Harvard University’s 46 Blackstone Street building has won the prestigious 2012 Innovation in Green Design Award in the Green Building category given by the Massachusetts Chapter of the US Green Building Council. The building, home to Harvard’s Campus Services group, is one of only five in the world to have achieved two Leadership in Energy…

In honor of the Harvard Institute of Learning in Retirement’s 35th anniversary, the institute is hosting a forum on the American middle class moderated by Paul Solman of PBS NewsHour on Friday, April 27, 9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. at First Parish Church, 3 Church Street,  Cambridge, Mass. Admission is free and open to the…

A team of Harvard Kennedy School students that founded an international social development organization has won the 2012 Accenture Public Service Innovation Award at the Harvard Innovation Challenge. The award is intended to encourage Harvard students to “apply their creative energy to solve pressing public sector challenges and to foster the next generation of government solutions and…

Kermit the Frog has nothing on Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) when it comes to being green. Several members of the HKS community are being honored at this year’s Green Carpet Awards. The annual event celebrates staff, faculty and students who have made significant contributions to on-campus sustainability initiatives, including greenhouse gas emission reductions. The winners are…

The future of Medicare plays big in the minds of American seniors, and is looming large as a campaign issue in the 2012 elections. That was the message delivered at a Wiener Center discussion Monday (April 9) by Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis. “It turns out that the voters who are turning out…

During reading period and final exams, Lamont Library will remain open 24/7 as part of a pilot to explore longer permanent hours for the library at this time each semester, Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds and Interim Head of Harvard College Library Susan Fliss announced today.

As the United States continues to grapple with deep divisions on universal health coverage—as evidenced byreactions to last week’s Supreme Court hearings on the subject—Americans may be able to learn from health reform efforts in Mexico and other countries. Julio Frenk, dean of Harvard School of Public Health and former Mexico health minister, and David…

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is inviting alumni from across its 57 disciplines to return to Cambridge for Alumni Day on April 14, 2012. The day will begin with a keynote address by climate change expert Daniel P. Schrag, the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology and — as the director of the Center for…

On Friday, April 13, graduate alumni from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology will gather for stimulating day of conversation and disciplinary connection. The day will begin with the opportunity for alumni to meet current students and postdocs and tour the labs. Then the official part of the program will kick off, with a…

Claims of election fraud and irregularities — from ballot access and bribery to vote-rigging and electoral violence — have captured the headlines in many parts of the world — from Kabul and Kenya to Moscow and Harare. International observers repeatedly condemn these sorts of flaws. But does the general public share their disquiet? This issue…

The Institute of Politics (IOP) has launched a new John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum website featuring discussions and events from the JKF Jr. Forum – and all of it is searchable and downloadable content available to the public. The Forum’s new online home allows visitors to fully enjoy more than three decades of event programming, now offered…

“What inspires you?” It was that simple message hand-written on a yellow post-it note taped to the front door of a vacant shop in Harvard Square that has since prompted hundreds of colorful and heartfelt responses. “My 10th grade history teacher.” “My friends and parents.” “Fish fingers and custard.” “Martin Luther King.” “The Dalai Lama.”…

The 2012 Louis Néel Medal has been awarded to James R. Rice for his seminal contributions to the fundamental understanding of strain localization, poromechanics, and friction. The award committee praised his elegant and systematic studies that have elucidated fault mechanics and the coupling with hydrologic and thermal processes during all phases of the earthquake cycle.…

An ambitious new project to reinvent how robots are designed and produced is being funded by a $10-million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). A team of researchers from MIT, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania aims to develop a desktop technology that would make it possible for the average person to design, customize,…

The Office for Sustainability is proud to announce the winners of the 2012 Spengler-Vautin Special Achievement Award to be presented at this year’s Green Carpet Awards on April 12 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Sanders Theatre. Frederick H. Abernathy, the Gordon McKay Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Abbot and James Lawrence Research Professor of…

