Light bulbs, hand-dryers, or chilled- and hot- water pumps rarely evoke dedicated interest or enthusiasm, but for Harvard’s building managers and facility leaders the energy and cost savings these technologies can deliver tend to inspire such reactions. To capture this enthusiasm, Harvard’s first-ever sustainability-focused Operations and Maintenance trade show was held on Tuesday January 21.…

Katia Bertoldi, associate professor in applied mechanics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has been selected to receive the 2014 Thomas J. R. Hughes Young Investigator Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The award, established in 1998, recognizes special achievements in applied mechanics for researchers under the age…

How hard is it for women in Appalachia to get an abortion, and what’s the impact on their health if access is a problem? Jennifer O’Donnell wants to know the answers to those questions. As part of her research, she has waited inside waiting rooms in health clinics and outside shopping centers in Kentucky, Tennessee,…

A new study finds that people with access to a gun are three times more likely to commit suicide and almost twice as likely to be murdered. David Hemenway of Harvard School of Public Health — who wrote an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine to accompany the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) study — said that the results suggest that people should try to limit…

The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts announced today the appointment of James Voorhies as the first John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director of the Carpenter Center, effective February 5, 2014. A curator, art historian, and writer, Voorhies comes to the Carpenter Center from Bureau for Open Culture, an itinerant contemporary arts institution where…

In a 2007 excavation of Harvard Yard, archaeology students unearthed a handful of metal fragments, each imprinted with a letter. The pieces, which were determined to be 17th-century movable type, root the history of printing at the feet of current students and gave context for Houghton Library’s letterpress printing workshop during this year’s Wintersession. Across…

Students who attended “Treasures of the Loeb Music Library,” a Wintersession event hosted by Library Assistant Peter Laurence, Reference and Digital Program Librarian Kerry Masteller, and Music Reference and Research Librarian Liza Vick, arrived at the Merritt Room to a cross-section of the library’s rare recordings, medieval manuscripts, annotated scores and early edition songbooks. “The…

K. “Vish” Viswanath, professor of health communication at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), is interested in finding better ways to communicate health information to lower-income individuals. He answers three questions about a recent study he co-authored that analyzed how the poor use the Internet when they are provided with access — the first randomized controlled trial…

The United States could learn a thing or two from Singapore when it comes to providing quality health care at reasonable cost, according to biologist, entrepreneur, and author William Haseltine. Intrigued by the fact that the Southeast Asian nation spends only 3% of its GDP on health care in contrast to the United States’ nearly 18%—yet has a healthier population—Haseltine,…

Robert Kirshner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has received the James Craig Watson Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his lifetime scientific achievements in astronomy. The NAS will present his medal at a ceremony at the Academy’s annual meeting on April 27, 2014. Kirshner is among 15 individuals honored by the…

A new report released by Harvard’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights on January 13, 2014 documents the dire conditions faced by Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. Released in conjunction with a United Nations-sponsored donor conference on Syria taking place in Kuwait on January 15, the report urges increased funding and a long-term humanitarian response to meet the…

Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the newly launched Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, has welcomed 16 fellows for the 2013-14 academic year. “We are delighted to welcome one of our most prestigious, exciting, and diverse classes of fellows of the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute, housed…

Despite progress made in educational systems in recent decades, more than 100 million children are not enrolled in primary or lower-secondary school, and many of those who do attend lack basic reading and writing skills, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). Meanwhile, many countries face high unemployment rates, while regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia  have…

The 2014 Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society has been awarded to Douglas (Doug) Finkbeiner, Harvard professor of astronomy and of physics, for the “discovery, in gamma rays, of the large unanticipated Galactic structure called the ‘Fermi Bubbles.’” He shares the prize with Meng Su (presently a Pappalardo Fellow at MIT) and Tracy Slatyer…

For years scientists have sought to unravel the mystery of why about 90% of people infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB), remain symptom-free for years, while the remaining 10% become sick and may die. A December 15, 2013 study in Nature Medicine by Sarah Fortune, the Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher associate professor of immunology and…

A new report urges a stronger focus on improving socioeconomic conditions in the U.S. as a way to improve health—especially among low-income Americans. Issued by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America, the report recommends investing in the physical and mental well-being of young children; creating communities that foster health-promoting behaviors; and promoting health…

