The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, located in the

Longwood Medical Area The Longwood Medical and Academic Area (also known as Longwood Medical Area, LMA, or simply Longwood) is a medical campus in Boston, Massachusetts. Flanking Longwood Avenue, LMA is adjacent to the Fenway–Kenmore, Audubon Circle, and Mission ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. The school grew out of the Harvard-

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

School for Health Officers, the nation's first graduate training program in

population health Population health has been defined as "the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group". It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire human population. It ha ...

, which was founded in 1913 and then became the Harvard School of Public Health in 1922. Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health is currently ranked as the best school for public health in the world by both the '' Academic Ranking of World Universities'' and EduRank. It is also ranked as the second (tie) best public health school in the nation by '' U.S. News & World Report''.

History

Harvard's T.H. School of Public Health traces its origins to the Harvard-

School for Health Officers, which was founded in 1913. Harvard calls it "the nation's first graduate training program in public health." In 1922, the School for Health Officers became the Harvard School of Public Health. In 1946, it was split off from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

and developed its own dedicated public health and medical faculty. It was renamed the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2014 in honor of a $350 million donation, the largest in Harvard's history at the time, from the Morningside Foundation, run by Harvard School of Public Health alumnus Gerald Chan, SM '75, SD '79, and

Ronnie Chan Ronnie Chan Chi-chung (; born 1949) is a Hong Kong businessman. Education Chan earned bachelor's and master's degrees in biology from a California State University. He received an MBA from the University of Southern California in 1976. Chan ...

, both of whom were sons of T.H. Chan.

Leadership

From 2009 until 2015, the dean of the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health was Julio Frenk, the former the

Mexican government The Federal government of Mexico (alternately known as the Government of the Republic or ' or ') is the national government of the United Mexican States, the central government established by its constitution to share sovereignty over the republi ...

Secretary of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

from 2002 until 2006 and current president of the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

. In 2016, following Frenk's departure, Michelle Ann Williams was appointed the School's new dean. In January 2020, ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

'' reported on an internal discussion by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty on whether to hold a "no confidence" vote on Williams' leadership. The newspaper reported that allegations included that "Williams has punished faculty and staff in the past for expressing dissent, creating what multiple affiliates termed a 'culture of retaliation'."

Curriculum

The Master of Public Health program offers ten fields of study: * Clinical Effectiveness (CLE) * Epidemiology (EPI) * Generalist (GEN) * Global Health and Population (GH) * Health and Social Behavior (HSB) * Health Management (HM) * Health Policy (HP) * Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH) * Quantitative Methods (QM) * Nutrition (NUT) Degree programs offered by specific departments: * Biostatistics: SM, PhD * Environmental Health (EH): SM, MPH, PhD, DrPH * Epidemiology (EPI): SM, DrPH * Genetics and Complex Diseases: PhD * Health Policy: SM, MPH, PhD * Health Care Management: SM, MPH * Immunology and Infectious Diseases: PhD * Nutrition (NUT): MPH, DrPH, PhD * Global Health and Population (GHP): SM, MPH, PhD * Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS): SM, MPH, PhD, DrPH * Population Health Sciences (Interdisciplinary PhD within departments of EH, EPI, GHP, NUT, and SBS) The Harvard Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) was launched in 2014 as a multidisciplinary degree providing advanced education in public health along with mastery of skills in management, leadership, communications, and innovation thinking. The program is a cohort-based program emphasizing small-group learning and collaboration. The program is designed for three years – two years at Harvard, plus one year in a field-based doctoral project – although some students may take up to four years to complete the program. Academic training in the DrPH covers the biological, social, and economic foundations of public health, as well as essential statistical, quantitative, and methodological skills in the first year, an individualized course of study in your second year, and a field-based, capstone project called the DELTA (Doctoral Engagement in Leadership and Translation for Action) in the final year(s) of the program. PhD programs are offered under the aegis of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Research projects

* The Nurses' Health Study and Nurses' Health Study II, which have followed the health of over 100,000 nurses from 1976 to the present; its results have been used in hundreds of published papers. * The Health Professionals Follow-up Study, a similar study of over fifty thousand male health professionals seeking to connect diet, exercise, smoking, and medications taken to frequency of cancer and cardiovascular disease. * The International Health Systems Program, which has provided training or technical assistance to projects in 21 countries and conducts health policy research. * The Program in Health Care Financing, which studies the economics of national health care programs; evaluates the health care programs of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries; studies the effects of bringing

HMO In the United States, a health maintenance organization (HMO) is a medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee. It is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded heal ...

