Harvard University has announced that Abraham Verghese, a bestselling author, Stanford professor, and renowned infectious disease doctor, will be the principal speaker at its 374th Commencement on May 29, 2025. He will also receive an honorary degree during the ceremony at Tercentenary Theatre.

“Throughout his remarkable career, Dr. Abraham Verghese has followed his wide-ranging interests to carve a unique path distinguished by breathtaking creativity, outstanding achievement, and exemplary service and leadership,” said President Alan M. Garber in a statement on February 27^th. “He has pursued excellence across disciplines with an intensity surpassed only by his humanity, which shines brilliantly through his works of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as his work as a clinician and teacher. I count myself among his legion of admirers, and I cannot imagine a better individual to inspire the members of our Class of 2025 as they contemplate their futures.”

Verghese is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and the founder of Presence, an initiative dedicated to strengthening the human experience in medicine. He also launched the Stanford Medicine 25, which promotes bedside diagnostic skills.

Beyond his medical career, Verghese is an acclaimed writer. His memoir, My Own Country, chronicling his experiences during the AIDS epidemic, was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Indian parents, Verghese studied medicine at Madras Medical College in India before moving to the U.S. for his residency. He later earned an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

“In the early 1990s, he took time off from medicine to earn an M.F.A. at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. After Iowa, he returned to academia as professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, El Paso, and published his first book. He went on to become the founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, before moving to Stanford in 2007,” added the statement. 

His contributions have earned him prestigious honors, including the Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities (2014) and the National Humanities Medal (2016), awarded by President Barack Obama. He is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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