Francisco Cai could have parlayed his Stanford computer science degrees into opportunities developing a smartphone app or increasing a website’s ad revenues. Instead, he sought out a way to use his formidable coding skills to tackle problems affecting more of the world’s population. After working in a hospital for a year translating electronic medical records…

The Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University announced the recipients of the 2015 Selma and Lewis Weinstein Prize in Jewish Studies. Elena Florence Hoffenberg ’16, a junior in Cabot House, and Yoav Schaefer ’15, a senior in Adams House, both won this year’s Selma and Lewis Weinstein Prize in Jewish Studies. The Weinstein Prize,…

Hannah Merves, a member of the Harvard Business School M.B.A. Class of 2015, has been named winner of the School’s prestigious Dean’s Award. She will be formally recognized by HBS Dean Nitin Nohria at Commencement ceremonies on the HBS campus on Thursday, May 28. Established in 1997, this annual award celebrates the extraordinary achievements of…

On Tuesday, May 26, Michael D. Smith, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), announced that Margot Gill has been appointed to the newly created role of administrative dean for International Affairs, effective July 1. In this new role, Gill will support and implement international initiatives of the FAS, as defined…

More than a hundred students and humanitarian relief professionals spent April 24-26, 2015 learning how to rapidly respond to a refugee crisis while being faced with a host of stressful distractions from confrontational child soldiers to rogue journalists. It was all part of the annual disaster simulation organized by The Lavine Family Humanitarian Studies Initiative,…

Excerpted from a May 19, 2015 message by Harvard President Drew Faust to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health community: As you know, Julio Frenk recently announced his plans to step down as dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health this August [2015] in order to become president of the…

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study awarded the Captain Jonathan Fay Prize to three graduating Harvard College seniors — Natalie Smith, Dennis Sun, and Eleanor Wilkinson — who demonstrated exceptional and original work on their theses. The 2015 Fay Prize recipients were chosen from 68 Thomas Hoopes Prize winners for outstanding scholarly work or research. “These…

The Korea Institute at Harvard University promotes the study of Korea and brings together faculty, students, scholars, and visitors to create a leading Korean studies community at Harvard. Through the Korea Institute, Harvard offers resources for graduate and undergraduate students to study Korea. On campus in Cambridge, students take courses on Korea and may choose…

Divinity School students Melissa Bartholomew and Rachel Foran are the co-chairs of the Harvard Divinity School Racial Justice & Healing Initiative, a group of HDS students committed to cross-disciplinary dialogue, scholarship, and training in order to address personal and systemic racism. HDS communications recently caught up with Melissa and Rachel to learn more about the…

Contrary to conventional wisdom, growing up with a working mother is unlikely to harm children socially and economically when they become adults, new research by a Harvard Business School professor concludes. The “working mother effect” actually improves future prospects, especially for adult daughters of mothers who worked outside the home before their daughters were 14…

In an effort to further the advancement of women leaders worldwide, Harvard Business School (HBS) has launched the Gender Initiative to support research, teaching, and knowledge dissemination that promotes gender equity in business and society. The new initiative will be headed by Robin Ely, the School’s Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration and senior…

Ten faculty members have been awarded 2015 Walter Channing Cabot Fellowships for their outstanding publications. The 2015 honorees: Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History, “Empire of Cotton: A Global History” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014) Virginie Greene, professor of Romance languages and literatures, “Logical Fictions in Medieval Literature and Philosophy” (Cambridge University Press, 2014) Mary…

When a hospital closes, local residents may worry about who will care for them when they are sick or that more people will die, but a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health study published May 4, 2015 in Health Affairs found such concerns may be unfounded. “It’s possible that we didn’t see any change…

Overtesting, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment in medical care in the U.S. is widespread, with one recent study suggesting that 30% of care—amounting to roughly $750 billion a year—is wasteful. But there are signs that the Affordable Care Act, which provides financial incentives for doctors to provide better quality care at lower cost, is prompting increasing numbers of…

For many years, experts seeking to quantify the “global burden of disease”—delineating what ails people, when, and where—failed to account for how lack of access to surgery fits into the picture. But in the April 2015 issue of Harvard Public Health Review (HPHR), Paul Farmer wrote that not getting surgery when it’s needed for ailments…

