News and notes highlighting the work of faculty from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
2024
A project by Rita Hamad, associate professor of social and behavioral sciences, was one of seven named winners of Harvard University’s 2024 Star-Friedman Challenge for Promising Scientific Research. The Star-Friedman Challenge grants provide seed funding for novel research in the physical or social sciences, with an emphasis on new directions that might not otherwise be supported through traditional funding channels. Hamad’s project will focus on the Earned Income Tax Credit—the largest U.S. poverty alleviation policy for families with children. The tax credit provides up to $7,400 annually for working families as a tax refund, but one in four eligible families don’t claim the benefit, in part because of the complexity of tax filing. Hamad will lead a study to identify approaches for increasing take-up of the tax credit to advance health equity.
Kari Nadeau, John Rock Professor of Climate and Population Studies and chair of the Department of Environmental Health, is co-principal investigator on a project that was among four across Harvard University that received seed grant awards from the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. Nadeau and principal investigator Ann-Christine Duhaime of the Mass General Research Institute and Harvard Medical School will look at the health effects of “peaker” power plants—those that operate when electricity demands are high, usually on very hot or cold days. Such plants are known to be particularly polluting. The researchers will analyze acute health effects during periods when specific “peaker” plants are “on” versus “off,” with the aim of informing energy policy.
Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, was named to Everyday Health’s list of 13 Black American pioneers who changed health care. She was recognized for rapidly analyzing the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in early 2020, enabling the fastest ever development of a new vaccine. The resulting COVID-19 vaccines were subsequently administered to billions of people around the world.
Two faculty members were elected as 2024 Fellows of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy. The honor recognizes distinguished scientists whose contributions have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer, according to the association’s press release. Richard Gelber, professor in the Department of Biostatistics, was recognized for developing innovative biostatistical methodologies that improve patient care. Timothy Rebbeck, Vincent L. Gregory, Jr. Professor of Cancer Prevention, was recognized for optimizing cancer prevention standards in clinical practice and reducing cancer mortality.
A study led by Gillian SteelFisher, principal research scientist, was the seventh most-read article in the journal Health Affairs in 2023. For the paper, SteelFisher and colleagues conducted a nationally representative survey that found that higher trust in public health agencies during COVID-19 was driven more by beliefs that agencies led with clear, science-based recommendations and provided protective resources, than by beliefs that agencies controlled the outbreak.
2023
Findings from a study by Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, an affiliated research scientist at SHINE (Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise), and colleagues were cited as being among the top 10 insights for 2023 in the science of well-being in a December 14, 2023 article in the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good magazine. The study found that people who experienced more caring at work tended to be more productive and engaged at work, feel less distracted, and have higher well-being than those who experienced less caring.
Stefania Papatheodorou, lecturer on epidemiology, was named a 2024 Climate and Health Scholar by the National Institutes of Health Climate Change and Health Initiative—a cross-agency effort that aims to reduce health threats from climate change, especially among those at highest risk. Papatheodorou’s research focuses on the intersection of climate change, environmental exposures, and women’s health. As a scholar, she will be hosted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, where she will develop methods to evaluate how environmental pollutants and climate influence the development of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Two faculty members from the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases received prestigious awards from the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH). Dyann Wirth, Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases, received the Clara Southmayd Ludlow Medal, which recognizes honorees for their inspirational and pioneering spirit, whose work represents success despite obstacles and advances the field of tropical medicine. Manoj Duraisingh, John LaPorte Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, received the Bailey K. Ashford Medal, awarded to early- to mid-career researchers for distinguished work in tropical medicine. The awards were presented at the ASTMH’s annual meeting in late October.
Francine Laden, professor of environmental epidemiology, was awarded the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) John Goldsmith Award for outstanding contributions to the field of environmental epidemiology at the ISEE’s mid-September annual conference held in Taiwan. Also honored was research fellow Barrak Alahmad, who won the Rebecca James Baker Award for early career dedication to the field.
Nancy Krieger, professor of social epidemiology, was awarded the 2023 Sedgwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished Service in Public Health by the American Public Health Association. The medal is the organization’s oldest and most prestigious award, and recognizes an individual’s distinguished service and advancement of public health knowledge and practice. Krieger was honored for her “activism and research surrounding health equity and social science,” according to an August 31, 2023 APHA press release. In particular, the association cited her research on the social determinants of health and the health effects of structural racism.
Alecia McGregor, assistant professor of health policy and politics, was appointed to the board of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission by Attorney General Andrea Campbell. The commission is a state agency that develops policy to reduce health care cost growth and improve the quality of patient care. In an August 8 press release, Campbell said, “Dr. Alecia McGregor’s expertise in health care consumer advocacy and health equity will bring an important perspective to the Health Policy Commission as it works to improve our health system in Massachusetts.”
Henning Tiemeier, Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health and associate chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, was jointly awarded the 2023 Alzheimer Award along with Rosanne Freak-Poli, a senior research fellow at Monash University. Given by the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the annual award recognizes studies published in the journal that make outstanding contributions to Alzheimer’s disease research. Tiemeier and Freak-Poli were honored for a study they co-authored titled “Loneliness, Not Social Support, Is Associated with Cognitive Decline and Dementia Across Two Longitudinal Population-Based Cohorts.”
