Alumni Profiles

Spotlight stories on alumni who are leading, innovating, and making a difference.

Black and white photo of Joseph Murray in a white lab coat sitting in an office.

The Harvard Doctor Who Made Kidney Transplants Possible

Nobel Prize recipient Joseph E. Murray dedicated much of his career to organ transplant surgery.

by Diane Speare Triant

The young Laughlin in his New Directions office at his aunt’s home in Connecticut

James Laughlin at Harvard, by Ian S. MacNiven, from LITERCHOOR IS MY BEAT

James Laughlin’s transit to Harvard and Europe—and pioneering literary publishing

Muir (at right) with his daughters Wanda and Helen and a friend at Kings Canyon, California, in 1902

John Muir

A brief life of a Scottish-American conservationist

by Steven Pavlos Holmes

Tara Altebrando ’92 is the coauthor of a timely book.

Tara Altebrando is the coauthor of "Roomies"

Tara Altebrando ’92 is the coauthor of a timely book.

by Nu Xiong

Nina Lahoud

Nina Lahoud rallies support for gender justice.

A Harvard alumna starts her own project aimed at global gender justice.

by Nell Porter-Brown

Philip W. Lovejoy

Philip W. Lovejoy named executive director of Harvard Alumni Association

Harvard Alumni Association director Philip W. Lovejoy

Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, today, with its Roman Catholic churches

Jean's McGarry's dark fiction about a regional subculture of Rhode Island

Fiction that paints a regional subculture with “merciless realism.”

by Craig Lambert

Illustration by Taylor Callery

Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovation

Innovation guru Clayton Christensen on spreading his gospel, the Gospel, and how to win with the electric car

by Craig Lambert

In his Cambridge studio, Childs makes about six violins a year.

Bob Childs makes world-class violins

Bob Childs makes world-class violins.

by Laura Levis

Lissa Young fosters open discussions about love and sexuality during a psychology class for freshmen cadets at West Point.

Lissa Young: back at West Point, after Don't Ask, Don't Tell ended her career

An alumna chooses “the harder right.”

by Nell Porter-Brown

Justin Kaplan at home

A tribute to Justin Kaplan

In tribute to an old friend