To shed some light on the secret world of special operations forces, the Shorenstein Center invited Linda Robinson, senior international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. Robinson, author of One Hundred Victories: Special Operations Forces and the Future of American Warfare, has been granted unique and special access to the covert operators, and she shared her thoughts about…

A large new study led by the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (the Pop Center) aims to shed light on how people in Sub-Saharan Africa are faring as they age, given that both infectious and noninfectious diseases are becoming increasingly chronic, with people surviving longer but having to cope with long-lasting ailments. The study…

As one of only three people with direct contact to Edward Snowden, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bart Gellman shared with the Shorenstein Center how the Snowden leaks about the NSA have affected the U.S. government, marketplace, and democracy. Snowden’s greatest fear, Gellman said, was that either “he would be preempted” in his attempt to “drop a dime…

In fall 2011, Chih Chao “Justin” Yang, M.P.H. ’12, a physician pursuing a career in internal medicine, had an idea for his 1,000-word final project for Rose Goldman’s EH201, “Introduction to Environmental Health” class. With a strong interest in preventive medicine, Yang wanted to increase awareness of the need for governments to stop illegal food manufacturing…

Seven years after the end of Nepal’s armed conflict, civilian victims are still struggling in the absence of effective help from the government, according to a report released Sept. 26 by Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), in partnership with the advocacy group Center for Civilians in Conflict. According to the report, a…

A year after Christopher Columbus Langdell assumed the deanship of Harvard Law School in 1870 with the promise of making the school competitive and meritocratic, the first woman applied for admission. Helen Sawyer, a 27-year-old New Hampshire resident, wrote: “I trust that under the present liberal tone of Harvard, my sex will post no misfortune…

Never let it be said that a U.S. Supreme Court justice doesn’t keep his work close to his heart. During a lunchtime question-and-answer session at Harvard Law School (HLS) on Oct. 1, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small white booklet. “This a great document, the Constitution of…

In a new study, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found that newer combination antiretroviral (ARV) drug therapies for HIV appear to protect against puberty delays among children born with HIV. “We found that youth born with HIV do have a significantly later start to puberty than similar youth without HIV,” said lead…

HarvardX-affiliated researchers have received a grant to study how massive open online courses (MOOCs) might be adapted and personalized based on the demographic data and usage patterns of students. The study, called “MOOCs Personalization for Various Learning Goals,” will be led by Sergiy Nesterko, a HarvardX research fellow, and Svetlana Dotsenko ’10, founder of the…

Resilience — “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change” — is the quality that allows some people to survive the worst situations imaginable, writes Amy Spies, a member of the Harvard School of Public Health Leadership Council, in an October 8, 2013 blog on the Huffington Post. HSPH’s Theresa Betancourt, she writes,…

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is launching a master of engineering program in computational science and engineering (CSE) and is now accepting applications for fall 2014 admission. The master of engineering (M.E.) in CSE provides rigorous training in applied mathematics and computing skills. Students will develop and execute a computational approach to…

Racial disparities continue to exert a harmful influence on the health of non-whites in the United States, affecting such measures as obesity rates, infant mortality, and access to health care. Now, a new collaborative effort launched by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Martin Luther King, Jr.…

Older people exposed to aircraft noise, especially at high levels, may face increased risk of being hospitalized for cardiovascular disease, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). Researchers found that, on average, zip codes with 10-decibel higher aircraft noise had a 3.5%…

Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor, writer, and blogger for The Atlantic, shared with the Shorenstein Center his thoughts on the dual society in America – its historical beginning, its impact on policy, and what implications it might have on the country’s future. Coates, who is also the Martin Luther King Visiting Scholar at MIT, said, “I have…

The Harvard University Native American Program in conjunction with the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology will host a visit and public talk by Kevin Gover (Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma), director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. Gover is a former professor of law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of…

The Harvard University Department of Music is delighted to announce that the Parker Quartet will become part of the Music Department teaching faculty at Harvard University beginning in the fall of 2014. “Thanks to the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence Program, we have been fortunate to have had a Quartet-in-Residence for four weeks a year since 1985,” said…

