Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS)

IQSS data science staff presented at the Harvard RCD Summit 2026 today.

Sonia Barbosa, Danny Ebanks, William Horka, and Devika Jain shared how IQSS supports researchers across Harvard, presenting on topics ranging from research data management and repositories to data science workflows and geospatial analytics. Their work helps ensure that researchers at Harvard—and beyond—have the tools they need to move their projects forward.

Outgoing IQSS graduate affiliate Andrew O’Donohue, who recently received his PhD in government, was one of three students selected as Commencement orators this year.

In his Graduate English Address, O’Donohue drew on his research on democracy and courts in countries such as Turkey and Israel to reflect on how universities and democracy depend on one another—and why even small acts of civic engagement matter.

Read more: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/05/lessons-from-ancient-modern-quantum-worlds/

Congratulations to the Harvard Class of 2026! To the members of the IQSS community in particular who graduate today, keep asking questions and putting your knowledge to work solving the world's challenges. We’re proud to have been part of your journey.

It is always bittersweet to see graduating colleagues leave, but we are excited to see what the newest IQSS alumni have lined up next in their careers and studies.

In our latest feature, affiliates from the Class of 2026 share their post-graduation plans:

https://www.iq.harvard.edu/news/2026/05/class-2026-iqss-whats-next

Class of 2026 at IQSS: What's Next? | The Institute for Quantitative Social Science We are excited to see what the graduating members of the IQSS community are doing next in their journeys. Some of our graduating affiliates share their post-graduation plans.

On Wed 5/20, join us in Lamont Library to learn how the Harvard can help you comply with funder and journal data sharing policies, support the discovery of and access to FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data, and result in more visibility and higher impact for research projects.

https://support.dataverse.harvard.edu/event/better-research-vi-data-sharing-harvard-dataverse-person

Congratulations to IQSS affiliate Dan Carpenter, Chair of the Department of Government, on being named a Harvard College Professor. He is one of five faculty members honored with this professorship for “an unwavering commitment to enriching the undergraduate experience.”

Five Harvard faculty named Harvard College Professors Five senior faculty members have been awarded Harvard College professorships for excellence in undergraduate teaching and for helping students “develop their intellectual passions.” Hopi Hoekstra, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, announced the recipients at the May 5 Mee...

Members of the IQSS team, Phil Durbin and Gustavo Durand, are in Riga today to commemorate the first year of Latvia's national research data repository, ! We look forward to more collaboration in the years to come with with DataverseLV in the global Dataverse community.

Thurs at 4:30, Stanford University Professor Gregory Martin looks at how much influence news outlets have on their audiences and political agenda with "Agenda Setting and Market Power in Online News" at the last Alesina Seminar of the Spring Term.

https://www.iq.harvard.edu/event/gregory-martin-alesina-seminar

Starting at 4:30 - New York University associate professor Tara Slough examines the interaction between politicians and bureaucrats, and its effects on social policy, with "Bureaucratic Incentives and Data Production: Evidence from Social Registries" at this week's Alesina Seminar.

https://www.iq.harvard.edu/event/tara-slough-alesina-seminar

Tara Slough (Alesina Seminar) | The Institute for Quantitative Social Science How do local politicians influence their constituents’ access to national means-tested social programs? I argue that they do so through personnel policy. Politicians rely on bureaucrats to maintain social registries—the administrative data used for means testing—and can therefore shape program...

Thursday at 4:30pm: University of Rochester professor John Duggan unpacks two-candidate elections with "Multidimensional Elections" in this week's Alesina Seminar.
https://www.iq.harvard.edu/event/john-duggan-alesina-seminar