Alberto Ascherio, professor of epidemiology and nutrition, and Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology, were named to the 2023 STATUS List, the online publication STAT’s annual recognition of leaders and influencers in health, medicine, and science. Ascherio was recognized for his 2022 finding that multiple sclerosis is caused by infection with the Epstein-Barr virus. Lipsitch was honored as one of the U.S.’s most trusted voices on COVID-19. In addition to directing the School’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, he was founding director of science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, where he has since become senior adviser.
Mary Travis Bassett returned to the School in January as François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights and director of the FXB Center. She served as commissioner of the New York State Department of Health from September 2021 to December 2022.
Andrew Beam, assistant professor of epidemiology, has a role in two new offerings from The New England Journal of Medicine. He is a founding editor of the journal NEJM AI and co-host of the affiliated podcast NEJM AI Grand Rounds, which explores issues at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and medicine. Beam’s lab develops new AI methods for medical applications, with a focus on improving neonatal and perinatal outcomes.
Aaron Bernstein, interim director at the Harvard Chan Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) is taking a leave from his appointments at Harvard Chan School and Harvard Medical School to join the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and serve as the director of the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. In this post, he will be the nation’s highest-ranking public health official focused on environmental health. Kari Nadeau, chair of the Department of Environmental Health, will serve as interim director of C-CHANGE.
Sara Bleich, professor of public health policy, returned to Harvard in January as the inaugural vice provost for special projects. Bleich served two years in the Biden administration, first as senior adviser for COVID-19 in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and then as director of nutrition security and health equity at the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. In her new role, Bleich is leading implementation of the recommendations from the report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery. Read an interview with Bleich.
Caroline Buckee, professor of epidemiology, heads a research cluster focused on climate adaptation and climate-driven migration in South Asia—one of five new research clusters supported by Harvard’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. Satchit Balsari, assistant professor in the Department of Global Health and Population, is a co-investigator. He and Buckee co-direct CrisisReady, a program that facilitates data-driven decision-making in local disaster planning.
Marcia Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography and chair of the Department of Global Health, was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) in December. ABC is an honorific scientific society which provides scientific policy advice to Brazil’s government.
Kizzmekia Corbett, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, was jointly awarded the 2022 Fulbright Prize along with Anthony Fauci, who retired from his post as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in December 2022. The prize recognized the two for their leadership and scientific contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Their success has allowed the peoples of the world to reconnect, and they have reminded us all that strong public health is critical to international exchange, cooperation, and travel,” according to a release from the Fulbright Association. In particular, Corbett was cited for her work at the National Institutes of Health to rapidly design an mRNA vaccine that is currently used globally to prevent COVID-19.
Francesca Dominici, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population, and Data Science and co-director of the Harvard University Data Science Initiative, announced a new collaboration with Harvard Chan School Harvard Chan School Amazon Web Services (AWS) in November. The AWS Impact Computing Project supports faculty members’ use of data in social impact research projects.
Lorelei Mucci, professor of epidemiology, was named director of strategic research partnerships at the American Cancer Society in March, and will address negative prostate cancer trends. Mucci is the co-principal investigator for the international IRONMAN study of men with advanced prostate cancer and is on the executive committees for the Transdisciplinary Prostate Cancer Partnership, the U.S. Army Prostate Cancer Research Program Programmatic Panel, and the scientific advisory board for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
Muhammad Ali Pate, Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, according to a press release from the Academy. He is among 269 new members of the Academy, and one of 17 from Harvard. In August 2023, Pate will step down from his Harvard Chan School post in order to take on the role of CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Prior to coming to Harvard Chan School, Pate served as Nigeria’s health minister, and worked at the World Bank on philanthropy, policy, and the COVID-19 response. While at Harvard Chan School, Pate has led a commission on the future of health and economic resiliency in Africa.
Shoba Ramanadhan, assistant professor of social and behavioral sciences, SD ’08, was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Fellowship. As part of a 2022 cohort focused on structural racism, Ramanadhan is working with a team of researchers, including Madina Agénor, SD ’13, on a project identifying practice-based strategies to adapt evidence-based mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth of color.
Glorian Sorensen, research professor of social and behavioral sciences, received the Total Worker Health Founder’s Award in October at the 3rd International Symposium to Advance Total Worker Health. The award recognized her efforts to expand the evidence supporting healthier workplace policies.
2022
Jessica Cohen, Bruce A. Beal, Robert L. Beal, and Alexander S. Beal Associate Professor of Global Health, was named a winner of the National Academy of Medicine’s 2022 Healthy Longevity Catalyst and Accelerator Award in September. The multiyear, multiphase international competition aims to advance bold, novel ideas with the potential to dramatically improve health as people age. Cohen’s project is entitled “Bridging the Gap between Postpartum and Primary Care: Novel Approaches to Care Continuity for Women at High Risk for Chronic Disease.”
Xihong Lin, professor of biostatistics and statistics and coordinating director of the Program in Quantitative Genomics, received the Jerome Sacks Award for Cross-Disciplinary Research. Awarded by the National Institute of Statistical Sciences in August, the prize recognized her cross-disciplinary research and contributions to the field; development of statistical methods; and leadership that has significantly advanced statistics, public health, and medicine.
Xihong Lin, professor of biostatistics and statistics and coordinating director of the Program in Quantitative Genomics, and Brendan Manning, professor of molecular metabolism and acting chair of the Department of Molecular Metabolism, received 2022 Outstanding Investigator Awards from the National Cancer Institute. The grant recognizes significant contributions toward understanding cancer and developing applications that may lead to a research breakthrough.
