Ben Sosnaud is one of four graduate students named recipients of Julius B. Richmond Fellowships from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University for 2013-14.In awarding the one-year Fellowships, the Center selects candidates with excellent academic records and defined research interests in child health and development.  Sosnaud's research explores the association between maternal socioeconomic position and education and infant mortality in the U.S.  He is interested in documenting the variation in this association across 50 states and examining social policies that could help explain the cross-state differences in infant health disparities.  By highlighting policies with the potential to either widen or narrow disparities in infant mortality risk, he hopes to draw attention to the broader consequences of policy decisions and inform future policy debates. Professor Jason Beckfield will be Sosnaud's mentor.

Among the core goals of the Center on the Developing Child is the creation of a new generation of leaders who view the promotion of healthy child development broadly.  The Julius B. Richmond Fellowships help the Center to achieve that goal by bringing students from across the University to the enter to engage in ongoing research within an interdisciplinary community and to strengthen University-wide communication and collaboration n the area of child development. The Richmond Fellowships honor the career of the late Julius B. Richmond, who was the founding director of Head Start, a former U.S. surgeon general and assistant secretary for health in the Carter administration, and professor of health policy, emeritus, at Harvard Medical School.