Department of Environmental Health

Department Notes Archive – 2011

Department Notes – 2011

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Dr. Russ Hauser became Acting Chair, and then Chair, of the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health on September 1, 2016. Dr. Douglas Dockery was the Chair from 2005 – 2016.

Notes – 12/25/11

It is Christmas morning and I have a couple of minutes before everyone here in the Dockery household gets up.  It has been a very busy couple of weeks, leading up to the holidays.   Like everyone I am looking forward to a few days of family time.  I hope that everyone is enjoying a well-deserved break.

This past week we again remembered Mel First who would have turned 97 on Friday, December 23rd.   We also remember Mary Ellen (Mel) Avery, who passed away two weeks ago.  Mel was a pediatrician and one of our most famous research fellows.  In 1959, together with her mentor Jere Mead, she identified the cause of infant respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), and developed treatments for it.   Her work has saved countless infants’ lives, and for that she was awarded the National Medal of Science Award in 1991.  An inspirational trailblazer, her life’s accomplishments were summarized in an article written by Nancy Long-Sieber (see attached).

We also have some good news to report.  Bernardo Lemos, our newest faculty member, just received an award from the William F. Milton Fund for his proposal entitled “Novel models for high-throughput environmental epigenetics”.  Congratulations on an auspicious start, Bernardo!

Even though this calendar year has been full of challenges, our Department has managed to achieve much.  I’m confident that our record of accomplishments will continue in 2012.  I myself will start off the new year teaching in Japan and then Cyprus.  I will be back in Boston the third week of January.

Let me close by saying that I feel blessed to be the Chair of a department that has so many talented researchers, students, and staff.  I wish us all a relaxing break and a happy, healthy and productive 2012.  Cheers!

Doug

 

Notes – 12/2/2011

I hope everyone came back refreshed, and likely overfed, from the Thanksgiving holiday.  We are all now in the home stretch and trying to wrap up the fall semester. Even as we approach the end of  this semester, registration has opened for the Winter and Spring terms.  I wanted to call your attention to a new course entitled “Translational  Research Studies of  Occupational  Health and Safety” (EH 528) which has been organized by some of our post-doctoral fellows – Alberto Caban-Martinez, Silje Reme, Anna Wirtz, and Justin Young, plus Garry Gray.  Jack Dennerlein is serving as the faculty instructor.   Thanks to Silje, Anna, and Alberto for coming up with this concept and getting it approved and organized.  We hope lots of our students and fellows will sign up.

I wanted to share the good news that our alumnus and colleague Howard Hu was named Director of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.  He will be starting in the summer of 2012.  We congratulate him and wish him best of luck in his new position.

Two students have successfully passed their oral exams over the past two weeks:
Matthieu Trudeau, whose thesis is “Investigating the impact of mobile devices on thumb biomechanical exposures that affect user performance, comfort, and that might involve ergonomic risk factors,” and Yongmei Shen, whose thesis is “Modeling bioaccessibility of heavy metals in soils.”  Congratulations and well done, Matt and Yongmei!!

This week we had a goodbye party to Amy Cohen, our department’s Associate Director of Finance and the Program Administrator of MIPS.  We will miss her and wish her the best of luck in her new position as Director of Administration for the MD/PhD program at Harvard Medical School.

All three programs are celebrating the end of the year with parties.  Even as you work hard to finish up the year, I hope you can find the time to celebrate with your colleagues.   As has been our practice, the EH department will have a “welcome back” party on February 2, at the stat of the Spring semester.

Enjoy the weekend!

Doug

 

Notes – 11/11/2011

On Friday we celebrated Veterans Day.  We want to extend our thanks and appreciation to all who serve and have served our country in the armed services.  We are proud to have Kevin Johnson (US Navy) and Talib Ali (US Air Force) studying with us  this year.  We also acknowledge our alumni currently in the armed services, and those in our department who have family currently serving.

Ann Backus presented at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in DC last week, on the development of nursing case studies to support environmental health education.  We are proud of Ann’s leadership of our Community Outreach and Education programs.

This week we will have two seminars in our series on Climate Change and Environmental Health.  On Thursday (12:30, 1-1302) John Balbus of NIEHS will speak with the very intriguing title of “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be: Climate Change, Health, and the Federal Response.”  On Friday (12:30, Kresge 502) Philippe Grandjean and Henning Pedersen, District Medical Officer of Nuuk, Greenland will present on  “Greenland as an environmental health laboratory.”  Should be two very interesting presentations.

Hope you have enjoyed the nice weather this weekend.

 

Notes – 11/4/2011

We had a number of faculty members in the Far East this past week. In the third week of his trip to China, David Christiani gave an invited lecture at the new School of Engineering at Tongji University in Shanghai.

Joe Brain and  Nancy Long Sieber co-chaired an international symposium “The Life Cycle of Metals:  Improving Health, Environment and Human Security” co-sponsored by the University of Tokyo and our Department.  In addition to Joe and Nancy, Phil Demokritou and Akira Tsuda gave presentations.  I understand the conference was a great success.  Welocme back to all our travelers, and we are looking forward to hearing about your trips and the new research and training opportunities.

Congratulations to Sandra Pirela whose poster on copier-emitted nanoparticles received a Student Poster Award at the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) conference in Orlando, Florida.  Well done, Sandra!

Sandra’s work is part of the Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology which is featured in the fall issue of the Harvard Public Health Review.

This year’s Environmental Health Colloquium Series has been organized by the student Environmental Health and Sustainability Club and is focusing on global environmental change and human health. Ari Bernstein kicked off the Colloquium Series with his excellent presentation entitled “The Changing Climate and Health: Greenhouse Gases as a Public Health Risk“.  You can find a feature article on his talk on the HSPH web site. Don’t miss John Briscoe’s presentation this coming Thursday, November 10, entitled “Climate Change, Water, and Health”, which promises to be equally interesting.

We had an appreciation brunch and workshop for our Administrators this week.  Our administrators are the “unsung” heroes who keep the department and programs running and make it possible for faculty and students to succeed.  I think we all recognize that the administrative work load has been increasing.  For example, the number of grant submissions has doubled in the past three years.  This is a testament to the initiative of our faculty and researchers, and the increased effort by our administrators.  The brunch gave administrators from all three programs the chance to meet each other, get to know each other’s areas of expertise, and talk about the challenges that they face.  Most of all, on behalf of all the faculty and researchers I want to thank our department’s administrators for the fine work that they do!

Speaking of outstanding administrators, Amy Cohen informed us that she will be moving on to Harvard Medical School where she will be the Administrative Director for the MD/PhD program.  Amy has been instrumental in helping me understand and manage the department budget and spending, as well as my own grants.  She has done the same for the MIPS faculty and investigators. She has been a terrific mentor and coach for all of us who are challenged by our financial system.  Replacing her will be difficult, but she leaves us with great management systems in place. She’s not leaving until the end of the month, so we’ll have a chance to say goodbye and wish her well.

We ended the week on a fun note with a mixer of students, faculty, and staff from Environmental Health, Biostatistics and Epidemiology.  It was fun to unwind with our quantitative colleagues.  We plan to do this again.  I think we all need to improve our karaoke skills before then.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend – the weather is nice for this time of year, at least compared to last weekend’s snow storm.

Doug

 

Notes – 10/30/11

David Christiani sends his regards from China where he is on a three-week trip.  He gave an invited presentation on “Gene-Environment Interactions in Cancer” at the International Conference on Translational Medicine in Wenzhou, China. Participants also included Jeff Drazen and a distinguished international group.  This week he gave a Plenary talk on “Preventing Environmental Cancer” at the  International Conference on Global Health and Public Health Education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Safe travels David.