JoAnn Manson, professor in the Department of Epidemiology, received the 2022 Alma Dea Morani, MD, Renaissance Woman Award from the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation and the New York Academy of Medicine, given to an outstanding woman physician and/or scientist who has pivotally advanced the field of women’s health. Manson delivered her award lecture in October, “A Life-Course Approach for Improving Women’s Cardiovascular Health.”
Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health, has been named among the most influential Asian American Pacific Islanders in Boston. Koh was cited for being among a group of “legends, leaders, and pioneers” on the inaugural list, which was compiled by public relations maven Colette Phillips. Koh is chair of Harvard Chan School’s Initiative on Health and Homelessness and co-director of the Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University. He previously served as assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and commissioner of public health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Koh and other honorees were recognized at a January 31 event at the Boston Foundation, which was featured in a February 2 Boston Globe article.
Kizzmekia Corbett, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, was awarded the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Rising Star award. She was recognized for her research on the novel coronavirus that laid the groundwork for the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine, as well as for her work to build public confidence in vaccines, particularly among communities of color facing health disparities.
Marcia de Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography, was elected a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences on December 1. The Academy, considered the most prestigious association of scientists in Brazil, serves as a consultant for the government, sometimes conducting studies on scientific policies.
Sikhulile Moyo, laboratory director of the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership and a research associate in the Harvard Chan School Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, was presented with the German Africa Award on November 25 at the Allianz forum in Berlin, along with Tulio de Oliveira of Stellenbosch University in South Africa. The two researchers were honored for their key roles in discovering and immediately reporting the Omicron variant to the World Health Organization in November 2021.
Kizzmekia Corbett, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, received a 2022 Ann Palmenberg Junior Investigator Award from the American Society for Virology (ASV). The award recognizes junior investigators who made significant contributions to the field of virology and who display exceptional promise. The awards are named in honor of former ASV President Ann Palmenberg.
Kizzmekia Corbett, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, was named to the 2022 STATUS List—a list of the top leaders and influencers in the life sciences, compiled by STAT. Corbett was cited for contributing to the development of COVID-19 vaccines while working as scientific lead for a coronavirus team at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health, received an honorary doctorate from Belgium’s Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) at a February 2, 2022 ceremony. Grandjean was cited for his research on the effects of environmental chemicals on human health, such as his studies of the impact of mercury in Faroese birth cohorts—which helped inspire the United Nations decision to develop the Minamata Convention on the control of mercury pollution—and his current work on neurobehavioral development, immune system functions, and metabolic abnormalities associated with exposure to environmental chemicals, especially perfluorinated alkylates (PFAS). His studies provided documentation for new European Union limits for exposure to these compounds. KU Leuven highlighted Grandjean’s research with both a video and an in-depth interview.
Kizzmekia Corbett, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, was awarded the 2022 Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). As a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institutes of Health, Corbett was instrumental in developing the Moderna mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the infection that leads to COVID-19, and she played a key role in addressing vaccine inquisitiveness in communities of color. An AAAS press release also highlighted Corbett’s work engaging the public on science before the pandemic.
Sara Bleich, a professor of public health policy who joined the Biden-Harris administration in January 2021, was named the Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service in January 2022. Previously she served as Senior Advisor for COVID-19 in the Office of the Secretary of the USDA.
A research paper from SHINE (Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise) at Harvard Chan School was chosen as a 2021 “Paper of the Year” by the American Journal of Health Promotion. The study found that taking actions that contribute to the good of others was associated with happiness, life satisfaction, and lower stress and loneliness. Study authors included Dorota Węziak-Białowolska, research scientist, SHINE: Piotr Białowolski, research associate, SHINE; Tyler VanderWeele, director of the Human Flourishing Program and John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Harvard Chan School; and Eileen McNeely, director, SHINE. Read a Harvard Gazette article about the paper.
2021
Dyann Wirth, Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases, has been awarded the 2021 Walter Reed Medal by the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. The Walter Reed Medal is awarded every year to recognize distinguished accomplishments in the field of tropical medicine. The award is named for the U.S. Army physician who in 1901 led the team that confirmed that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species. Wirth’s research is aimed at understanding the molecular mechanisms at work in protozoan parasites, with the goal of discovering interventions to fight parasite-driven disease spread.
A book co-authored by Joseph Allen called Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity, was named one of the eight favorite books in 2021 for healthy living in the New York Times’ Well Book List. Allen, associate professor of exposure assessment science and director of the Healthy Buildings program, co-authored the book with Harvard Business School’s John Macomber.
Kizzmekia Corbett, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, was among nine North Carolinians to receive that state’s highest honor—the North Carolina award. Corbett was chosen for her work on a vaccine to protect people from COVID-19, conducted when she worked at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center. “Reassuring skeptics of the safety and efficacy of the vaccine has been Corbett’s mission since it was authorized for human use,” according to the North Carolina Awards website. “She has used her national prominence as a vaccine researcher to address lingering vaccine hesitancy, particularly in the Black community.” The awards were presented November 18 at the North Carolina Museum of Art.
Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, has been selected as the 2021 recipient of the American College of Epidemiology’s (ACE) Special Award for modeling in real time the spread of the coronavirus, developing innovative methods to track the spread of disease, and suggesting vaccine prioritization strategies. The award was presented virtually on September 10, 2021, at the ACE’s annual meeting.
