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

Harvard National Academy of Medicine Members

Newly elected members include a dozen Harvard faculty affiliates.  

by John S. Rosenberg

Life After Brain Injury

Alumna Carolyn Gold on finding a “new self” after West Nile encephalitis

by Lydialyle Gibson

Can Slime Molds Think?

A seemingly primitive creature’s complex ability to detect mass from a distance.

by Nancy Walecki

Optimizing Public-School Spending

Home prices are a bellwether of efficient spending in local schools

by Erin O’Donnell

China’s Excess Wind Energy

Rather than shutting down turbines, China can harness surplus wind energy to make “green” hydrogen fuel and industrial chemicals.

by Jacob Sweet

Bruno Carvalho

An urbanist’s lifelong study of the “rhythm of cities,” from Rio to Cambridge 

by Nancy Walecki

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