According to the World Economic Forum’s first Human Capital Report, the U.S. ranked 43rd among 112 countries in the Health and Wellness category, which measured a country’s ability to develop and deploy a healthy workforce. It received particularly low scores in obesity, the impact on business of noncommunicable diseases, and stress. The report was co-authored by David Bloom, Clarence…

Financial reporting is crucial to a fair and functioning democracy, said Laurie Hays, senior executive editor for Beat Reporting at Bloomberg News. The challenge that financial reporters face, she said, is presenting complex economic issues in a way that large audiences can understand. Yet it is important because “the bottom line is…the bottom line,” she said,…

E-cigarettes may help reduce smokers’ exposure to toxins, but they also may cause harm, according to Vaughan Rees, deputy director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at Harvard School of Public Health. Interviewed on KUOW (Puget Sound Public Radio) on October 2, 2013, Rees said that while e-cigarettes do contain some toxic compounds, they have far less…

From the calming and relaxing properties of lavender, to the antiviral offerings of lemon balm the Harvard Countway Community Garden offers a wealth of medicinal herbs in the heart of Boston’s urban medical area. On September 27, a bright and crisp fall day, Stephanie Zabel led a community talk on medicinal herbs as part of…

Regardless of the political wranglings around the Affordable Care Act (ACA), funding public health prevention efforts must continue, said HSPH Dean Julio Frenk in an op-ed in the Boston Globe on Oct. 2, 2013. He notes that spending on prevention within the ACA has already been reduced from a $15 billion commitment to $10 billion. “Prevention may seem expensive,…

Harvard School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk has received the Abraham Horwitz Award for Excellence for Leadership in Inter-American Public Health from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Pan American Health and Education Foundation (PAHEF). He is one of five individuals from the Western Hemisphere to be honored by PAHO/PAHEF for major contributions to…

Jukka-Pekka “JP” Onnela, assistant professor of biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health, has won a prestigious Director’s New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a proposal to collect and analyze cell phone communication and sensor data to monitor social and behavioral functioning of individuals with mood disorders. One of 41 scientists around…

On September 20, the Harvard Law School Library hosted its ninth “Love Your Library Fest,” in which law students were introduced to the library by visiting various stations, including Historical & Special Collections, legal vendors and the reference desk—which offered a no-brainer “quiz” about commonly used library services. “We hold our orientation later so that…

A celebration of Harvard School of Public Health’s postdocs—as well as their mentors—was held on September 20, 2013, coinciding with National Postdoc Appreciation Week. The festive event in Kresge cafeteria featured awards, prizes, raffles, and kudos for the work and accomplishments of the approximately 300 postdoctoral research fellows who work at the School. Postdocs were…

With the launch of the new state health insurance exchanges on Oct. 1, HSPH professor Atul Gawande writes in a New Yorker editorial about three forms of obstructionism taking place to hinder the rollout: some states not accepting federal funds to expand their Medicaid programs, some refusing to operate state health exchanges, and some conservatives trying to…

The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) is thrilled to announce the launch of a three-year pilot exchange program with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), a political party in the European Parliament. The goal of this new agreement is to provide meaningful internships for Harvard College students, research opportunities…

The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) is pleased to announce that Nicolas Berggruen, founder of the Berggruen Institute On Governance and co-author of Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century, has been appointed as the center’s first senior fellow. “This appointment recognizes Mr. Berggruen’s efforts to stimulate forward-thinking research, discussion and action on Europe’s most pressing…

Imagine an automobile coating that changes its structure to adapt to a humid environment or a salt-covered road, better protecting the car from corrosion. Or consider a soldier’s uniform that could alter its own camouflage or more effectively protect against poison gas or shrapnel upon contact. A trio of university researchers from Harvard School of…

For Philips Loh, the suffering of tuberculosis patients — and the frightening ease with which the disease spreads — was a wake-up call. After working as an intern at a hospital in his native Indonesia, Loh decided to abandon his plans to become a physician and turn his focus to infectious disease prevention. Now the…