5 Most Famous Harvard Students of All Time

In this article we discuss the 5 most famous Harvard students of all time. If you want to read our detailed analysis of Harvard University, go directly to the 33 Most Famous Harvard Students of All Time.

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5. James R. Agee (1909- 1955)

James Rufus Agee, a famous novelist, film critic, screenwriter, poet, and journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for his novel, A Death in the Family, is one of the most famous Harvard students of all time. Agee worked with notable newspapers like Time Inc. (NYSE: TIME) and Fortune after his graduation in 1932. However, his film criticism for The Nation and Time made him a household name in the journalistic landscape of his era.

Other masterpieces of James Agee include Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, The Morning Watch, Letters of James Agee to Father Flye, and more.

4. Henry Adams (1838 – 1918)

The next Harvard alumnus on our list is Henry Brooks Adams, a well-known American novelist, and historian. He received his graduate degree in 1858 from Harvard. One of his best works was a memoir, The Education of Henry Adams that won the Pulitzer Prize. This book is regarded as the best non-fiction book of the 20^th Century.

3. Christian Boehmer Anfinsen Jr. (1916 – 1995)

A biochemist by profession and a Harvard student, Christian Boehmer Anfinsen Jr. is another Nobel Laureate for his accomplishments on ribonuclease. Some of his selected works in chemistry include ‘The Molecular Basis of Evolution’ and ‘Advances in Protein Chemistry’ and many more. Anfinsen also worked as a visiting faculty at the Harvard Medical School.

2. J. Michael Bishop (1936)

The next Harvard fellow on our list is John Michael Bishop, the famous American virologist, and immunologist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with his co-worker Harold E. Varmus in 1989. Bishop earned his MD from Harvard in the 1960s.

Bishop is famous for his award-winning services on retroviral oncogenes. With Varmus, he introduced c-Src (the first human oncogene). This discovery made the world understand how and where malignant tumors come from. Bishop and his co-worker uncovered that the tumor formation is a result of virus attacks, radiation, or chemical exposure. In 2003, the Harvard alumnus also won the National Medal of Science award.

1.      Philip W. Anderson (1923-2020)

Philip Warren Anderson, a Harvard Alumnus and a Nobel Prize winner in 1970, was a theoretical physicist. He made significant contributions to the theory of Antiferromagnetism, electron localization, high-temperature superconductivity, and symmetry breaking. He also named an offshoot of physics called condensed matter physics.

Anderson completed his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1949. Before that, he graduated from the same institute five years ago. Not just a Nobel Laureate, Philip W. Anderson won many awards and honors in his life. Some of the names of his accomplishments include the ‘Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize’, ‘The Golden Plate Award’, and the National Medal of Science’.

You can also take a peek at 20 Best Paying Summer Jobs for College Students and Bill Gates’ Top 10 High Dividend Stocks.

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