The Wyss Institute’s human organs-on-chips, represented by the human lung, gut, and liver chips, have won the overall Design of the Year 2015 Award, which is the United Kingdom’s most prestigious design award. The honor was revealed during the annual Design of the Year awards ceremony, held on the evening of June 22 at the…

Antonella Zanobetti, principal research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health, discusses a new study that found that people appear to adapt over time as temperatures creep higher, but also may face increased mortality risk from extreme temperature swings—and their level of risk may depend on where they live. What did you discover that hadn’t…

New findings by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers and colleagues have identified strategies that are effective in helping keep kids’ weight down and that get a significant bang for the health care buck. The five-year collaborative Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost Effectiveness Study (CHOICES) modeled the costs and benefits for four approaches: taxing…

On June 17, nine people were killed when Dylann Roof opened fire in Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center, weighed in on the topic of gun violence and mass shootings. Are mass shootings becoming more common in the U.S.? Most shootings…

A new drug screening technology developed at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has identified a new potential anti-diabetes compound — and a powerful way to quickly test whether other molecules can have a positive effect on a critical molecular pathway believed to be central to diseases ranging from diabetes to retinitis pigmentosa,…

A new NPR/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll finds that although almost three in four adults played sports when they were younger (73%), only one in four (25%) continue to play sports as adults. But that decline in interest doesn’t stop parents from encouraging their children to make sports a…

Founded in 1973, the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies (RI) promotes research on Japan and brings together Harvard faculty, students, leading scholars from other institutions, and visitors to create one of the world’s leading communities for the study of Japan. For graduate students with a Japan interest, RI has provided dissertation completion grants, language study grants, and other travel and research…

Partially hydrogenated oils — the primary source of artificial trans fats in processed foods — are no longer “generally recognized as safe” for use in human food, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision announced June 16, 2015. Companies will have three years to remove these oils from their products. The ruling does…

Calling the Administrative Fellows Program “a time-honored cornerstone of Harvard’s diversity efforts,” Leslie Kirwan, Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean for administration and finance, paid tribute to the 21 fellows who completed the program this year. Administered by the Office of the Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity and Equity, AFP offers a year…

In a new Nieman Reports cover package, reporters and editors discuss strategies for creating more inclusive newsrooms and how racially diverse staffs can improve coverage. Included in the issue: Myrtle Beach Sun News columnist Issac Bailey writes an impassioned personal essay on facing a barrage of insults and racist comments following the election of President Obama in…

“[Some] teachers tell us to stop being creative and to start being serious about work,” begins Harvard Professor Doris Sommer. “But we say that if you can be creative with work, you are being critical too.” This philosophy is the foundation of Sommer’s innovative “Pre-Texts” literacy program that helps children bridge the gap between creative…

On Tuesday, June 9, Harvard kicks off another farm fresh season as the Farmers’ Market at Harvard in Cambridge opens in its central campus location in the Plaza at the Science Center. Running every Tuesday from 12-6 p.m., the market hosts weekly vendors and a variety of rotating merchants and services. The new Farmers’ Market…

A groundbreaking new report on women and health has found that women are contributing roughly $3 trillion to global health care, but that nearly half of this work—2.35% of global GDP—is unpaid and unrecognized. The June 5, 2015 Lancet report, issued by the Commission on Women and Health, is being launched the same day at…

A new study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that death rates among people over 65 are higher in zip codes with more fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) than in those with lower levels of PM2.5. It is the first study to examine the effect of soot particles in the air in…

Teenagers who are significantly overweight appear to have twice the risk of developing colorectal cancer in middle-age compared with teens of normal weight, according to a study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers. Elizabeth Kantor, lead author and research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology, and colleagues tracked the health of…

Several hundred colleagues, family, and friends from as far away as Israel and Japan gathered together on May 22 at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area to attend a memorial service and award presentation celebrating the life of esteemed Professor Marvin Zelen and the lasting impact he made at Harvard T.H. Chan…

