Gary Ruvkun, Harvard Medical School professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital, was named one of six winners of the 2015 Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences. Each winner, along with winners in physics and Mmathematics, will receive a $3 million prize. Ruvkun and Victor Ambros, University of Massachusetts Medical School, were each recognized for the discovery of…

Diseases that still have no cure. A critical shortage of primary care practitioners. Health disparities at home and abroad. Questions about the most basic biological processes that remain unanswered. Harvard Medical School researchers, trainees and students have no lack of potentially transformative ideas to tackle these and other challenges in health care and basic biomedical…

Harvard materials scientist Jennifer A. Lewis, whose pioneering work in the field of microscale 3D printing is advancing the development of artificial organs, flexible electronics, and special new materials, has been named among Foreign Policy magazine’s “100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2014.” Lewis, the Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at the Harvard School…

Harvard scientists say aspects of solar geoengineering can— and should — be tested without need for full-scale deployment. A vast majority of scientists believe that the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate and that human activity is almost certainly the dominant cause. But on the topics of response and mitigation, there is far less consensus.…

A recent Harvard Library Strategic Conversation explored why the prices of journals are so high, why they grow faster than inflation, why they vary widely from publisher to publisher, why different universities pay different prices for the same journal, and how these prices impede research and scholarship. The session was led by Peter Suber from…

Meredith Rosenthal, professor of Health Economics and Policy, is marking one year as Harvard School of Public Health’s associate dean for Diversity. Here, she discusses goals and challenges in creating a more diverse, more inclusive School—and why it’s so important. HSPH: What’s going right at Harvard School of Public Health in terms of diversity and…

Harvard researchers Robert Kirshner, Christopher Stubbs, and Peter Challis have been named co-recipients of the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their role in the 1998 discovery of dark energy and the accelerated expansion of the universe. This discovery fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe and resulted in a Nobel Prize in…

Moneera Al-Ghadeer is the Fall 2014 Shawwaf Visiting Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. CMES: You’re teaching two Arabic literature courses this fall, one of which is taught in Arabic: “Invisible Societies in the Contemporary Arabic Novel.” Who are those invisible societies? AL-GHADEER: Usually they are marked by race, sometimes sexuality,…

Simple text message reminders to take medication can help malaria patients stick to their medication regimen, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the non-profit Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). The study was published October 28, 2014 in PLOS ONE. “When patients don’t complete their full medication…

The Harvard Library announced a new policy on the use of digital reproductions of works in the public domain. When the Library makes reproductions and they are openly available online, it will treat the reproductions themselves as objects in the public domain. It will not try to restrict what users can do with them, nor will…

October 28, 2014 — Pedestrians outside Lamont Library were appalled earlier this month to see books and papers sodden on their shelves, once-orderly stacks unfurling into a warped disaster zone. But a cheerful sign relieved tension and judgment — it was all part of the Library’s Emergency Response & Recovery Workshop, which trains library staff…

As part of its 20th Anniversary celebration, the Science Club for Girls (SCFG) announced the creation of the Angela Mathew Outstanding Mentor Award, in memory of Angela Mathew, Harvard’s Chapter President, who tragically died in a car accident this past February. “Angela was dear to the heart of all of us, and was an exemplary…

Child asthma rates have been rising in many parts of the world for many years, disrupting lives and driving up healthcare costs, but there may be new reason for hope to begin reversing the trend. A new Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Research Working Paper study co-authored by Professor Richard Zeckhauser finds data-driven support for the…

Svante Myrick, the pioneering Mayor of Ithaca, NY, and Nina Dudnik, Founder and CEO of Seeding Labs, an innovative nonprofit that empowers talented scientists in developing countries to conduct life-changing research, have been named this year’s recipients of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Awards. The awards will be presented by Jack Schlossberg, John F.…

Among pregnant women infected with HIV, the use of antiretroviral (ARV) medications early in pregnancy to treat their HIV or to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV does not appear to increase the risk of birth defects in their infants, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is one…

Young adults in America are plagued with debt, low-paying jobs, poor physical health, and psychological burdens, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. Titled “Investing in the Health and Well-Being of Young Adults,” the report recommends viewing 18- to 26-year-olds as a distinct group when it comes…

“Don’t throw the past away / You might need it some rainy day,” sang Peter Allen. “Everything old is new again.” The adage has certainly proven true for libraries’ special collections. Their transformation from untapped wilderness into researchers’ wonderland was the focus of a recent Harvard Library Strategic Conversation with Sarah Thomas, vice president for…

Librarians and faculty from across Harvard, the United States, and even across the pond gathered to share problems and brainstorm solutions around the long-term life of print materials in a digital age at the Harvard Library’s Symposium on Sustainable Models for Print Storage in 21st-Century Libraries. Large themes and issues such as funding and institutional…

Doctors don’t have good ways to talk to their patients about guns — and that’s why an upcoming conference aimed at helping them do so is important, according to David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Hemenway was quoted in an op-ed column in the New York Times on November 3, 2014. The…

Congressional efforts to undermine school lunch nutrition standards implemented in 2012 could threaten progress in the fight against childhood obesity, according to an opinion piece in the October 29, 2014 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Critics of the standards, including some school officials and food-industry advocates, have raised concerns about increased food waste, decreased…

Women are more likely than men to dismiss chest pain that signals heart problems and to delay seeking medical help, even though heart disease is a leading cause of death for both women and men, according to a Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) expert. Studying patients with suspected coronary artery disease who were about…

Young adults in America are plagued with debt, low-paying jobs, poor physical health, and psychological burdens, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. Titled “Investing in the Health and Well-Being of Young Adults,” the report recommends viewing 18- to 26-year-olds as a distinct group when it comes…

Pardis Sabeti has been a leader in the effort to analyze Ebola’s genetic code and track its mutations. Sabeti, who is an associate professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard School of Public Health, associate professor, Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and senior associate…

Approximately 120 guests gathered at the Barker Center Saturday to celebrate the retirement of English and African and African American Studies Professor Werner Sollors, in an event hosted by the Department of English. “Keywords in American Literary Studies: A Conference for Werner Sollors,” began at 9 a.m., featured four panel discussions and was followed by…

The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) is pleased to announce the appointment of two distinguished technological leaders, Aneesh Chopra and Nick Sinai, as the inaugural recipients of the newly established Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellowship. Chopra and Sinai will work in partnership as joint Walter Shorenstein…

Nearly half (48 percent) of firearm retailers in New Hampshire displayed materials from a firearm suicide prevention campaign generated by a coalition of gun owners and public health professionals, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. It is the first collaboration between firearm retailers and public health professionals…

Members of the Optical Society (OSA), a leading professional organization for those who study the science of light, have elected Harvard physicist Eric Mazur to serve as OSA vice president in 2015. He will serve one year as vice president, followed by one year as president-elect, president in 2017, and past-president in 2018. Mazur is…

The death of a mother in pregnancy or childbirth is not an isolated tragic event, but one that also can devastate the health and economic wellbeing of her family. A panel discussion held October 7, 2014 at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) explored new findings documenting these repercussions in five African countries where maternal…

A comprehensive analysis of data from 27 public opinion polls conducted by 14 organizations, including a poll in September of those most likely to vote, shows an electorate polarized by political party when it comes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A majority of Republican likely voters want the next Congress to repeal the law…

Paula Johnson, professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health was one of 70 new members elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the National Academies announced October 20, 2014. Johnson also is executive director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology; and chief of the division of…