Commencement 2026

In Focus

Celebrating the Class of 2026

Harvard president Alan Garber and Conan O鈥橞rien

Commencement speaker

Conan O鈥橞rien will address the Class of 2026

The comedian, writer, television host, and Harvard alum will be the principal speaker at Harvard鈥檚 375th Commencement.

Michelle Wu

Mayor of Boston Michelle Wu will be Harvard Law School鈥檚 Class Day Speaker.

Ronny Chieng

Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor, and writer Ronny Chieng will address the Harvard College Class of 2026 during Class Day.

Rochelle Walensky

Former CDC director Rochelle Walensky will deliver the Harvard Chan School’s Convocation speech.

Mychal Threets

Mychal Threets, 鈥淭he Internet鈥檚 Librarian,鈥� will deliver the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Convocation address.

Ruth Simmons

Higher education leader Ruth Simmons will be awarded the Radcliffe Medal.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney will be the featured alumni speaker at Harvard Business School鈥檚 Class Day celebration.

Meet the grads

Explore our student profiles to learn about the dedicated scholarship and ambitious plans of graduates from all of Harvard鈥檚 degree-granting Schools.

Learn more about the Class of 2026

Exploring our scholarship

Students from all across the Harvard community share the research they focused on while pursuing their degrees.

SEAS students Kuma McCraw and Mikaya Parente designed a drone to launch vertically from a small research vessel鈥攅liminating the need for a runway鈥攁nd then transition into fixed-wing flight for efficient long-duration operation.

Graduating students at the School of Dental Medicine presented research spanning artificial intelligence, clinical care, global health, and more.

Explore Jess Jenkins' thesis

Connecting neighborhoods with life outcomes

Jess Jenkins won Radcliffe’s Fay Prize for her Harvard College thesis on how much children鈥檚 adult outcomes depend on those of their parents. Her thesis became New Zealand鈥檚 first suburb-level intergenerational income mobility estimates.

Lauren Bartel’s senior thesis, which studied families of Florida scrub-jays, produced one of the first direct measurements of large-scale DNA mutations in any wild vertebrate.

Andrew Bair’s dissertation focused on ring forts, the most numerous archaeological site type in Ireland. His research challenges the accepted chronology of Irish settlement in the Middle Ages.

For her award winning senior thesis, Gauri Sood explored the gender, race, and age biases that popular image generating artificial intelligence models have.

School events

Harvard College and the graduate and professional Schools host additional Commencement events unique to their communities.