Harvard Public Health NOW

Julio Frenk, Former Minister of Health of Mexico, Named Next Dean of HSPH

Julio Frenk, an eminent authority on global health who served as the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, will become the new dean of HSPH, President Drew Faust announced on July 29, 2008.

Julius B. Richmond, Former U.S. Surgeon General and Professor Emeritus, Passed Away

Julius B. Richmond, a former U.S. Surgeon General and Professor of Health Policy, Emeritus, died at home in Chestnut Hill, MA, on Sunday, July 27, 2008. He was 91. In an email announcement to the School, Dean Barry R. Bloom described how Dr. Richmond issued the momentous 1979 report Smoking and Health, set targets for the health of the American public with the Healthy People report, and was the first national director of the Head Start Program.

Brazil Course Examines Infectious Disease Dynamics

At one level, an infection is an interaction between a host and a pathogen. But the dynamics of an infectious disease in a population depend on much more than biology: politics, economics, health care, and culture also play key roles. To examine that nexus, Mary Wilson, associate professor of global health and population at HSPH and associate clinical professor of medicine, HMS, co-leads the Collaborative Course on Infectious Diseases in Brazil.

Policymakers Learn about Child Development Science

The roots of lifelong health, economic productivity, and safe communities all can be found in the science of early childhood development, said Jack P. Shonkoff, HSPH professor and director of Harvard's Center on the Developing Child, in opening a two-day symposium in June. New findings in neuroscience and the biology of stress show that children who experience significant adversities early in life are at higher risk for later school problems, substance abuse, depression, and even heart disease and other ailments in adulthood.