Department of Environmental Health
Department Notes Archive
Below you can find all of the past Department Notes ...
June 13, 2008
At this time of year, we celebrate the accomplishments of our students.
We also have the chance to recognize and congratulate our outstanding
teachers.
Robert
Pojasek received a Petra T. S...
June 12, 2008
Today has to be the best day of the academic year. I am so proud to recognize the accomplishments of our students. It is a unique honor to be able to represent the Environmental Health faculty as we...
June 12, 2008
Congratulations to Dr. Anita Patel (“Immunity and Non-Melanoma Skin
Cancer: Environmental and Generic Risk Factors”) and Dr. Brock
Christensen (“Epigenetic Profiles, Asbestos Bur...
April 25, 2008
This week we marked Administrative Professionals Week. I thought this
was a holiday created by Hallmark to sell cards. However, searching
the web I found it was organized in 1952...
April 18, 2008
Congratulations to Jaime Hart and Lina Lander who successfully defended
their doctoral dissertations in the past week. Great work.
As
I mentioned last week, we were fortunate to have photoj...
April 11, 2008
Thanks to Bob Wright for his leadership and tremendous personal effort
in preparing the Superfund Basic Research Program proposal which was
submitted this week. Bob would be quick to point out...
April 08, 2008
Thanks to all who helped make our admitted student Open House a success last week. All of our top recruits attended, and the feedback from the attendees was very positive.
Congratulati...
March 24, 2008
Congratulations to Dr. Bob Wright who has been promoted to Associate
Professor of Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School. Bob has had
important leadership roles in our Department as Director...
March 10, 2008
I'm happy to share the news that several members of the HSPH
Occupational & Environmental Medicine Residency Program were
recently recognized for their outstanding work:
Philip
D. Par...
February 17, 2008
Congratulations to Jay Mizgerd for his just published invited review entitled "Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infection" in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Our congratulations also t...
February 01, 2008
Our
Winter Celebration is on for Tuesday February 5 from 5 p.m. until 8
p.m. at the Conference Center at Harvard Medical on Avenue Luis
Pasteur! Based on the final list of RSVP's we'll have o...
January 15, 2008
Happy New Year!
I
hope everyone enjoyed the break and the chance to be with friends and
family. It already seems like it was months ago but it was certainly
nice to take a break from the ...
December 09, 2007
First, congratulations to Melissa Perry who became the proud mother of a baby boy on Thursday this week. Details are limited but I'm told Melissa and her new son are doing well.
Congra...
November 19, 2007
You probably have heard by now that Dean Barry Bloom announced he is stepping down at the end of the academic year (http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/11.29/99-hsph.html).
I think Preside...
October 17, 2007
I hope you were able to attend the James L. Whittenberger symposium,
“Environmental Genetics and Epigenetics”, on September 28, 2007.
Andrea Baccarelli and Bob Wright gave terrif...
We are looking forward to the ENVIRONMENTAL GENETICS & EPIGENETICS
Symposium on Friday. We will start with an Introduction to Epigenetics
by Dr. Andrea Baccarelli followed by a descr...
I am back from the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology
(ISEE) meetings in Mexico City last week. The meeting was organized and
hosted by our colleagues (and HSPH graduates) Mauricio...
Orientation started this week, and we are excited to welcome our 23 new students. ?We have 10 Master of Science students, 12 Doctor of Science students and one student entering a one year residency pr...
I returned back from Switzerland over the week-end. I returned to find
the department still in good order, and my office barely recognizable
for its neatness. My new assistant Lisa Smith has t...
We are at the end of July and the second summer term has begun which must mark mid-summer. I hope everyone has taken or has plans to take a well deserved vacation break.
Jim Shine was back at...
Last month at the 100th Annual Conference of the Air and Waste Management Association in Pittsburgh, Jack Spengler received the Lyman A. Ripperton Award for distinguished achievement as an educa...
I hope everyone enjoyed the July 4th festivities and had the opportunity to be creative with time off during the week. The Wednesday holiday made for some interesting work schedules. &nbs...
Greetings from Cyprus! I arrived Tuesday evening to teach for a couple weeks and have enjoyed reconnecting with the faculty and students here at the Cyprus International Institute. I was particularly ...
Commencement on Thursday was a great event. Altogether we awarded 12 Doctor of Science degrees, 1 Doctor of Philosophy, 9 Masters of Science, and 2 Masters of Occupational Health. My job...
The big tent should be going up this week-end as we begin preparations for graduation next Thursday. I have always looked forward to the commencement ceremonies and consider congratulating the graduat...
Lots of good news as our faculty and students are recognized for their outstanding work….Dr. Melissa Perry has been promoted to Associate Professor of ...
The end of the term is here as classes end this week. Students are finishing up final projects and preparing for final exams. Students, faculty, and the teaching assistants are all looking...
On April 25th, Ann Backus testified on safety in the commercial fishing industry in Washington, D.C. before the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Marine Transportation. Based on her work wit...
