Alessandra Canta ’21, a joint chemistry and astrophysics concentrator with a secondary field in MCB, has won the Captain Jonathan Fay Prize. Gregg Tucci, director of undergraduate studies, recently shared this news with the Department citing that this is the first time a chemistry concentrator has won in more than 30 years. Her thesis, “Unlocking the…

The Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government is pleased to announce two winners of the 2021 John T. Dunlop Prize in Business and Government. Sewon Park won for her thesis, “Jobs Saved by the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP): The Importance of Smaller Loans, Flexible Program Requirements, and Targeting.”…

Dirty emissions from coal-fired power plants have been declining in recent years. But other sources of air pollution — including soot from the burning of gas, biomass, and wood in buildings — now have more negative health effects than coal combustion, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The…

The Growth Lab is announcing the launch of Metroverse, an Urban Economy Navigator designed to provide policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, business organizations, civil society, and the general public with unprecedented economic data for more than 1,000 cities in 79 countries. The platform vividly illustrates the technological capabilities that underpin a city’s economy and its opportunities for…

Eleven Harvard faculty members received 2021 Walter Channing Cabot Fellowships for their achievements in “literature, history or art, as such terms may be liberally interpreted.” The group includes: Rosie Bsheer Assistant professor of history “Archive Wars: The Politics of History in Saudi Arabia” (Stanford University Press, 2020) David Damrosch Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Comparative Literature and…

Silkroad, the non-profit arts and social-impact organization that is home to the Grammy Award-winning musical ensemble founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and now led by Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens, announced today the appointment of Alicia Robinson as its first director of education and social impact. In this role, Robinson will advocate for and ensure that…

Professor Evelynn Hammonds has achieved many “firsts” in the space of diversity, inclusion, and belonging: she is the first openly gay, female, African American dean of Harvard College; first senior vice provost for faculty development and diversity at Harvard; founding director of the MIT Center for the Study of Diversity in Science Technology and Medicine;…

For Harvard’s Lawrence D. Bobo, the month of May made for notable additions to his academic trophy case. The W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences and dean of social science was awarded two major prizes in the field of public opinion research and received an additional honor from his alma mater, Loyola Marymount…

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, a center internationally recognized for its fellowships, publications and programs, has selected 22 Nieman Fellows from across the globe for a year of on-campus study. The journalists will focus their work on some of the most urgent issues facing the industry, ranging from racial justice to disinformation.…

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs are pleased to announce the results of the 2021 competition for awards from the Lemann Brazil Research Fund. “We were tremendously impressed by the caliber of applications received,” said Rick McCullough, vice provost for research and professor…

Having attended private tutoring centers as a child and worked at them throughout high school and college, Ph.D. candidate Edward Kim was surprised that such an integral part of his own upbringing had not been heavily studied. He entered HGSE’s Ph.D. Program intending to learn more about private tutoring, an industry that has steadily grown over the last 20…

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation announced this week that James (Jim) G. Anderson is the recipient of the organization’s highest honor and only international prize, the 2021 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences. This year, the $250,000 biennial prize was awarded for work in environmental chemistry. Anderson, the Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, was chosen for…

Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) has named writer and author Jia Tolentino as its 2021 Class Day speaker. Tolentino will address GSD’s Class of 2021 and their families during Harvard’s 2021 graduation exercises on Thursday, May 27. The talk is currently scheduled to begin approximately at 1:10 p.m. EST, to be streamed live on GSD’s YouTube…

Exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) has been linked with significantly increased risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children, particularly if exposure occurs during the third trimester of pregnancy or during early childhood, according to a meta-analysis from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study was published April 29, 2021, in…

In a new paper from researchers at SHINE, the Human Flourishing Program, and the Harvard Chan Department of Epidemiology titled Psychometric Properties of Flourishing Scales From a Comprehensive Well-Being Assessment published in Frontiers in Psychology, authors Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, Piotr Bialowolski, Matthew T. Lee, Ying Chen, Tyler J. VanderWeele, and Eileen McNeely develop a measure of…

Gender-affirming surgeries are associated with numerous positive health benefits, including lower rates of psychological distress and suicidal ideation, as well as lower rates of smoking, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study examined data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, which included nearly 20,000 participants, 38.8 percent…

Yulander Wells, Jr. has been named Harvard’s deputy athletic director for external operations and relations, Erin McDermott, the John D. Nichols ’53 Family Director of Athletics, announced this week. In his role, Wells will provide strategic leadership and be responsible for broad supervision of the athletic department’s external units, which includes communications, business development, ticketing, marketing,…

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University announced this week the 2021-22 class of fellows. “We are happy to welcome an extraordinary cohort of W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute Fellows,”…

During the past 30 years, the world’s top medical journals have rarely published scientific articles about the impact of racism on health, according to a new analysis co-authored by Nancy Krieger of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Of more than 200,000 articles published over the last 30 years in the New England Journal…

The 2021 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize has been awarded to scientists Lynne Maquat and Joan Steitz for seminal discoveries in the biology and function of RNA, the workhorse molecule of cells. Their discoveries have reshaped the understanding of RNA’s myriad roles in healthy cell function and in disease-causing dysfunction and have informed the conceptualization and…

Policies aimed at protecting people from adverse health impacts related to unconventional natural gas development (UNGD), or fracking, may not work as intended, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study, conducted with colleagues from the research institute PSE Healthy Energy and Duke University, looked at the…

Harvard College’s Advising Programs Office virtually awarded advisers from throughout the University with the prestigious Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising. The Star Prizes were established by James A. Star ’83 to recognize and reward individuals who contribute to the College through their exemplary intellectual and personal guidance of undergraduate students. Prizes are awarded…

The risk of childhood undernutrition varies widely among villages in India, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in collaboration with researchers at Harvard’s Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard’s Center for Population and Development Studies, Korea University, Microsoft, and the Government of India. The study is the first to…

Sahil Lauji ’21 was one of 12 students and recent graduates selected to participate in the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows program run by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Lauji is a government concentrator from Georgia whose senior thesis, “Global Power Building: The Transnationalization of the Movement for Black Lives,” explored international relationships to historical…

Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) announces the establishment of the R. Buckminster Fuller Professorship of Design Science, thanks to the generosity of Amy C. Edmondson ’81, A.M. ’95, Ph.D. ’96, and George Q. Daley ’82, M.D. ’91. Edmondson and Daley both have long-standing ties to Harvard University — Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of…

Among pregnant women who use a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drug called tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) — which is also being evaluated for the treatment of COVID-19 — there does not appear to be any greater risk of malformations in their newborns than from other antiretroviral therapies (ARTs), according to new research from Harvard T.H. Chan…

Indoor dust mimics sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone in human cells, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The dust contains a stew of dozens of chemicals that migrate out of furnishings and that can interfere with sperm counts, fertility, successful birth, and the timing of puberty…

Critical pre-literacy skills are developed long before elementary school, through play and interactive conversations with caregivers at home. Three new early-literacy apps — released for free from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and its Reach Every Reader initiative — are designed for parents and caregivers to use with their children to encourage fun and rewarding…

Four Harvard affiliates were awarded fellowships from the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation last week. They are among a group of 184 total recipients lauded for their exceptional work in the arts and scholarship. Classics Paul J. Kosmin is the Philip J. King Professor of Ancient History. His research centers…