News & Announcements

Apekshya Prasai, a political science doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was recently named a 2023 Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Emerging Scholar.   The Emerging Scholars (nine in all) are doctoral candidates who are in the final year of writing dissertations on the nature of and responses to violence around the world.

The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University launched today a major research and outreach initiative to reduce global methane emissions. The initiative seeks meaningful and sustained progress in global methane-emissions reductions through research and effective engagement with government policymakers — and with key stakeholders in business, nongovernmental organizations, and international institutions.

On May 24, 2023, the members of the University of the Arctic (UArctic) unanimously voted in favor of accepting Harvard Kennedy School’s Arctic Initiative into the network. UArctic is a cooperative network of universities, colleges, research institutes, and other organizations concerned with education and research in and about the North. 

Arctic Initiative Faculty Affiliate Stuart Harris has been chosen as a finalist for the 2023 Frederik Paulsen Arctic Academic Action Award, recognizing scientific and academic ideas that are action-oriented and hold potential for addressing the challenges and critical needs posed by climate change in the Arctic region.

Mohammed Alyahya, Former Editor-in-Chief of Al Arabiya English, Named Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative

Nat Keohane, a climate expert, spoke with HKS faculty member Henry Lee at a Harvard Climate Action Week event held at the Kennedy School on the challenges and opportunities for building on recent progress in U.S. climate policy.

Cambridge, MA – Richard Verma, former Senior Fellow with Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, was sworn in on April 5 as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, the third-highest position in the U.S. Department of State. He was nominated by President Biden in December 2022 and confirmed by the Senate on March 30. 

Environmental policy experts discussed China’s energy policies during an event at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs on April 10, 2023. The event featured Weila Gong, a Belfer Center postdoctoral research fellow, and Georgetown University professor Joanna I. Lewis, who discussed their joint research exploring China’s coal consumption, its pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, and the political and economic factors hindering the country’s transition away from coal.

Allison Agsten MC/MPA 2021 is director of the new Center for Climate Journalism and Communication at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She recounts for Harvard Kennedy School Magazine how her work with the Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative shaped her career direction.