“You are not just creating a resume. You are creating a biography,” Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk told graduates at the School’s 2015 Commencement ceremony. He urged graduates to stay alert for “the tap on the shoulder from unexpected opportunities,” and to not be afraid to follow career paths that…

After a prostate cancer diagnosis, eating a diet higher in red and processed meat, high-fat dairy foods, and refined grains—known as a Western diet—may lead to a significantly higher risk of both prostate cancer-related mortality and overall mortality compared with eating a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, fish, whole grains, and healthy oils, according to…

The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) is pleased to announce the appointment of renowned journalist Bob Schieffer as the newest recipient of the Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellowship. Schieffer’s fellowship will focus on the 2016 presidential election and extend over three semesters, beginning in September and…

On May 1, elected officials and community volunteers representing the Allston-Brighton neighborhood held their annual Legislators’ Breakfast to celebrate the year’s successes and share a vision for continued partnership and progress. The celebration was held at the new Harvard Ed Portal, an innovative collaborative partnership involving Harvard University, the city of Boston, the Harvard Allston…

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, has welcomed twenty-one fellows for the 2015-2016 academic year. “We are delighted to welcome one of our most distinguished  classes of W. E. B. Du Bois…

Francisco Cai could have parlayed his Stanford computer science degrees into opportunities developing a smartphone app or increasing a website’s ad revenues. Instead, he sought out a way to use his formidable coding skills to tackle problems affecting more of the world’s population. After working in a hospital for a year translating electronic medical records…

The Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University announced the recipients of the 2015 Selma and Lewis Weinstein Prize in Jewish Studies. Elena Florence Hoffenberg ’16, a junior in Cabot House, and Yoav Schaefer ’15, a senior in Adams House, both won this year’s Selma and Lewis Weinstein Prize in Jewish Studies. The Weinstein Prize,…

Hannah Merves, a member of the Harvard Business School M.B.A. Class of 2015, has been named winner of the School’s prestigious Dean’s Award. She will be formally recognized by HBS Dean Nitin Nohria at Commencement ceremonies on the HBS campus on Thursday, May 28. Established in 1997, this annual award celebrates the extraordinary achievements of…

On Tuesday, May 26, Michael D. Smith, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), announced that Margot Gill has been appointed to the newly created role of administrative dean for International Affairs, effective July 1. In this new role, Gill will support and implement international initiatives of the FAS, as defined…

More than a hundred students and humanitarian relief professionals spent April 24-26, 2015 learning how to rapidly respond to a refugee crisis while being faced with a host of stressful distractions from confrontational child soldiers to rogue journalists. It was all part of the annual disaster simulation organized by The Lavine Family Humanitarian Studies Initiative,…

Excerpted from a May 19, 2015 message by Harvard President Drew Faust to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health community: As you know, Julio Frenk recently announced his plans to step down as dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health this August [2015] in order to become president of the…

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study awarded the Captain Jonathan Fay Prize to three graduating Harvard College seniors — Natalie Smith, Dennis Sun, and Eleanor Wilkinson — who demonstrated exceptional and original work on their theses. The 2015 Fay Prize recipients were chosen from 68 Thomas Hoopes Prize winners for outstanding scholarly work or research. “These…

The Korea Institute at Harvard University promotes the study of Korea and brings together faculty, students, scholars, and visitors to create a leading Korean studies community at Harvard. Through the Korea Institute, Harvard offers resources for graduate and undergraduate students to study Korea. On campus in Cambridge, students take courses on Korea and may choose…

Divinity School students Melissa Bartholomew and Rachel Foran are the co-chairs of the Harvard Divinity School Racial Justice & Healing Initiative, a group of HDS students committed to cross-disciplinary dialogue, scholarship, and training in order to address personal and systemic racism. HDS communications recently caught up with Melissa and Rachel to learn more about the…