There seems to be a general sigh of relief throughout the campus and a lot of empty champagne bottles around! Congratulations to Jennifer Adibi, Lope Barrero, Lisa Baxter, Jennifer Cavalla...
All else pails this week in comparison with the events on the Virginia Tech campus. Our hearts go out to the families of those senselessly murdered and our academic colleagues, students, faculty...
With the home opener at Fenway this week and the Boston Marathon on Monday I was looking forward to a little warmer weather. Not quite spring yet in Boston but hopefully soon! Thursday w...
I am very happy to share the news of our most recent faculty hire. On April 1, 2007, Dr. Marc Weisskopf joined us as the Mark and Catherine Winkler Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occup...
From my last note, you know I was in Cyprus last week. From there we went to Athens. Daylight Savings Time started on Sunday in Greece. Does that mean I have to fall back twice in t...
Greetings from Cyprus!Jeanne and I are in Nicosia, Cyprus. We are here to celebrate the success...
I am sorry to report that Heather Nelson has now joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. She and her husband Toben will have faculty positions there. Hea...
It was noticed that I got the Department notes out on Friday evening last week. This week I have fallen back to being late. Sorry. We continue to work on the Department web site. Thanks to...
Our Financial Administrators are hard at work preparing the FY08 budget for submittal next week. Thanks for their efforts and everyone's cooperation on this important planning process.We'...
I had a great time last Thursday night at our Winter Celebration, and think everyone else who attended did also. It's always nice to get together after hours and let our hair down (ok...
Happy Ground Hogs Day. Looking out the winter of my new office, I only see clouds and no sunshine. I think that means 16 more weeks of classes.Students are back from their Winter Term stud...
Last week several of our MIPS colleagues moved into their new office and lab space on the third floor. As I mentioned in my last notes, moving into new offices and new lab space is a challenging...
Wednesday to Sunday of this week I was in San Francisco with David Christiani and Majid Ezatti at an NIEHS strategic planning meeting on Global Environmental Health. (For those that think these meetin...
It may not look like winter outside but that's no reason not to celebrate. We're planning our annual EH Winter Celebration for February 8 this year. Mark your calendars for an even...
After the many weeks (months) of talking about the renovations, we are happy to report that we moved the department office down to our new digs on the 13th floor on Wednesday. We are still unpac...
On Wednesday, December 20 the students of Rose Goldman's EH 210 class will have a poster session in Rm 101a, just off the cafeteria. Stop by 10:30 - 12:30 to see their work. The Harvard Cent...
Last week we passed the 54th anniversary of the Great London Fog. At least 4000 people died from the smog caused by the trapping of air pollution from coal burning over the period of Decem...
My schedule has been taken over by meetings this past week. We hosted the annual meeting of the EPA PM Centers here (at the Newton Marriott). Petros Koutrakis and Alice Smythe did a terri...
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed the break! My wife and I had 24 family, friends and assorted college students for dinner at our house on the Cape. We always look forw...
I got back from Kuwait on Wednesday evening. We are proposing to continue studies of the environmental exposures and public health consequences of the 1990/1 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. &...
Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend! I spent a good portion of the weekend traveling to Kuwait. I am in Kuwait now with a large number of our ...
Our Department is well represented at the On My Own Time exhibit at the FXB atrium. I encourage all to visit the display and enjoy the talents of our colleagues. It was liberating t...
First, congratulations to David Christiani and his colleagues on the 25th anniversary of the Shanghai Textile Worker Study. This is one of the longest-running epidemiologic studies funded by NIO...
In my notes last week I forgot to thank Patrice Ayers and the other folks in MIPS for the nice party celebrating (belatedly) Les Kobzik’s promotion to Professor at the Brigham and here at HSPH. ...
We were all saddened by the death of our colleague Joe Harrington last Monday. Joe had been a member of our faculty since 1963. Between 1982 and 1986, Joe was Chair of the new Depa...
I had the pleasure today of meeting with the Landmark Methods Group. This is a self-described “motley group of Landmark-based doctoral students, post-docs, research scientists and very jun...
The first month of the Academic Year comes to a close today and we and our students seem to have settled into a constructive routine. This morning I am pleased to announce two new grant programs to su...
Yesterday, the EPA Administrator announced the new air quality standards for particulate matter. The 24-hour standard for fine particles was reduced to 35 micrograms of particles per cubic meter inste...
Dr. Ken Olden kicked off our Environmental Health Colloquium series describing his research on "Possible Role of Fatty Acids in Tumor Progression and Metastasis". Thanks to Ken for a ...
This week I was at the International Conference for Environmental Epidemiology and Exposure in Paris. This was a joint annual meeting of the International Society for Environmenta...
As you undoubtedly have seen, the students are back! While I don't relish the lines in the cafeteria I do welcome the energy and vitality that our students bring every Septembe...
In my last notes I mentioned that Dr. Ken Olden will be joining us as the Yerby Visiting Professor in September. I met with Dr. Olden last week and am happy to say he will start wi...
Last week I sent the first of a number of emails that will keep you informed of progress with the renovations and some of our Department Activities. Today I want to share a few gen...