Evelynn M. Hammonds, the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies at Harvard, has been appointed by President Obama to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans, it was announced Wednesday. Hammonds has served as a member of the President’s Board of Advisors…

A new paper by Jill Dougherty, Spring 2014 Fellow and former CNN Moscow bureau chief, traces the shift in Russia’s ideology and its effect on media coverage of the Ukraine conflict. In the piece, Dougherty says, all sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict are using propaganda, including the United States and other Western countries. But, for Moscow, the conflict…

People who eat a lot of fried foods may have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, according to a large, long-term study. Led by Leah Cahill, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and An Pan of the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, the researchers examined data…

Selling the public on the insurance requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — making sure people are aware of the opportunities and helping them find a plan — has proven to be a tremendous marketing challenge. So far, fewer than 10 percent of uninsured people in the U.S. have signed up for a plan through the federal…

Children affected by HIV — those who live with HIV-positive caregivers or who are orphaned by AIDS — experience anxiety and depression at levels that are similar to children who actually have HIV, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Studying nearly 700 10- to 17-year-old children in Rwanda from March to December 2012,…

The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study today announced the 35 grant recipients for 2014. The Schlesinger Library, part of the Harvard Library, has awarded $74,000 to fund projects that explore the library’s vast collections, which provide a unique window into the lives of remarkable and…

A new online visualization tool designed to help users see connections between faculty, academic programs, and research and teaching areas has been deployed on the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) website. A defining characteristic of SEAS is the interconnectedness of teaching and research areas. It is organized around broad and overlapping areas,…

Tamil Kendall, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research postdoctoral researcher with the Women and Health Initiative and a Takemi Fellow in HSPH’s Department of Global Health and Population, is an expert in gender and HIV in Latin America who worked in the region for over a decade. She is lead author of a new four-country study that found that health care providers in Latin America are…

A survey of over 400 transgender Massachusetts residents found that nearly two-thirds had experienced discrimination over the past year in public places, ranging from hotels, stores, restaurants, and theaters to health clinics, hospitals, and public transportation, according to a new report. Those who reported unfair treatment, denial of service based on gender identity or appearance, aggressive language,…

In May 2012, Ralph Lieberman began photographing Harvard’s architecture ― from bicycle racks to library stacks ― for a project commissioned by Harvard College Library’s Fine Arts Library (FAL) and the Graduate School of Design’s Frances Loeb Library. “These photographs may be useful to multiple disciplines at Harvard, from Design and Fine Arts to the Humanities, as everyone has their…

Residents of low-income housing appear to get a boost in health from living in “green” buildings that are built with eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient features, according to a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study. The researchers, led by Meryl Colton of HSPH’s Department of Environmental Health in collaboration with the Boston Housing Authority (BHA), surveyed the health of people…

The Department of Biostatistics will host Pipelines into Biostatistics, its first Annual Symposium dedicated to increasing the presence of underrepresented groups in biostatistics and quantitative public health through formal training, collaborative research, and mentoring. The Symposium is a new component to the Department’s Summer Program in Quantitative Sciences, which, since 1994, has hosted underrepresented undergraduates…

This fall the Harvard Library will deploy the Copyright First Responders (CFRs) — a pilot program being developed as a resource for anyone at Harvard struggling with copyright issues. The program was founded by Kyle K. Courtney, the copyright advisor at the Office for Scholarly Communication.  He observed an increase in his caseload and had rising concerns about…

At the Countway Library community garden, many hands make light work — and tasty results. Recently, volunteers gathered on a bright afternoon to beautify the garden and tend to the plants. After a long and chilly spring, the garden is now flourishing. The cold and damp did not prevent a spring harvest; the team picked…

Roger Schonfeld, Ithaka S+R’s program director for libraries, users and scholarly practices, joined a Harvard Library Strategic Conversation to discuss how libraries can gather and apply user information to make data-driven strategy and planning decisions. Ithaka S+R has surveyed thousands of faculty members and hundreds of library deans, and over 30 academic libraries across the US have…

The Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study announced that historian Susan Ware, A.M. ’73, Ph.D. ’78 will become a senior adviser to the library. Ware, a Schlesinger Library Council member, will serve during the academic year while the Radcliffe Institute conducts a search for a new director…

The National Digital Stewardship Residency Boston (NDSR-Boston) program, which focuses on developing professionals in digital stewardship through post-graduate residencies, announced their first cohort of residents. Each resident will take on a project at their host institution beginning in September 2014. The residents all have interesting and unique backgrounds with one common thread – a strong…

Jumping jacks, sit-ups, relay races? Not at the recent Social Sciences Librarians Bootcamp, hosted by the Knowledge & Library Services (KLS) at Harvard Business School (HBS). Instead, attendees focused on timely topics in scholarly research, sans exercise. Discussions focused on issues such as food policy and shrinking federal grants, and librarians from 30 institutions across the country…

Harvard Direct, a new service that delivers Harvard-owned materials to one of 15 libraries selected by the patron, transitioned on June 5 from from a successful beta test to an established Library service. The service, which is available to all Harvard faculty, staff and degree-seeking students, will be rolled out at additional libraries in the coming months,…

Beginning in July, Harvard Library will upload onto its digital storage system 10 million pages of Tibetan literature that survived China’s convulsive Cultural Revolution, the movement between 1966 and 1976 that led to the destruction of countless Chinese and Tibetan literary texts. The project is the result of a partnership between Harvard Library and the…

Vice President for the Harvard Library and Roy E. Larsen Librarian of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Sarah Thomas announced that Tom Hyry will lead Houghton Library as Florence Fearrington Librarian starting this September. Hyry currently serves as director of special collections at UCLA. “Tom Hyry brings outstanding leadership qualities to Houghton, and he…

This summer the inaugural Pforzheimer Fellows are delving into projects across Harvard’s libraries, bringing a fresh perspective and learning about career opportunities. The fellowships are named in recognition of Carl H. Pforzheimer III’s generous gift to the library. James McSpadden, a history PhD candidate, is working with the uncatalogued papers of Henrich Brüning, chancellor of Germany, held…

The Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) team at Harvard Business School (HBS) turned their skills from the stacks to the pantry when they volunteered at the Greater Boston Food Bank last month, sorting over 7,500 pounds of food. For the fifth year in a row, KLS staff members took a day off from the library to volunteer…

In an effort to keep the polio virus from spreading between countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently recommended that all residents and long-term visitors in Pakistan, Cameroon, and Syria be immunized and obtain a certificate of verification before traveling. According to the WHO, these countries pose the greatest risk of exporting polio. The certificates will do little to stop the…

Howard K. Koh, assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will be rejoining the faculty at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) this fall in a new position as a professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Health Policy and Management. In his new role,…

Eighteen Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) faculty members—more faculty than at any other school of public health—have been included on a new list of the most highly cited researchers in the sciences and the social sciences, compiled by Thomson Reuters. Approximately 3,000 researchers worldwide earned this distinction. Faculty members with primary appointments at HSPH on the list…

Make a difference as an Arnold Arboretum School Program Guide. Training for the fall season of school programs at the Arboretum begins Aug. 28. We are looking for outgoing and mature adults who can commit to one year of volunteering. You do not need to know about plants, but experience working with children is preferred.…

The Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) announced today that Tufts University president emeritus Lawrence S. Bacow M.P.P. 1976, Ph.D. 1978, has joined the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) community as its inaugural Leader-in-Residence. Bacow’s two-year appointment begins this summer. Bacow is known as a prominent expert on environmental policy and environmental dispute…

The Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), recently announced Maggie Williams as its new director. The Institute of Politics (IOP) decided to sit down with Williams and learn more about her, what she had planned for the future of the IOP, and what she felt needed to be done to inspire the next generation of…

The deep pink of watermelon, the sharp crunch of carrots, the cool scent of fresh mint—these are some of the things that Lilian Cheung is hoping people will focus on while eating at the Harvard School of Public Health’s new “Mindful Eating Corner” in Kresge Cafeteria. Cheung, lecturer and director of health promotion and communication in the Department…