One of Harvard’s own will be returning to the Quad for this year’s Class Day ceremonies. Harvey Fineberg, ’72, the seventh president of the Institute of Medicine, will deliver this year’s address to HMS and HSDM graduates.
Fineberg was selected as president of the 1,429-member IOM—the health branch of the National Academy of Sciences—in 2002, after serving as Provost of Harvard University from 1997 to 2001 and as dean of the Harvard School of Public Health for 13 years.
The IOM advises the government on issues regarding vaccine safety, health care delivery and quality, nutrition standards, cancer prevention and management, and military and veterans’ health.
Fineberg has devoted his career to health policy and medical decision-making, and has been a strong advocate for integrating prevention into the U.S. health care agenda. He is an expert on medical innovation and technology, and a leader in the development of treatments for newly emerging illnesses and threatened epidemics.
As president of the IOM, Fineberg oversees nine boards and 15 forums tasked with providing expert guidance on the nation’s most pressing questions about health and health care.
In 2009, Fineberg served on a World Health Organization committee that reviewed decision-making and performance during the H1N1 influenza pandemic. He has also examined the adverse effects of pertussis and rubella vaccines, and has been involved in an analysis of the effectiveness of BCG, a vaccine to prevent tuberculosis. He has also analyzed policy options around the HIV epidemic and has authored a book on the reform of medical education in America.
Fineberg has also studied the ethical and social implications produced by new medical technologies, such as advances in genetics that may introduce opportunities for wrongful discrimination.
In 2011, he was awarded the highest honor in public health, the Frank A. Calderone Prize, which is given to individuals who have made a transformational contribution in the field of public health.
A native of Pittsburgh, Fineberg earned his BA in psychology from Harvard in 1967, and his MD from HMS in 1972. He received master’s and doctoral degrees in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Harvard medical and dental school Class Day ceremonies, which take place on the HMS Quad, are scheduled for Thursday, May 30, 2013.
