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Wikipedia / Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 million donation, the largest in Harvard's history at the time.

The school grew out of the Harvard–MIT School for Health Officers, the country's first graduate training program in population health, which was founded in 1913 and became the Harvard School of Public Health in 1922.

History

20th century

Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health traces its origins to the Harvard–MIT 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.

The school was part of Harvard Medical School until 1946, when it became a fully autonomous institution with its own dedicated public health and medical faculty.

21st century

In 2014, the Harvard School of Public Health was renamed the "Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health" in honor of a US$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 (Harvard SM '75, SD '79) and Ronnie Chan, both of whom were sons of Chan Tseng-hsi (T.H. Chan).

Announced in May 2016, beginning in fall 2017, the School of Public Health, in partnership with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, consolidated its five Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) research doctorate programs—Epidemiology, Environmental Health, Global Health and Population, Nutrition, and Social and Behavioral Sciences—into a single Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program in Population Health Sciences. Students already enrolled in Doctor of Science programs were not transitioned into the new program and constituted the final cohort to receive the research doctorate, concluding the degree's 144-year history at the Harvard University. Both the Doctor of Science and the Doctor of Philosophy degrees at Harvard University were first awarded in 1872, the year the university established what was then known as the Graduate Department.

In 2023 and 2024, the school partnered with the National Healthcare Security Administration to train members of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). The partnership led to United States congressional scrutiny in May 2025, as XPCC is sanctioned for human rights abuses under the Magnitsky Act.

Curriculum

The Master of Public Health program offers ten fields of study:

  • Clinical Effectiveness (CLE)

  • Epidemiology (EPI)

  • Generalist (GEN)

  • Global Health and Population (GHP)

  • 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

  • Molecular Metabolism: 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 school offers a variety of degrees with criteria designed to target unique curriculum needs and a wide range of student populations, including online and hybrid degrees. The Harvard Chan School's master's of public health (MPH) and master's in health care management (MHCM) are designed for those aiming to spend their career in professional practice, while master's of science (SM) degrees are geared for aspiring researchers. The number of credit hours required for MPH and SM degrees depends on students’ prior academic training, such as whether they hold a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree.

In addition, the school offers two doctoral degrees: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Doctor of Public Health (DrPH). PhD programs are offered under the aegis of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Previously, the school also offered the Doctor of Science (ScD) degree, which has since been replaced by the centralized PhD offered through the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

The 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.

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 on the Global Demography of Aging, which studies policy issues related to economics of aging with a focus on the developing world.

  • 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."

  • The Health Systems Innovation Lab, which specializes in comparative health systems research and transition to the high value health systems model through targeted innovation, policy and practice. Led by Prof. Rifat Atun, the Lab uses its research, education, innovation and translation activities to work with governments, private sector, multilateral entities, and civil society to promote policy and practice, and accelerate the diffusion of health system innovations for large-scale population level impact.

  • The Harvard Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) leads research projects that explore the impacts of climate change on human health and the design of climate actions to maximize health benefits, particularly for the most vulnerable populations.

  • The Thich Nhat Hanh Center for Mindfulness in Public Health pursues evidence-based approaches to utilize the principles of mindfulness to improve health and well-being.

  • The Center for Health Communication leads the Harvard Chan School's work to effectively communicate public health information through the clutter of modern media landscapes. The center's collaboration with Hollywood studios to promote designated drivers was essential in changing the national conversation around drunk driving. The center has recently launched a program partnering with content creators on mental health research.

  • Harvard's Maternal and Child Health Center of Excellence, which is one of just 13 such centers funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration. The center produces and disseminates information to improve the well-being of mothers and children, and trains future leaders in the field as part of the school's concentration in maternal and child health.

People

List of deans

The deans of the school are listed below.===Notable past and present faculty===

Notable alumni

There are over 13,484 alumni.

References

Centers and Institutes