20-year-old has different needs and makes different choices around birth control than a person in their 30s or 40s. Yet, with so many available birth control methods, making this choice can be overwhelming.…

    birth control pills
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    Astrophysics researcher given access to world’s fastest supercomputer

    Professor of Astronomy Daniel Eisenstein leads one of nearly two dozen groups who have been granted access to the world’s fastest supercomputer to conduct research. Known as Summit, the massive system is located at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), and is capable of reaching speeds as high as 200 petaflops, or 200 quadrillion…

    Daniel Eisenstein
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    Mayor Walsh visits simulation lab at Medical School

    Harvard’s MEDscience program recently welcomed Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh into its Simulation Lab at Harvard Medical School. The program, which was first launched in 2005, is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiative aimed at inspiring students by engaging them in science through hands-on experiences. Research shows that students who learn through simulation…

    Boston Mayor Martin Walsh with students at the HMS simulation lab
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    Harvard Project releases Tribal Justice Systems nation-building toolbox

    The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona announced the release of a nation-building toolbox dedicated to tribal courts and justice systems. The Tribal Justice Systems Toolbox  is the third EdTech platform in a series of self-governance tools released by the Harvard Project and institute. The…

    The Tulalip Alternative Sentencing Program, Tulalip Tribes
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    Support rises for increased teacher pay and ‘free’ college

    Democratic presidential candidates proposing “free” college and pay increases for teachers will find substantial backing for these policies among voters; school vouchers and tax credits to fund scholarships to private schools are also popular, according to the 13th annual Education Next poll of American public opinion on education policy. Support for raising teacher pay is…

    Classroom with students
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    Dumbarton Oaks and JSTOR award Plant Humanities Fellowships

    NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON — Dumbarton Oaks, a research institute of Harvard University, and JSTOR, the digital library for research and teaching that is part of the nonprofit ITHAKA, are pleased to welcome four Plant Humanities Fellows supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Offered for the first time this year, the fellowships enable emerging scholars…

    Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections garden.
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    Bacow welcomes guests to senior luncheon

    Harvard President Larry Bacow recently welcomed Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern and hundreds of senior citizens to the 44th annual Harvard Cambridge Senior Luncheon. Guests enjoyed dancing and mingling with friends in Harvard’s historic Tercentenary Theatre. It was Andrea Haber’s first time coming to the luncheon. Haber, who has lived in Cambridge for more than 53…

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    Mainstream meditation and the million-dollar mindfulness boom

    Today, mindfulness mediation can be found everywhere from schools to prisons to sports teams. The trendy fitness apparel company Lululemon is now advertising mindful clothing for men. There’s also Mindful Meats, Mindful Mints, and Sherwin-Williams sells a paint color they call Mindful Gray. There’s even Mindful Mayo, which you can buy at your local Whole…

    Meditation session at the Harvard Divinity School
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    Harvard Votes Challenge awarded grant to increase participation across campus

    Harvard University President’s Administrative Innovation Fund awards grant to support the expansion of the Harvard Votes Challenge, a nonpartisan, University-wide effort to encourage voter participation led by the Institute of Politics and the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. This prestigious honor underscores President Larry Bacow’s and Harvard University’s commitment to serving as a…

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    Ash Center names Technology and Democracy Fellows

    The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) today announced the appointment of its newest cohort of Technology and Democracy Fellows — seven emerging leaders committed to using technology and digital tools to help strengthen our democratic institutions through citizen engagement, social empowerment, and government transparency and accessibility. The center’s…

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    Collaboration aims to discover new immuno-oncology targets

    Harvard, Merck to collaborate on research led by Harvard immunologist Arlene Sharpe, seeking to identify new pathways for the treatment of cancer Harvard University and Merck are launching a collaboration that will provide significant research funding for up to four years to support immuno-oncology research led by Arlene Sharpe, M.D., Ph.D., at Harvard Medical School…