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigator and Harvard Medical School Professor Gary Ruvkun has been named a co-recipient of the 2014 Wolf Prize in Medicine, along with Victor Ambros of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Nahum Sonenberg of McGill University. Ruvkun and Ambros are being honored for discovering that tiny molecules of RNA,control the…

Harvard’s expansive commuting and alternative transportation benefits have once again received national recognition. On January 16, 2014, Harvard was one of only ten universities to receive the Race to Excellence Gold award from the Best Workplaces for Commuters program at the University of Southern Florida National Center for Transit Research. The awards recognize organizations who…

Being overweight or obese does not lead to improved survival among patients with type 2 diabetes. The large-scale study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers refutes previous studies that have suggested that, for people with diabetes, being overweight or obese could lead to lower mortality for people compared with normal-weight persons — the so-called…

A new Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study finds that muscle strengthening and conditioning activities—like resistance exercise, yoga, stretching, and toning—is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Following nearly 100,000 women over eight years, Anders Grøntved, visiting researcher in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH, Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at HSPH, and colleagues…

“A composer puts a mirror to the audience and asks us to recognize ourselves. It’s the same as with great plays. Music is no less serious just because it is composed of tones, not words.” — Robert Levin Robert Levin, the inaugural Dwight P. Robinson Jr. Professor of the Humanities at the Department of Music…

For those who practice medicine, the fee-for-service business model and “production pressure”—the requirement to see as many patients in as little time as possible—are impediments, according to Lucian Leape, adjunct professor of health policy at Harvard School of Public Health and a leader of the patient safety movement In a Q&A with MedPage Today, Leape was asked for the…

Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently announced the appointment of HSPH alumna Karen DeSalvo, SM ’02, as the next national coordinator for health information technology starting January 13, 2014. DeSalvo will replace fellow HSPH graduate Farzad Mostashari, SM ’91, who stepped down in October. Read coverage from HealthBeat and GovernmentHealthIT. Learn more: HHS names…

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard has selected five journalists as visiting fellows for the 2014 calendar year. Each will spend a short period of time at Harvard University to work on a project designed to enhance journalism in some unique way. Taylor Goldenstein, a recent graduate of the University of Illinois’s journalism program,…

Since 2011, the Harvard research team that created Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces has demonstrated a spate of sleek applications for the super-slick coating known as SLIPS, which repels nearly any substance it touches: water, ice, oil, saltwater, wax, blood, and more. Now, SLIPS is wearable. As reported January 10 in a special issue celebrating the…

The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University announces the appointment of two assistant professors who will teach and pursue research programs at the Arnold Arboretum as joint faculty with the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (OEB) at Harvard University. The arrival of Robin Hopkins and Elizabeth Wolkovich this January represents a significant step in expanding…

Pakistani physician Anita Zaidi, SM ’99, has won the first-ever $1 million Caplow Children’s Prize, the largest humanitarian prize worldwide dedicated to saving children’s lives. Zaidi’s project—aimed at reducing child mortality in Rehri Goth, an impoverished fishing village in southern Pakistan—was one of more than 550 projects submitted from around the world. Professor and chair of the Department…

Harvard University’s undergraduate dining halls have all earned Green Restaurant Association 2- or 3-star certification for their sustainability. Certification recognizes Harvard University Dining Services’ (HUDS) ongoing efforts to operate efficiently and source sustainable products. “Sustainability is a core value for HUDS,” notes Managing Director David P. Davidson. “We work continuously to reduce the environmental impact…

As Obamacare ramped up on January 1, 2014, the United States underwent a profound change in its health care system, according to health policy expert John McDonough, professor of the practice of public health at Harvard School of Public Health. McDonough spoke Jan. 6, 2014 on Dr. Timothy Johnson’s “Truth About Obamacare” podcast on WBUR’s CommonHealth. Johnson, MPH ’76, is retired medical…

Always at the forefront of world culture, technology, business and music, legendary pianist and composer Herbie Hancock has been named the 2014 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry. Hosted by the Mahindra Humanities Center, Hancock will give six Norton Lectures in a series titled “The Ethics Of Jazz” in February and March. The series follows…