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

Impatience Is a Virtue

Violinist-multitasker Sumire Hirotsuru

by Jacob Sweet

Portrait image of Walter Kim standing on a street with arms folded across his chest

A New Face of American Evangelicalism

Walter Kim aims for “a way forward even within difference.”

by Nell Porter-Brown

Portrait of Debby Smullyan, retiring obituaries editor

In Service

Editing obituaries and class notes

Two students pose in Harvard Stadium. One holds a basketball and the other holds a soccer ball.

Striving for the Straus Cup

The students who keep competition friendly

by Max J. Krupnick

A drawing of a workplace where parents and their children are working together

Nepotism’s Impact in the Job Market

How connections in blue-collar work disadvantage women and blacks

by Max J. Krupnick

An illustration of a young woman at an easel, holding a paintbrush and tracing a path while looking out across a landscape of other people following their own path

Uncharted Territory

A recent graduate thinks about what is means to take unconventional paths after Harvard.

by Josie Abugov

Illustration of an armor-clad heart, resistant to bacterial attacks

Engineering Virus-free Cells… and Organs?

Harvard researchers have built bacteria resistant to viral infections. 

by Daniel Oberhaus

Group photo of Du Yun, Daniel Goleman, Mina Jahan Bissell, Sanford Greenberg, Catherine Gattegno Cesarsky, and John Dower

Centennial Medalists

Six alumni of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences are honored.

Easing the College Transition

Rising Scholars brings incoming first-years from under-funded high schools to campus early.

by Max J. Krupnick

Kari Nadeau sits in her lab

Kari Nadeau

Multi-allergy immunotherapy pioneer Kari Nadeau returns to Harvard

by Max J. Krupnick