Whether or not a hospital has electronic health records (EHRs) does not mean that stroke patients will have better clinical outcomes or higher quality of care, according to a study led by a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researcher and published in the May 2015 Journal of the American College of Cardiology. “We…

Doctors responding to an American College of Emergency Physicians poll released May 4, 2015 report more patients are seeking emergency room treatment since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into effect in 2014. One of the ACA selling points was to reduce ER trips, costs, and wait times by directing patients to primary care doctors, who…

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism, training newsroom leaders and fostering journalistic innovation for 78 years, has selected 24 journalists as members of the 2016 class of Nieman Fellows. The group includes reporters, editors, columnists, a political cartoonist, a network producer, bureau chiefs, photographers, digital strategists and news executives who work around the globe in all…

The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has appointed Anita Berrizbeitia, M.L.A. ’87, as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture as of July 1, 2015. Berrizbeitia is currently professor of landscape architecture and director of the Master in Landscape Architecture degree programs at the GSD. Berrizbeitia is a landscape architect specializing in theory and…

Henry Li ’16 was presented with the Joseph L. Barrett Award on May 6, by the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC). The award commemorates Joseph L. Barrett ’73, by honoring exceptional students who generously give their time to support their peers in developing more meaningful college experiences. Li was honored for developing and coordinating three…

Lydia Gaby, a senior at Harvard College, and Nathanial Erb-Satullo, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, were recently awarded the Howard T. Fisher Prizes for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Excellence. Gaby’s prize-winning entry (undergraduate category), titled “Constructing a Storm Surge Risk Profile: Lower East Side and Chinatown,…

Dean James Ryan and the Harvard Graduate School of Education Speakers Committee announced today that Roberto Rodriguez, Ed.M.’98, who serves on the White House Domestic Policy Council as deputy assistant to President Obama for education, will address graduates and their families at the 2015 Convocation ceremony on May 27. “I am delighted that Roberto Rodriguez,…

Typically, when hiring and building workplace teams, leaders prefer people who look like them, but that doesn’t get us innovation, said Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, HBS, at a recent Faculty of Arts And Sciences Diversity Dialogue. “A strong leader’s job is to bring different people together and coordinate” them to…

Within hours of April 25’s earthquake in Nepal, students at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) had initiated support and advocacy projects in GSD’s Gund Hall and began collaborating with students and faculty from within the university and beyond. GSD Dave Hampton and Shanika Hettige oversaw the setup of a station in Gund’s lobby for…

The ropes proved to be a challenge. Last week, at the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab), Gerardo Ochoa wrapped short white ropes with loops at each end around the wrists of two people, handcuff style, and then looped the ropes so they crossed. The idea, said Songyu Zhu, was for the two people to work together…

Dean James Ryan has announced the launch of the Education Redesign Lab — a new initiative based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and led by Professor Paul Reville — focused on building a new education “engine” for 21st-century success in schools. A $1 million gift from the Linda Hammett Ory and Andrew Ory…

The HDS Summer Language Program is an eight-week, intensive program in language study designed specifically for the curriculum in theological and religious studies and taught with a focus on translation and reading comprehension in a foreign language. With the deadline for applications looming (May 8), HDS communications asked SLP Director Karin Grundler-Whitacre about an exciting new offering this…

Jane Kamensky will be joining the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study as the new Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library for the History of Women in America. In addition to her institute appointment, she will be a professor in the History Department at Harvard University. Prior to coming to Radcliffe, Kamensky…

The Project on Public Narrative at Harvard University will hold a free community-wide event on gender and Wall Street reform, featuring a roundtable-style discussion with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former SEC Chairperson Mary Schapiro, and former FDIC Chairperson Sheila Bair. The event takes place five years after the trio was featured on the cover of…

Harvard University Graduate School of Design has announced Erik L’Heureux, an American architect based in Singapore, as the winner of the GSD’s 2015 Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 traveling fellowship aimed at fostering investigative approaches to contemporary design. L’Heureux, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is currently an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore and leads…