Joe Brain and Nancy Long-Sieber are in Japan this week hosting a symposium on The Life Cycle of Metals: Improving Health, Environment and Human Security at the University of Tokyo.

Petros Koutrakis reports that the Department was well represented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Expouse Sciences this week in Balitmore.  Petros hosted an social event for about 30 current and former members of our exposure assessment program.  Jeremy Sarnat, one of our alumni, received the Joan Daisey Outstanding Young Scientist Award.  We are proud of Jeremy and all of our faculty, researchers, and graduates who are having such an influence on the field.

I hope you have noticed the Environmental Health highlights on the HSPH website.  There are featured articles on Joe Braun’s recent paper on the link between prenatal exposures to BPA and behavioral and emotional problems in young girls.  There is also an article on the Mel First Symposium, and one on David Chrisitiani’s PNAS paper on smoking and copy number variation (CNV) in lung tumors.

The feature article in the current issue of Environmental Health Perspectives “Stress–Pollution Interactions: An Emerging Issue in Children’s Health Research” highlights research by Rosalind Wright and Jane Clougherty.  Jane is now on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, but continues to work with John Godleski on animal models of social stress and air pollution.

Winter abruptly arrived this weekend.  It means that the trip to and from Landmark is going be a lot less pleasant.  I note this because I have been using the Hubway bike sharing program for the past couple of months.  There are currently bike stations at Landmark, in Brigham Circle, and at the Circle at Avenue Louis Pasteur.  I have found it to be a great way to get back and forth to Landmark.  On the other hand, the other day Glenn Stern and I left Landmark at exactly the same time, Glenn on foot, and me on a Hubway bike.  We arrived back on the 14th floor at exactly the same time.  Go figure.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend this bike sharing program.  They will be shutting down soon for the winter.  Bike stations are currently only in the central Boston area, but in the spring they will expand to Cambridge and the neighborhoods in Boston.

Fall two classes start already tomorrow.  Don’t forget the mixer with the Biostatistics and Epidemiology departments on Friday.

Hope you have been safe and warm this weekend.  Happy Halloween!!

Doug

 

Notes – 10/14/11

I have to apologize for forgetting to send my notes out last week. I frankly forgot to push the send button.  So here is a slight update of my notes from October 7th.

On Friday two weeks ago we hosted a symposium dedicated to the memory of Mel First, our friend and colleague who passed away at the age of 96 this summer.  We celebrated his incredible career that extended over more than 6 decades here in our department.  We had moving tributes from our colleagues here at HSPH  (Julio Frenk, Joe Brain, Steve Rudnick, Ed Nardell), several of Mel’s students (David Leith, Janet Macher and Jack McCarthy), and colleagues (Lou Kovach, Lou DiBerardinis) from across the country discussing  their work and how Mel influenced it.  In many ways Mel’s career mirrored the evolution of HSPH and the Environmental Health department in particular, so the speakers combined to walk us through our school’s environmental public health history.  Mel’s sons Bill and Michael and daughter-in-law Kiar were in attendance, and later expressed to me their appreciation for the symposium, the reception that followed, and a dinner that followed for the family and speakers.  I want to again thank the speakers and those that helped organize the event, particularly Alissa, Barbara, and Glenn for making this event such a success.

We received the sad news that Dade Moeller passed away at the age of 85.  Dade was a Professor of Environmental Health Engineering from 1966 – 1993, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Services from 1966 – 1981, and he also served as the Associate Director of the Harvard-NIEHS Center for Environmental Health.   Dade played a major role in the development of our department and we miss him as a friend and colleague, and extend our heartfelt condolences to his family.

Welcome to Julie Goodman who is the new Harvard-NIEHS Center Administrator.  Julie has a Ph.D. from Boston University in Behavioral Neuroscience and has wide ranging experience as a researcher, instructor, and research administrator. Julie has quickly picked up the reins as we prepare for our non-competing renewal application in February, plan for the Center Directors Meeting in the spring, and our competitive renewal next year.  Welcome Julie!

Also welcome Bernardo Lemos, our newest faculty member in MIPS.  Bernardo has a BSc from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janero,  Brazil, an MSc from the National Cancer Institute/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janero, and a PhD from Harvard University in the Department of Organismic and Evoloutionary Biology, where his dissertation was “Patterns and processes in the evolution of genomic expression; Evolutionary genomics.”  We look forward to working with you.

We celebrate the move of many of the MIPS folks back to their newly renovated space on the second floor of Building 2.  We thank everyone in MIPS for their patience and cooperation as they went through the challenges of moving the entire lab, which is never easy.  We hope that they enjoy their new space and that it fosters many productive scientific discoveries and accomplishments.

Doug

 

Notes – 10/7/11

I have to apologize for forgetting to send my notes out last week. I frankly forgot to push the send button.  So here is a slight update of my notes from October 7th.

On Friday two weeks ago we hosted a symposium dedicated to the memory of Mel First, our friend and colleague who passed away at the age of 96 this summer.  We celebrated his incredible career that extended over more than 6 decades here in our department.  We had moving tributes from our colleagues here at HSPH  (Julio Frenk, Joe Brain, Steve Rudnick, Ed Nardell), several of Mel’s students (David Leith, Janet Macher and Jack McCarthy), and colleagues (Lou Kovach) from across the country discussing  their work and how Mel influenced it.  In many ways Mel’s career mirrored the evolution of HSPH and the Environmental Health department in particular, so the speakers combined to walk us through our school’s environmental public health history.  Mel’s sons Bill and Michael and daughter-in-law Kiar were in attendance, and later expressed to me their appreciation for the symposium, the reception that followed, and a dinner that followed for the family and speakers.  I want to again thank the speakers and those that helped organize the event, particularly Alissa, Barbara, and Glenn for making this event such a success.

We received the sad news that Dade Moeller passed away at the age of 85.  Dade was a Professor of Environmental Health Engineering from 1966 – 1993, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Services from 1966 – 1981, and he also served as the Associate Director of the Harvard-NIEHS Center for Environmental Health.   Dade played a major role in the development of our department and we miss him as a friend and colleague, and extend our heartfelt condolences to his family.

Welcome to Julie Goodman who is the new Harvard-NIEHS Center Administrator.  Jennifer a Ph.D. from Boston University in Behavioral Neuroscience and has wide ranging experience as a researcher, instructor, and research administrator. Julie has quickly picked up the reins as we prepare for our non-competing renewal application in February, plan for the Center Directors Meeting in the spring, our competitive renewal next year.  Welcome Julie!

Also welcome Bernardo Lemos, our newest faculty member in MIPS.  Bernardo has a BSc from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janero,  Brazil, an MSc from the National Cancer Institute/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janero, and a PhD from Harvard University in the Department of Organismic and Evoloutionary Biology, where his dissertation was “Patterns and processes in the evolution of genomic expression; Evolutionary genomics”.  We look forward to working with you.

We celebrate the move of many of the MIPS folks back to their newly renovated space on the second floor of Building 2.  We thank everyone in MIPS for their patience and cooperation as they went through the challenges of moving the entire lab, which is never easy.  We hope that they enjoy their new space and that it fosters many productive scientific discoveries and accomplishments.

Doug

 

Notes – 9/23/11

I have been back almost a week from the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) annual meeting in Barcelona.  As usual the department was well represented by current researchers and graduates of our training programs.  This meeting is also a terrific opportunity to catch up with our graduates and colleagues from around the world. It makes me particularly proud to see the outstanding work that we are currently doing and the influence we have had on the field.  Barcelona is also one of my favorite cities. The art and architecture are fascinating, but I think we all most enjoyed the food and nightlife.  All in all it was a intellectually productive conference in a uniquely refreshing locale.

