Harvard Magazine

06/19/2026

Harvard University's Science Center will soon be getting a new name. Earlier this month, the University announced that the building will be renamed Zimmer Hall, in recognition of a 2018 gift from the Zimmer Family Foundation of $100 million.

The name honors Alan Zimmer, the late father of Stuart Zimmer ’91. Alan Zimmer was an American neuroradiologist trained in Switzerland who helped research and develop the use of computer axial tomography (CAT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the United States. Those technologies revolutionized medicine beginning in the 1970s and ’80s.

Harvard will rename the building following a $100 million gift from Stuart Zimmer ’91.

06/19/2026

Construction on Pritzker Hall, a new nine-story building funded with a lead gift of $100 million from Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81, has been underway for a year, and is expected to be complete by December 2027.

The new building is rising behind the Littauer Center for Public Administration, the Department of Economics’ current home on Cambridge Street.

Pritzker Hall, designed for collaboration, should be complete in 2027.

06/18/2026

In our July–August 2026 issue, St. Louis–based writer Matt Crossman explores the growing movement to curb light pollution and highlights Serena Wurmser ’23’s astronomy tours in Hawaii, where she guides visitors beneath some of the world’s clearest night skies.

We’d love to see the night sky through our readers’ eyes. Whether from your backyard, a favorite travel destination, or a remote dark-sky site, share your best photos of stars, constellations, and the Milky Way.

Send submissions to [email protected] by July 10th for a chance to be featured on Harvard Magazine’s social media channels.

📸: Photographs by Serena Wurmser

06/18/2026

Last week, former Crimson athlete Matt Freese ’22 made history as the first Harvard University alumnus to play in the men’s World Cup. Freese started as goalkeeper for the U.S. Men’s National Team in their opening match against Paraguay on June 12, which the U.S. won 4-1.

Freese’s next game with Team U.S.A. takes place Friday, June 19, at 3 p.m. EDT against Australia.

🔗 Read more: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/soccer/harvard-fifa-world-cup-matt-freese

06/18/2026

Long before it was common for psychiatrists to listen closely to children, Robert Coles insisted that their voices mattered. Through thousands of conversations with young people, he helped bring children's moral, political, and spiritual lives into public view—and transformed how generations understood childhood.

Cole, who was the Agee professor of social ethics at Harvard Graduate School of Education and professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, passed away on June 4 at the age of 97.

In this piece, photographer and editor Alex Harris remembers Coles’s remarkable life and legacy. Harris, professor emeritus of public policy and documentary studies at Duke University, shared a long creative partnership with Coles, cofounding DoubleTake magazine in 1995 and collaborating on three books.

A colleague remembers the late Harvard professor and child psychiatrist, who died this month.

06/17/2026

Most research during the past two decades hinted that human evolution has largely slowed or changed so subtly that existing tools couldn’t detect it.

Using the largest collection of ancient human DNA samples ever compiled, professor of genetics and human evolutionary biology David Reich and his colleagues discovered that the human genome has actually evolved rapidly during the past 10,000 years.

Harvard scientists identify hundreds of genes under selective pressure.

06/17/2026

In 1976, Harvard University planned to renovate a biological lab in Cambridge to enable researchers to experiment with recombinant DNA—then a novel technique for making viral and genetic modifications to living organisms. The changes were intended to bring the facility to a higher biosafety level.

But instead of a green light from the city, the University’s plan was met with protests, hundreds of hours of public debate, and a six-month moratorium on recombinant DNA research until the city devised its own regulations.

On a muggy June evening 50 years later, the MIT Museum and Central Square Theater invited residents back to City Hall to relive the debate in an immersive staging of the standoff. The show — titled “No Recombination Without Representation,” a reference to residents’ protest chants at the time—debuted on June 13

A theatrical reenactment explores a 1976 clash between science and democracy.

06/17/2026

As our fiscal year 2026 draws to a close, Harvard Magazine is asking for your help.

If you’ve ever unwound after a long day by reading one of our stories, or learned something new that sparked your interest and opened your eyes to fresh possibilities…readers, like you, helped to make that experience possible.

As a nonprofit, ⅓ of our operating budget comes from reader support. We have no paywall because of the donations from thousands of alumni, friends, and curious minds who enjoy our content.

If Harvard Magazine has ever made you think in a different way, please consider a tax-deductible gift today. All contributions sustain the future of high-quality, independent, free academic journalism.

📸: Photograph by Niko Yaitanes / Harvard Magazine



🔗: https://bit.ly/3SyvK32

06/16/2026

Turn your volume up 🐰🥬: Our July-August 2026 issue is now LIVE on site!

Inside: rabbit speed dating, octopus mating habits, evidence that humans are still evolving, a movement to reclaim the night sky from light pollution, highlights from Harvard University's 375th Commencement, and so much more. Read it all—in bio.

🎨: Cover illustration by Wesley Merritt

06/15/2026

Our July-August 2026 issue is now LIVE on site!

Inside: rabbit speed dating, octopus mating habits, evidence that humans are still evolving, a movement to reclaim the night sky from light pollution, highlights from Harvard University's 375th Commencement, and so much more.

🔗 Read free (and with a free accessible pdf) here: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2026/07

🎨: Cover illustration by Wesley Merritt