The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Centennial Medal, first awarded in 1989 on the occasion of the school’s hundredth anniversary, honors alumni who have made contributions to society that emerged from their graduate studies. It is the highest honor GSAS bestows, and awardees include some of Harvard’s most accomplished alumni. The 2020 recipients, announced on May 27, are: Stephen Cook, Ph.D. ’66, a computational theorist and mathematician; Albert Fishlow, Ph.D. ’63, a development economist and historian; Margaret Kivelson ’50, Ph.D. ’57, RI ’66, a space and planetary physicist; and Helen Vendler, Ph.D. ’60, Porter University Professor emerita, beloved Harvard teacher and poetry critic. For more about the honorands, see harvardmag.com/centennial-20.
2020 GSAS Centennial Medalists
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ honorands
Clockwise from top left: Stephen Cook, Albert Fishlow, Helen Vendler, and Margaret Kivelson.
Photographs courtesy of Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
You might also like
Graduates John Lithgow, Bill Rauch, and Bess Wohl took home prizes on Sunday night.
Nobel Prize recipient Joseph E. Murray dedicated much of his career to organ transplant surgery.
In her memoir All That's Unseen, Emilee Hackney explores religion, friendship, and home.
Most popular
Explore More From Current Issue
Until the 1950s, professionals cleaned up after students in the dorms.
Nobel Prize recipient Joseph E. Murray dedicated much of his career to organ transplant surgery.
An animal’s journey from grief to love shows how much humans need each other, too.