Kizzmekia Corbett, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, has received one of several annual Bipartisan Congressional Awards from the Alliance for Aging Research. The awards honor individuals and companies making great strides to further aging research and innovation in aging. Corbett received the Silver Innovator Award, which is presented to an individual who anticipates and embraces the evolution of high-quality research aligned with the needs of older patients. Prior to joining Harvard, Corbett was a research fellow and scientific lead at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center, where she was instrumental in developing the concept for an mRNA vaccine, manufactured by Moderna, that is currently being used in several countries to fight SARS-CoV-2.
Thomas Tsai, assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, was among several researchers to receive the second annual Award for Research Data Stewardship from the Future of Privacy Forum for his collaboration with Google on COVID-19 research. The award honors corporate-academic data sharing projects that exemplify how privacy-protective tools and processes can be used to utilize data for academic research. Tsai was part of a team that evaluated the impacts of state policies on mobility and subsequent COVID-19 case trajectories, using anonymized and aggregated mobility data from Google users who had opted to share their data for research. The team’s findings were outlined in a May 25, 2021, article in Nature Communications.
A fall 2020 Harvard Public Health magazine article titled “Bearing Witness” has won a Gold Award for Feature Writing from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The article was chosen from among 128 entries in the feature writing category from colleges and universities around the world. It was written by former Harvard Public Health editor Madeline Drexler, who is also a visiting scientist at the School. Researchers featured in the article include Marc Lipsitch, Ashish Jha, Caroline Buckee, Paul Biddinger, Winnie Yip, Michael Mina, Sarah Fortune, Yonatan Grad, Barry Bloom, Dean Michelle Williams, and William Hanage.
Sheng Tony Hui, assistant professor of molecular metabolism, is part of a research team that has been shortlisted for a Cancer Grand Challenge award and the opportunity to win roughly $25 million in funding. Hui is part of a team called CANCAN (CANcer Cachexia Action Network), led by Eileen White of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, which is exploring cachexia—an extreme wasting condition often experienced in the late stages of cancer—in order to better understand it and to pave the way for new treatments. CANCAN was one of 11 teams named to the shortlist on June 21, 2021, out of 169 that applied from around the world. Shortlisted teams receive seed funding to develop their ideas; winning teams will be announced in early 2022. Cancer Grand Challenges is a global funding initiative aimed at supporting ways to solve some of the cancer’s toughest challenges.
A June 17, 2021, article in Everyday Health named a study by Archana Basu, research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology, Karestan Koenen, professor of psychiatric epidemiology, and colleagues as one of the five “must-read” mental health studies from spring 2021. The worldwide study found that pregnant and postpartum women reported high levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and post-traumatic stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that these high levels of distress could have potential implications for women and for fetal and child health and development.
In June, Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, was selected to join the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) for a three-year term. The group, which includes 34 experts from a broad range of key disciplines— including epidemiology, vaccine development, vaccine manufacturing, public health, and regulatory sciences—will provide guidance and recommendations on CEPI’s vaccine research and development programs and broader outbreak response efforts, both in tackling COVID-19 and in planning for future epidemics and pandemics. CEPI is a partnership of public, private, philanthropic, and civil organizations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines against future epidemics.
A new book by visiting scientist Lucian Leape called Making Healthcare Safe: The Story of the Patient Safety Movement, was published on May 29. In the book, Leape covers the growth of the field from the late 1980s to 2015, details how and why human and systems errors too often occur in the process of providing health care, and outlines the principles and practices of patient safety.
An article by Nancy Krieger, professor of social epidemiology, and colleagues was named one of the top 10 articles of 2020 in May 2021 by the American Journal of Epidemiology and the Society for Epidemiologic Research. The article, published March 27, 2020, found that people who lived in areas in Massachusetts that had previously been “redlined”—deemed unsuitable for mortgage lending because of their Black, foreign-born, or low-income residents—were at greater risk for late-stage diagnosis of several types of cancer. The association was found even for areas with present-day economic and racial privilege. Other Harvard Chan co-authors of the article included Emily Wright, Jarvis Chen, and Pamela Waterman.
Alan Geller, senior lecturer in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, received a Massachusetts Teacher Association (MTA) President’s Award at the organization’s 2021 annual delegates meeting, held April 30-May 1. MTA awards recognize individuals and groups who stand out for their contributions to public education, the labor movement, and to the betterment of Massachusetts and the planet. Geller was a day care worker, unionized rubber and steelworker, and a surgical oncology nurse before embarking on a public health career. His expertise is in cancer screening, cancer epidemiology, and tobacco cessation. He has worked over the past year advising school districts on safe return-to-school policies as well as assisting the MTA in similar efforts.
Caroline Buckee, associate professor of epidemiology and associate director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, has been named one of 50 Radcliffe Institute fellows for 2021–2022. The Radcliffe fellows are exceptional scientists, writers, scholars, public intellectuals, practitioners, and artists whose work is making a difference in their professional fields and in the larger world.
A book titled Measuring Well-Being: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Social Sciences and the Humanities, published on March 22, was co-edited by researchers at Harvard, including Matthew Lee, director of empirical research at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science; Laura Kubzansky, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and co-director of the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness; and Tyler VanderWeele, John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology and director of the Human Flourishing Program. A chapter of the book, titled “Current Recommendations on the Selection of Measures for Well-Being,” was written by researchers Eileen McNeely and Dorota Węziak-Białowolska of the Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE).
