One shepherded accused people through the criminal justice system at the federal Public Defender’s Office in Washington,D.C.;another helped Medicaid enrollees and others denied treatment and medication cut through red tape to get services;and athird worked at under-resourced rural schools in the Navajo and Hopi nations.These are some of the summer projects that recipients of this year’s Presidential Public Service Fellowships shared with President Claudine Gay,faculty,and staff during agathering at the Harvard Faculty Club on Friday.Launched in 2011,the initiative gives students the chance to get exposure to community service programs and encourages them to consider public service careers.About adozen or so from across the University are selected and receive financial support to work in fields such as education,public health,government,and social services,where the need—and challenges—are often most acute.Hilary Adeleke’24,a history of science concentrator with asecondary in global health and health policy,said her summer work“really affirmed that you can marry medicine policy and sustainable healthcare within alow-income context.”One of five Harvard College fellows,Adeleke worked as acase-manager intern for Boston Healthcare for the Homeless,connecting clients with critical services.She also volunteered at St.Francis House in downtown Boston providing care at the organization’s foot clinic—a common medical problem area for those experiencing homelessness.“It was just really eye-opening to me.Although medicine can be seen as objective,it’s not necessarily apolitical,and you really see the impact of policy on these people’s everyday lives,”Adeleke said. 查看详细>>

The Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University announces the appointment of Kanaka Rajan as its first faculty member hired within the recently launched institute.As afounding faculty member at the Kempner,Rajan will serve as an institute investigator.Rajan will also have adual appointment,serving as amember of the faculty in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School“We are thrilled to have Dr.Rajan join the Kempner,where she will play akey role in helping to shape and advance the institute’s research program,”said Kempner Co-Director Bernardo Sabatini.“She is atrue leader in the field,using innovative techniques to tackle big,difficult questions,and expanding the possibilities for how we use artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand the enduring mysteries of the brain.”“Computational approaches to understanding brain function is afrontier area of research,”said David Ginty,chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School.“Kanaka Rajan has already made enormous contributions to this area of research,and we are fortunate that she will join our community at Harvard Medical School to further advance and galvanize the field of neurobiology.We are poised to make progress in this exciting area of research in partnership with the Kempner Institute.” 查看详细>>

The Harvard Art Museums have appointed Micha Winkler Thomas as their new deputy director.Winkler Thomas will serve in asenior leadership position,working alongside the director,and will oversee several of the museums’administrative divisions.A leader in the museum,government,nonprofit,and cultural sectors,Winkler Thomas brings to the museums her extensive experience in executive leadership,strategic vision,innovation with analysis,operational efficiency,and excellent customer service.For more than 20 years,Winkler Thomas has managed adiverse range of high-profile projects,teams,and technology.She begins her new role at Harvard on Sept.18.Winkler Thomas is currently the deputy director for strategy and chief operating officer at The Phillips Collection in Washington,D.C.,where she has worked since 2019.In this position,she has honed her skills in executive leadership,directing the museum’s strategic,operational,and digital planning initiatives,such as the museum’s five-year strategic and operations plan and the celebration of the museum’s 100th anniversary in 2021.She has played akey part in developing museum initiatives around diversity,partnerships,outreach to new audiences,digital opportunities,and data collection and analysis,as well as overseeing the daily operations of the museum,including such areas as information technology,facilities,security,admissions,the shop,and the cafe.Prior to her work at the Phillips Collection,she served in various roles at the U.S.Capitol Visitor Center,Smithsonian Institution,and National Gallery of Art in Washington,D.C.“Micha brings awealth of museum experience and adeep commitment to the successful implementation and execution of strategic planning,”said Martha Tedeschi,the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums.“At atime when we have just finished writing our own five-year strategic plan and received re-accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums(AAM),Micha is uniquely qualified to help us take the next steps toward the realization of our institutional goals.At the same time,I am thrilled to welcome such aseasoned museum veteran to our team at an exciting time in our audience expansion and development,following the implementation of our new policy of free admission for all visitors,which began on June 23.I look forward to her fresh ideas and perspectives as we navigate this new chapter in our museums’long history.”“I am delighted and gratified to join the staff of the Harvard Art Museums as deputy director,because it combines my passion for art history with my skills in directing and leading an operation that focuses on avisitor’s educational and cultural experience,”said Winkler Thomas.“I am inspired by the museums’mission and the Harvard Art Museums’unique role in the Greater Boston area,serving as an invaluable resource for both the campus and the community.The museums’collections are astounding,and the power of those collections to promote critical looking and thinking is what drew me to this position.I am looking forward to embracing the challenges and opportunities presented in this exciting new role in such avibrant cultural area.” 查看详细>>

