[Skip to main content](#main-content)
* * *
Learn more about this pioneering work
[Click to Play Video](https://youtu.be/gzCDOSQ6Cio)
1954
### The first organ transplant
On December 23, 1954, Harvard Medical School Professor Joseph Murray and his team performed a kidney transplant on a man who had been given just two years to live. The surgery ushered in the era of organ transplantation, giving hope to thousands of patients each year.
[Explore this landmark moment](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/remembering-dr-joseph-murray-a-surgeon-who-changed-the-world-of-medicine-201211285590)
2023
### The first logical quantum processor
Harvard researchers created the first programmable, logical quantum processor, enabling transformative benefits for science and society as a whole.
[Learn more about the breakthrough](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/12/researchers-create-first-logical-quantum-processor/)
1908
### The first M.B.A. degree
Harvard created the world’s first Master of Business Administration program in 1908 in response to the need for business leaders with a broad understanding of business functions.
[Learn more about this history](https://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/buildinghbs/educating-business-administrators.html)
### Sesame Street
Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Gerald Lesser was involved in the transformation of children’s media, with the 1969 debut of Sesame Street.
Read more about the teaching muppets
[Read more about the teaching muppets](https://www.gse.harvard.edu/hgse100/story/transformational-teaching-muppets)
### Reading braille
While at Harvard, Alex Tavares created The Read Read, a device which allows blind and visually impaired children to independently learn how to read using the same techniques teachers would use.
Learn more about the device
[Learn more about the device](https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/news/17/07/read-read)
### Multiple intelligences
Howard Gardner upended notions of how children think and learn, proposing that there is not a single intelligence that can be measured by one IQ test, but multiple intelligences, many ways of learning and knowing.
Learn more about Howard Gardner’s work
[Learn more about Howard Gardner’s work](https://www.gse.harvard.edu/hgse100/story/lasting-impact-multiple-intelligences)
* 1961 – Harvard Chan School
### Defibrillator
Bernard Lown developed the direct-current defibrillator, which provided a new approach for resuscitating patients, paved the way for new possibilities in cardiac surgery, and saved countless lives.
[Defibrillator](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/02/cardiologist-nobel-laureate-bernard-lown-dies-at-99/)
* 1968 – Harvard Chan School
### Oral Rehydration Therapy
Richard Cash’s mix of table salt, sodium bicarbonate, and glucose has saved tens of millions from diarrheal disease death.
[Oral Rehydration Therapy](https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/centennial-simple-solution-cash/)
* 1991 – Mass General Hospital
### Functional MRI
Harvard Researchers pioneered this revolutionary way of measuring brain activity in real-time.
[Functional MRI](https://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/history/fmri)
* 2025 – Harvard Medical School
### Gene-editing medicine
A first-of-its-kind therapy promises to have a monumental impact on sickle cell disease patients.
[Gene-editing medicine](https://hms.harvard.edu/news/creating-worlds-first-crispr-medicine-sickle-cell-disease)
* 2016 – Harvard Innovation Labs
### Portable surgery
SurgiBox, a portable operating room, makes surgery safer for patients in warzones and disaster-affected areas.
[Portable surgery](https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/articles/surgibox-impact-video)
A Harvard Chemist Invented Baking Powder
[Click to Play Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9P9l6fYDFY)
1854
A baking revolution at Harvard
------------------------------
While working at Harvard, Eben Norton Horsford invented baking powder, allowing baked goods a way to rise without waiting the hours it takes yeast to work properly.
### The forward pass
When looking to make American football safer, widening the field was proposed. The concrete stadium at Harvard wouldn’t allow for a wider field, so the forward pass was proposed instead.
Read more about the change
[Read more about the change](https://gocrimson.com/sports/2020/5/5/information-facilities-Harvard-Stadium-Football-History)
### The golf tee
Harvard Dentist Dr. George Grant was passionate about dentistry, as well as golf. Before his invention of the wooden golf tee, golfers teed up the ball by mounding dirt to form a cone.
Learn more about the invention
[Learn more about the invention](https://www.hsdm.harvard.edu/news/trailblazer-inventor-scholar-dr-george-grant-takes-his-place-history)
### The catcher’s mask
The first piece of protective equipment in American sports, the baseball catcher’s mask, was developed by Frederick W. Thayer while at Harvard.