James Hammitt, professor of economics and decision sciences, has been awarded the 2021 Outstanding Achievement Award from the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis for making significant contributions to the field of benefit-cost analysis.
JoAnn Manson, professor in the Department of Epidemiology and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has received the James D. Bruce Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions in Preventive Medicine from the American College of Physicians. The award recognizes physicians who have made lasting and outstanding contributions to the field of preventive medicine.
Sarah Fortune, John LaPorte Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, was one of 65 new Fellows elected in mid-February to the American Academy of Microbiology Class of 2021. Fellows are chosen based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology. They are considered leaders in microbiology and are relied on for authoritative advice and insight on critical issues in the field.
Nancy Krieger, professor of social epidemiology, ranked #2 among experts in social justice from around the world in a list compiled by Expertscape, which ranks experts according to the quality and quantity of their publications. The ranking was based on articles in the social justice field published since 2010.
2020
Deirdre Tobias, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition, received the Harvard Medical School 2020 Dean’s Community Service Award in May. Tobias received this award on behalf of a nonprofit community farm that she helps run called Norwell Farms, on Massachusetts’ South Shore. Her team teaches the community about sustainably grown local agriculture and promotes access to healthy food for all.
Xiaole Shirley Liu, professor of biostatistics, received the 2020 Benjamin Franklin Award for Open Access in the Life Sciences by members of Bioinformatics. org. She will give her laureate presentation virtually in October at the 2020 Bio-IT World Conference & Expo.
Edward Nardell, professor in the Departments of Environmental Health and Immunology and Infectious Diseases, received a 2020 alumni award from King’s College.
A project co-led by Francesca Dominici, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science and co-director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, aimed at using data science to address climate change, is one of eight projects to share $1 million in the sixth round of Harvard University’s Climate Change Solutions Fund awards. Dominici and co-investigator Danielle Braun, research scientist in the Department of Biostatistics, will build a research data platform linking data on climate change exposures, health outcomes, and other variables such as behavior and economics, to help inform policy. Read about the project in the Harvard Gazette.
Karestan Koenen, professor of psychiatric epidemiology, co-authored a revised and expanded edition of the book “Treating Survivors of Childhood Abuse and Interpersonal Trauma: STAIR Narrative Therapy.” The book, published in June 2020, presents a widely used evidence-based therapy approach for adult survivors of chronic trauma, helping clients to build social and emotional resources for living in the present and to break the hold of traumatic memories.
Francesca Dominici, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science and co-director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, was recently selected as the recipient of the 2020 Star-Friedman Challenge for Promising Scientific Research for her work on “Air Pollution, Race, and Health Outcomes for COVID-19 in the United States: Data Access, Methods, and Dissemination.” Read a Harvard Gazette article about the Dominici and other awardees.
A June 1, 2020 article on The Sociable featured Caroline Buckee, associate professor of epidemiology and associate director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. The article, “15 Women Healthcare Leaders You Should Get to Know in 2020,” highlighted outstanding women health care leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere who are “facing down the most pressing issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.” The article noted that Buckee’s work using big data from mobile phones and satellites to understand how human pathogens spread and may be controlled is especially timely, given the current focus on tracking the spread of COVID-19.
Tyler VanderWeele, John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology, received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from the Catholic University of America during a May 16 virtual ceremony. In a press release from Catholic University, VanderWeele was cited for his “ongoing efforts to serve vulnerable populations and develop a fuller understanding of the factors that contribute to human flourishing.”
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced on May 12, 2020 the appointment of David R. Williams to its board of trustees. Williams is the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. RWJF President and CEO Richard Besser praised Williams, saying, “We are incredibly fortunate that Dr. Williams will be joining our Board. His leadership, scholarship, and vision have helped to shape the Foundation’s health equity goals focused on giving everyone in America a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being.”
William Hsiao, K.T. Li Research Professor of Economics in the Departments of Health Policy and Management and Global Health and Population, has been named the 2020 recipient of the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research from the Baxter International Foundation and the Association of University Programs in Health Administration. The prize is the highest distinction that researchers in the health services field can achieve, particularly recognizing research that has a lasting impact on the health care system and health care delivery. Read more.
A paper by Catherine Barber, senior researcher at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and co-authors was named one of Health Affairs’ top 10 articles from 2019. In the paper, Barber and her co-authors explore how the Utah legislature’s 2016 call to research firearms and suicide presents a case study for how policy makers, researchers, firearm stakeholders, and others can reach across ideological lines to study their local firearm suicide problem and identify actionable prevention strategies. Other Harvard Chan co-authors of the paper included John Berrigan, Deborah Azrael, and senior author David Hemenway.
School welcomes new faculty for spring semester
2019
Stephen Marks, Dyann Wirth named AAAS Fellows
Benjamin Sommers elected to National Academy of Medicine
Michael Mina earns NIH Director’s Early Independence Award
In December, Ichiro Kawachi, John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Social Epidemiology, will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the Australian National University, for his “exceptional contribution to research, conceptualisation and integration of social science, health and inequalities and [his] invaluable role as a mentor and global leader.”
Henning Tiemeier, Sumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health, received the 10th Annual Leon Eisenberg Award established by the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Department of Pediatrics. As part of the award, he delivered the Ludwik Szymanski Lecture at the Psychiatry Department Grand Rounds at Boston Children’s Hospital on December 4.