nyone can look up into the sky at agalaxy.A powerful telescope can help.But how much of it can you really see,much less understand,this way?That’s where computer simulations come in,according to Andrew Pontzen,professor of cosmology at University College London.Pontzen spoke Friday,as part of the series Harvard Science Book Talks,about his recent book“The Universe in aBox:Simulations and the Quest to Code the Cosmos,”which he wrote for ageneral audience.The book focuses on how simulations help scientists study the mysteries of the universe.Computer simulations have become critical tools for cosmologists and astrophysicists.By modeling complex astrophysical phenomena that are impossible to observe in alab or any other way we currently have available,simulations provide aglimpse into the formation of galaxies,stars,black holes,and the workings of the cosmos.With the help of modern supercomputers that can run massive calculations,simulations have enabled scientists to do what they couldn’t do with pencil and paper,Pontzen said.“The question that we have as cosmologists is twofold:First,how did the universe come to be structured in this way?”said Pontzen.“And how does it relate to the story of our own solar system,the sun,and the earth?It turns out computer simulations are agreat way to get to grips with these kinds of questions.”Visible materials in the universe,such as stars,planets,and the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies,can be seen directly through telescopes,but they comprise only about 5percent of the total mass and energy of the universe.Cosmology,the study of the universe,has been revolutionized in the last few decades by the development of faster,more powerful supercomputers.One hurdle for researchers in the past has been the immensity of the universe.There might be trillions of galaxies,each with hundreds of billions of stars.To the naked eye the galaxies appear scattered at random,but simulations show they are organized in apattern,the so-called cosmic web.But as much as simulations provide insights into the structure of the universe,they also reveal only“the tip of the iceberg,”said Pontzen.Visible materials in the universe,such as stars,planets,and the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies,can be seen directly through telescopes,but they comprise only about 5percent of the total mass and energy of the universe.The remaining 95 percent includes materials such as dark matter and dark energy,which at the moment scientists are unable to probe in any laboratory.Simulations have proven to be effective in predicting the behavior of dark matter,an extra material in the universe that can’t be seen but can make its presence felt through gravity.The story of how simulations came to be goes back to the 19th century,said Pontzen.In his book,he pays tribute to computer pioneers Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.An English mathematician,Babbage is considered the“father of the computer”for having built acomputing machine in 1821.Lovelace,also an English mathematician,wrote aset of operating instructions,or an algorithm,for Babbage’s machine,years later.Simulations couldn’t exist without computers,Pontzen said.“Ada Lovelace wrote areally beautiful description of what asimulation essentially is,”he said.“She said,‘Those who view mathematical science not merely as avast body of abstract and immutable truths will regard with special interest all that can tend to facilitate the translation of its principles into explicit practical forms.’”As an example of apioneering use of simulations,Pontzen highlighted the role of meteorologist Lewis Fry Richardson,who applied math and physics to weather forecasting in the early 1900s.“He attempted to do simulations of meteorology to make weather forecasts before computers were even available,”said Pontzen.“He was trying to do this by hand,using what looked like agiant spreadsheet he was filling in,doing loads of calculations by hand in order to translate theoretical physics into something really practical.”With its alluring ability to visually replicate systems or phenomena impossible to study in alab or outer space,computer simulations have been embraced in medicine,climate science,economics,and epidemiology,among other disciplines. 查看详细>>

