This month, Harvard University President Drew Faust, Harvard School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk, and other Harvard administrators and faculty traveled to Mexico to celebrate the university’s strong and longstanding relationship with that nation. Dean Frenk served as that country’s minister of health from 2000 to 2006 and helped introduce the comprehensive national health plan called Seguro Popular.
The Harvard Gazette ran a series of stories about Harvard’s Mexico connections, many of which involve faculty, students, and researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).
Recently, Mexican and HSPH officials signed a memorandum of understanding launching a major, five-year study of urban air quality and its health consequences, called the Mexico City-Harvard Alliance for Air Quality and Health.
HSPH researchers also played a key role in efforts to uncover suspected contamination of fish in Mexico’s Lake Chapala. An investigation by Enrique Cifuentes, principal research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health, and colleagues now suggests that most fish from the lake is safe for pregnant women to eat once a week.
And, in Mexico City, a group of HSPH graduates—including Martin Lajous, SM ’04, SD ’11, PDS ’13; Ruy López Ridaura, SD ’09; and Andrés Catzin, MPH ’07—started a long-term study of diet and health modeled on Harvard’s celebrated Nurses’ Health Study.
Read a Harvard Gazette article about Harvard’s ties with Mexico: Harvard’s Mexican connections
Read a Harvard Gazette article about the Harvard-Mexico alliance to improve air quality in Mexico City: Coming up for air
Read a Harvard Gazette article about Harvard’s efforts in the Lake Chapala region: The mystery of the lake
Watch a video about Harvard’s Lake Chapala work: Harvard helps bring science and social action to Mexico’s Lake Chapala
Read a Harvard Gazette article about the work of Harvard grads in Mexico: From Mexico to Harvard, and back