In November, Mary Bassett, François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights and director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, received the 2019 Stephen Smith Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Public Health from the New York Academy of Medicine. The award is given for lifetime achievement in public health to an individual who has “lead or significantly contributed to work that effected a significant change in public health policy or practice to improve population health, including work on the broad determinants of health, with a special emphasis on eliminating health disparities.”
In November, David Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and Chair, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, received the Harvard Faculty Humanitarian Award from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. This award is given annually to a Harvard University faculty whose work aligns with that of the recipient of the Elisabeth B. Weintz Humanitarian Award. This year’s Weintz awardee is Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy .
Rory Kirchner, research scientist in the Department of Biostatistics, is among the awardees of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Essential Open Source Software for Science program. The funding will support Kirchner’s work to improve the bcbio-nextgen toolkit, focusing on maintaining existing variant calling functionality and extending support for structural and RNA-seq variant analyses. Kirchner said his efforts build upon the important work of Brad Chapman and Lorena Pantano, and that he will work closely with a team that includes Sergey Naumenko, Ilya Sytchev, Shannan Ho Sui, and John Hutchinson.
Gina McCarthy, director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE), received the Women In Green Forum Trailblazer Award and the Care2 Impact Award for her extraordinary impact on national environmental policy and her initiatives to improve public health, cut air pollution, and reduce greenhouse gases. The awards committee commended McCarthy for transcending political boundaries to frame climate change as a matter of public health.
Jaap Goudsmit, adjunct professor of epidemiology, was appointed chief scientific officer and senior vice president of the Humans Vaccine Project. Goudsmit is an internationally recognized Dutch virologist who has studied AIDS, influenza, aging, and neurodegenerative diseases. The Human Vaccines Project is a public-private initiative that aims to decode the human immune system to make the next leap forward in human health.
Pardis Sabeti, professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard Chan School and professor at the Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, has been awarded half of a 1 million euros ($1.1 million) grant called the Future Insight Prize. Awarded by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, for the first time, the annual prize is aimed at triggering curiosity and creativity worldwide on how to bring “ambitious dream products” into reality—in this case, a “pandemic protector.” The prize is being split equally between Sabeti and James Crowe of Vanderbilt University. Sabeti was recognized for identifying innovative genetic technologies for the detection and treatment of infectious diseases like Ebola and the Lassa virus.
Caroline Buckee, associate professor of epidemiology and associate director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, received the 2019 Alice Hamilton Award at a ceremony at the School in April. Presented by the Committee on the Advancement of Women Faculty, the award recognizes impact in public health and future promise. Buckee’s work focuses on using big data and mathematical models to study the spread of infectious diseases. She was also recognized in June by Malaria No More as a “10 to END” innovator in the fight against malaria for her work using mobile phones as a public health tool.
Diana Ceballos, a visiting scientist in the Department of Environmental Health, was part of a team presented with the Bullard-Sherwood r2p Award in the Knowledge category at the 2019 NIOSH Science Awards in April. Ceballos and her colleagues were recognized for their work integrating Wikipedia into occupational health classes as a platform for student work.
Edward Giovannucci, professor of nutrition and epidemiology, was awarded the AACR-American Cancer Society Award for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention at its annual meeting in April. He was recognized for his work defining the role of molecular, hormonal, metabolic, and nutritional factors in determining cancer risk and patient survival, and for identifying modifiable risk factors and preventive strategies for prostate and colorectal cancer.
Sebastien Haneuse, associate professor of biostatistics, was elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association in July. He was recognized for his “outstanding contributions to statistical methods and applications for analysis of complex observational studies,” and for his collaborations, teaching, and mentorship.
Bethany Hedt-Gauthier, associate professor in the Department of Biostatistics, received the Velji Global Health Education Award at the annual Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference in March. She was recognized for her work training clinical researchers in Rwanda.
Miguel Hernán, Kolokotrones Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, was elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association. He was recognized at a ceremony in July for “outstanding contributions to methodological research in causal inference with substantive applications to address important public health and clinical problems,” and for teaching and mentorship.
Albert Hofman, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Stephen B. Kay Family Professor of Public Health and Clinical Epidemiology, was ranked as one of the top 9 authors in the biomedical sciences for 2018 by Nature Index. The announcement noted that Hofman is a world leader in the epidemiology of common neurologic and vascular diseases who has authored influential studies on the role of vascular factors in Alzheimer’s disease.
William Mair, associate professor of genetics and complex diseases, received the 2019 Armen H. Tashjian Jr. Award for Excellence in Endocrine Research at a ceremony at the School in May. The award recognizes promising young faculty members and fellows who are pursuing innovative research ideas in basic biomedical sciences. Mair’s research focuses on the basic biology of the aging process.
Gina McCarthy, director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) at Harvard Chan School, was named one of the “Climate 100”—the world’s most influential people in climate policy—by Apolitical, a global network for government that helps public servants find ideas, people and partners to solve societies’ hardest challenges. McCarthy was cited for her work as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama, which included leading initiatives that cut air pollution, protected water resources, reduced greenhouse gases and strengthened chemical safety.
Samuel Myers, principal research scientist, planetary health, in the Department of Environmental Health, delivered the 2019 commencement address at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. Myers’ research interests include planetary health, climate change, and consequences of large-scale environmental change to human nutrition and the impact of food production systems on the environment.
Vikram Patel, professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard Chan School and Pershing Square Professor of Global Health in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School (HMS), received the 2019 John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award for his pioneering work in global mental health. Patel’s achievement was celebrated at a reception in April at HMS.
