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

Illustration of pill bottles, and the long shadow of higher drug prices supported by coupons

How Coupons Keep Drugs Costly

Pharmaceutical companies subsidize the cost of their drugs to keep prices high.

by Erin O’Donnell

Illustration showing that a blend of working from home and in the office leads to better-performing and happier employees

Hybrid Work’s Sweet Spot

A business school study finds hybrid workers generate more novel and useful information.

by Colleen Walsh

Fernando Zóbel-Montojo

Brief life of an abstract painter: 1924-1984

by Felipe Pereda

Arthur Brooks stands behind a chair in his office, smiling

The Happiness Revolutionary

Arthur Brooks moved beyond policy—to something deeper.

by Nancy Walecki

Restored to Nature

Landscape architect Mikyoung Kim’s healing arts

by Lydialyle Gibson

Reid Parsons stands in a greenhouse amid plants

Raising Her Voice

Singer-songwriter Reid Parsons on the irreplaceable instrument

by Lydialyle Gibson

Elif Batuman

The “Harvard Novel” Enters the Twenty-first Century

On Elif Batuman’s fictions

by Beth Blum

A woman speaking at a podium, with an image of a high-power rifle projected beside her

An Exchange of Violence

On the “exit wounds” of America’s gun industry in Mexico

by Lydialyle Gibson

Sarah Karmon

Sarah Karmon to Lead Alumni Association

An HAA veteran will succeed Philip Lovejoy as executive director.

by John S. Rosenberg

We Remember WWI

Alums’ remarkable memories of World War I,  revisited this Veterans Day

by Adam Goodheart