This week we welcomed four work study students to help us in the Department office.  Victoria Ayano Ogawa, an MPH student in the SHDH department, joins Maleena Lee from Simmons College to assist our junior faculty. Kaylee Rees and Miranda McDaniel, both from Simmons, will assist the EH Department administrators.  Great to have some new hands on board.  Please stop by to introduce yourself and welcome them.

On Wednesday, we participated in one of the school web Forum, “Smog or Jobs? The Impact of Tigther Ozone Pollution Control on Health and the U.S. Economy”, which discussed President Obama’s recent decision to withdraw the EPA’s draft ozone air quality standards.  Panelists included Rogene Henderson, John Walke, Roger McClellan, and W. David Montgomery, and Cristine Russell served as the moderator.  We want to thank Robin Herman and Caitlin Hubbard who pulled this together so quickly, and the panelists who agreed to participate on short notice.

Yesterday we joined the school in celebrating Postdoc Appreciation Day with a reception and mentor award ceremony.  I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our department’s post-docs for helping the EH faculty with their extraordinary research. Post-docs play a vital role in a research team.  I’d also like to congratulate our own David Kasahara, who was presented with the HSPH Postdoctoral Association’s (PDA’s) Service Award in recognition of his many contributions to the PDA, postdocs at the school, and the National Postdoc Association.

Unfortunately, for financial reasons we are forced to close the Organics Lab located in G44 next month.  We would like to thank Brian LaBrecque and Scott Forsberg for their years of service in that lab, and Larissa Altshul for her consulting work over the years.  We encourage anyone that has past or current projects to contact Brian or Scott to make arrangements to get their research data and materials, or to arrange for their disposal.

More positively, two of our faculty members received notice of new grant awards.

Elsie Sunderland was awarded a National Science Foundation grant entitled “Collaborative Research: Interwove biogeochemical cycles and biological transformations of mercury and selenium in the upper ocean.”  Well done, Elsie!

Andrea Baccarelli was awarded two grants from NIEHS.  The first is an R01 in Epigenomics of Human Health and Disease, “Environment, Fetal Tissue DNA Methylation & Birthweight.”   The second one is an R21 entitled “Micro-RNA Profiling and Cardiovascular Effects of Traffic Particle Exposure.”  Double congratulations Andrea!

And special congratulations to Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, a 4th year doctoral student who has been awarded a prestigious 2011 EPA STAR Fellowship.  She will be studying the effects of air pollution sources and pollutant properties on emergency hospital admissions.  Great work Marianthi!!

Next Friday is the Mel First Symposium.  We are looking forward to this opportunity to remember our beloved mentor and colleague.

Today is the first day of fall, and we were looking forward to the start of the baseball playoffs next week. Somehow while we in Barcelona, the Red Sox went into a classic September swoon.  Hopefully they will hold on to their two game lead for the wild card in the playoffs.

Doug

 

Notes – 9/9/11

I know the school year has begun as it is hard to find a seat in the cafeteria at lunch, especially on rainy days as we had for much of the week. Classrooms are full.  The bulletin boards are filling up with announcements of seminars, working groups, and furniture for sale. The new students are eagerly trying out the menu of classes. We are getting lots of visitors stopping by the office, including many former students and trainees. There is lots of energy here at the school as the academic year gets into full swing.

On Wednesday next week the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies is hosting an open house for students and fellows from Brazil, those who have been to or are interested in going to Brazil, or any of us just interested in Brazil.

I wish I could join our Brazilian students there, but I am heading to Barcelona for the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) annual meeting. There is always a large contingent of researchers from our department at this meeting, as well as large numbers of our alumni and colleagues.  Barcelona is one of my favorite cities, and I expect the numbers will be large at the meeting.

Congratulations to Jamie and Brad Lichtenstein-Rosenblum on the birth of their daughter, Carolyn Nancy, who was born (appropriately) on Labor Day. The family is reportedly doing well. We look forward to seeing pictures.

Stefanos Kales was one of the expert panelists at the HSPH Forum this week on “Disaster Response: A Decade of Lessons Learned Post 9/11.”  Steve reviewed the health effects observed in the fire-fighters, police, and other first responders.  Well done Steve.

I am sure everyone will be thinking back on Sunday to where they were on September 11th ten years ago.  I was on the 14th floor of the Kresge building when we heard that the first plane had stuck the World Trade Tower.  I remember the feeling of powerlessness as the events unfolded that day.  I was very glad to be in Boston, as I had been in Washington the day before, at a meeting in the Executive Office building next door to the White House. Many of us had been at the ISEE meeting in Germany earlier in the week, and many of our colleagues did not get back home for several weeks.   Our lives have all changed as a result of this attack.

Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend and week.

Doug

 

Notes – 9/3/11

I hope everyone had an enjoyable summer, and is ready to start the 2011-2012 academic year..

Welcome back our returning students, and especially welcome our new students.  We currently have a total of 98 students in our department from 22 countries.

We have 11 new doctoral (ScD, PhD, and DPH) students: Yara Abu Awad, Souzana Achilleos, Miling Li, Christine Ordija, German Orrego, Yang (Sophia) Qiu, Mohammad Rahman, Rodosthenis Rodosthenous,  Emily Sparer, Peter Umukoro, Erica Walker, and Tara Zolnikov,

15 new master of science (MS) students: Julianne Baccuzzi, Erin Colllins, Meryl Colton, Lingzhen Dai, Clifton Dassuncao, Michael Grant, Torey Jerauld,  Michael Lin, Goro Maruno, Wei Niu, Vanessa Palmer, Molly Reddington, Ping Shao, Pei-Fang Tsai

and 8 new master of public health (MPH, MOH) students: Talib Ali, Kevin Johnson, Chun Lin Kwok, Beenish Mehboob, Simon Muchochi, Adesina Sanni, Dennis Teehan, and Jinming Zhang.

Undeterred by the havoc Hurricane Irene stirred up, the incoming students completed their orientation, everyone has registered and courses began mid-week.

For those of you that are new, as Chair of the Department I try to write these notes every week or so to highlight the goings on in the department and to recognize the accomplishments that people in our department achieve.  Please let me know if you have any news that you would like to share.

We have had several notable achievements in the last two weeks.  Vishal Vaidya has been awarded an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.  This is the premier NIEHS grant award for new environmental health researchers.  Well done, Vishal.

Secondly Angeliki Lambrou successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Metal exposure, DNA methylation and cognitive function,” last Thursday. Congratulations, Angeliki!

Thirdly, congratulations to Mark Long and his wife on the birth of their baby girl on August 17th.  Everyone is reportedly doing well.

I had a very successful trip to São Paulo the week before last. I was able to sneak back into Boston last Saturday, just before Irene arrived.  The trip was sponsored by TV Globo and included a live webinar on air pollution in São Paulo.  Here is a link. I also had very  positive meetings with the sponsors of our visiting students from the Faculdade de Medicina of Universidade de São Paulo.  On Friday I met with these Brazilian student to brief them on my trip, and review their experiences here in Boston.  This is a very exciting and successful exchange program.  Thanks to John Godleski and Patrice Ayers for making this happen.

I hope everyone is enjoying the long Labor Day weekend, and will be ready to start the fall academic year in earnest on Tuesday.

Doug

 

Notes – 8/21/11

It has been fairly quiet over the last couple of weeks.  New students should start arriving this week, with orientation starting a week from Monday.

Christina Hemphill successfully defended her dissertation, entitled “Community Exposure to Ultrafine Particles from a Highway and Cardiovascular Markers” last week.  Christina will be starting a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University in the fall.   Congratulations Christina!

Congratulations to Antonella Zanobetti and Diane Gold on their new R21 grant entitled “Climate Change and Cardiac Vulnerability in Humans.”

