Congratulations to Assistant Professor Julia Marcus on receiving the 2018 Ebert Fellowship. Given annually in memory of Robert H. Ebert, founder of Harvard Community Health Plan and former Dean of Harvard Medical School, the Ebert Fellowship is part of the Harvard Medical School 50th Anniversary Program for Scholars in Medicine. The fellowship is awarded to junior faculty to support research and career development in population medicine.

Dr. Marcus joined our faculty in 2016 after receiving her doctoral degree in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley and completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. Her primary interest is in optimizing the delivery of health services for people with or at risk of HIV infection. Her Ebert Fellowship project will focus on patterns of use of once-daily antiretroviral medications, also called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which can be used to prevent HIV infection in men who have sex with men.  Some PrEP users may be taking PrEP in non-recommended ways, including non-daily dosing strategies that are not sufficient to protect against HIV infection. This mixed-methods study will leverage a sex-seeking mobile application to determine patterns of PrEP use, including non-daily dosing strategies and use of PrEP without a prescription, in a national sample of high-risk men who have sex with men.

A reception honoring this years’ Fellows will be held later this year at Harvard Medical School.