Eric Rubin, chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, was named editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in June. He is an esteemed scientist who has focused much of his research on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen that causes human tuberculosis. He is the author of 147 scientific articles and has been an associate editor of NEJM since 2012.
Jack Shonkoff, Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development at Harvard Chan School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education and director of the Center on the Developing Child, was awarded the 2019 LEGO Prize for his outstanding achievement in deepening the world’s understanding of the importance of the early years. Awarded by the LEGO Foundation, the LEGO Prize honors individuals or organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to the lives of children and are champions of learning through play. Shonkoff, who is also professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, has received numerous honors for his accomplishments in the field of early childhood education and care.
Elsie Tavares, professor in the Department of Nutrition, and chief, Division of General Academic Pediatrics at Mass General Hospital for Children, was one of the 20 nationally recognized health and nutrition experts named to serve on the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee by Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and the Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar in February. The independent Advisory Committee will review the scientific evidence on topics and questions identified by USDA and HHS and will provide a report to the Secretaries. Their work will help inform the Departments in developing the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Michael VanRooyen was selected in March by the Center for Strategic and International Studies to join its Task Force on Humanitarian Access. This diverse group of leaders from across the humanitarian space aims to develop concrete policy recommendations to improve aid delivery while bringing humanitarian access issues to the forefront of foreign policy debate. VanRooyen is Lavine Family Professor of Humanitarian Studies, professor in the Department of Global Health and Population, and director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.
Marianne Wessling-Resnick, professor of nutritional biochemistry, received the Committee on the Advancement of Women Faculty’s Mentoring Award at the 2019 Alice Hamilton Award ceremony in April.
David R. Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard Chan School, and professor of African and African-American studies and sociology at Harvard University, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in April. Election recognizes “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.” Williams is an internationally renowned social scientist focused on social influences on health.
New department chairs named
Three department chairs began their roles on January 1: Marcia Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography, in the Department of Global Health and Population; Robert Farese, professor of genetics and complex diseases, in the Department of Molecular Metabolism; and David R. Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health, in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. They join two other new chairs who began last summer: John Quackenbush, Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, in the Department of Biostatistics; and Eric Rubin, Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases.
2018
Atul Gawande, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard Chan School, was named one of five physicians in the U.S. who made headlines in 2018 and someone who “you’ll want to watch in the year ahead” in a December 27, 2018 article in FierceHealthcare. Gawande was appointed in June to lead a new healthcare venture formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase, which FierceHealthcare called “arguably one of the biggest healthcare stories of 2018.” Gawande is also a widely recognized surgeon, author of four New York Times bestsellers, a writer for the New Yorker, and executive director of Ariadne Labs.
Christopher Duggan, professor in the departments of nutrition and global health and population at Harvard Chan School, has been named editor of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The journal, published by the American Society for Nutrition, has the highest impact factor of any peer-reviewed journal in its category. Over his career Duggan has authored more than 300 research and review articles and has edited several books, including “Nutrition in Pediatrics” and “Clinical Management of Intestinal Failure.”
Francesca Dominici, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population, and Data Science, and Xihong Lin, professor of biostatistics and of statistics, were elected to the National Academy of Medicine in October. This is one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievements and commitment to service. Dominici was cited for “developing and applying innovative statistical methods to understanding and reducing the impact of air pollution on population health.” Lin was cited for “ingenious research in statistical methods and applications in whole-genome sequencing association studies, gene-environment, integrative analysis, and complex observational studies.”
John McDonough, professor of the practice of public health, received the Award for Outstanding Public Engagement in Health Policy 2018 from the Health Politics and Policy Section of the American Political Science Association at their annual conference in Boston in September.
Health care economist Anna Sinaiko was appointed by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker in July 2018 to the Group Insurance Commission, a quasi-independent state agency that provides and administers health insurance and other benefits to the Commonwealth’s employees and retirees, their dependents and survivors. Sinaiko, assistant professor of health economics and policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management, has expertise in the U.S. health care system, with a focus on consumer decision-making and how information and financial incentives alter behavior in health care settings.
David R. Williams, the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health at Harvard Chan School and professor of African and African American Studies and Sociology at Harvard University, has been named a 2019 recipient of the Herbert Pardes Family Award for National Leadership in Advocacy for Research. He is among five recipients of awards from Research!America, a public education and advocacy alliance aimed at making research to improve health a higher national priority. The awards recognize leaders in medical and health research advocacy. Williams is an internationally recognized authority on social influences on health. His research has enhanced understanding of the complex ways in which race, socioeconomic status, stress, racism, health behavior, and religious involvement can affect health. Williams has played a national leadership role in raising awareness about the problem of health disparities and in identifying interventions to address them.
Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard Chan School, was one of 10 individuals honored as a 2018 “American Food Hero” by EatingWell. The awards recognize visionary leaders and influencers who are working on some of today’s most pressing food, sustainability and nutrition issues. Willett, who has published more than 1,700 original research papers and reviews over the course of his career, was among the first researchers to find a link between artificial trans fats and cholesterol and heart disease.
Sara Bleich, professor of public health policy, was selected for a professorship with the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She will conduct research on health policies for obesity prevention during the 2018–2019 academic year.
