Commencement 2025
Celebrating the Class of 2025

Abraham Verghese named Commencement speaker
Abraham Verghese, bestselling author, Stanford professor, and infectious disease doctor, will be the principal speaker at Harvard’s 374th Commencement on May 29.
Abraham Verghese named Commencement speaker- Class Day
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will give Harvard College's Class Day address

- Alumni Day
Atul Gawande will be the featured speaker for Harvard Alumni Day

- Alumni Day
The Harvard Medal will be awarded to four alums for their service to the University

- Radcliffe Day
Jodie Foster received the 2025 Radcliffe Medal

Introducing the graduates
Exploring our scholarship
Students from all across the Harvard community share the research they focused on while pursuing their degrees.

A life-saving treatment for wounded warriors
Maithili Joshi developed a groundbreaking treatment for uncontrolled internal bleeding which reduced blood loss by up to 90% in preclinical models.
For their senior capstone project, Roaa Marei, Alex Klein Wassink, and Gabby Troy created SpiroSniff, a machine learning-driven, portable, and affordable breathalyzer for early lung cancer detection. The device analyzes volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath.
At Harvard Medical School, Naeema Hopkins-Kotb focused on global health research to understand the attitudes and behaviors of primary care providers toward patients with hepatitis B and C in the Philippines.

Reinterpreting an early philosopher
Through his study of the classics, Alexander Vega offers a new interpretation of Augustine of Hippo’s ethical views on how people should form beliefs about friendship.
For his senior capstone project at SEAS, Michael Awah designed an aerial vehicle that can quickly deploy from a boat or land and transition into underwater operation to capture images and data without the complexity of traditional underwater deployment infrastructure.
At Harvard Medical School, Tarun Ramesh evaluated the World Health Organization’s efforts to increase the number of physicians in low-to-middle income countries facing severe physician shortages.

Understanding AI’s rebellious phase
A joint concentrator in computer science and mathematics, Marvin Li’s thesis delves into a common AI glitch in which text- or image-generation AI models suddenly stop doing what they were tasked with and perform a completely different task instead.
School events
Harvard College and the graduate and professional Schools host additional commencement events unique to their communities.