-like hospital reimbursement practices to developing countries; and applies

hedonimetrics Hedonimetry is the study of happiness as a measurable economic asset. The first major work in the field was an 1881 publication of ''Mathematical Psychics'' by the famous statistician and economist Francis Ysidro Edgeworth Francis Ysidro Edgew ...

to health care. * The Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR), which studies public health and

humanitarian law International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war (''jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by pro ...

and policy in the context of conflict-torn regions like the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

and transnational issues like

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

. * The Lung Cancer S.O.S. study, examining the risk factors for and prognosis of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

in terms of genetics and environment. * The College Alcohol Study, which examines the causes of college binge drinking and approaches to prevention and

harm reduction Harm reduction, or harm minimization, refers to a range of public health policies designed to lessen the negative social and/or physical consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. Harm reduction is used to d ...

. * The Program on the Global Demography of Aging, which studies policy issues related to economics of aging with a focus on the developing world. * The Superfund Basic Research Program (see Superfund), studying toxic waste management. * The Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, to "help identify how positive aspects of living can lead to better health and a longer life" and "coordinate research across many disciplines at Harvard University" and "understanding the complex interplay between positive psychological well-being and human health."

Maternal Health Task Force

Launched in 2008 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF) is a global project focused on improving

maternal health Maternal health is the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. In most cases, maternal health encompasses the health care dimensions of family planning, preconception, prenatal, and postnatal care in order to ens ...

through better coordination, communication, and facilitation between existing maternal health organizations, as well as with experts in related fields. The MHTF is managed by

EngenderHealth EngenderHealth is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. active in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) operating in nearly 20 countries throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The organization was established in 1943 a ...

, an international nonprofit organization.

Notable faculty (and past faculty)

* Joseph G. Allen, public health expert, director of the Healthy Buildings program * Katherine Baicker, economist, a former member of the Council of Economic Advisers * Robert Blendon, political strategy of health and public opinion expert *

Barry Bloom Barry R. Bloom is Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson Professor of Public Health in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and Department of Global Health and Population in the Harv ...

, immunologist and former dean *

David Bloom David Jerome Bloom (May 22, 1963 – April 6, 2003) was an American television journalist (co-anchor of ''Weekend Today'' and reporter) until his sudden death in 2003 after a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) became a pulmonary embolism. Early an ...

, economist * David Canning, economist *

Douglas Dockery Douglas William Dockery is an American epidemiologist and the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Education Dockery received his B.S. in physics from the ...

, epidemiologist *

Francesca Dominici Francesca Dominici is a Harvard Professor who develops methodology in causal inference and data science and led research projects that combine big data with health policy and climate change. She is a professor of biostatistics, co-director of the H ...

senior associate dean for research, professor of biostatistics, data scientist, and air pollution expert * Arnold Epstein, department chair for health policy and management *

Max Essex Myron Elmer "Max" Essex (born August 17, 1939) is the Mary Woodard Lasker Professor of Health Sciences, emeritus in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University, Chair of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public H ...

, HIV researcher * Julio Frenk, former dean of school of public health and former Secretary of Health of Mexico *

Atul Gawande Atul Atmaram Gawande (born November 5, 1965) is an American surgeon, writer, and public health researcher. He practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a professor in the Departme ...

, general and endocrine surgeon * Sue Goldie, physician and decision scientist,

MacArthur fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

recipient * John Graham, policy and decision scientist, former director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs * Laurie Glimcher, immunologist *

Alice Hamilton Alice Hamilton (February 27, 1869Corn, JHamilton, Alice''American National Biography'' – September 22, 1970) was an American physician, research scientist, and author. She was a leading expert in the field of occupational health and a pioneer ...