Natalya Mizrahi and her husband welcomed their new baby daughter, Noga Joy, on July 25.  Noga and parents are reported to be doing well.

I am off to the University of Sao Paulo on Monday to visit our colleague Paulo Saldiva make a presentation on the value of clean air.  Our Brazilian students have given me lots of tips on how to spend any free time I have, but Paulo has prepared a full schedule for me.

Enjoy this last week before the fall semester starts.

Tchau!

Doug

 

Notes – 7/30/11

I was in Kuwait this week reviewing progress on our follow-up study of the effects of the 1990 Gulf War.  I also visited with colleagues at the Kuwait University Health Sciences Center who are developing plans for a college of public health.  I was joined by our colleagues Rosalind Wright, Costas Christophi, and Bruce Boley.  Our study in Kuwait is being directed by two graduates of our Cyprus International Institute (CII) training program, Yara Abuawad (who is entering the doctoral program here in the fall), and Feiby Nassan.  I also visited with Stalo Karageorgi, a graduate of CII and HSPH, who is now working at the Dasman Diabetes Institute.

After Boston’s record heat (103 degrees) a week ago, I thought I was prepared for Kuwait.  But temperatures every day were above 110 (maximum 120) and never dropped below the mid 90’s. It was wonderful visit, but I am glad to get back to normal mid-summer weather here in Boston.

Petros Koutrakis was in Cyprus on Thursday for the second graduation ceremony for our Cyprus International Institute for Environment and Public Health MS students since we partnered with the Technical University of Cyprus (CUT).   I’d like to thank the CII faculty and staff, and all of the members of our department that contributed to the CII class of 2011’s educational training.  This graduation affirms that our affiliation with the CII has been mutually beneficial and is continuing to grow.  As the graduates go out into the world and use their training to improve and study environmental issues, we are confident that they have a solid educational background to make positive contributions on an international scale.  Our warmest congratulations to the graduates – Constantina Achilleos, Olusegun Apampa, Eva Barrenberg, Rafael Cacavallo, Mohammad El-Attar, Marios Hadjicharalambous, Maria Kakkoura, Popi Karaolia, Maria Korre, Panayiotis Kouis, Alessandra Lafranconi, Christos Photiou, Panayiotis Rigas, Andrea Theocli, and Pauley Tedoff.

Back here in the US, Joel Schwartz testified before the House Government Operations Committee in support of the EPA Transport Rule, which will require a 72% reduction in SO2 emissions from coal burning power plants in order to reduce PM2.5 concentrations in the US. He highlighted the health benefits of the rule, which would save over 34,000 lives per year.

Joel also learned that he is receiving three NIH grants:

  • An R21 award from the National Institute for Aging to study the effects of weather on physiologic and metabolic changes that may explain the observed association of extreme weather with mortality, and to examine modifiers of those effects.
  • Another R21 award from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences to study the association of weather patterns with mortality in 135 US cities, and the predictors which explain differences over time and between cities in those associations.
  • And an RO1 award from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences to do a genome wide methylation study in the Normative Aging Study cohort, and identify patterns of change that are indicative of exposure to air pollution and heavy metals.

Congratulations Joel on all of these accomplishments!

Congratulations to Joel Mathews (a research fellow in MIPS) and his wife Becky on the birth of their son!  Parker Andrew Mathews was born on July 22nd, weighing in at 7 pounds and 3 ounces. Parents and Parker are doing well.

On those bright notes, I wish you all a wonderful midsummer week.

Doug

 

Notes – 7/14/11

With the summer season fully upon us, it is nice to enjoy the sunshine, Red Sox, and somewhat (??) more relaxed pace that this time of year brings.  We have some positive things to report:

Philippe Grandjean received notice of a successful competitive renewal award of his NIEHS R01 grant entitled “Epidemiology of Immunotoxicant Exposure in Children.”  Congratulations, Philippe (and team)!

Akira Tsuda recently spent a number of weeks in Japan and wrote about his time there in an article recently published online in Harvard Magazine.  He shares his personal perspective on what it was like to visit a post-tsunami region of Japan that is struggling to recover.

Kathie Dionisio successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Biomass fuels and air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa: measurement studies in rural and urban populations.”  Well done, Kathie!

I am happy to announce that Bernardo Lemos will be joining our department as an Assistant Professor in the MIPS program.  Bernardo comes to us from across the river in Harvard’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, where he completed his PhD and is currently a Research Associate.  His three main research interests are in

  • Heterochromatin genomics and transgenerational inheritance
  • Population genetics and evolutionary systems biology of regulatory variation
  • Statistical analysis of gene expression and associated chromatin attributes.

Bernardo will be physically joining us sometime in early October.  I’ll fill in more details about his background when he arrives.  In these challenging times, I am happy to share the news that our Department continues to grow.

Doug

 

Notes – 6/24/11

This week started off on a rather somber note as many of our Department’s faculty and staff attended Mel First’s funeral service at Temple Sinai in Brookline.  His family shared some lovely thoughts and memories, and then hosted a lunch afterwards.  As you know, we are working with Mel’s family to find a convenient date this fall when we will host a memorial tribute to Mel here at the School.  We will of course keep you posted.

We want to welcome two new residents into the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency program – Kevin Johnson, DO, and Dennis Teehan, MD. These physicians will begin their training on July 5, 2011 with clinical rotations and will matriculate into the MPH program in the fall.  Our current first year residents, Marie-Christine David, DO, MPH and Al Rielly, MD, MPH, will begin the second year of their residency on July 1, 2011 and will focus on clinical rotations and research.  We look forward seeing all four residents in class in the fall.

John Ji, a doctoral student working on lead exposure and motor function, has been accepted as a Harvard University Center for the Environment Fellow starting this fall. Congratulations on this honor, John!

And finally, I am delighted to report that Marc Weisskopf and Alex Lu will both be promoted to Associate Professors effective July 1, 2011.   They both so richly deserve our hearty congratulations on reaching this milestone in their careers.

Please let me know if you have any news that you would like to share with our Department in these notes.  Also if you know of people who have inadvertently been dropped from our distribution list, please let me know.

I took off the beginning of the week, and was fortunate to catch to some terrific weather on the Cape.  While the forecast does not look great, hope you get out to enjoy this first weekend of the summer.

Doug

 

Notes – 6/15/11

This was a sad week for our Department and HSPH as we learned of the passing of Professor Mel First, at age 96.  Mel was still actively working on research as recently as last week.  His seminal contributions as a researcher in environmental engineering, and as a teacher, have been central to our department for more than 6 decades.  He was our friend, colleague, and mentor.  We are hard at work trying to spread word of his passing to his students and colleagues who no doubt would want to keep him and his family in their thoughts.

His funeral will be held on Monday, June 20 at 11:00 a.m. at Temple Sinai in Coolidge Corner.  Additional details will be sent to Department faculty and staff.

Turning to other department news, with the excitement of graduation now behind us, it gives us a chance to take stock of the past year, and look forward to the summer even as we prepare for our incoming class of talented students in September.

At our faculty meeting this week, we had a creative discussion about how to ensure that our department continues to attract the best and brightest students.  We also discussed how we could enhance our connection with Harvard College and other parts of the University.  It was nice to air out a lot of new and exciting ideas.  Stay tuned!

In other news, we have a couple of people in the Department to congratulate:

First, congratulations to Manish Arora, a Visiting Scientist in EOME, for receiving a K99 award for a project entitled “Early Life Environmental Toxicant Exposure and Oral Health.”  Well done, Manish!

Carla Silva, our Senior Grant Manager in the MIPS program, recently received a Graduate Certificate in Research Administration from Emmanuel College.  Congratulations Carla!

