Make a difference as an Arnold Arboretum School Program Guide! Training for the fall season of school programs at the Arboretum begins on Aug. 29. The Arboretum is looking for outgoing and mature adults who can commit to one year of volunteering. Volunteers do not need to know about plants, but experience working with children…

Among developed countries, rates of violence are roughly similar. But in the United States, the chance of dying from a violent act exceeds that of other countries by a wide margin. It’s because of guns, says David Hemenway. The U.S. suffers higher rates of gun-related homicides, gun-related suicides, and unintentional gun deaths simply because so many…

A new initiative at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) aims to formalize and build on longstanding ties between the School and India. The new effort — the HSPH-India Health Partnership (HSPH-IHP) — will support and help coordinate the School’s wide range of existing research and educational activities in India, as well as encourage new…

The 22-year career of multi-platinum Def Jam Recordings artist Nas is at the heart of a joint announcement by the Hiphop Archive and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, to establish the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship. The fellowship will provide selected scholars and artists with an opportunity to show that “education is real…

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) and the Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, both at Harvard University, jointly announced today the establishment of the Hasty Pudding Fellowship at the A.R.T. The recipient of the first Hasty Pudding Fellowship is Harvard alum Ben Nelson. Nelson recently did work for Des McAnuff at LaJolla Playhouse and Stratford Festival…

In the 1960s, the late epidemiologist Ralph Paffenbarger, Jr. launched a study of men matriculating as undergraduates at Harvard University that would be among the first to link physical activity to a longer, healthier life. While teaching at Stanford in the 1980s, Paffenbarger’s enthusiasm for the work rubbed off on graduate student I-Min Lee, now professor…

Hospitals nearly tripled their use of electronic health records (EHR) systems between 2010 and 2012, according to a new study co-authored by Ashish Jha of Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The authors found that 44% of hospitals report having at least a basic EHR system. “Given the size of our country, that’s amazing progress in a…

Robert Blendon, senior associate dean for policy translation and leadership development and Richard L. Menschel Professor of Public Health at Harvard School of Public Health, recently spoke with the website Medpage Today for its “Conversations with …” video interview series. Blendon discussed still-unresolved questions around the Affordable Care Act, such as where payment will come from for…

HarvardX, the campuswide endeavor to support faculty innovation in the use of technology in teaching & research, has announced its course and module proposal cycles. Harvard faculty interested in developing HX courses or modules should begin by completing the brief proposal form. Composed of guiding questions, the exercise is designed to help refine a chosen topic, define…

Half a billion people in northern China will likely live an average of 5.5 years less than their southern counterparts because of heavy air pollution caused by coal burning, according to a new study. Researchers from China, Israel and the United States were able to compare health effects between people in the north and south…

The Summer Sustainability Program at Harvard is in full swing after getting off to a great start last month. Summer Schoolers showed an impressive eagerness to get up close and personal with Harvard sustainability on move-in weekend when nearly 50 people attended the Green Tour of Harvard Yard (see photo). Since the tour, Summer School…

Walter Willett, Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, recently spoke with the website Medpage Today for its “Conversations with …” video interview series. In an interview posted July 5, 2013, Willett discussed conflicting recommendations on calcium supplements for people over 50. Watch video…

Nancy-Ann DeParle ’83, whose nearly four years in the Obama White House included serving as deputy chief of staff for policy until this past January, is best known for her role in the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. As director of the White House Office of Health…

On June 24, 2013, family members of those killed in government-planned massacres in Bolivia in 2003 filed an amended complaint, with extensive new allegations that the defendants, former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and former Defense Minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, had devised a plan to kill thousands of civilians months in advance of the violence. The…

The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University will host Professor Doris Sommer of Harvard’s Cultural Agents Initiative and artist Pedro Reyes this Friday for a ceremonial tree planting, an event which calls attention to the capacity of art to promote social change. Cultural Agents Initiative (CAI) at Harvard University, an interface between academic learning and civic…

