Grants to Finance Study Of Environmental Policy

A recent $480,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon and Rockefeller Foundations will fund a three-year School of Public Health environmental research program that will begin this spring.

The project, entitled "Interdisciplinary Programs in Health" (IPH), will include research into health and environmental problems and seminars studying related public policy questions. The first topic IPH will study is "Chemicals in the Environment."

Dr. Donald F. Hornig, professor of Chemistry in Public Health and director of IPH, said last night he expected the program would "bring to bear the intellectual abilities of the whole of the university on these problems."

Hornig said that IPH is still "an infant in the process of being born," though he said he hoped to bring to Harvard "the best people we can find--then let them loose on the problems."

Three-way Attack

Lillian F. Blacker, news director for the Medical area, said the program has a "three-pronged initiative." First, the IPH will invite scientists from other universities to come to Harvard to do short-term research projects.

Blacker said that IPH is interested in attracting senior scientists in the middle of their careers who have already made "significant contributions" to their fields.

The second phase of the program will bring members of the faculties of Public Health, Medicine, Law, Arts and Sciences, and the Kennedy School of Government together to discuss scientific and public policy problems related to the environment.

The third part of the plan is a fellowship program for post-doctorates. IPH is currently accepting applications for a total of eight one-year and two-year fellowships beginning this fall.

This aspect of IPH is important, Blacker said, because "it is getting harder and harder to get into the academic world."

"It is important to find a way to get these talented men and women into the university setting," she said.

Howard H. Hiatt, dean of the School of Public Health, said the fellowship program "could provide career opportunities for young scholars seeking to practice their discipline in a real-world framework."

"A long-term goal of the IPH program is to develop a group of trained and knowledgeable natural and social scientists who can work on health problems within both government and industry, as well as in the nation's universities," a statement released by the School of Public Health said in part.