Jack Spengler chaired an Institute of Medicine committee whose report “Climate Change, the Indoor Environment, and Health” report is featured in a press release on the School’s website.  Terrific work Jack.

Congratulations to the grand prize winner Patrice Ayers for her Summer Pudding entry in the great MIPS Fruit Fest, as well as all of the other winners and participants.  Special thanks to Marshall Katler for organizing such a successful and fun event.  Our diets will start next week.

I hope everyone enjoys the warm weather and remember the sunblock!

Doug

Notes – 6/6/11

Congratulations to Diane Gold who was promoted to Professor at Harvard Medical School!  Diane has been leading a birth cohort study here in Boston to investigate the role of environmental exposures in the incidence of asthma.  She also is leading a series of studies investigating the effects of acute air pollution exposures as triggers of acute cardiovascular events in panels of patients here in Boston.  All of us who work with or have studied with Diane are very proud to see her scientific and educational contributions recognized at the Medical School.  We are moving quickly to make her HSPH title match that at HMS

Congratulations again to all of our recent graduates!  It was great to see so many of you with your families at our reception prior to the ceremony.

In addition to our own HSPH graduates, we also want to congratulate Tom Donaghey, one of our Department researchers,  on receiving his Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies, Concentration in Biology, from the Harvard Extension School.  His thesis was “Local Effects of Insulin Exposure to the Rat Lung,” and Joe Brain served as his thesis director.

Our academic life continues even as some are moving out the door. Rouxi Hu and Sonia Rosner both passed their Oral Qualifying Exams last week.  Congratulations Rouxi and Sonia!

Behrooz Behbod is starting a fellowship with the CDC this fall.  He will be working at the National Center for Environmental Health in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service fellowship program.

I hope you have seen the work of Jeff Fredberg and associates in his lab was highlighted on the HSPH home page, and in a press release this week.  Jeff’s lab, in partnership with the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), has been studying the physical forces that guide how cells migrate.  Their results show that the forces guiding cell migration in the body are not smooth, like a minuet, but disorderly and chaotic like a mosh pit.  This “cellular mosh” was also reviewed in a Nature Materials article.

Rama Krishnan has accepted a faculty position within the Department of Emergency Medicine, BIDMC, starting this September.  We will be sad to see Rama go, but congratulate him on this exciting new opportunity and his lab within the Center for Vascular Biology Research.

Finally, I am sorry to report that one of our distinguished alumni, Sally Liu, died today after a long battle with cancer.  Sally received her MS and ScD here in our department in the early 1990’s.  She has continued to be a colleague and collaborator as a faculty member in environmental and occupational health at the University of Washington, and most recently at the University of Basel in Switzerland.  Sally was a leader in exposure assessment sciences.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family, friends, and colleagues.

Doug

 

Notes – 5/26/11

It’s Commencement Day! I look forward to this day each year, when we celebrate the academic achievements of our graduates.  We join in their excitement as they look forward to translating the knowledge and skills they have received into meaningful contributions to society and our world.  As your department Chair I am honored and humbled to represent all of us on stage this afternoon in congratulating our students for this milestone.  I am grateful to our faculty for your tireless efforts in teaching, mentoring, and guiding our students.  My thanks also to everyone in the department for your contributions to the training and success of our students.  You should think of today as your special day and proof that all you do is meaningful and successful.   Enjoy today and share in the proof and satisfaction of a job well done.

Congratulations to the Environmental Health Class of 2010/11, and to their friends and their families!

Doctor of Science

Mey Akashah

Kofi Asomaning

Emmanuel Baja

Xing Chen

Timothy Ciesielski

Hanine Estephan

Karen Hopcia

Olivier Humblet

Seung Sup Kim

Rebecca Lincoln

Hortensia Moreno Macias

Jaime Madrigano

Megan McAuliffe

Justin Mih

Marisa Oge

Jin Qin

Christopher Ronk

Vasileios Papapostolou

Ramon Alberto Sanchez Pina

Leonard Zwack

 

Master of Science

Phoebe Chang

Nancy Diao

Amelia Geggel

Jocelyn Hospital

Stephen Lewandowski

Shahir Masri

Catlin Powers

Wei Jie Seow

Emily Sparer

Qingwei Sun

Tara Zolnikov

 

Master of Public Health

Akeem Adebogun

Jason Cromar

William Mann

Daniel Mirski

Peter Umukoro

I am looking forward to congratulating you and your families this afternoon.

Doug

 

Notes – 5/16/11

Classes ended last week, much to the relief of our students and also the instructors.  Congratulations on a terrific academic year, and especially to those graduating next week.  Look forward to seeing you at Commencement next Thursday.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a “Piece of the Chair” last Thursday.  We ordered 15 pizzas and amazingly had none left.  I am looking forward to doing this again at Landmark.

Congratulations to Antonella Zanobetti who was awarded a EPA grant for her study proposal entitled, “Are diabetics and the neurologically impaired at increased risk from air pollutant exposures – A National analysis.”  Congratulations, Antonella and team!

Very special congratulations to two members of our Department who have recently had babies in time to celebrate Mother’s Day:

  • Rama Krishnan (of MIPS) and his wife Monika Kopacz welcomed their first child. Daughter Maya Krishko was born at 11:41 p.m. on Saturday, May 7th, weighing in at 6 pounds and 11 ounces.
  • Lin Tao (of EER) is the proud mother of Sophia who was born on April 25th, weighing in at 7 pounds and 3 ounces.

Finally, I would encourage you to watch the premier of the PBS documentary “Freedom Riders” tonight.  We are particularly proud of our own Mike Wolfson, who was one of these courageous young civil rights activists.  You can read about Mike’s experiences on the PBS website http://wwf.wgbh.org/freedomRiders/freedom_riders_chemist.cfm

Best,

Doug

 

We’ve entered the final push of the academic year!  Published dissertations had to be submitted last Monday.  Students are finishing their final projects and preparing for final exams.  We’re all preparing for Commencement on the 26th.  Looking forward to celebrating the academic achievements of our students.

Two fellows working on David Christiani’s Lung Cancer Study received awards at the recent American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting.

  • Kofi Asomaning, a Visiting Scientist in EOME, was awarded the 2011 AACR-AFLAC Inc. Scholar In Training award for “Nicotinic acetlycholine receptor SNPs are associated with smoking cessation.” Kofi  successfully defended his thesis in March, and is starting a new position as Associate Director of Epidemiology (Worldwide Safety Strategy)” at Pfizer.
  • Monica Ter-Minassian was awarded the Raymond and Beverly Sackler AACR Fellowship for Ileal Carcinoid Tumor research for her grant proposal on “Molecular markers of outcome in ileal carcinoid tumor and other neuroendocrine tumors.” Monica will continue her postdoctoral fellowship on this project at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in June.

We were happy to welcome Glenn Stern as our new Director of Administration this week.  On Thursday, May 12, we’ll have a “Piece of the Chair” open house from 12:00-1:30 p.m.  Stop by for a piece of pizza, and meet Glenn.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Doug

 

Notes – 5/8/11

We’ve entered the final push of the academic year!  Published dissertations had to be submitted last Monday.  Students are finishing their final projects and preparing for final exams.  We’re all preparing for Commencement on the 26th.  Looking forward to celebrating the academic achievements of our students.

Two fellows working on David Christiani’s Lung Cancer Study received awards at the recent American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting.

