Elaborately dressed as elegant skeletons and wearing “sugar skull” makeup or just party clothes, guests filled the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology’s Latin American galleries on Saturday night. Once a year, the Peabody Museum partners with the Mexican Consulate in Boston to celebrate Day of the Dead with a fiesta. This year, guests were…

A new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and University of Perugia (UNIPG) researchers has shown that egg development in the mosquito species primarily responsible for spreading malaria depends on a switch in the female that is turned on by a male hormone delivered during sex. Blocking the activation of this switch…

A group of men in Harvard’s medical community are growing mustaches in November to raise awareness and money for men’s health, particularly prostate and testicular cancer, as part of an international effort called “Movember.” Harvard School of Public Health’s Meir Stampfer, professor of epidemiology and nutrition, took the opposite tack — he shaved his 40-year-old mustache…

Two Harvard physicists earlier this week were among several researchers to receive the Physics Frontier Prize from the Milner Foundation. Andrew Strominger, the Gwill E. York Professor of Physics and Cumrun Vafa, the Donner Professor of Science, were honored for their “numerous deep and groundbreaking contributions to quantum field theory, quantum gravity, string theory and…

Norm J. Jones, who has had a long and distinguished career in academic diversity, compliance and inclusion, has been appointed the Associate Chief Diversity Officer and Deputy Director in the Office of the Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity and Equity. Jones will begin his appointment on Nov. 5, 2013. In this newly created…

What’s the best way to approach difficult-to-achieve public health goals? Be flexible. Be comfortable with “good enough.” See the glass as half-full instead of half-empty. Those were some of the recommendations from five ministerial-level public health leaders who spoke to a packed house in Kresge G-1 at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) on Oct.…

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) announced today the creation of the Sheila C. Johnson Fellowships, which are slated to bring to HKS each year ten emerging leaders dedicated to improving the lives of the underserved in the United States, including those in the African-American community. “We need to develop more leaders with a broad skill set…

Paul Bellenoit knows libraries. In 19 years since joining Harvard University he has worked on hundreds of projects, including a five-year renovation of Widener Library and the redesign of Lamont’s three reading rooms and café. He also led the 27% reduction of the libraries’ greenhouse gas emissions and has been involved in the packing, shipping,…

The Arnold Arboretum’s 281-acre landscape is a living museum, displaying plants sourced from all corners of the temperate world for conservation and study. To expand and refine these collections, staff participate in plant exchanges with sister botanical gardens and plant conservation partners, and whenever possible, collect seed directly from the wild. Recently, the Arboretum mounted…

More than two decades ago, Uche Amazigo came to the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) from Nigeria to spend a year as a fellow in the Takemi Program in International Health. A university lecturer and biologist with training in public health and parasitology, and with a specialty in tropical diseases, Amazigo had already conducted…

Chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, are the leading cause of death worldwide, with the burden falling heaviest in low- and middle-income countries. A new article by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers outlines the global burden of chronic, or noncommunicable, diseases and proposes ways in which national leaders and heads of…

Construction workers are frequently stressed about work-related injuries and pain and often fail to seek help, putting themselves at risk for more injuries and mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and even suicide, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study was published online October 1, 2013 in the Journal…

The Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has named social entrepreneur Sasha Chanoff this year’s recipient of the Gleitsman International Activist Award for his tireless work as founder and executive director of RefugePoint, a nonprofit organization that protects and finds lasting solutions for refugees in extreme danger. The award and $125,000 prize, given biennially…

The thousands of trees, shrubs, and vines that visitors encounter at the Arnold Arboretum exemplify the abundant diversity of Earth’s woody plants as well as the many adaptive strategies they employ to ensure the success of their offspring. Autumn is a great time to explore this phenomena in the Arboretum landscape, as many plants produce…

Jonathan Lavine, M.B.A. ’92, co-chair of the Campaign for Harvard School of Public Health, last night announced the School’s intention to raise $450 million by 2018. The announcement marked the end of the two-year “quiet phase” of the campaign, during which the School raised $167 million for priorities such as student financial aid, professorships, and…

