Prof. Francesca Dominici, the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population, and Data Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Faculty Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, will join the “Understanding Climate Change in South Asia” panel at LMSAI’s Annual Cambridge Symposium: Science and Technology. As a data scientist, Prof. Dominici develops statistical methods and machine learning approaches to look for patterns that address complex public health issues, such as air pollution, noise, and climate change. We spoke to her about her research in the Q&A below.
Dr. Bharat Vatwani, one of the speakers at LMSAI’s Annual Cambridge Symposium: Science and Technology – the Future of South Asia, is a psychiatrist based in Mumbai who has dedicated much of his professional career to aiding the mentally ill. Together with his wife, Dr. Smitha, he founded Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation in 1988, an NGO dedicated to treating mentally ill and unhoused individuals in India. He shared more about his life’s work in the Q&A below, and previewed what attendees can expect at his fireside chat.
In this second instalment of a new interview series with Mittal Institute’s Climate Change Platform collaborators in South Asia, we spoke with Mihir Bhatt, the director of the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute. An architect and city planner by training and practice, he’s a former fellow with the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative at Harvard University and was deputy lead to joint evaluation of the humanitarian work of both UN and international nongovernmental agencies on tsunami relief and rehabilitation activities in coastal areas of South India, and Indonesia. He was a coordinating lead author of a chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report, “Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation” where heatwaves were a focus.
Nazmul Haque, a current Mason Fellow in ClassACT HR73’s Benazir Bhutto Leadership Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, has a long history of developing public-private partnerships in response to climate change in his home country of Bangladesh. His experience was a case study for a recent symposium, “Climate Change, Public-Private Partnerships, and Social Equity: Lessons from Bangladesh” – also co-sponsored by the Weatherhead Center and the Salata Institute – in which Harvard practitioners and professors gathered to examine and enlarge upon the examples offered by Nazmul’s career. We spoke with him about his commitment to sustainability, and what the symposium meant for him.
This spring break, Prof. Susan Crawford, John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law, set out to Bangladesh on a Mittal Institute-supported research experience.
Sabina Faiz Rashid is a medical anthropologist and currently Professor and Chair of Health and Poverty at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is also the principal in-region investigator of Mittal Institute’s CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN SOUTH ASIA project, an interdisciplinary project that seeks to advance climate adaptation research and implementation at the household, community, state and federal levels in South Asia, particularly in the context of climate-driven migration.
The Program for Scientifically-Inspired Leadership, funded in part and administered by the Mittal Institute, pairs Harvard undergraduates and Osmania university students with high school students from public high schools in Telangana for a cross-cultural learning experience built on the scientific process and focused on the liberal arts and sciences philosophy. By interacting together, all three groups gain a deeper understanding of teaching and learning. The program is the brainchild of Dominic Mao, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies for two of Harvard’s life science concentrations and a lecturer in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard. We spoke with him for more on the program, and what the teacher/student interaction is like.
Panelists gathered at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Longfellow Hall last Friday for an event on the “Future of Cities” in a warming world said the topic is particularly relevant this year, when global temperatures soared to new records.
Palak Gupta, Mittal Institute Graduate Student Associate, is an architect from India, and a graduate student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Since her undergraduate studies at Academy of Architecture, Mumbai University, she has been involved in pedagogical and research conversations involving the communities vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and urbanization. We spoke with Palak to learn more about her research.
The Mittal Institute has embarked on a major climate change initiative focused on South Asia, hosted at our Harvard Global Research Support Center India, an affiliate of Harvard University. This focus comes as Harvard awarded the Mittal Institute two multi-year grants to catalyze climate change research in South Asia. To build on the initiative, the Mittal Institute will host an inaugural climate change workshop on March 30-31 in New Delhi. The sessions will convene an interdisciplinary group of experts, policymakers and academics to set collective research and strategic priorities. LMSAI Director Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School, spoke with us about LMSAI’s climate focus, and previewed the upcoming workshop.
Leren Gao, a Master’s of Theological Studies candidate at Harvard Divinity School, spent her summer learning Sanskrit in Kathmandu, Nepal. With her goal of eventually pursuing a Ph.D. in the field of Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Sanskrit is a valuable language to learn for Leren. She shared her experience.