Education

Harvard University: Arts & Sciences: Pathology

Category Art and Social Sciences, Biological Sciences, Harvard University, Medicine, Postgraduate, USA
Tags Arts, Harvard University, Pathology, Sciences

The Department of Pathology is one of the seven basic science departments at Harvard Medical School. It also has academic oversight of Pathology across each of the Harvard affiliated institutions. The mission of the department is therefore really two-fold. As the academic home of Pathology across the Harvard affiliated institutions, the mission of the central department is to enhance the opportunities in Pathology across the hospitals and the affiliates and to ensure that the interactions among the various Pathology entities at Harvard are synergistic. As one of the preclinical departments, the mission is to provide a research academic environment that allows our faculty, students, fellows and staff not only to succeed, but to excel. Our goal is to advance our fundamental understanding of the pathology and the pathophysiologic mechanisms of disease, and to bring this knowledge to others through teaching and publication.

The Pathology Department traces its origins to 1847 when the first Professor of Pathological Anatomy was appointed. Harvard was the first institution in the United States to recognize pathology as a discipline in its own right. As described in the history of the department written by Morris Karnovsky, the department has a rich tradition of outstanding research accomplishments, perhaps highlighted by the Nobel Prize awarded to Baruj Benacerraf in 1980 while he was chair of the department. There has been a major rebuilding of the central department since 1993 when Peter Howley became the Chair of the department. At that time, there were 5 faculty members in the department (four Professors and one Associate Professor). Today the number of faculty in the central department (quad-based) has more than doubled, and there are over 200 faculty members across the Harvard system. Many of our faculty members are recognized nationally and internationally for their research accomplishments. They are invited to national and international meetings, sit on review panels and editorial boards and serve on industry advisory boards. The faculty as a whole is strongly committed to education of young scientists and pathologists, and is evident in their extensive involvement in medical and graduate student education. Over fifty of our faculty are members of at least one of the Ph.D. graduate programs.

Building an interactive community within the central department and among Pathology members located at the HMS affiliated institutions is a priority of the department. We encourage and support activities that promote interactions between members of the central department as well as members of pathology departments at the hospitals. The department sponsors two retreats annually, one brings together the faculty (and their lab members) who participate in the graduate education programs, and the other provides an opportunity for members of the central department to get to know one another and to share their research. Faculty members within the central department also participate in a weekly research luncheon to share new and exciting research findings from their laboratories. Post-doctoral fellows and graduate students have the opportunity to present their work in a weekly data presentation seminar. The department has a trainee committee composed of fellows, students, and faculty members that is charged with identifying ways to foster interactions among trainees, trainees and faculty as well as the rest of the department.

The department has several shared facilities that are open not only to members of the central pathology department but also to the broader Harvard community. Collectively, these shared facilities possess state-of-the-art equipment and provide a spectrum of services including imaging, flow cytometry and cell sorting, proteomics and mass spectrometry, and histopathology services.