Graduation

Congratulations to the HMS/HSDM 2025 graduates!

Read more below about the graduates, as well as the celebrations and ceremonies held May 28–29 for MD, DMD, master's, and PhD graduates.

Images: Steve Lipofsky for HMS

Master’s Graduation Ceremony

Harvard Medical School Master’s Graduates Prepared To Lead in Uncertain Times

A woman holds up a cell phone to take a selfie with several other people.

Students from around the world will use education as a force for good

Celebrating the Harvard-MIT HST Graduates

A special celebration was held for the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology graduates at MIT on Tuesday, May 27.

Congratulations to the HST Class of 2025!

Image: Justin Knight

A woman leans on a banister and smiles at the camera

Determined To Improve Quality of Life, Patient by Patient and Systemwide

Graduating MD/PhD student Emily Rencsok journeys through bioengineering, epidemiology, rehabilitation

smiling young man in a bow tie and HMS white coat

Finding an Identity in Sports Psychiatry With Compassion and Commitment

Graduating MD student Jowan Watson on helping others through medicine, faith, love

A man leans against a tree, smiling and looking off into the distance

Using AI to Power the Study and Treatment of Hearing Loss

For graduating PhD student Chris Buswinka, an interest in music and the ear led to an unexpected career

A woman sits on a stone wall and smiles at the camera

Master’s Student Empowers Medical Educators With AI Tools

Neuroscientist Judy Sng explores technology integration for training future doctors, nurses, scientists

A man stands next to giant marble columns

The Boy Had Just Lost His Dad to Cancer. Jett Crowdis Listened.

Graduating MD student found his calling in a connection forged while serving as camp counselor

A giant toothbrush embossed Harvard held by grads in regalia

Finding Fulfillment Through Dentistry

Get to know dental graduates through stories and reflections that highlight their journeys, achievements, what lies ahead

A man on a plain background smiles at the camera

‘The Goal Is To Understand Who You Are.’

Studying neuroscience gives graduating PhD student Nghia Nguyen insights into ‘technical, tangible’ reasons for the things he does every day

A woman on a blurred background smiles at the camera.

From Cells to Self

Curiosity about how organisms develop led graduating PhD student Hannah Tam to study organ-level regeneration

A woman stands in front of an exhibit with a sign behind her saying Prescriptions for Peace.

Documenting Cold War Efforts That Received a Nobel Peace Prize

Graduating HMS student Katie Blanton helped design a Countway Library exhibit on physician anti-nuclear activism involving Harvard-affiliated doctors

Naeema Hopkins-Kotb

Hopkins-Kotb researched attitudes and behaviors of primary care providers toward patients with hepatitis B and C in the Philippines.

A man in a plaid shirt smiles looking at camera

Peter Bensen

Bensen interviewed frontline health care workers in Ghana about the benefits and challenges of drone-based blood delivery.

A man in a white coat stands in front of a marble wall that says Harvard Medical School

Tarun Ramesh

Ramesh evaluated the World Health Organization’s efforts to increase the number of physicians in low-to-middle income countries facing severe physician shortages.

Ceremony Keynote Speakers

Paula Johnson Named Class Day Speaker

Photo of woman in blue dress with arms crossed outside in front of archway — Paula Johnson.

Harvard Medical School alumna and 14th president of Wellesley College Paula Johnson will deliver the keynote speech at the HMS/Harvard School of Dental Medicine Class Day Ceremony on May 29.

Johnson has advanced health, and well-being, especially for women, through her expertise and leadership in health care, public health, health policy, and education.

A women with gray braided hair, wearing a scarf, and in glasses smiles at the camera. — Linda Villarosa. Image: Nic Villarosa

Journalist and educator Linda Villarosa will give the keynote address at the HMS Master’s Convocation on May 28.

Villarosa is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, where she covers health, medicine, race, and inequality. She has investigated such topics as Black maternal and infant health and mortality, the toll of Covid-19 on Black communities, the HIV epidemic, the environmental justice movement in Philadelphia, eugenics, and Black women’s physical and emotional health.

Her stories and books have received many honors and awards, including an essay in the New York Times’ Pulitzer-Prize-winning 1619 Project. Her latest book, Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Villarosa is guest lecturer in media and medicine at HMS and has been a journalism fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is journalist-in-residence at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and teaches at the City College of New York. Villarosa is former executive editor at Essence magazine.

Alumni Connections

Keep in touch, register for events, and access benefits.

Graduation

PhD Hooding Ceremony

Harvard PhD Graduates To Propel Scientific Discovery at a Pivotal Moment

Class Day Ceremony

Harvard Medical School, Dental School Class of 2025 Celebrates Graduation

Morning Commencement Exercises at Harvard