It’s not about the speed of walking because that’s going to be dependent on the person and where they’re walking.It’s really about two things that you can measure—target heart rate and the rate of perceived exertion.If you just go for aleisurely stroll or walk around agrocery store,that’s not going to create achange and isn’t going to have much effect on your health.When you want to exercise and create physiological change,you need to get your heart rate up.The general estimation is just taking 220 and subtracting your age—that will give you asense of your maximum heart rate.And to get any training effects you want to exercise at anywhere from 65 to 75 percent of your estimated maximum heart rate.That’s what’s called your target heart rate.Let’s say we’re talking about a60-year-old—220 minus 60,their estimated maximum heart rate is 160.They need to take 65 percent—that’s 104.So ideally,when they’re walking,they’re getting their heart rate up to 104 beats per minute.You can track that with asmart watch or Fitbit.If you don’t have one,you can use what’s called the rate of perceived exertion(RPE).That’s asimple scale of one to 10.One,you’re resting,and 10 is working way too hard,so you can’t even really breathe.You want to be in the four to six range—a moderate level of work.The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes aweek,or 30 minutes aday for five days,of cardiovascular exercise.Ideally,that’s what you’re doing.If you’ve been inactive for along time,that’s going to be agoal to work toward gradually.I might start out at five minutes every other day,slowly increasing that amount of exercise over time,to that 30-minute time frame.As for where you walk—it’s apersonal preference.What’s good about walking outside is different terrain.So going up and down hills is going to make you work harder than walking on aflat surface.We would encourage people who prefer to walk on atreadmill to walk on alittle bit of an incline or change the incline as they’re walking to make them work alittle bit harder to get that heart rate up. 查看详细>>

Over millions of years,humans have developed unique features—think of the opposable thumbs and complex brains that make it possible to read this article on asmartphone.But we’ve also developed unique diseases.“When Evolution Hurts,”a recent talk hosted by the Museums of Science&Culture,explored the genetic research that is helping scientists better understand relationships between evolution and modern disease risk.In the lecture,human evolutionary biology Professor Terence D.Capellini focused on the link between bipedalism and knee osteoarthritis,a degenerative disease that afflicts 250 million people worldwide.As humans developed to walk upright,said Capellini,the structure of our knee joints and pelvis changed.In our knees,we have alarger area of contact between the upper and lower leg bones.Thigh bones have become more angled and lower bones thicker to support weight.Our pelvises,compared to those of apes,got shorter,wider,with more curved blades to support arange of upright motion.“Post cranial,this is the most changed skeletal structure in the body,”Capellini said.“It’s allowing us to walk on two legs and give birth to alarge fetal head—both essential for human existence.”Through time subtle alterations,occurring in utero,slightly changed those basic structures in some people.These alterations—say,a slightly more angled femur or rounded tibia—can cause severe wear and tear as we age.“Having osteoarthritis of the knee is debilitating,and it has alot of comorbidities associated with it,like heart disease and diabetes.”By 2040,Capellini said,nearly 40 percent of adults over the age of 65 will have some form of degenerative osteoarthritis.“Having osteoarthritis of the knee is debilitating,and it has alot of comorbidities associated with it,like heart disease and diabetes,”he said.So how do we prevent it?First,Capellini said,we need to identify the characteristics of the population who are not prone to the disease.His lab,using technology to study the human skeleton during development,has been able to determine what cells control the development of certain characteristics.Capellini described genetic“switches”—regulatory proteins that activate agenetic variation,or don’t.These switches,of which there are hundreds or thousands in each part of the skeleton,control the size,shape,and,ultimately,the longevity of your joints.Next,using this research,Capellini and his team hope they can pinpoint these mutations for future therapies.“What we can do is figure out how to therapeutically treat how switches act in the knee,and how they form to maintain ahealthy knee,”he said.For example,he said,if scientists are able to identify high-risk patients at an early age,they may be able to inform them about activities in which they should be careful engaging.Capellini notes that injury,in addition to genetic predisposition,increases the likelihood of developing osteoarthritis.“It’s hard to say not to do activities,”he said.“But to be careful doing certain activities.”Capellini’s presentation builds on his work in the Developmental and Evolutionary Genetics Lab and hypotheses published in his 2020 paper“Evolutionary Selection and Constraint on Human Knee Chondrocyte Regulation Impacts Osteoarthritis Risk.”The talk is part of an ongoing series by the Harvard Museums of Science&Culture.More information on upcoming events can be found on their website. 查看详细>>

