Cancer turned her into a scientist
Diagnosis transformed Mary Cipperman ’26 into a hyperproductive student researcher with diverse interests in physics, medicine, and AI
People & Perspectives
Faculty, students, researchers, staff, and alumni who comprise the FAS community
Jill Lepore on her Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution’
In an interview, the veteran professor sees “a real hunger” for history about the document.
One mentor, one student, big impact: Harvard’s century of biochemistry tutorials
Tutorial’s enduring impact marks a century of training future scientists and physicians
After failing out and dropping out, Marine vet set to graduate
A few months shy of 30, Richard Glazunov is poised to graduate from Harvard College with a degree in government.
On the path to research, teach, and curate
Working with the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture was formative for integrative biology concentrator Lauren Bartel
Lacrosse teammates, friends felt same call to military service
At Harvard, Francisco Cortes and Owen Guest also shared interest in history and commitment to their athletic regimen
Looking for Ireland’s ‘invisible people’
Andrew Bair is set to graduate from Harvard Griffin GSAS in May 2026 with a Ph.D. in anthropology. He talks about his research challenging the accepted chronology of Irish settlement in the Middle Ages, how his study of archaeology and computer science at Columbia led him eventually to Harvard Griffin GSAS, and about growing up in a curious family and literally growing out of his dream of being an astronaut.
From software engineer to design engineer
After three years as a Waymo software engineer, Luke Fiorante wanted a change. He’d been coding ever since he was a computer science major at Brown University, but the Vancouver native knew he could do more. Also interested in design and the arts, he decided to search for master’s programs focused on design and engineering.
From bionic arms to machine learning researcher
Benjamin Choi built a mind-controlled bionic arm as a high school student in Virginia, and it made him realize something critical about human brains: they’re noisy. Brains constantly send out all kinds of signals regulating everything from breathing to hunger to planning one’s daily schedule. For his prosthetic to work, it needed software that could filter out the noise and recognize the signals specifically intended to manipulate the arm.
Thesis investigates AI-image bias
With artificial intelligence quickly becoming ingrained in everyday life, psychology and government double-concentrator Gauri Sood ’26 is skeptical about non-human technologies mimicking human experiences without bias.
A gene delivery system for the human heart
Engineering Design Projects (ES 100), the capstone course at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, challenges seniors to engineer a creative solution to a real-world problem. Saron Meressi's project focused on optimizing cardiac gene delivery using adeno-associated virus (AAV) technology. She specifically designed a tunable, ventricle-specific gene delivery system that enables more precise targeting within the heart.
Stem cell biologists win support for cancer research
Fei Chen and Ryan Flynn were honored for promising investigations into cellular mechanisms of the disease.
From uncertain freshman to future electrical engineering Ph.D.
Ike Ogbu didn’t arrive at Harvard with a clear academic plan. He’d taken an engineering design class at Foxborough Regional Charter School in southeastern Massachusetts, but wasn’t sure if he wanted to study engineering, computer science, or another topic entirely.
How to restore trust in higher ed?
Throughout her Harvard College experience, Social Studies and Philosophy concentrator Ari Kohn ‘26 has explored how the mission of Harvard College, to educate citizen and citizen-leaders through a liberal arts education, is enacted and preserved. The motivation behind her senior thesis, “Citizen or Citizen-Leader: Civic Thought Programs and the Trust Crisis in American Higher Education”, began as a first-year student in the aftermath of the pandemic, when Kohn witnessed difficulties in defining what an undergraduate institution should be.