Faculty News: Fall 2025
In memoriam: Lucian Leape
Lucian Leape, adjunct professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the time of his retirement in 2015, died June 30 at age 94. Leape, who began his career as a pediatric surgeon, was renowned for his groundbreaking research on reducing medical errors and dedicated advocacy for improving health systems. He is credited with inspiring a patient safety movement in health care that has contributed to reductions in often deadly but preventable problems such as central line infections and medication errors. Read his New York Times obituary.
A livestreamed event will be held Oct. 27, 2025: First, Do No Harm: A Symposium in Memory of Lucian Leape
Awards and honors
Rifat Atun, professor of global health systems, joined the School’s senior leadership team as vice dean for non-degree education and innovation in July. Read about his plans for expanding lifelong learning opportunities at Harvard Chan School.
Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, was named to the 2025 cohort of Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences in August. Early-career scientists in this program receive four years of funding to uncover fundamental insights about human health and disease. Corbett-Helaire’s research will focus on how coronaviruses and other emerging viruses interact with human cells.
Xihong Lin, professor of biostatistics, became chair of the Department of Statistics in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences in July. Lin holds a joint appointment there and in the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard Chan School, where she previously served as department chair.
Lin also was selected as the 2025 Lowell Reed Lecturer by the American Public Health Association (APHA). Lin will deliver the lecture at the 2025 APHA Annual Meeting, held Nov. 2–5, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The Lowell Reed Lecture is awarded annually to a statistician who has made significant contributions to public health.
JP Onnela, professor of biostatistics, became chair of the Department of Biostatistics on Sept. 1. Brent Coull, professor of biostatistics, who served as interim chair over the summer, will continue to serve as associate chair.
Onnela’s research centers on two fields where he has made important methodological advances—digital phenotyping and statistical network science. His lab has developed statistical learning techniques to analyze vast quantities of data from smartphones and wearables, investigating how patterns of interaction with digital devices can be used to monitor and predict changes in health. He has also developed quantitative methods for studying social and behavioral networks and their connections to health outcomes. Onnela’s lab developed the Beiwe data analysis platform and operates the Beiwe Service Center, which allows investigators around the world to conduct digital phenotyping studies using the platform.
He served for many years as co-director of the School’s Health Data Science SM Degree Program and chair of the Postdoc Advisory Committee, in addition to serving as a member of the Biostatistics PhD Degree Program Committee.
Mingyang Song, associate professor of clinical epidemiology and nutrition, recently became the new PhD faculty director of graduate studies for epidemiology students in the Population Health Sciences program. Song is currently a statistics associate editor of Gut, an associate editor of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and an editor of the European Journal of Epidemiology. His research aims to translate epidemiologic advances into the clinic for improved cancer care.
Bookshelf
The Permanence of Anti-Roma Racism: (Un)uttered Sentences
by Margareta Matache, lecturer on social and behavioral sciences
(Routlege, November 2025)
This book offers a theoretical perspective on the roots of anti-Roma racism, tracing its genesis in the system of racialized slavery in the historical territories of present-day Romania and the politics of killings, expulsions, and entry-bans across Europe in the late Middle Ages. Employing theoretical frameworks of structural oppressions, anti-colonial and decolonial thought, racialization, and intersectionality, this book analyzes how deep historical legacies continue to shape anti-Roma racism as an enduring, structural form of oppression.
Appointments and promotions
Endowed professorships
Christopher Golden, Bruce A. Beal, Robert L. Beal and Alexander S. Beal Associate Professor of Nutrition and Planetary Health
Shruthi Mahalingaiah, Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Reproductive and Women’s Health
Promotions
Joseph Allen, professor of exposure assessment science
Tamarra James-Todd, professor of environmental reproductive epidemiology
Cindy Leung, associate professor of public health nutrition
Junwei Lu, associate professor of biostatistics
Rachel Nethery, associate professor of biostatistics
