NCRC 2025
January 24 -26, 2025
Explore our 2025 conference programming here.
Keynote Speakers
Jason Furman, Ph.D.
Dr. Jason Furman is the Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy jointly at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and the Department of Economics at Harvard University. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Furman engages in public policy through research, writing, and teaching in a wide range of areas including U.S. and international macroeconomics, fiscal policy, labor markets, and competition policy. He co-teaches EC10 “Principles of Economics,” the largest course at Harvard University.
Alberto Ascherio, Ph.D.
Dr. Alberto Ascherio graduated in medicine at the University of Milan in 1978. After practicing medicine and public health in Latin America and Africa for several years, he moved to Boston, where he received a doctoral degree in epidemiology and population sciences in 1992, and he is now Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He has contributed to numerous discoveries on risk factors for Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and multiple sclerosis (MS). Most recently, he has been recognized for providing definitive evidence that infection with the Epstein-Barr virus is the leading cause of MS.
Ted J. Kaptchuk, Ph.D.
Dr. Ted J. Kaptchuk is a distinguished scholar in placebo studies, East Asian medicine, and medical pluralism, whose interdisciplinary work spans clinical, basic, and social sciences, as well as the humanities. As a professor at Harvard Medical School, he has pioneered research on placebo effects, including the concept of "open-label placebos," which demonstrate therapeutic benefits even when patients are informed they are receiving a placebo. With over 300 publications, including the influential textbook The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine, Dr. Kaptchuk’s work bridges traditional healing practices and modern medicine. His contributions extend to the World Health Organization’s ICD-11 chapter on Traditional Medicine, where he served as a senior editor and translator. Dr. Kaptchuk’s numerous accolades include Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Society of Acupuncture Research and the Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies, as well as recognition from The New Yorker for notable medical findings.
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