Alumni Profiles

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

Catherine Zipf smiling, wearing striped shirt and dark sweater outdoors.

Preserving the History of Jim Crow Era Safe Havens

Architectural historian Catherine Zipf is building a database of Green Book sites.  

by Lydialyle Gibson

Ben Purkert headshot

The Men Who Can’t Be Saved

Novelist Ben Purkert’s playfully serious look at masculinity

by Stuart Miller

Amir Bitran

Making Music Out of DNA Loops

Composer and biophysicist Amir Bitran ’16, Ph.D. ’23

by Nancy Walecki

Portrait of editors Rebecca Panovka and Kiara Barrow

The New Little Magazines

Keeping literature and long-form journalism alive

by Nancy Walecki

Screenshot of Tracy Kidder, Jim O'Connell, and Shira Simon

Treating Boston’s “Rough Sleepers”

Tracy Kidder and physician Jim O’Connell discuss health care for the homeless.

by Ryan Doan-Nguyen

Balcetis smiling and holding the NBA championship trophy, with his arm around his wife

Harvard’s NBA Champion

Denver Nuggets assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis ’10 

by David L. Tannenwald

Gram Parsons stands in front of a bus in Harvard Square

Sound as Ever

Gram Parsons and Harvard’s hand in country rock

by Nancy Walecki

Ursula Bailey working in a Harvard geology laboratory, 1945

Trailblazer in Space Science: The Legacy of Harvard's Ursula B. Marvin

Brief life of a pioneering planetary geologist: 1921-2018

by David A. Kring

A live sketch from Lori Vallow Daybell’s murder trial. Daybell is in the middle between two men, all looking somber.

Something from Nothing

Painter, animator, illustrator, and silhouettist Susan Bin

by Max J. Krupnick

A formal portrait or José Olivarez in a gold chain and velvet suit jacket, standing amid red drapes and palm plants.

For the Homies

In José Olivarez’s poetry, the political is personal.

by Josie Abugov

Impatience Is a Virtue

Violinist-multitasker Sumire Hirotsuru

by Jacob Sweet