Public Seminar Series
Throughout winter/spring 2008, the Harvard China Fund organized a series of public seminars to feature its inaugural faculty grant recipients. The last seminar in this series will be held in September 2008 (date TBD) and feature Bill Alford from HLS and his work on disability cases in China. Please see below for details on our previous events:
PREVIOUS EVENTS:
Tuesday, May 6, 4:00-6:00 PM
Harvard China Fund Public Seminar Series
"Facing Consequences of Progress - The Medical and Economic Challenges of Chronic Kidney Disease in China"
Dirk Hentschel, Brigham & Women's Hospital Renal Division
Chronic kidney disease affects now upwards of 14% of the US population driven in most part by the increasing prevalence of diabetes and hypertension. Medicare guarantees the payment for the care of patients with the most advanced chronic kidney disease who require renal replacement therapy by dialysis. Dialysis patients only represent 1% of the Medicare population but consume almost 7% of the Medicare budget, $21 billion in 2005. In step with its economic development, China is experiencing a rapid rise in the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension. Current incidence rates of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in urban centers approach those in the US, and a recent estimate of chronic kidney disease prevalence in Beijing was comparable to the US. If only 1% of Chinese with chronic kidney disease advance to ESRD and require dialysis, almost 20% of China’s healthcare budget would be consumed by less than 0.2% of the population. On this background, Chinese academic centers have recognized the need to define prevalence and incidence of CKD, diabetes and hypertension in China, and to investigate novel approaches to prevent progression of kidney disease.
LOCATION: CGIS N262, 1737 Cambridge St. (Knafel Building)
Thursday, April 17, 2:00-4:00 PM *Note time and location change*
Harvard China Fund Public Seminar Series
"Reconciling China's Economic Growth with Air Pollution and Carbon Control"
Chris Nielsen, SEAS/HUCE China Project; Wang Yuxuan, SEAS/Earth and Planetary Sciences; Mun Ho, Harvard Institute of Quantitative Social Sciences
The Chinese government has raised air quality as a national priority, but is depending on a limited body of underlying knowledge and small expert community to grapple with this enormous challenge, from complex scientific dimensions to powerful economic drivers. At the same time, the global community knows that a post-Kyoto regime to limit greenhouse gases needs the participation of China, but has little understanding of its domestic constraints.
Effective mitigation of China’s rising emissions will depend on capacities to evaluate the full effects of a range of national policy alternatives. Estimating the benefits of control requires tools to understand emissions, atmospheric transport and chemistry, population exposures, and impacts on public health. Estimating the costs of pollution control must extend beyond straightforward direct costs of abatement to potential indirect costs across the entire economy, such as lower growth and unemployment. This project initiates a new collaboration of the China Project at Harvard and two schools of Tsinghua University to leverage advanced research tools into a uniquely interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art capacity to evaluate China’s emission control options. These options range from “command and control” regulatory mandates typically employed in China to market-based alternatives increasingly adopted in the west. The project results will help identify not only how best to reconcile domestic environmental and economic priorities in China, but how they might best be aligned with the global imperative of greenhouse gas control.
LOCATION: CGIS N262, 1737 Cambridge St. (Knafel Building)
Wednesday, February 27, 2:00-4:00 PM
Harvard China Fund Public Seminar Series
"Crisis Management in China: Strategies, Systems, and Processes."
Herman "Dutch" Leonard, HKS/HBS; Arnold Howitt, HKS; Anthony Saich, HKS.
The recent devastating snowstorms in southern China illustrate the extent to which rapidly evolving large scale emergency events can result in widespread demands for action and response that are difficult to plan, supply, and execute given the nation's existing policy and emergency management systems. The range of potential large-scale threats -- from bird flu to terrorist attacks -- is wide, and resources to plan and prepare for events that are uncertain (and that may not be encountered for years to come) are sparse. In this project, we will be carrying out research on the structures, systems, and processes through which officials and emergency managers prepare for, organize, and carry out responses to significant emergency events. Working with colleagues from Tsinghua University's School of Public Policy, we will proceed by developing cases focusing on specific emergency events (the first of which is likely to be this year's snowstorms) as well as by developing more general descriptions of existing systems and suggesting alternative approaches. The project will also support development of a collaborative Harvard-Tsinghua executive training program for senior Chinese emergency managers at the national and provincial/local levels.
Location: CGIS S050, 1730 Cambridge St.
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