, occupational health and toxicology; first woman appointed to the faculty of

David Hemenway David Hemenway (born 1945) is a Professor of Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has a B.A. (1966) and Ph.D. (1974) from Harvard University in economics. He is the director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and ...

, economist and injury prevention expert * William Hsiao, economist * Frank Hu, epidemiologist and nutrition researcher *

David Hunter David Hunter (July 21, 1802 – February 2, 1886) was an American military officer. He served as a Union general during the American Civil War. He achieved notability for his unauthorized 1862 order (immediately rescinded) emancipating slaves ...

, epidemiologist, Acting Dean of the Faculty and former Dean for Academic Affairs at School of Public Health * Curtis Huttenhower, computational biologist *

Ashish Jha Ashish Kumar Jha (born December 31, 1970) is an Indian-American general internist physician and academic serving as the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator. He is currently on a short-term leave from the Brown University School of Public H ...

(MPH'04 and former faculty) served as Dean for Global Strategy 2018–2020 * Ichiro Kawachi, social epidemiologist * Howard Koh, public health researcher, the 14th

Assistant Secretary for Health The assistant secretary for health (ASH) is a senior U.S. government official within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The position is a statutory office () and the holder of the office serves as the United State ...

at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. * Nan Laird, biostatistician, former head of department * Alexander H. Leighton, psychiatric epidemiologist *

Richard Levins Richard "Dick" Levins (June 1, 1930 – January 19, 2016) was an ex-tropical farmer turned ecologist, a population geneticist, biomathematician, mathematical ecologist, and philosopher of science who researched diversity in human populations. U ...

, ecologist and mathematical biologist * Xihong Lin, biostatistician and mathematician, 2006 COPPS presidents' award recipient * Jun S. Liu, biostatistician and mathematician, 2002 COPPS presidents' award recipient *

Bernard Lown Bernard Lown (June 7, 1921February 16, 2021) was a Lithuanian-American cardiologist and inventor. Lown was the original developer of the direct current defibrillator for cardiac resuscitation, and the cardioverter for correcting rapid disordered ...

, co-founded the Nobel Prize-winning group Physicians for Social Responsibility; founder of the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation *

Adetokunbo Lucas Adetokunbo Oluwole Lucas (was born in 1931 and died on 25 December 2020) was a Nigerian doctor who was considered a global leader in tropical diseases. Born in Lagos, he was educated in the United Kingdom and commenced his professional career ...

, former director of Tropical Diseases Research at the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

(WHO) * Brian MacMahon, cancer epidemiologist * Sezan Mahmud, Writer and university professor * Christopher Murray, physician and health economist *

Joseph Newhouse Joseph P. Newhouse (born February 24, 1942) is an American economist and the John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University, as well as the Director of the Division of Health Policy Research and of the Inter ...

, economist and director of the RAND Health Insurance Experiment * Shuji Ogino, pioneer in

molecular pathological epidemiology Molecular pathological epidemiology (MPE, also molecular pathologic epidemiology) is a discipline combining epidemiology and pathology. It is defined as "epidemiology of molecular pathology and heterogeneity of disease". Pathology and epidemiology s ...

* Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of

New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. His ...

* James Robins, epidemiologist and biostatistician * Pardis Sabeti, computational biologist,

medical geneticist Medical genetics is the branch tics in that human genetics is a field of scientific research that may or may not apply to medicine, while medical genetics refers to the application of genetics to medical care. For example, research on the caus ...

and evolutionary geneticist *

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...

, economist, Nobel laureate in Economics * Gita Sen, feminist scholar and specialist in international population policy * Frank E. Speizer, physician and epidemiologist * Andrew Spielman, public health entomologist * Frederick J. Stare, controversial chair of Nutrition Institute * James H. Ware, biostatistician * Thomas Huckle Weller, Nobel laureate in Physiology and Medicine * George C. Whipple, cofounder of School in 1922 *

Walter Willett Walter C. Willett (born June 20, 1945) is an American physician and nutrition researcher. Currently, Willett is the Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and was the chair of its depart ...

