Harvard Awards Five Honorary Degrees Across Science, Literature, and the Arts

Garber will confer five honorary doctorate degrees during Commencement exercises for the Class of 2026 later this morning.

The recipients are Nobel-prize-winning physicist Geoffrey Hinton; historian Noel Malcolm; Broadway star Audra McDonald; Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan; and comedian and Commencement speaker Conan O’Brien ’85.

Hinton is well known for his foundational work in the field of artificial intelligence. McDonald — a six-time Tony award winner — most recently starred in a widely-acclaimed revival of Gypsy on Broadway.

Noonan, a well-established columnist, has published more than a dozen books and previously served as a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. She currently pens a contributing column for the Wall Street Journal. Malcolm is a historian of early modern Europe who has produced leading scholarship on Bosnia, Thomas Hobbes, and the Ottoman Empire.

O’Brien, a former late night host and two-time president of the Harvard Lampoon, had a storied career on Saturday Night Live and on his eponymous program Late Night with Conan O’Brien on NBC.