The recent launch of the Healthcare.org website, the online portal for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has been riddled with technical glitches and delays, frustrating users and insurers, and prompting many lawmakers to point fingers and others to suggest delaying the open enrollment period. While the technical glitches might look bad from a political perspective, Joe…

The Arab Spring, which raised hopes for a wave of democratic reforms throughout the Middle East, has so far led to regime change in only four countries—Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Why that dramatic series of almost synchronized uprisings reaped such modest dividends is the subject of a new paper, “Tracking the ‘Arab Spring’: Why…

Caroline Buckee, assistant professor of epidemiology and associate director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), was hailed as one of 10 “visionaries whose ideas are shaping our future” by CNN. An October 22, 2013 article profiled Buckee and nine other thinkers in the world of science and technology “who…

For the third consecutive year, the commonwealth’s major blindness organizations are sponsoring a unique job fair at the Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study. The 2013 Job Fair for Individuals with Visual Impairments will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday in Radcliffe’s Knafel Center/Gymnasium, 10 Garden St., Cambridge. Job-ready individuals who are blind…

The Shorenstein Center welcomed Betsy Fischer Martin, managing editor of NBC News Political Programming and former senior executive producer of “Meet the Press,” to share her thoughts on the changing media landscape. During her 20-year tenure at “Meet the Press,” Fischer Martin said, technology changed the show considerably. Her job when she started as an intern…

Two Harvard School of Public Health faculty members from the Department of Health Policy and Management — Ashish Jha and Michelle Mello — have been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM). They are among 70 newly elected members and ten foreign associates of the organization, which serves as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and…

Active camouflage has taken a step forward at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), with a new coating that intrinsically conceals its own temperature to thermal cameras. In a laboratory test, a team of applied physicists placed the device on a hot plate and watched it through an infrared camera as the…

In the spirit of Veterans Day, Harvard Undergraduates Honoring Veterans (HUHV) will be hosting its first-ever charity benefit, Standing Tall for Veterans, on Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. in Lecture Hall B of Harvard’s Science Center, 1 Oxford St. At the core of the event, HUHV will honor prominent stand-up comic and television personality Kathy…

Political rallies stir passions, but do they impact the results at the ballot box and ultimately on policy choices? Those are the questions underlying a new research paper co-authored by Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professors David Yanagizawa-Drott and Daniel Shoag. The paper, titled “Do Political Protests Matter? Evidence from the Tea Party Movement,” is published in the…

Now that the government shutdown is over and the Affordable Care Act has taken effect, how can and should policymakers judge the effectiveness of the new program? That is the question underlining a new paper, “The Affordable Care Act: A User’s Guide to Implementation,” co-authored by Sheila Burke, adjunct lecturer in public policy at Harvard…

The brainchild of a Harvard Kennedy School executive session provided the basis for new legislation recently introduced in the Senate. Jeff Katz MC/MPA 2000 and Listening to Parents, the organization he founded and currently heads, organized the 2011 executive session with 18 experts in adoption and family policy. The effort led to recommendations and a…

It’s not a good idea to cut out all fat from the diet because some fats are “good,” says Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) nutrition expert Dariush Mozaffarian. What’s more, eating some fat can satisfy the appetite longer — which can actually lead to consuming fewer calories. “Total fat intake has little or no impact…

The Arnold Arboretum opens its doors to international percussion group Ensemble Evolution as its first artists-in-residence this November. A collaboration cultivated by local percussionist Maria Finkelmeier, Ensemble Evolution will present a three-part residency in early November highlighting the creative connection between composing and performing music dedicated to and inspired by nature. On Friday, November 8,…

David J. Mooney, Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, is among seven Harvard affiliates newly elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. Election to…

Men may be able to boost their sperm counts by eating less processed meats such as bacon, eating more fish, and getting more exercise, according to new research from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Researchers who looked at lifestyle factors among approximately 150 male infertility patients at Massachusetts General Hospital presented their findings October…