, physician and nutrition researcher

Notable alumni

There are over 13,484 alumni. * Anthony Irvine Adams, 2001 Alumni Award of Merit for a distinguished service in public health practice *

James B. Aguayo-Martel James Benjamin Martel is a physician, surgeon and scientist. He is former Chair of Surgery, Mercy San Juan Medical Center, former Chief of Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology (ENT), and Plastic Surgery, Sutter Roseville Medical Center. He is the form ...

, pioneer in ophthalmology *

Gro Harlem Brundtland Gro Brundtland (; born Gro Harlem, 20 April 1939) is a Norwegian politician ( Arbeiderpartiet), who served three terms as the 29th prime minister of Norway (1981, 1986–89, and 1990–96) and as the director-general of the World Health Organizat ...

, former Prime Minister of Norway, former Director-General of the

* Nadine Burke Harris, pediatrician and first

Surgeon General of California In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

Eli Capilouto Eli Capilouto (born August 22, 1949, in Montgomery, Alabama) is the twelfth president of the University of Kentucky. He previously had been the provost of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Early life Capilouto is a native of Alab ...

, twelfth president of the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

* William Foege, MPH 1965, physician, former Director of the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

* Mandy Cohen, physician, Secretary of the

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS or DHHS) is a large state government agency in the U.S. state of North Carolina, somewhat analogous to the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The NCDHHS has mo ...

Humayun Chaudhry Humayun Javaid Chaudhry, D.O., MACP, FRCP (Lon.) (born November 17, 1965) is an American physician and medical educator who is president and chief executive officer of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) of the United States, a natio ...

, President and CEO of the

Federation of State Medical Boards The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) of the United States is a national non-profit organization that represents the 71 state medical and osteopathic boards of the United States and its territories and co-sponsors the United States Medica ...

Winston Dang Winston Tion-sin Dang (; born 1943) is a Taiwanese politician and member of the Democratic Progressive Party. He was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 2004, and served through 2007, when he was appointed leader of the Environmental Protection A ...

, head of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

's Environmental Protection Administration from 2004 to 2008 * Jonathan Fielding, Director

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) provides public health services to Los Angeles County residents. Barbara Ferrer is the Director for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Muntu Davis, MD, MPH is the Los Angel ...

, editor in chief of the Annual Review of Public Health * Janina R. Galler, PI and Director of 45+-year

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

Nutrition Study in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc bet ...

, in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, a longitudinal study showing the intergenerational legacy of poverty and disadvantage from childhood malnutrition. * Steven K. Galson, former Acting Surgeon General of the United States *

, surgical safety pioneer, MacArthur Fellow, Rhodes Scholar * Sue Goldie, MacArthur Fellow and decision scientist * Timothy Johnson, chief medical correspondent for ABC News * Karl Lauterbach, German politician ( SPD), served as Federal Minister of Health since 8 December 2021 * Alberto P. León, MD, MPH, former Secretary of Health, Mexico * John S. Marr, MD, MPH, epidemiologist and author. * Jonathan Mann, former head of the

global HIV/AIDS program *

James O. Mason James Ostermann Mason (June 19, 1930 – October 9, 2019) was an American medical doctor and public health administrator. He was the United States Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) from 1989 to 1993 and the Acting Surgeon General of the Unite ...

, former Acting Surgeon General of the United States, former Director of the

* Shuji Ogino, pioneer in

* Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih, former Minister of Health of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

* David J. Sencer, longest-serving Director of the

Rochelle Walensky Rochelle Paula Walensky (née Bersoff; born April 5, 1969) is an American physician-scientist who is the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. P ...

– Director,

References

External links

*
Professor Andrew Speilman, Professor Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health
Freeview Issues programme on Malaria by the Vega Science Trust.

Centers and Institutes

Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE)
* Jay Winstenbr>Center for Health Communication

François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights

Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention

Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies

Harvard Injury Control Research Center

Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative
(HSPH HAI)
Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health

John B. Little Center for Radiation Sciences
{{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1913 1913 establishments in Massachusetts T.H. Chan School of Public Health Schools of public health in the United States