  • Kofi Asomaning, a Visiting Scientist in EOME, was awarded the 2011 AACR-AFLAC Inc. Scholar In Training award for “Nicotinic acetlycholine receptor SNPs are associated with smoking cessation.” Kofi  successfully defended his thesis in March, and is starting a new position as Associate Director of Epidemiology (Worldwide Safety Strategy)” at Pfizer.
  • Monica Ter-Minassian was awarded the Raymond and Beverly Sackler AACR Fellowship for Ileal Carcinoid Tumor research for her grant proposal on “Molecular markers of outcome in ileal carcinoid tumor and other neuroendocrine tumors.” Monica will continue her postdoctoral fellowship on this project at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in June.

We were happy to welcome Glenn Stern as our new Director of Administration this week.  On Thursday, May 12, we’ll have a “Piece of the Chair” open house from 12:00-1:30 p.m.  Stop by for a piece of pizza, and meet Glenn.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Doug

 

Notes – 4/29/11

First, I want to say thanks to all our Administrative Professionals.  As a student, fellow, researcher, staff, faculty, program director, or chair, we each know the people who make our lives here bearable.  We are able to do our job or complete our studies because there are professionals  who help us navigate the administrative burdens of the school, the university, the funders, the government, and countless other agencies.  While I find it a bit hokey to have an “Administrative Professionals Week”, it is a useful reminder of how much we owe to these colleagues.  I hope you took the opportunity to say thank you this week.

Congratulations to three more of our students who successfully defended their doctoral research in the past week: Hanine Estephan, “Assessment of Aircrafts Cabin Conditions and Their Adverse Health Effects on Passengers”; Ramon Alberto Sanchez Piña, “Health, Environmental and Economic of Biodiesel for Transportation in Mexico”, and Justin Mih, “Control of lung fibroblast proliferation and fibrogenesis by matrix stiffness”.  Well done Hanine, Ramon, and Justin!

Jaime Madrigano has received a post-doctoral fellowship from The Earth Institute at Columbia University.  Starting this fall, she will be working on the public health impacts of climate change and air pollution.  Congratulations, Jaime!

Spring is finally here.  Hope you have a chance to get out and enjoy the weekend.

Doug

Post-script

Our Department was well-represented in the Eco-Opportunity Team’s annual “Take the Stairs” contest. At least 9 teams with EH members took part, of whom 5 achieved the goal of climbing the equivalent height of Mt Acongagua. For the second year running, the MIPS team of Muzo Wu, Enhua Zhou, Carla Silva, Dhananjay Tambe and David Gregory were not only first to reach the target, but kept climbing to finish the contest having climbed more flights of stairs than any other team.

Notes – 4/17/11

As we approach the end of the academic year, many of our doctoral students are wrapping up and presenting their research.  This past week we had four students successfully defend their doctoral research:

  • Rebecca Lincoln, “Biomarkers of Metals Exposure in Two High-Risk Communities”
  • Seung-Sip Kim, “Social Determinants of Workers Health and Safety”
  • Emmanuel S. Baja, “Assessing the Relation Between Markers of Traffic and Cardiovascular Health Using Bayesian and Frequentist Approaches”
  • Marisa Oge, “Prenatal Organochlorine Exposure and Childhood Growth and Blood Pressure”

Well done, Rebecca, Seung-Sip, Emmanuel, and Marisa!

Congratulations to Andreas Neophytou who passed his Oral Qualifying Examination this week.

Kathie Dionisio has received a post-doctoral fellowship from the EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) in North Carolina. This fall, she will be working on Alternative Exposure Assessment Approaches.  Congratulations, Kathie!

The Department was well represented at the annual Poster Day on Friday afternoon. I am always amazed at the range and quality of the research presented by our students and fellows.  Thanks to everyone who presented.  I have not seen the results of the judging, but in my unbiased opinion we should be well-represented among the awards for outstanding posters.

Last Wednesday, Gerald Chan, an alumnus (ScD 79) of our Department, gave a terrific talk on “Science, the Private Sector and the Public Good” as part of the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series.  Unfortunately, many of our students and fellows were not able to hear his talk as the room was far too small for the audience.  If you missed the talk, you might try to view the webcast (http://webapps.sph.harvard.edu/accordentG3/DeansDestinguished-20110413/index.htm)

Congratulations to Jeff Fredberg who received notification of two grant awards from NIH.  He has a new R01 on Mechanics of Monolayer Migration.  He also was notified of the competing 5 year renewal award for his T32 “Training in Interdisciplinary Pulmonary Sciences”  which supports many of our post-doctoral fellows and pre-doctoral students.  Terrific job Jeff!

Finally, I am sorry to report that our friend and colleague Jerry Keeler passed away this week after a 3-year battle esophageal cancer.  Jerry was a post-doctoral fellow here in our Department working on our studies of acid aerosols in the 1990’s.  He became Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he established a laboratory on atmospheric chemistry. We are very sad to lose such a talented young leader in the field.

Tomorrow is Patriot’s Day.  The weather looks like it will be terrific.  While I can’t declare a holiday, no one should miss the chance to see the Boston Marathon at least once during their time at Harvard.

Doug

 

Notes – 4/8/11

Spring, the Red Sox season, and dissertation defense season are upon us!  I’m looking forward to the Red Sox home game tomorrow and five of our EH students defending their dissertations next week.

This week, Tim Ciesieleski successfully defended his dissertation, “Cadmium, Neuropsychological Outcomes, and Iron Processing Genotypes.”  Congratulations, Tim!!

Stephanos Kales reports that Stasia Muhlner and Anne McDonough received national resident research awards last week at the Annual meeting of the American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine in Washington, DC. Since 2000, HSPH has won 18 of these awards in 12 meetings- more than any other program.  Steve also hosted a great HSPH alumni dinner at the meeting with over 20 current and former residents.

The annual I-Night show is tonight at the John Hancock Theatre in the Back Bay.  The show will include a capella singing from the Harvard Voicelab, Persian Melodies from Sayeh Ensemble, Traditional Chinese Peacock Dance, Traditional American Hip-Hop, Mandarin Rap and Martial Arts, a Ukelele and Hula Duo, a Bhangra Extravaganza and much more!  Always a terrific event.

Have a great week-end.

Doug

 

Notes – 4/1/11

Friday was our Admitted Students Open House.  We had accepted 41 applicants, 12 doctoral, 22 master of science and 7 master of public health.  We had more than 20 visit despite the April Fool’s snow.  Thanks to the faculty and students who attended to introduce themselves and the department to our recruits and possible new students.  W hope to see most of them back in the fall.

Congratulations to doctoral student Jennifer Bruno for receiving a Liberty Mutual Fellowship!  This program at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety in Hopkinton, MA, will provide funding for Jennifer’s project to “examine forearm muscle changes and adaptation during a fatiguing repetitive wrist flexion task and the resulting low frequency fatigue (LFF).”

Bob Wright has been elected to the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR) Council. The council sets the agenda for the annual Pediatric Academic Societies meeting.  Bob says he plans to try to put more emphasis on Children’s Environmental Health research.

Over the next couple of weeks, many of our doctoral students will be defending their dissertations in preparation for graduation on May 26th.  This past Monday, Vasileios Papapostolou successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Development of an Exposure System to Investigate the Health Effects of Traffic Emissions” on Monday.  Well done, Vasili!

Hope you are enjoying the improved weather this week-end.

Doug

 

Notes – 3/27/11

I arrived back from my travels to Cyprus and Kuwait last Saturday.  Although it was a nice break from the cold spring we are having here in Boston, I was surprised to encounter rain in both locations.  I missed a huge dust-storm in Kuwait this week.  Here is a link to an amazing You-Tube video of this event http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unz_5fLUWGM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

On Friday I traveled out to the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety in Hopkinton to hear presentations our Liberty Mutual Post-Doctoral Fellows.  These fellows split their time between the Liberty Mutual Hopkinton site and HSPH.