The Harvard Culture Lab Innovation Fund(HCLIF)has awarded grants to 13 teams that have designed and created projects aimed at fostering diversity and equity on campus while helping advance aculture of inclusion.“Changing culture around equity,diversity,inclusion,and belonging at Harvard and elsewhere requires new ideas not just from leaders,but also from those with the daily lived experiences of their communities,”said Sherri Charleston,Harvard’s chief diversity and inclusion officer.“I’m inspired by all the individuals who have received agrant and commend their collective ambition to make Harvard amore equitable and inclusive space.I’m looking forward to seeing the outcomes of each project.”This year’s recipients include undergraduates,graduate students,postdoctoral researchers,staff,and faculty,representing arange of Harvard’s Schools and units,with several teams made of up of representatives from more than one School.The awardees include new projects like To Be Seen,which aims to add signs acknowledging Indigenous lands on public trails,thereby interrupting the dominant colonizer narratives that devalue the lived experiences of Indigenous community members,and redesign signage that acknowledges Indigenous land.The project is acollaboration between apostdoc,undergraduate students,the Harvard Forest,Harvard University Native American Program,and the Nipmuc community to amplify Indigenous voices on public lands.Other projects include more established initiatives that are developing new ways to engage the community,like the Inclusive Teaching Institute,which helps faculty and instructors explore inclusive and blended teaching.The group plans to use the grant to expand their network into Harvard Extension School and Harvard Summer School.Mary DiSalvo,whose project,the Language Exchange,was awarded agrant,and who works as the language support manager and IT liaison at Harvard’s Language Center,spoke about why the program that helps people practice speaking other languages will make adifference.“The Language Exchange provides ashared social and linguistic space like no other at Harvard,”she said.“When used to its full potential,the Language Exchange allows Harvard community members to take full advantage of the breadth of cultural and linguistic experience,just afew clicks away.”Octavious Talbot,a Ph.D.candidate in biostatistics at the School of Public Health and the leader of StatStart,another awardee,said his project to bring STEM learning to underrepresented high school students will continue to improve learning outcomes with support from the grant.“StatStart has demonstrated that,in ashort month,students from adiverse background can be motivated to pursue STEM by focusing on their strengths,fellowship,and mentorship,”he said. 查看详细>>

Harvard Business School has announced the cohort of Executive Fellows for the 2022-23 academic year.With its largest cohort yet,36,the Executive Fellows Program seeks to leverage the expertise of outstanding practitioners to enhance teaching and learning at the School.All fellows,including alumni,partner with at least one HBS faculty member to bring their business experience into the HBS community.The fellows contribute to the School by working with faculty and M.B.A.students on curricular and co-curricular activities.These include,but are not limited to,co-teaching course sessions in the elective curriculum,offering career counseling and development coaching,co-leading Short Intensive Programs(SIPs),and delivering workshop sessions.They also bring their expertise to the School’s HBS Online and Executive Education programs by collaborating with faculty in case development and other research projects.Fellow appointments range from afew months to one year and may be extended.“Since the inception of the Executive Fellows program,we have had the good fortune to engage with an impressive array of experienced practitioners who contribute in many ways to the HBS mission of educating leaders who make adifference in the world,”said Professor Len Schlesinger,chair of the program.“This cohort of Executive Fellows,our largest yet,will provide important,first-hand perspectives on real world challenges and opportunities that will enrich the learning of our entire community.” 查看详细>>