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    Tina Liu wins Women World Award

    Tina Liu, M.B.A., has been honored as a Gold Winner of the Women World Awards in the category of Female Executive of the Year for her contributions to developing a novel technology to make gene therapies safer and more effective. The Women World Awards are the world’s premier business awards for female entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and…

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    Art history professor receives NEH grant for exhibit

    Professor of History of Art and Architecture Jinah Kim and colleagues from the College of the Holy Cross and the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery have received a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a major exhibition of Buddhist ritual art, on view at the Cantor Art Gallery from Sept.…

    Jinah Kim
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    For children born with HIV, adhering to medication gets harder with age

    Children born with HIV in the U.S. were less likely to adhere to their medications as they aged from preadolescence to adolescence and into young adulthood, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Additionally, the prevalence of detectable viral load — an indication that the virus is not…

    pills
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    Baseball players live longer than football players, average men

    Major league baseball players tend to live about 24 percent longer than the average American man, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. They also appear to have a lower death rate than professional football players from heart conditions and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. The findings,…

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    Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit held in Russia

    From July 9 to July 11, 2019, the second Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) took place in Yekaterinburg, Russia. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Ministry of Energy and Industry of the United Arab Emirates, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region, and the…

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    Education Redesign Lab to host summit for Local Children’s Cabinet Network

    Jointly founded by the Education Redesign Lab (EdRedesign), the Forum for Youth Investment, and the Children’s Funding Project, the Local Children’s Cabinet Network (LCCN) will convene for its first summit July 30-31. The LCCN, a national network of city, county, and community leaders from 30 localities in the U.S. and Canada, uses children’s cabinets to…

    Website for EdRedesign
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    Project on American Indian economic development joins Ash Center

    This week, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (HPAIED or the Harvard Project) announced it is joining the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. The Harvard Project was founded in 1987 and works to understand and foster the conditions under which sustained, self-determined social and economic development is achieved among the U.S.…

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    Gene variants may increase methylmercury risk in children

    About 30 percent of children carry a gene variant that may make them more susceptible to prenatal exposure to methylmercury, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Senior author of the study was Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health. Prenatal exposure to methylmercury — mercury that is…

    fish
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    Expanded testing and other measures decreased HIV infections in Botswana

    In Botswana, an intervention in 15 communities to test for and treat HIV infection in all adult residents was effective in increasing population viral suppression to very high levels (meaning that the virus becomes undetectable and can’t be transmitted while patients are taking effective treatment), according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan…

    close up of lab coat
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    Walsh, Whited win Presidential Early Career Award

    Earlier this month, President Donald J. Trump announced that Conor Walsh, Wyss Core Faculty member, and Jessica Whited, faculty member in Harvard’s department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, are among this year’s recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE is the highest honor bestowed by the United…

    Conor Walsh
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    At Dataverse Community Meeting, an emphasis on data quality

    During the fifth annual Dataverse Community Meeting from June 19 to 21, more than 180 participants, representing over 70 universities and research organizations from around the world, gathered in Harvard’s CGIS South building to learn about, discuss, and improve Dataverse, a software platform for publishing, citing, and archiving research data. Led by a team at…

    Group photo
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    New technique shows Aliso Canyon-type wells in residential areas

    A new study published in the Journal of Environmental Health found that around 65 percent of active natural gas storage (UGS) wells in the United States are located in suburban residential areas — not more sparsely populated commercial, industrial, or even rural areas like many new unconventional wells. The study by Harvard C-CHANGE at the…

    Birds eye view of neighborhood
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    Where did the biblical Philistines originate?

    An international team from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Leon Levy Expedition Ashkelon announced this week in Science Advances the findings of a study to determine the provenance of the Philistines, utilizing state-of-the-art technologies on ancient bone samples unearthed during a three-decade excavation in Ashkelon.  Analyzing genome-wide data…

    Archeologists excavating a skeleton