“What counts as ‘income’ for taxes?” “Will paying taxes affect the public assistance I receive?” “Will I lose my veterans disability benefits if I make too much money?” “Why should I use a bank?” Those are some of the questions street vendors of Greater Boston’s Spare Change News grapple with. A recently published guide, “Two Cents for…

Harvard’s hitting a home run when it comes to providing students, faculty, and staff with alternative forms of transportation.  The University’s CommuterChoice team recently accepted an Excellence in Commuter Options (ECO) Award from the State of Massachusetts during a ceremony at Fenway Park. Harvard received one of five coveted spotlight awards which recognize businesses, colleges,…

Prize honors world-renowned scientists and scholars who have made outstanding achievements in biochemistry and biophysics, cognitive science, environmental sciences, history, and medicine The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has awarded the 2018 Dr. H.P. Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics to Xiaowei Zhuang, the David B. Arnold Jr. Professor of Science, professor of chemistry &…

As the world’s population ages, driven by declines in both birth and death rates in many countries, older people’s ability to continue to do things that matter to them — rather than merely being free of disease — is becoming an increasingly important focus of global health experts. Healthy aging was one of the topics…

Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean James E. Ryan is pleased to announce that John Silvanus Wilson Jr., Ed.M.’82, Ed.D.’85, senior adviser and strategist to the president at Harvard University, will address the graduating class and their families at convocation on May 23, 2018. “Throughout his expansive career, and with unrivaled dedication to his alma maters, John has…

Professor Alina Payne, director of Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, is pleased to announce that the I Tatti Mongan Prize has been awarded to Professor Miguel Falomir, director of the Museo Nacional del Prado. Professor Falomir will deliver his Laureate Lecture in Florence, Italy on May 10, 2018. The…

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan to undo an Obama-era rule requiring vehicles to average 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2025, announced April 2 by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, will harm air quality and public health, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Gina McCarthy. McCarthy, who served as EPA Administrator…

Americans’ health and quality of life varies significantly from state to state, driven largely by factors such as obesity, substance abuse, and depression, according to a new report from the Global Burden of Disease group, an international consortium. The geographic disparities “leave the United States far from being united,” wrote Howard Koh of Harvard T.H.…

Alaska Airlines flight attendants began reporting symptoms such as itchy eyes, rashes, and shortness of breath soon after the company introduced new uniforms in 2011. Although the uniforms were replaced three years later, the company didn’t acknowledge a possible connection between the introduction of the uniforms and the spike in health complaints. The National Institute…

Most of us are familiar with recycling paper and plastic, but did you know electronics can be recycled, too? Because many of our old phones, computers, and other electronics contain small amounts of heavy metals or old personal data, it is especially important to make sure the data is securely destroyed and the items safely…

Music critic and MacArthur Fellow Alex Ross will give the Harvard University Department of Music’s 2018 Louis C. Elson Lecture, “Wagner, Hitler, and the Cult of Art.” Ross  has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1993, and he became the magazine’s music critic in 1996. He writes about classical music, covering the field from the Metropolitan…

By Jeffrey Blackwell, Memorial Church Communications For freshman Wassim Marrakchi, the Student Oasis on the ground level of the Memorial Church is a secret sanctuary for study, for quiet socializing and for making slatetblankit, a dish from his Tunisian homeland, for his Canaday housemates. “This place has been a really great place for me to…

From Tupinambá anthropophagi to ‘bloodthirsty Aztecs’ or ‘child-killing Incas,’ American (human) sacrifices flooded the European imagination in the 16th century. In Europe, these images interacted with a heated debate about salvation, the Eucharist, and the role of sacrifice within Christianity. Far from being restricted to universities, monasteries, or courts, this debate penetrated European societies at every…

The Harvard Innovation Labs, a three-lab ecosystem that supports Harvard students and select alumni in exploring innovation and entrepreneurship, announced that applications are open for Launch Lab X. This accelerator was designed from the ground up to help grow high-potential Harvard alumni-led ventures from seed-stage startups to sustainable, disruptive businesses with real-world impact. “Many Harvard…

Laboratories are the most energy intensive spaces at Harvard, and a new Green Lab certification program being rolled out at the University’s Longwood campus — and available as an educational resource to anyone — seeks to encourage researchers and lab staff to address this challenge with a framework for tangible sustainability actions. There is approximately five million square…

Multi-year Harvard research collaboration with Aetna will assess well-being across numerous dimensions of health and wholeness What does it mean to be well? Not just “not ill,” but really thriving? Researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and at Aetna are embarking on a collaborative, multi-year study of well-being intended both to advance…

Lead poisoning experts are worried that a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plan to lower the minimum blood lead level considered safe for children may actually make it harder for kids with the highest blood levels of lead to get the interventions they need, and obscures the real need: removing lead paint…

Studies that have looked at whether consuming a diet rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) leads to reduced risk of heart disease have shown mixed results. But according to new findings from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, it makes a difference whether the MUFAs come from plant or animal products. In the first…

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs are pleased to announce the 2018 awardees of the Lemann Brazil Research Fund. “We had the largest and most competitive applicant pool yet in the history of the Fund,” said Rick McCullough, vice provost for research and…

The Cuba Studies Program of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University is pleased to announce that the Harvard Library has begun an important process of digitization of some of its most important Cuba-related resources. The digitization of the José Augusto Escoto Cuban History and Literature collection, ca. 1574–1920, is now underway. The Harvard Library…

Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor Chaya Czernowin’s choices of composers and works for this year’s Fromm concert centers on individuality, integrity, and artistic focus. Some of this year’s Fromm program is, clearly, ostentatiously political. The Prince Myshkins — whose inclusion on this concert is, to say the least, an innovation — feed on the Orwellian absurdity…

The legacy of the late Mason Hammond (1903-2002), Pope Professor of Latin Languages and Literature in the department of the Classics, will be honored at a ceremony In Palermo, Sicily, on Saturday, March 24, by the Superintendent’s Office for Cultural and Environmental Patrimony of Palermo. Professor Hammond, a Lt. Col in the U.S. military from…

A resurgence of mumps in the U.S. among vaccinated young adults appears to be due to waning of vaccine-induced immunity, according to a new analysis from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Researchers found that vaccine-derived immune protection against mumps persists an average of about 27 years after the last dose. The findings suggest…