Giants behind, challenges ahead
Smallpox is dead, polio is teetering, and life expectancies are way up, but on the other side of the ledger are new illnesses such as HIV and a global obesity epidemic that is spreading diabetes, heart disease, and other lifestyle-related ailments. Faculty, students, and friends of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Department of Global Health and Population paused Thursday to appreciate 50 years of advances, the people who made them, and the challenges that lie ahead for those in the field today. Established in the 1962-63 academic year as the Department of Demography and Human Ecology, the department has undergone several name changes over the decades, becoming the Department of Population Sciences in 1969, the Department of Population and International Health in 1991, and the Department of Global Health and Population in 2008. In each of its guises, the department’s faculty and students have focused their efforts on improving the condition of...