Harvard University’s 24th annual Arts First festival, showcasing student and faculty creativity, will take place Thursday-Sunday, April 28-May 1. Sponsored by the Board of Overseers of Harvard College and produced by the Office for the Arts at Harvard with partners across the University, this year’s festival will feature more than 200 music, theater, dance, film,…

From smoking to the ravages of war, adolescents in developing countries face numerous threats to their health. Experts discussed these threats—and possible policy responses—at the third annual State of Global Health Symposium, hosted on March 29 by the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Theresa Betancourt, associate…

Theresa Betancourt discussed her research on the role of conflict, adversity, and resiliency in children at the Sixth Annual Alice Hamilton Award Lecture on April 5 in Kresge Cafeteria. Following her talk, Betancourt, associate professor of child health and human rights and director of the Research Program on Children and Global Adversity at Harvard T.H.…

Dean James Ryan and the Harvard Graduate School of Education Speakers Committee announced today that Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), will address graduates and their families at the 2016 Convocation ceremony on May 25. “Freeman Hrabowski is a singularly successful scholar and education leader. He has dedicated his career…

Although we often think of improvisation in an artistic context, improvisation in fact plays a central role in our lives, informing our behavior during social interactions, playing sports, and in moments of protest and civil disobedience. Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA) is sponsoring a symposium, “Bending Toward Justice: Improvisation, Freedom, and the Arts,”…

The global cost of diabetes is now 825 billion dollars per year, according to the largest ever study of diabetes levels across the world. The research, which was led by scientists from Imperial College London, and involved Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the World Health Organization, and nearly 500 researchers across the globe,…

Colonoscopies, mammograms, and childbirth services are the most searched-for medical services when it comes to cost information—and millennials with higher annual deductible spending are the most frequent comparison shoppers—according to an analysis of a large national health insurance plan database by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study appears in the April…

Young, low-income transgender women with a history of unsafe sexual behavior face a high rate of mental health problems, according to a new study. The study, led by Sari Reisner, a researcher at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and Boston Children’s Hospital, looked at mental health and substance abuse among…

The parasite responsible for a form of malaria now spreading from macaques to humans in South Asia could evolve to infect humans more efficiently, a step towards enhanced transmission between humans, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers say that defining the means by which the Plasmodium…

Communities in three states—New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont—have found elevated levels in their drinking water of the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which has been linked to cancer and negative health outcomes in children. Phillippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, thinks the problem may be even…

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Open Technology Institute surveyed U.S. Internet and telecommunications companies to highlight best practices and encourage standardization in transparency reporting.  The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Open Technology Institute at New America (OTI) are releasing The Transparency Reporting Toolkit: Survey…

Many people in U.S. households where someone is pregnant or considering getting pregnant in the next 12 months are not aware of key facts about Zika virus, according to a new poll by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers. The nationally representative poll of 1,275 adults, including 105 who live in households where…

On Thursday, April 7, and Friday, April 8, the Fromm Concerts at Harvard assemble some of the finest musicians in creative music for a series of free concerts, “Creative Music Convergences,” in John Knowles Paine Concert Hall. “These are musicians who just go up there and create,” says Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of…

More than 70 sixth grade scholars and teachers from Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brooklyn recently spent the day exploring Harvard University and talking with faculty, students and staff about a variety of topics. “We learned about segregation and the Children’s Crusade in 1963,” said 12 year old Kamora Thompson. “It was really powerful and…

The University of California’s Office of the President has joined with the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE), a research-practice partnership based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to launch a faculty exit survey that is the first of its kind. Given the academy’s struggles to diversify the professoriate and regular media…

The Partnering in Education Research (PIER) program is now accepting fellowship applications from first- and second-year doctoral candidates at Harvard University interested in conducting quantitative education research in partnership with school districts and state education agencies. PIER, an interdisciplinary predoctoral program hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and the Center for Education Policy…

A new STAT-Harvard poll finds overwhelming bipartisan support among Americans for President Obama’s proposed National Cancer Moonshot, with eight out of ten favoring at least a 20% increase in federal cancer research spending. Nearly half of those polled view cancer as the most serious health condition in the U.S. today; however, more than two-thirds believe…

Martin Luther did more than just serve as a catalyst for the Reformation. By nailing his 95 theses to the door of a Wittenberg, Germany, church in 1517, he became the world’s first mass media figure and launched a new form of theological writing, argues University of St. Andrews Professor Andrew Pettegree. Pettegree will discuss his…

Truck drivers with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who failed to adhere to treatment had a rate of preventable crashes five times higher than that of truckers without the ailment, according to researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Morris, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and colleagues. The study—which looked at…

Botswana appears to have achieved very high rates of HIV diagnosis, treatment, and viral suppression—better than most Western nations, including the United States—according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and colleagues in Botswana. The findings suggest that even in countries with limited resources where a large percentage of the…

The 2016 Harvard Horizons Symposium will take place on April 5 at 6:00 p.m. in Sanders Theatre. The symposium features brief talks by Harvard Horizons Scholars, highlighting the scholarship of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ Ph.D. students across the disciplines. The 2016 Harvard Horizons Scholars and their subjects are: Ashley Anderson, Government Going…

Harvard Chan School’s Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath co-authored a study that looked at how low-income people use the Internet. According to your study, there’s not a lot of data on how this population uses the web. Why would that data be helpful? The lack of information is a problem, because if we want to create websites…

Earthquakes or floods can wipe out infrastructure—including health care facilities, when they’re needed more than ever. Given the risks to public health in the wake of a natural disaster, it’s important for health systems to plan ahead, according to disaster health expert Ali Ardalan. “Health systems have to take a proactive approach, preventive measures to…

Pregnant women who follow government seafood recommendations may be exposing their babies to too much toxic mercury, according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The study also found that women may not be getting enough healthy omega-3 fatty acids from the fish they choose. The authors call for guidelines to be more…

A new STAT-Harvard poll finds bipartisan support for new federal guidelines advising physicians to give patients with acute pain no more than a three-day supply of opioid painkillers. Seven in 10 Americans support the guidelines, which also advise doctors to try other treatment options before issuing prescriptions. About half of those surveyed believe that prescription…

Official counts of homicides by police seriously undercount incidents, according to a study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, but a relatively new national data system, currently in use in 32 states, could be a crucial tool for gathering more comprehensive information, say the researchers. The study, which was published online March 17,…

Legendary opera singer Plácido Domingo will be celebrated at Harvard with “Giving Voice: A Conversation with Plácido Domingo” on Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 4 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., moderated by Tamar Herzog, Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs and professor of Spanish and Portuguese history, and Anne Shreffler, James Edward…

How do you modernize an iconic but aging building into an inviting place where students, faculty, and the public gather together to learn? In the first of a series of talks on new visions for library spaces, architect Jim Eyre of WilkinsonEyre, London, presented his plan for the successful renovation of the Weston Library at…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may have underestimated the number of obese adults in the U.S. in its 2013 Obesity Prevalence Maps by at least 12 million because of reliance upon self-reported height and weight figures, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Columbia…

Children of mothers who are low in vitamin D during early pregnancy may be at greater risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) in adulthood compared to children with mothers who have higher vitamin D levels, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study was published…