Margaret Kruk, associate professor of global health, delivered the 2018 Alice Hamilton Award Lecture on May 8. Presented by the School’s Committee on the Advancement of Women Faculty, the award recognizes the impact in public health and the future promise of a woman faculty member, honoring the memory of Alice Hamilton–a pioneer in the fields of toxicology and occupational health, who was the first woman appointed to the faculty at Harvard. At the event, Donna Spiegelman, professor of epidemiologic methods, received the annual mentoring award, and Paige Williams, senior lecturer on biostatistics, received the inaugural service award.
Lorelei Mucci, associate professor of epidemiology, and Timothy Rebbeck, Vincent L. Gregory, Jr. Professor of Cancer Prevention are among the researchers participating in a new Stand Up To Cancer Dream Team focused on revolutionizing the treatment of multiple myeloma. Stand Up To Cancer announced on April 15 a $10 million award to the team, which will seek ways to detect the incurable blood cancer of plasma cells before the cells turn into a full-blown disease.
Samuel Myers, principal research scientist at Harvard Chan School and director of Harvard’s Planetary Health Alliance, has been named the inaugural recipient of the Arrell Global Food Innovation research award. The $100,000 prize, which will be awarded by the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph in May, was created to recognize innovation and excellence in global food security.
Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, was awarded the Excellence in Melanoma Prevention Award from the Children’s Melanoma Prevention Foundation on April 12, 2018. Koh, an oncologist and dermatologist who previously served as U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health and Commissioner of Public Health in Massachusetts, was honored for his leadership in skin cancer prevention education, research, public policy and awareness. He was an organizer and founder of the American Academy of Dermatology’s National Skin Cancer Screening Program, which has resulted in more than 2 million Americans receiving free cancer screenings.
Koh was the undergraduate commencement speaker at the American University of Beirut. He also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters at the University’s commencement exercises on June 8, 2018. Read announcement
Two articles by researchers at Harvard Chan School are among the top 10 editor’s picks for 2017 in the journal Health Affairs. The noteworthy articles were: Los Angeles Safety-Net Program eConsult System Was Rapidly Adopted And Decreased Wait Times To See Specialists, led by Michael Barnett, assistant professor of health policy and management; and Women In The United States Experience High Rates Of Coverage ‘Churn’ In Months Before And After Childbirth, led by Jamie Daw, doctoral student in health policy, and co-authored by Katherine Swartz, professor of health policy and economics, and Benjamin Sommers, associate professor of health policy and economics (senior author).
2017
Winnie Yip, professor of the practice of international health policy and economics at Harvard Chan School, was elected president of the International Health Economics Association (iHEA) on December 1, 2017. Read more
Liming Liang, associate professor of statistical genetics, and colleagues received a 2016 Ten Most Influential Research Award from the Chinese Diabetes Society at its 21th annual meeting on November 25, 2017. Liang was co-first author on the paper Early Prediction of Developing Type 2 Diabetes by Plasma Acylcarnitines: A Population-Based Study.
Pagona Lagiou, adjunct professor of epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and professor of hygiene and epidemiology at the University of Athens Medical School and was elected chair of the Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics (DHEMS) in her home institution, effective November 20, 2017. DHEMS is the first epidemiology department that was established in the context of a Medical School in Greece. It thrived and expanded its international collaborations under the leadership of Prof. Dimitrios Trichopoulos and is currently one of the most prolific epidemiology departments in Europe. Among others, it hosts a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Nutrition and Health and the Greek National Reference Center for Retroviruses, and contributes to several international studies and consortia on the etiology of cancer and other chronic diseases.
Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was appointed in November 2017 as professor of the practice of public health in the Department of Environmental Health. She also became director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment, effective January 1, 2018.
The School welcomed four new faculty members in 2017: Vilsa Curto, assistant professor of health economics and policy, Daniel Neafsey, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases; Elise Robinson, assistant professor of epidemiology; Anna Sinaiko, assistant professor of health economics and policy. Read more
Robert Farese, Jr., professor of genetics and complex diseases at Harvard Chan School, has received a prestigious Laureate Award from the Endocrine Society. Announced in September 2017, the award will be presented in March 2018 at the Endocrine Society’s 100th annual meeting and expo. Read more
Glorian Sorensen, professor of social and behavioral sciences, received the 2017 Mark Dundon Research Award, one of the annual HERO Workplace Health and Well-Being (HWB) Awards. These awards honor dedication and commitment to the field, and acknowledge outstanding achievements in leadership and research. The award was presented during the HERO Forum on Engagement & the Emerging Workforce, held September 12-14, 2017 in Phoenix, AZ. Read more
A portrait of David Hunter, Vincent L. Gregory Professor in Cancer Prevention, Emeritus and former Dean for Academic Affairs and Acting Dean was unveiled at the School on September 6, 2017. Read more
Tyler VanderWeele, professor of epidemiology, and Xihong Lin, Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Biostatistics, and chair of the Department of Biostatistics, received prestigious awards from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) in honor of their outstanding contributions to the profession of statistics. The awards were presented on August 2, 2017 at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Baltimore. Read more
Madina Agénor, assistant professor of social and behavioral sciences, was one of eight junior faculty from around the country who participated this summer in an intensive four-week program at Yale University aimed at advancing HIV/AIDS research by underrepresented minority academics. Read more
Heverton Dutra, a researcher in immunology and infectious diseases from Brazil, was named in June 2017 as a member of the 2017 class of Pew Latin American Fellows in the Biomedical Sciences. The program provides two-year fellowships to talented Latin American scientists who receive postdoctoral training in the United States. Read more