Harvard Magazine

08/14/2025

Our September-October 2025 issue is now LIVE!

In this magazine: How Trump and MAGA went mainstream at Harvard University. Two years of religiously-driven doxxing on campus. A breakthrough hint that mitochondria might unlock cures for everything from Alzheimer’s to cancer. An exploration of Gen Z women navigating careers against rising pronatalist pressure. A Harvard cardiologist who helped reduce the world’s nuclear arsenal from more than 50,000 warheads to about 13,000 today — and so much more.

Read free now 👉: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/09

On the cover: Illustration by Robert Neubecker

08/13/2025

Artificial intelligence is increasingly hailed as driving a “new Industrial Revolution,” reshaping how industries operate at every level. But what does that mean in practical terms?

One powerful example lies in a field that people don’t often consider: supply chain management. Harvard Kennedy School's Mark Fagan, a lecturer in public policy, explains.

Harvard Kennedy School lecturer on using AI to strengthen supply chains

08/12/2025

Policies that limit international student enrollment undermine the fundamental mission of institutions like the Harvard Graduate School of Education, writes Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation professor of the practice of international education.

“To educate leaders equipped to meet today’s challenges, from war to climate change to migration, we must remain a University that is, itself, a community of nations. In this moment, when some would pull inward and retreat, Harvard must lean outward. For this, we need international students—not as visitors or as adornments, but as equal partners and co-architects of our shared future.”

Global challenges demand global experiences

08/12/2025

In the 1970s, a young Harvard University cardiologist, Dr. James Muller, had a wild idea while standing in a hospital parking lot: what if American and Soviet doctors united against nuclear proliferation?

That unlikely vision became a global movement—International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 and helped cut the world’s nuclear arsenal by tens of thousands of warheads. It even led to a meeting with a young Donald Trump.

A Harvard cardiologist on the unlikely alliances that shaped a global movement to prevent nuclear war

08/08/2025

This week Harvard University announced further administrative restructuring, amid continued speculation about the status of settlement negotiations with the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, the federal government lobbed new accusations about the University’s connections to China and a new executive order demanded sweeping changes to federal grantmaking.

Back-and-forth reports on settlement talks, new accusations from the government, and a reshuffling of two federal compliance offices

08/08/2025

Of all Harvard University's schools, none was as vulnerable to the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding as the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, whose work has helped improve the health of millions.

Roughly 47 percent of the school’s revenue previously came directly from federal sources. An added endowment tax and threats to international student enrollment compounded the blow for a school. “We lost, overnight, $200 million,” said Dean Andrea Baccarell.

Through these sweeping losses, the Chan School is taking the opportunity to reinvent itself—smaller but more focused, less dependent on a single funding source, and more attuned to the real-world impact of its work.

Dean Andrea Baccarelli plans for a smaller, more impactful Chan School of 2030.

08/08/2025

In a summer of relentless news for Harvard University, perhaps the biggest development took place 200 miles away, at a different Ivy League university—Columbia, another major target of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Towards the end of July, Columbia signed a sweeping settlement with the government. Excoriated by some as a shakedown, hailed by others as a template for higher education in the Trump era, the three-year agreement left both sides claiming they had won. On the heels of the settlement came a question: is this the deal Harvard should make, too?

What Columbia’s settlement means for Harvard

08/08/2025

Amid the ongoing conflict between Harvard University and the Trump administration, Harvard Magazine has gathered a collection of letters from readers, reflecting a wide spectrum of views, reactions, and reflections on the controversy and its impact on higher education.

Harvard Magazine readers respond to Harvard’s standoff with the Trump administration.

08/06/2025

A new Harvard University study suggests that while there is no association between consuming baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes and increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), three servings of French fries weekly are linked with a 20 percent higher risk of developing T2D.



https://bit.ly/4lfmBoK

Baked, boiled, and mashed potatoes are better.

08/05/2025

The Trump administration is preparing to launch a pilot program that would cover weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy through Medicare and Medicaid. This could be a game-changer for millions of Americans struggling with obesity.

But what exactly are GLP-1 drugs, and how do they work? These medications are transforming healthcare, and they're not just for diabetes anymore.

GLP-1s like Ozempic in the future of healthcare

08/01/2025

This week, Harvard University announced the appointment of Rabbi Getzel Davis as "Director of Interfaith Engagement": part of a new campus-wide initiative aimed at promoting religious literacy, fostering dialogue across faith and non-faith traditions, and addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of religious bias. A 10-week fellowship for first-years and expanded interfaith programming will follow this fall.

Harvard also unveiled new academic partnerships with Israeli institutions and launched a biomedical research fellowship for Israeli scientists.

These efforts come as Columbia and Brown settle with the Trump administration over federal funding freezes, while Harvard faces intensifying political and financial pressure from faculty, students, alumni, and lawmakers on all sides of the debate.

University creates new “interfaith engagement” role; Columbia, Brown settle with the government.

08/01/2025

After a charged spring and summer involving government actions, lawsuits, and internal policy shifts, Harvard students have experienced a whirlwind of changes—and a profusion of competing opinions. Harvard Magazine gathered seven Harvard University students of diverse political stripes this week for a discussion about academic freedom, the campus climate, and recent changes in support for international students, women, minorities, and LGBTQ students.

A student panel grapples—civilly—with shifting policies and differing opinions.