Welcome students, staff, and faculty to the new academic year. I hope
you all had a wonderful summer, and I anticipate that this will be an
exciting year for you and HSPH. It has been an enormous privilege to serve as dean of this extraordinary School for the past decade. Over these past 10 years, our faculty, students, and staff have worked
to broaden the global mission of HSPH.
Postdoc Ulenga Tries to Unlock HIV Drug Resistance
Growing up in Tanzania, Nzovu Ulenga knew many people infected by the
HIV virus. As a doctoral candidate at HSPH, he sought to understand the
inner workings of that virus, with an eye toward helping develop ways
to prevent infection as well as to slow the replication of the virus
once it has invaded the body. Now, he is studying the problem of HIV
drug resistance.
Sign Up or Renew Your MessageMe Account
Under the Harvard University Emergency Management Plan, Harvard community members are urged to sign up for SMS/text-message emergency alerts. The system is activated if there is an extreme emergency affecting the University as a whole or the local HSPH campus and requiring that important information be conveyed rapidly.
Thomas H. Weller, Nobel Prize Winner and Professor Emeritus, Dies
Thomas H. Weller, a Nobel Prize winner in 1954 and HSPH Professor
Emeritus, passed away quietly in his sleep at home in Needham, MA, on
Saturday, August 23, 2008. He was 93. In an email announcement to the School, Dean Barry Bloom described how
Dr. Weller received the Nobel Prize for Medicine with Drs. John Enders
and Frederick Robbins for discovering how to grow poliomyelitis viruses
in culture for the first time. This breakthrough laid the foundation
for others to develop the polio vaccine and later other vaccines. The
discovery demonstrated that scientists could grow viruses in human
tissues in test tubes, foregoing the need for laboratory animals and
speeding the way towards other vaccines.
Speakers Discussed Communicating Risks to Children’s Health at Event
Parents concerned about the health and well-being of their children
face a confusing picture: some risks to children are over-hyped in the
media, while others may be virtually ignored. To address the problem,
Kimberly Thompson, HSPH associate professor of risk analysis and
decision science, held a symposium on July 30 at the Joseph B. Martin
Conference Center.
Study in HSPH's Own Sebastian's Cafe Suggests Price Affects Food Choices
No matter where you go for lunch, a plate of fresh veggies from the
salad bar will almost always be more expensive than a hamburger or a
slice of pizza. But if the price difference didn't exist, would
consumers reach for the healthier alternative? When Karin Michels,
associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at HSPH, decided
to find out, she looked to a venue close to home — Sebastian's café in
the Kresge building. Her findings were published in the Journal of the
American College of Nutrition.
Scoopfest Celebrates Summer Fun
HSPH held its annual summer celebration on Thursday, July 17, in the Kresge cafeteria. The flavors of ice cream served included chocolate, vanilla, strawberry,
sugar-free vanilla, lactose-free vanilla, and lemon sorbet. Vanilla
proved most popular.
HPH NOW