The summer between high school and college is often filled with fleeting farewells and nervous energy as students prepare themselves for their lives ahead in anew home.At Harvard,one of the most transformative aspects of the college experience is students sharing their own formative experiences and perspectives with one another.That’s where the SPARK program has been atremendous catalyst for learning and growth.SPARK is an immersive six-week public service program for incoming first-year students where students work on apublic service project of their own design at home while receiving ongoing support from the Harvard community.The program began in 2019 to create greater awareness and visibility of public service work at Harvard College.Incoming students meet with student leaders from Phillips Brooks House Association and the Institute of Politics,along with campus leaders including Dean Rakesh Khurana and Michael Brown,past president of the Harvard College Board of Overseers and co-founder of City Year.Ally Phillip from the Social Innovation and Change Initiative(SICI)led aworkshop on helping students identify sources of power,focusing on SICI’s 3P framework for social change:1)understanding the problem 2)demonstrating personal ability to lead change 3)and offering apromising pathway for change.Leah Robinson led aworkshop to help students cultivate efficacy.Many students among the 100 participants in the 2022 SPARK cohort provided critical term-time support to community-based programs.While the students provided critical services and support to their neighbors,they also learned more about themselves.“After seeing students fearlessly chart new territory into unexplored career paths,I became more motivated to embrace the same liberty and confidence.I began exploring more options for what career path Imight go down and imagining ways these careers would intersect with public service.Learning from the students Iworked with was empowering both for me and for them and really at the heart of what SPARK is all about!”said Mukta Dharmapurikar’26,who worked with Durham County Cooperative Extension in North Carolina.The opportunity to learn and reflect with staff,faculty,and fellow incoming students in the SPARK community was also agreat benefit.“I am forever grateful for this program and the incredible community Ifound along the way,”said Rosie Couture’26,who worked at Generation Ratify in Arlington,Virginia.The SPARK program also gave many students the opportunity to thank the communities that nurtured their growth.Maya Dummett’26 worked with Oasis,an organization that provided social services,educational support,and basic needs to women and girls in New Jersey.“As ayoung Black girl who grew up in aneighboring town of Paterson,the community that Oasis serves reminded me so much of my own.Truly,the children of Oasis reminded me so much of myself too.However,I never had my own Oasis growing up.I knew then and there that Iwanted to pour all of myself into supporting their work,”she said. 查看详细>>

The Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School has announced the appointment of five Hauser Leaders for the fall 2022 semester.Celebrating its eighth year,the Hauser Leaders Program brings distinguished leadership practitioners from across the public,nonprofit,and private sectors to CPL to engage with students,faculty,and the wider Harvard community.“At atime when many challenges stem from leadership shortcomings,these Hauser Leaders bring to campus living examples of principled and effective public leadership,”said Deval Patrick,co-director for the Center for Public Leadership and professor of the practice of public leadership.“Though from different experiences,these leaders share values,values applied in practical ways,that they can now share with the Kennedy School community.”Throughout the semester,the Hauser Leaders meet individually with students,give guest lectures,and lead public events on campus.“The Hauser Leaders Program is core to CPL’s mission,”said Hannah Riley Bowles,co-director for the Center for Public Leadership and Roy E.Larsen Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management.“Our students and faculty are grateful for the opportunity to learn from these distinguished leaders in elected office,grassroots organizations,the media,and public advocacy.”The fall 2022 Hauser Leaders are:Jane Harman,J.D.’69 Distinguished Fellow and President Emerita,Wilson Center;U.S.Representative(CA-36)(1993-1999;2010-2011)David Ignatius,A.B.’72 Foreign Affairs Columnist,The Washington Post;novelist;Fisher Family Fellow,Future of Diplomacy Project(2010);Visiting Professor,HKS(spring 2012)Michael Lomax President&CEO,United Negro College Fund Leni Robredo Vice President of the Philippines(2016-2022)Dov Seidman,J.D.’92 Founder and Executive Chairman,the HOW Institute for Society and LRN Full biographies for fall 2022 Hauser Leaders can be found here,and events featuring the Hauser Leaders will be posted here.The Hauser Leaders Program is made possible by the generous support of Rita E.Hauser and Gustave M.Hauser. 查看详细>>