  • Anna Wirtz is working with David Christiani and David Lombardi (LMRI) to identify specific risk factors for occupational injury, initially long working hours and sleep, through examination of data in several current injury data sets.
  • Gert Faber is working with Jack Dennerlein and Max Chang (LMRI) to develop and test ambulatory methods for measuring loading of the low back for use in field studies. Dr. Faber’s research was presented by Dr. Chang.
  • Silje Reme described her work to measure the concerns and expectations of injured workers about resuming normal work while recovering from low back pain. She is working with William Shaw (LMRI) and Glorian Sorensen here at HSPH.
  • Also Jin Qin, a recent graduate from our department, who is investigating biomechanical loading on the shoulder in a partnership with our colleagues at UMass Lowell.

Thanks to Ted Courtney, Ian Noy, David Christiani, and Jack Dennerlein for their leadership of this partnership and for organizing this event.

Phil Demokritou received a gift from Panasonic to support the Environmental Health Nanoscience Laboratory. This is notable both for the support of this new environmental health research activity, but also for this new partnership with seeking to “optimize the societal benefits of nanotechnology while minimizing environmental health risks.”

Congratulations to Aleksandar Marinkovic who passed his Oral Qualifying Exam this week. Alex is working in Dan Tschumperlin’s  lab on “Interactions of Matrix Stiffness and Cytoskeletal Tension in Lung Fibroblast Proliferation and Fibrogenesis.”

Gary Adamkiewicz received funding through the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control for his new HUD project.  He received the Green and Health Homes Technical Studies Program Award for his project is entitled “Benchmarking the Benefits of Green Public Housing: Health, Comfort and Environmental Performance.”

While the vernal equinox passed this week, still looking for some spring weather.

Doug

 

Notes – 3/12/11

I traveled to the Cyprus International Institute on Wednesday.  It is warmer here than Boston, but was shocked to find it raining when we got off the plane.  In all my trips here I have hardly ever seen a cloud, much less rain.  Of course that means it is green and beautiful.

Even with the nice weather here, I have been glued to the TV watching the amazing videos of the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan.   The scale of the destruction is sobering, and we worry about our friends and colleagues there in Japan.  If you hear from colleagues there, please pass on updates so I can share them with the rest of the department.

On Monday, the EPA announced that HSPH was awarded an $8 million grant to launch one of four new university-based Clean Air Research Centers. The Harvard Clean Air Research Center will focus on investigating the effects of pollution exposure across life stages on heart and lung function, inflammation, birth weight and growth, and cardiovascular disease-related deaths and hospitalizations.  Congratulations to the Center Director Petros Koutrakis, Co-director John Godleski, and Co-principal investigators Brent Coull, Francesca Dominici, Diane Gold, Murray Mittleman, and Joel Schwartz, plus the entire team who put this Center together.  We continue to have a leadership position in air pollution research.  Indeed, this is the third round of competition for these EPA research centers, and these investigators are the only ones to receive an award in all three rounds.  Well done!

Congratulations to Shamsher Ali, in the MIPS department, and his wife Asma Ejaz who welcomed their first child on Saturday, February 19th at 10:30 p.m.   Their son is named Izn Shabir Ali.  Izn translates as “call for good.”

We were sorry to hear of the death of Dr. Peter Macklem, who was a fellow here with Jere Mead in the 1960s.  He was part of the “dream team” of respiratory physiologists.  He returned to McGill University in Canada and among other things became Chief of Medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital.  A special event in Peter’s honor will be held on Friday, May 20, 2011 on the McGill campus.

Off to catch a plane to Kuwait.

Doug

 

Notes – 02/25/11

It is with great sadness that I must pass on the news that Alison Geyh, who was a postdoc here in the 1990s, lost her battle with cancer a few days ago.  Alison was an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and there is a tribute to her at: http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/articles/2011/alison_geyh.html

There will be a special lecture next Tuesday entitled “Making Smoking History Worldwide: The Greek Experience.”  Associate Professor Panagiotis Behrakis, Dr. Constantine Vardavas, and Andreas Neophytou will discuss efforts to reduce the smoking rate in Greece, different approaches to conducting tobacco control research, and conveying this information to the public (Tuesday, March 1, 12:30, FXB G13).  Lunch will be provided.  Please RSVP to Monique Bertic (mbertic@hsph.harvard.edu).

We’re very happy to announce that Konstantinos Makris at Cyprus International Institute and his wife, Eliana, are the prou d  parents of a baby girl named Eva (see attached picture).  She was born two days after Valentine’s Day, weighs 6.17 pounds and is 19.7 inches long.

We’re also excited to report that everyone who enjoyed the PhotoBooth at our Winter Celebration Carnival can now view their photos online.  Those fantastic pictures of you in a clown wig are now available for everyone to view!  You can download (see example attached) or order additional copies if you’d like.  Here’s the link (And the password: hsph).

Only 23 days till the first day of Spring, and 16 days until the start of Daylight Savings Time.

Doug

 

Notes – 2/18/11

The highlight of the week had to be our Winter Celebration Carnival on Tuesday evening.  It was terrific to see so many of our students, fellows, faculty, staff, family and friends at this event.  There was a terrific variety of “street” food laid out by Sebastian’s.  Jungle Jim, the balloon artist, and Amy DesChenes, the face painter, were great hits among the kids, and also among the students and fellows. There was a line of people up until it was time to pack up for the Photo-Booth.  I have seen some of the fun pictures.  We will be receiving a CD of all, and I understand also a link to a web-site where you can see them all.  More on that later.  Thanks to Alissa, Barbara, and Amy who organized our Carnival.  Looking forward to next year!

Congratulations to Enhua and Ying Zhou, whose daughter, Philina Zhou was born on Sunday, February 6th.  She weighs 7 pounds, 12 ounces and is 20.25 inches long.  Enhua and Ying report that Philina is healthy, happy, and very loud – her impressive volume already has them thinking about her future career as an opera singer.

Megan McAuliffe successfully defended her thesis yesterday: Human Sperm Aneuploidy: Associations with Environmental Organochlorine Exposure and Sperm Indices.  Megan had to delay because of the snow storms two weeks ago, which prevented Melissa Perry from traveling up from Washington.  Congratulations and well done, Megan!  Great to see Melissa briefly.

Jack Dennerlein is the senior author of an interesting paper in Injury Prevention showing that bicycle riders have fewer injuries when they ride on cycle tracks (physically separated bicycle-exclusive paths along roads) than when they ride on the road.  See the HSPH coverage at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/coverage-in-the-media/bicycling-safety-cycle-tracks-lusk/index.html

Don’t forget about tonight’s talk by the National Park Service.  Jonathan Jarvis, Director of the United States National Park Service, and David Wong, the chief of the Epidemiology and Health Promotion Branch of the NPS, will be talking about health promotion and America’s national parks.  The event starts at 5:30 p.m. tonight in Kresge G1, and dinner will be provided.  Thanks to Joel Cohen and the Environmental Health and Sustainability Club for organizing the talk.

Enjoy the long Presidents’ Day weekend.  Only 30 days to the first day of Spring.

Doug

 

Notes – 2/11/11

Yesterday at the Celebration with the Stars event we recognized our long-service colleagues who keep the School and our Department functioning. Your dedicated service truly makes a difference for each of us in the Department, and helps us promote a healthier environment!!

