Faculty news: Fall 2026
Faculty awarded University funding for innovative research
Manoj Duraisingh, John LaPorte Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Quan Lu, Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Physiology, received Star-Friedman Challenge grants in July for promising scientific research projects. Duraisingh is working to engineer red blood cells for disease detection and Lu is pursing cell-specific targeting across the blood-brain barrier. Learn more
Five faculty members were awarded grants through the Frontiers of Innovation for Societal Impact Fund through Harvard’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research in June. The fund boosts projects that promise to tackle a societal challenge and generate industry support and collaboration. Flaminia Catteruccia,Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and Daniel Edward Neafsey, associate professor of immunology and infectious diseases, are creating bed nets that deliver antimalarial drugs for more effective malaria control; Francesca Dominici, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population, and Data Science, is developing a decision framework to guide the expansion of data centers, aligning economic opportunity with social impact; Peng Gao, assistant professor of environmental health and exposomics, is working on a new imaging tool to map pollutants and other chemicals inside human lung tissue; and Jessalyn Ubellacker, assistant professor of molecular metabolism, is uncovering early biomarkers of breast cancer. Learn more
Awards and honors
Marcia Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography and chair of the Department of Global Health and Population, was chosen as one of the notable alumni recognized during the 100th anniversary of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Castro earned her master’s degree in demography at the university and will be featured in a campus exhibition next year.
Christopher Duggan, professor in the Department of Nutrition, received the Robert Suskind and Leslie Lewinter-Suskind Pediatric Nutrition Lifetime Achievement Award during the American Society for Nutrition’s conference in July.
Wafaie Fawzi,,Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Sciences, and professor of nutrition, epidemiology, and global health, received the Jean-Pierre Habicht Lifetime Achievements in International Nutrition Award during the American Society for Nutrition’s conference in July.
Frank Hu, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiologyand chair of the Department of Nutrition, and Andrea Glenn, visiting scientist, received The Journal of Nutrition’s Malden Nesheim Nutrition Landscape Award for their publication Perspective: Food Is Medicine: Hype or Hope? They were honored during the American Society for Nutrition’s conference in July.
Jérémie Le Pen, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, was awarded a DP2 Director’s New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health. The DP2 program supports early-stage investigators pursuing bold, high-risk, high-reward research with the potential for transformative impact. Le Pen’s research explores why common viral infections can cause little harm in most people but can lead to life-threatening or chronic disease in others.
KoboToolbox, founded by Phuong Pham and Patrick Vinck, won a World Summit on the Information Society Prize in the E-Science category in July. KoboToolbox is an open-source data collection platform used globally in humanitarian action, development, environmental protection, peacebuilding, and human rights. Pham is a research scientist in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard Chan School and director of evaluation and implementation science at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI). Vinck is an assistant professor in the Department Global Health and Population and research director of HHI.
Susan Redline, professor in the Department of Epidemiology, received a Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine in June. The award recognized her contributions to the field of sleep medicine.
Jessalyn Ubellacker, assistant professor of molecular metabolism, was announced as a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences in June. She will receive four years of funding for her research into how lymph nodes offer a protective environment for metastatic cancer cells that can foster progression.
School leadership changes and faculty promotions and title changes
Rifat Atun, Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership and vice dean for non-degree education and innovation, began a new role as dean for education and innovation on Aug. 1.
Francine Laden, professor of environmental epidemiology, started as interim chair of the Department of Environmental Health on July 1. She has served as associate chair since 2015.
Cindy Leung, assistant professor of public health nutrition, is now associate faculty director for the Thich Nhat Hanh Center for Mindfulness in Public Health.
Promotions
Sheng Tony Hui, associate professor of molecular metabolism
Kyu Ha Lee, associate professor of integrative genomic epidemiology
Josiemer Mattei, professor of nutrition
Title changes
Lisa Berkman, Thomas D. Cabot research professor of public policy
David Hemenway, research professor of health policy
Robert Gray, research professor of biostatistics
Bookshelf
America’s Wrong Turn: US Health Care in the Neoliberal Era
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026)
In this book, John McDonough, professor of the practice of public health, explores how four decades of neoliberal policy, privatization, and deregulation shaped and strained the modern American health care system. Read an interview with McDonough.
Luminaries: Women Leaders Who Light the Way
(Sulit Press, 2026)
Karestan Koenen, professor of psychiatric epidemiology, contributed a chapter to this collection of stories from women who overcame challenges while leading in business, policy, research, and community service.
