Alumni & People

curation of alumni people, faculty and student profiles

Conan O’Brien in a dark suit and light shirt, smiling and posing with hands clasped.

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

Naomi Bashkansky sits on a table with a chess board behind her.

Strategic Planning

A chess player’s moves on AI safety

by Nina Pasquini

Brophy

Spellbound on Stage

Actor and young adult novelist Aislinn Brophy

by Lydialyle Gibson

Daniel Mason posing with a tree

A Dogged Observer

Novelist and psychiatrist Daniel Mason takes the long view.

by Max J. Krupnick

Scott Edwards photographed in the ornithology collection

How Birds Lost Flight

Scott Edwards discovers evolution’s master switches.

by Veronique Greenwood

Hopi Hoekstra

Reengineering Arts and Sciences

Spurring innovation, rethinking departments, tapping centers—and Ph.D. support

by John S. Rosenberg

George Sarrinikolaou

George Sarrinikolaou

Provost for climate and sustainability’s journey from Athens to Harvard

by Nina Pasquini

illustration of robotic hands manipulating a wooden maze to guide a worm in the maze to a target

Computational Control of a Living Brain?

How an AI agent learned to guide an animal to food—and what it might mean for Parkinson’s patients.

by Jonathan Shaw

illustration in which six consumers are presented by an AI-driven algorithm with different prices for the same product, a jacket

Controlling AI Influence Over Consumers

When pricing algorithms take advantage of an individual’s ignorance, legal scrutiny is in order.

by Max J. Krupnick

Cambridge 02138

The campus sundered, stem cell research, voting, and more

Supreme Court atop 14th amendment with voting stickers in background

Harvard Historians on Trump

Harvard historians’ Supreme Court brief 

by Max J. Krupnick