As the Supreme Court hears challenges to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from March 26-28, 2012, Harvard School of Public Health professors have been widely quoted in media coverage of the hearings. John McDonough, professor of the practice of public health and director of the Center for Public Health Leadership, spoke to…

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) voted unanimously today to approve the creation of a new interfaculty Ph.D. program in education to be offered jointly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). The program will enroll its first cohort in fall 2014. The Ph.D.…

The militant group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has waged a 25-year campaign of fear in Uganda which has since spread to neighboring Sudan, Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), killing and mutilating tens of thousands of people, looting communities, and abducting children for forced conscription. Last fall, U.S. President Barack…

The 2012 Lowell Lecture features Andrew Delbanco, recent winner of the National Humanities Medal. The lecture takes place Wednesday, April 4, in Sever Hall, room 113, at 8 p.m Once named by Time Magazine as “America’s Best Social Critic,” Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of a college education, and warns that it is becoming a…

Eating white rice on a regular basis may increase the risk for type 2 diabetes, according to new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) research. HSPH researchers from the Department of Nutrition—led by Emily Hu, research assistant, and Qi Sun, research associate—reviewed four earlier studies involving more than 352,000 people from China, Japan, the United…

Lester Brown, M.P.A. ’62, will be honored with the Harvard Office for Sustainability’s first Distinguished Service Award at the 2012 Green Carpet Awards on April 12 at 3:30 p.m. in Sanders Theatre. Brown founded the Earth Policy Institute in 2001 to work toward an environmentally sustainable economy. Described by the Washington Post as “one of…

Did you know that your couch most likely contains up to a pound of flame retardants? And that these are toxic chemicals that may cause cancer, harm reproduction, or adversely impact brain development? In a March 6, 2012 talk at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Arlene Blum—a biophysical chemist, visiting scholar in chemistry at…

Harvard University has sponsored more than 200 members of its Harvard on the Move wellness program to participate in the Cambridge City Walk/Run on April 1 and support athletics programs and college scholarships for Cambridge youth. The University is encouraging other campus walkers and runners to register online for the event at http://www.cambridgecityrun.com/ or in…

The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School and the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) will jointly honor former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III with the 2012 Great Negotiator Award on Thursday, March 29, 2012, at the Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School. The Great Negotiator…

Dudley House and the Harvard University Office for the Arts are proud to present a jazz residency with international saxophone icon David Liebman. The residency will include workshops with Harvard students and a public master class on Wednesday, April 18. The visit concludes with the world concert premiere of The Liebman Concerto, performed by Liebman,…

Rather than hitting the ski slopes or simply basking in the lull between semesters, close to 50 Harvard undergraduates spent a week of their winter break attending a new course titled “Introduction to Clinical/Translational Research,”  offered by Harvard Catalyst | The Harvard Clinical & Translational Science Center. Designed to introduce students to the growing field of…

African Americans face higher cancer rates than whites for many types of cancer, but the reasons why are largely unknown. Epidemiologist Lisa Signorello hopes to help explain the disparities in her role as co-principal investigator on a long-term study of nearly 86,000 people living in the southeastern United States—two-thirds of whom are African American. Signorello—associate…

Karen L. King, Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, has been named as one of six Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology for 2012-13 by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) and the Henry Luce Foundation. Luce Fellows engage in year-long projects selected on the basis of…

The Arnold Arboretum is pleased to announce that it has granted several research awards to support studies that utilize the institution’s collections of living plants, herbarium specimens, and extensive library and archival resources. Awards were given to Laura Lagomarsino, Jorge Lora, Bharti Sharma, Hugh McAllister, and Claire Williams. The Deland Award for Student Research was…

A new study led by HSPH researchers finds that drinking just one daily sugar-sweetened soda, juice drink, or energy drink may increase a man’s risk for heart disease by 20 percent. Researchers Lawrence de Koning and Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology, analyzed data from nearly 43,000 men ages 40 to 75 followed for…