Alumni & People

curation of alumni people, faculty and student profiles

Conan O’Brien Named Harvard’s 2026 Commencement Speaker

The comedian, host, and 1985 graduate will deliver remarks at the May 28 ceremony. 

by Schuyler Velasco

Campus, Interrupted

The Undergraduate returns to student life, altered by the pandemic and a year spent apart. 

by Rebecca E. J. Cadenhead , Swathi Kella

The Mystery of Smell

COVID-19 shines a spotlight on a once-obscure field of science.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Edgar James Banks

Brief life of an entrepreneurial archaeologist: 1866-1945

by Nancy Freudenthal

The Food Waste Problem

Emily Broad Leib combats wasted food worldwide.

by Jacob Sweet

Speaking Pheromone

How science is done, in the lab of E.O. Wilson

by Richard Rhodes

The Art of the Portrait Painter

Jason Bouldin makes the intangible tangible.

by Lydialyle Gibson

How Myth and Memoir Intertwine

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta ’01 finds truth in the border between fact and fiction.

by Juliet Isselbacher

Seven Harvard Affiliates Named HHMI Investigators

The designation comes with $9 million in research support

by Jonathan Shaw

Penny Pritzker Gives $100 Million for New Harvard Economics Facility

Landmark support for an eminently strong department

by John S. Rosenberg

Namwali Serpell’s Novel-In-Progress

The acclaimed author and English professor will explore mourning and reunion in The Furrows: An Elegy.

by Lydialyle Gibson