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Category : Faculty

Rajan Rawal on the Hidden Burden of Everyday Heat

Jan 21, 2026 | Announcements, Climate, Faculty, News

Rajan Rawal on the Hidden Burden of Everyday Heat

How is heat actually experienced in everyday life across homes, workplaces, and cities? At a February 3 Mittal Institute event, Between Comfort and Heat Stress: The Hidden Burden of Everyday Heat, scholars from building science, urban design, and environmental health will come together to examine the growing disconnect between how heat is measured and how it is lived. Ahead of the event, we spoke with panelist Rajan Rawal, Professor at CEPT University and Senior Advisor at the Center for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE), to gather his perspective on how everyday environments shape thermal exposure, behavior, and health.

Announcing the 2026 Recipients of the Mittal Institute Faculty Climate Research Grants

Jan 20, 2026 | Announcements, Climate, Faculty, News

Announcing the 2026 Recipients of the Mittal Institute Faculty Climate Research Grants

The Mittal Institute is pleased to announce its 2026 recipients of the Faculty Climate Research Grants. These grants are designed to foster deeper scholarly engagement on climate change, catalyze the creation of new knowledge, and contribute to the development of sustainable solutions across South Asia. Projects focused on three main research categories: energy transition and energy policy; food systems, agriculture, and land use; and law and policy for climate transition and adaptation.

Designing for Heat Resilience: Ultra-Low Cost Solutions for Overheating and Sleep Disruption in South Asian Homes

Nov 4, 2025 | Announcements, Climate, Faculty, India, News

Designing for Heat Resilience: Ultra-Low Cost Solutions for Overheating and Sleep Disruption in South Asian Homes

Rising temperatures are pushing Indian cities to the limits of human comfort, with residents in rooftop rooms particularly affected by extreme heat trapped under concrete roofs. To address these challenges, the project “Ultra-Low Cost Solutions for Overheating and Sleep
Disruption in South Asian Homes” was initiated with support from a Mittal Institute Faculty Research grant.

Watch Now: India’s Path to a Sustainable Future

Nov 4, 2025 | Climate, Faculty, Faculty Climate Grants, News

Watch Now: India’s Path to a Sustainable Future

Watch the event video from “Sun, Wind, and Biomass: India’s Path to a Sustainable Future,” a Harvard Climate Action Week book talk with Prof. Michael B. McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at Harvard University, and Prem Shankar Jha, Former Visiting Fellow, Harvard-China Project; author and journalist. Co-sponsored by the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy, and Environment and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University. 

When Work Ends, the Heat Doesn’t

Nov 4, 2025 | Announcements, Climate, Faculty, News

When Work Ends, the Heat Doesn’t

Researchers supported by a Mittal Institute grant and affiliated with the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability argue that protecting workers across the Global South from hazardous heat must not stop when they leave the job, as many low-wage workers return to homes that stay dangerously hot overnight. Their work was published in the BMJ and featured in an article by the Salata Institute.

Dr. Eugene Richardson on Climate Vulnerability in Nepal

Oct 15, 2025 | Announcements, Faculty, Faculty Climate Grants, Nepal, News

Dr. Eugene Richardson on Climate Vulnerability in Nepal

Nepal is acutely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, grappling with rising temperatures and an increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and landslides. These environmental stresses pose significant threats not only to infrastructure and livelihoods, but also to cultural heritage, biodiversity, and long-term habitability. To better understand the human dimensions of this crisis, Professor Eugene Richardson, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is leading a research project that examines how local communities in Nepal perceive climate risks. His project, “Climate Change, Loss and Damage, and Habitability in Nepal,” is one of the inaugural recipients of the Mittal Institute’s new Faculty Climate Grant program.

Informal Enterprises in India: Bridging Data, Policy, and Action for Inclusive Growth

Oct 14, 2025 | Faculty, India, News, Social Enterprise

Informal Enterprises in India: Bridging Data, Policy, and Action for Inclusive Growth

To better understand the significance, characteristics and performance of informal enterprises, particularly those operated by women, a project entitled “Enterprises in India” was launched with support from a Mittal Institute Faculty Research grant. The project is by Martha (Marty) Chen, Associate of the Mittal South Asia Institute at Harvard University and former professor at Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Renana Jhabvala, President of SEWA Bharat, who have worked together for over 40 years – bridging activism, statistics, research and policy – to support livelihoods and enterprises in the informal economy, both in India and around the world.

Prof. Jinah Kim Collaborates on New MFA Exhibit focused on Red, Yellow and Gold in South Asian Paintings 

Oct 8, 2025 | Announcements, Arts Program, Faculty, News

Prof. Jinah Kim Collaborates on New MFA Exhibit focused on Red, Yellow and Gold in South Asian Paintings 

Jinah Kim, the George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Department of History of Art and Architecture, and Professor of South Asian Studies in the Department of South Asian Studies at Harvard, runs the Mapping Color in History (MCH) Project, a digital research platform that brings together the scientific data drawn from existing and ongoing material analyses of pigments, especially in Asian painting, to enable historical research.  She has been working with the MFA from the beginning of the project and shared more in this Q&A about the collaboration and the exhibit now on display. 

Women at the Frontlines of Climate Resilience: Lessons from Koshi Province, Nepal

Sep 22, 2025 | Announcements, Faculty, Faculty Climate Grants, In Region, Nepal, News

Women at the Frontlines of Climate Resilience: Lessons from Koshi Province, Nepal

In Nepal’s Koshi Province, climate change is worsening floods, droughts, and other threats to smallholder farmers. A new research project, “Documenting Women’s Leadership in Climate Resilience Building in Koshi Province, Nepal,” funded through the Mittal Institute’s inaugural faculty climate research grant program, seeks to capture how women-led organizations are driving grassroots adaptation efforts. Led by Vincenzo Bollettino, Director, Program on Resilient Communities at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative; Director, National NGO Program on Humanitarian Leadership and Patrick Vinck, Research Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative; Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the study uses interviews and focus groups to examine how women’s networks build resilience, the barriers they face, and their influence on local decision-making.