Although a groundbreaking 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report suggested that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year as a result of medical errors, recent studies suggest that the real number is likely much higher, according to patient safety expert Lucian Leape, adjunct professor of health policy at Harvard School of Public Health and a…

The Cambridge Archives Project hosted its “Fifth Annual Archives Crawl” June 17 through 21, which included the Harvard University Archives, the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), the Cambridge Public Works Department, the Cambridge Freemasons Lodge and Christ Church. This year’s theme was “Spaces: Sacred & Profane.” The Harvard University Archives has been a stop…

Every week, Marilyn Morgan, manuscript cataloger at Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library, leads chair yoga for librarians. “I find that librarians especially tend to be very service-oriented and put themselves last,” Morgan said. “We often feel guilty about taking time for ourselves. This class is great because anyone can carve out 30 minutes once a week.” The…

Nigeria’s Tope Folarin has won the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award, for his short story entitled ‘Miracle’ from Transition, Issue 109 (Bloomington, 2012). Transition is a publication of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University. The chair of judges, Gus Casely-Hayford, announced Folarin as the winner of the…

Parents and adults working with vulnerable young children and babies must be better equipped to shield the youngsters from “toxic stress” and other adversities that can contribute to the development of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases later in life, Jack P. Shonkoff, Julius B. Richmond FAMRI professor of child health and development and director,…

The Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT) has issued a call for Spark Grant applications. Roughly five awards ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 will be given to ideas that “spark” promising teaching and learning projects from idea to reality, and positions innovations for future success. Harvard faculty, students, and staff are encouraged to apply. Although HILT welcomes any proposals…

A device that can instantly identify unknown liquids based on their surface tension has been selected to receive the 2013 R&D 100 Award—known as “the Oscar of Innovation”—from R&D Magazine. Invented in 2011 by a team of materials scientists and applied physicists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss…

John Quackenbush, professor of computational biology and bioinformatics in the Department of Biostatistics, has received a White House Open Science Champion of Change award in recognition of his efforts to ensure that vast amounts of genomic data are available, accessible, and useful. He was one of 13 people across the nation to be honored at a June 20,…

Preventable emergency room visits and hospitalizations represent only a small part of the health costs among Medicare patients with the highest expenses, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers. The study, appearing in the June 26, 2013 issue of theJournal of the American Medical Association…

How well a hospital performs on three major publicly reported conditions—heart attack, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia—may prove a useful tool in signaling overall hospital mortality rates, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study. Examining Medicare data from 2,322 acute care hospitals from 2008 through 2009, the authors found that mortality…

“Picture a bridge over a river with a hole in the middle,” said Dahianna Lopez, a Ph.D. student in health policy at Harvard. “When people cross it, some are going to fall through the hole and into the water below. There will be people on the river bank who will jump in and pull them out…

Taking even a small amount of iron during pregnancy cuts a woman’s risk of developing anemia and decreases the risk that her baby will be born with a low birth weight, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers and colleagues. In an analysis of data from 92 randomized trials and…

At 625 Massachusetts Avenue, which houses many staff members in Harvard Library’s Information and Technical Services (ITS), lunchtime is an opportunity to slip away from work and take just a few steps to an art museum. Staff discuss the pieces that fill the walls of the room, brightening the space and showcasing the—otherwise hidden—artistic abilities…

Fifteen Harvard archivists presented at or helped to organize the 40th annual meeting of the New England Archivists (NEA)—a number University Archivist Megan Sniffin-Marinoff said may have represented the largest Harvard presence she had seen since she became involved with the organization more than 20 years ago. Presentations by Harvard Library staff members included: Experimental Relations: Using…

The Harvard Library Board recently approved recommendations outlined in “Towards a Collections and Content Development Strategic Plan for the Harvard Library,” fulfilling key recommendations of both the Task Force on the Harvard Libraries and the Library Implementation Working Group. Collections and content development will remain in the domain of the local or School libraries, with…