5 Years: Anna Choi, Glen Deloid, Jennifer Ford, Marianne Hopkins, Ramaswamy Krishnan, James McDevitt, Chan Young Park,  Junenette Peters, Rihong Zhai, and Ying Zhou

10 Years: Jeff Adams, Amy Cohen, and Melissa Perry

15 Years: Ann Backus

20 Years: Ed Dixon

25 Years: Stephanie Shore

30 Years: Stephen Ferguson

35 Years: James Butler and Marcia Chertok

Next Tuesday, the EH Department is throwing our annual Winter Celebration holiday party.  All EH faculty, staff, and students are invited to attend – as well as your spouses, significant others, and children.  This year, we have a carnival/street fair theme; it will include delicious food and drink, face painting and balloon animals for the kids, and carnival games.  We welcome your participation in our games and booths!  If you’re interested in hosting your own game or booth, please contact Alissa Wilcox in the Department Office (2-1270 or awilcox@hsph.harvard.edu).

Joe Braun was just named one of Environmental Health Sciences’ 2011 Science Communication Fellows. Joe will spend the next year working on presentation techniques and speaking with journalists, working with the staff at EHS to create original research reviews, and “translating new research findings into short summaries written for a general audience.”  Congratulations Joe!

On Thursday, February 17th, Megan McAuliffe will be defending her thesis entitled “Human Sperm Aneuploidy: Associations with Environmental Organochlorine Exposure and Sperm Indices.”   She was originally scheduled to defend last week, during the biggest snowstorm of the winter. Fortunately, the forecast for next week is sunny …

Also next Thursday, we will host the inaugural Student Lunch.  Over the course of the year, we will provide lunch plus discussion of topics of interest to both our masters and doctoral students, such as: choosing your majors and minors, completing your course work, staying on track for graduation, preparing for oral exams, working with your dissertation committee, writing your dissertation, finding and writing grants, career preparation and networking, plus unstructured time to meet with each other.  Looking forward to seeing all of our students on Thursday, February 17th, from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in 1302. Thanks to Iny Jhun and her colleagues Emily Sparer, Thuy Lam and Denise Lamoureux for suggesting this event and helping organize it.

Next Friday, the 18th, the Environmental Health and Sustainability Club will host a talk by John Jarvis, the director of the National Park Service, and David Wong, the US National Park Service’s chief epidemiologist.  Their talk, entitled Health Promotion and America’s National Parks: Living Laboratories for Strengthening the Nexus between Public Lands and Public Health, will discuss various NPS initiatives that focus on infectious disease, drinking water, environmental health, and obesity.  The talk will take place at 5:30 p.m. in Kresge G-1, and dinner will be provided.  Contact Joel Cohen (jocohen@hsph.harvard.edu) with any questions.

Have a great weekend!

Doug

 

Notes -2/4/11

The highlight of the week was the inaugural Alice Hamilton Lecture, sponsored by the Committee on Concerns of Women Faculty. This lecture recognizes the contributions and legacy of Alice Hamilton, the first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University and a pioneer in the fields of toxicology and occupational health.  Dr. Hamilton was appointed Assistant Professor of Industrial Medicine, in what became the Department of Industrial Hygiene (and ultimately the Department of Environmental Health) in the Harvard School of Public Health.

We were honored that Francine Laden was selected to give this inaugural lecture.  She presented her lecture entitled “Location, Location, Location: How Where You Live in the U.S. Affects Your Health” to an overflow audience in G2.  Francine nicely summarized her extensive work in using geographic information to estimate exposures to environmental hazards, and to evaluate their health effects.  Professor Leslie Bernstein, Dean of Faculty Affairs at the City of Hope Cancer Center gave a very moving tribute to Francine at a dinner after the lecture. Congratulations, Francine.  We are very proud of you.

In introducing the lecture, Dean Frenk noted that there were three limitations with Alice Hamilton’s faculty appointment: she was not allowed into the Faculty Club, she could not to participate in the academic processions at commencement, and she was not eligible for faculty tickets to the football games.  I have seen Francine at the Faculty Club and marching in the academic procession at our commencement exercises.  However, I don’t think she has attended any football games.

We were lucky the weather was at least not terrible yesterday.  It has been a rough start to the “Spring” Semester.  Classes were cancelled on Wednesday.  Looking back at the snowfall since this semester began last week:

  • Jan 21:        8 inches
  • Jan 25:        1 inch
  • Jan 26-27: 12 inches
  • Feb 1-2:    10 inches

And a couple more inches forecasted for tomorrow!  We have to acknowledge the extra effort everyone has made to get to work and class under these conditions.

We have been working through all the applications – 106  this year, compared to eighty-some last year.  Thanks to the faculty and academic staff for getting these reviewed and ranked on time. It means a lot to these prospective students to get a timely response.

We are looking forward to the EH Winter Celebration on February 15th.  The theme is Carnival, and we are looking for groups who will design games or booths.  Please contact Alissa Wilcox (2-1270) if you want to help.

Which reminds me, I am happy to introduce Alissa Wilcox as my assistant.  Alissa has been brightening the office for a couple of weeks on a temporary basis, and is now “permanent.”  Please introduce yourself if you have not already met her, and ask her about her prior experiences.

Only 44 days till the first day of Spring, and 63 days to the Red Sox home season opener.

Doug

 

Notes – 1/14/11

I hope everyone weathered the storm last week.  I was in Cyprus last week – sunny and warm.  On Wednesday I was trying to get back to Boston during the snow storm.  I arrived back early Thursday after being rerouted to Newark and then driving home to Boston.  Then had to face more than a foot of snow.

My trip to Cyprus was for a search committee for new faculty at the Cyprus International Institute (CII).  It’s exciting to see a very strong candidate pool and the continuing growth of CII faculty.  I also had a chance to see the 14 HSPH students (Eleanor Wade, Melissa Stanton, Sun Qingwei, Mariesa Lee Ricks, Sarah Alsamarai, Devankush Saha, Kristen Lessl, William Mann, Jason Cromer, Dan Mirski, Memo Cedeno, Naima Bridges, Catherine Hammons and Katie Fellows) who are at CII for the winter session.  I’m sure they miss the snow!

Back here at HSPH we’re interviewing for a new Epigenetics position in MIPS.  I hope you have and will continue to take the opportunity to attend the lectures given by the candidates for these positions.  It’s a great way to meet and have input on your future colleagues.

The Committee on the Concerns of Women Faculty announced that Francine Laden has been selected to give the inaugural Alice Hamilton Award Lecture on February 3rd.   Named for Alice Hamilton, the first woman appointed to the Harvard faculty, this award recognizes the achievements of a promising young woman investigator in public health.  Congratulations to Francine for being recognized with this prestigious award!

I noticed on my return a postcard announcement for a talk “Dissolving Boundaries: Extending the Reach of Medicine and Public Health” with Deans Frenk (HSPH), Brandt (GSAS) and Flier (HMS).  The postcard caught my eye as it was a ca. 1950 picture of some of our illustrious faculty, C.P. Yaglou, Philip Drinker, Les Silverman and Charles Williams, working with an electric dust collector.  The fifth faculty member in the picture is Professor Mel First.  That picture is at least 50 years old and as you know Mel continues to work at HSPH virtually every day.  He continues his research and is amazingly productive.  Mel received his Harvard Sc.D. in 1950 and celebrated his 96th birthday on December 23.  Join me in wishing Mel a belated Happy Birthday and continued good health!

Congratulations to Kofi Asomaning who successfully defended his dissertation: “Polymorphisms In Genes that Encode Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors, Smoking, Nicotine Addiction and Lung Cancer”  on Monday, January 10, 2011.

This is Ken Wenger’s final week with us. We will be having an Open House on Friday, January 21st, from noon to two on the 13th floor for those who would like to stop by and wish Ken the best in his new position at the Harvard Institute for Global Health.

Plans are in the works for our annual winter celebration.  Please keep the late afternoon/ early evening of February 15 open on your calendars!

Enjoy the snow and the long weekend!

Doug