Academic Excellence

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.

Apr 29, 2026

Harvard faculty recognized by the National Academy of Sciences 

Apr 29, 2026

Presidential dreams can wait. For now, she can’t stop painting. 

Inspired by the trailblazing female politicians of her native Costa Rica, which elected its second woman president earlier this year, Daniela Solis ’26 arrived at Harvard with a dream to run for office. Then an arts class in her junior year opened her eyes to an entirely new calling she never would have predicted.

Apr 28, 2026

From rugby pitch to lab bench 

Tiahna Padilla ’26 has never been afraid of a challenge. While working on her senior thesis, the two worlds she inhabited at Harvard converged through the development of a mobile artificial limb that gives unique insight into the capabilities of athletes’ muscles.

Apr 28, 2026

Re-examining the history of Black fathers 

Thousands filled the pews of one of Chicago’s largest Black churches on June 15, 2008, to hear then-Senator Barack Obama deliver a much-anticipated Father’s Day speech. Given the occasion and setting, few would have been surprised if the candidate for president had taken the opportunity to lift up the role of Black men in family life. And at first, he did, briefly praising the work and virtues of the congregation's leader, Bishop Arthur Brazier, and his son, Rev. Byron Brazier. Then Obama pivoted sharply, delivering a withering indictment of absentee fathers in the Black community.

Apr 27, 2026

Mechanical engineering with global impact 

After a year at the Altoona campus of Penn State University, Tolu Ademola wanted a change. He wanted to go somewhere that felt like a true university campus. And while he knew he wanted to study engineering, he wanted a school that would encourage him to take humanities as well.

Apr 24, 2026

Childhood passion becomes bioengineering success 

Find Jiani Johnson’s fifth-grade yearbook, and you’ll find a surprising response to the question of what she wanted to be when she grows up: a bioengineer. She liked tinkering and building things, and she always wanted to help people, making bioengineering the ideal interdisciplinary collaboration.

Apr 22, 2026

Starving the cancer, sparing the brain 

In the Kanarek Laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital, Alan Wong, who will receive his PhD in biological and biomedical sciences this May from the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, focuses on developing new approaches to treat pediatric leukemia while reducing harm to the brain.

Apr 22, 2026

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

Apr 22, 2026

How psychedelics link 1960s liberation, laboratories

Researchers detail connections between mid-20th-century America’s drug culture and covert CIA experiments

Apr 20, 2026

Senior thesis creates healthcare feedback system 

Communication has always been the thread tying the story of Lani Tran ’26 together. For her senior thesis in biomedical engineering, Tran turned that concept into action by designing a collaborative feedback system that helps healthcare providers improve patient care. Originally from the small town of Alhambra, Calif., Tran arrived at Harvard with an inkling that she wanted to pursue science.

Apr 6, 2026