Explore the history of the mask
[Explore the history of the mask](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/10/sports-helmets-catchers-mask/)
An innovation hub
-----------------
Harvard is a gathering place where great minds can collaborate and create amazing things.
* 5,800+
[**patents held by Harvard as of July 1, 2024**](https://otd.harvard.edu/)
* 52
[**Harvard faculty have received the Nobel Prize while working at the University**](https://www.harvard.edu/about/history/nobel-laureates/)
* 5000+
[**ventures have turned ideas into impact since Harvard Innovation Labs founding**](https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/about/about-us)
[Harvard Innovation Labs](https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Supporting Harvard innovators from idea to venture building through guidance, community, funding, and other resources.
[President’s Administrative Innovation Fund](https://innovationfund.evp.harvard.edu/)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Providing competitive grants to Harvard individuals and teams with innovative ideas and pilots.
### [Harvard Grid](https://www.grid.harvard.edu/)
Championing entrepreneurship and the commercial deployment of cutting-edge research, advancing technology-driven solutions that can change the world.
### [Office of Technology Development](https://otd.harvard.edu/)
Advancing science, fostering entrepreneurship, and translating Harvard innovations into solutions that make the world a better place.
Bringing education to everyone
------------------------------
Starting in 1949, [Harvard Extension School began broadcasting Harvard courses on the radio. TV courses followed in 1956](https://dce.harvard.edu/about/history). This Harvard tradition of open access continued with the creation of first-of-its-kind [massive open online courses](https://www.harvardonline.harvard.edu/blog/decade-innovation-online-learning-harvard) in 2012, and broadened further with programs like [Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard](https://dash.harvard.edu/) and the [Caselaw Access Project](https://hls.harvard.edu/today/caselaw-access-project-conference-marks-full-release-of-digitized-decisions/) from Harvard Law School.
### Engineering the past and the future
Modern breakthroughs like the metalens—a lens using nanostructures to revolutionize light manipulation—are part of a long tradition for researchers at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, who have pioneered everything from the antennas used in mobile phones to virtual reality headsets.
[Engineering the past and the future](https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2025/02/think-innovation-think-harvard-engineering-and-applied-sciences)
* 1944 – School of Engineering
### Programmable computer
With 765,299 parts and 530 miles of cable, the Mark I was the most complex electromechanical device of its time.
[Programmable computer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-bm14fr2pM)
* 2022 – Salata Institute
### Tracking methane
MethaneSAT is the first satellite that can measure a greenhouse gas anywhere on the planet in real time.
[Tracking methane](https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/with-google-power-and-harvard-technology-methanesat-data-will-spot-methane-leaks-from-space/)
* 1919 – School of Engineering
### Electrical communication
George Washington Pierce created dependable oscillators, which led to advances in radio, telephones, and timekeeping.
[Electrical communication](https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2017/03/constant-innovation)
* 2024 – Office of Technology Development
### Next generation of batteries
A new lithium metal battery can be recharged in a matter of minutes, up to 6,000 times.
[Next generation of batteries](https://otd.harvard.edu/news/solid-state-battery-design-charges-in-minutes-lasts-for-thousands-of-cycles/)
### The first autonomous, entirely soft robot
A team of Harvard researchers created the first autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot. Soft robotics could revolutionize how humans interact with machines.
Learn more about soft robotics
[Learn more about soft robotics](https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/the-first-autonomous-entirely-soft-robot/)
### Pioneering robots to improve mobility
A soft, wearable robotic device helps stroke survivors and people with movement impairments regain mobility and independence.
Learn more about the device
[Learn more about the device](https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2025/01/out-lab-and-patients-hands)
### The first autonomously navigated medical robot
In 2019, bioengineers led by Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital created a robotic catheter that navigates the body autonomously—the surgical equivalent of a self-driving car.
Learn more about robotic catheters
[Learn more about robotic catheters](https://hms.harvard.edu/news/first-medical-robotics)
### Helping Europe after World War II
In his commencement speech at Harvard in 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall announced the creation of one of the largest international economic aid programs in history.
[Learn more about the speech](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/05/70-years-ago-a-harvard-commencement-speech-outlined-the-marshall-plan-and-calmed-a-continent/)
### Better understanding the Cold War
Thomas Schelling’s theories on the behavioral strategies in nuclear war shaped the course of events in the Kennedy administration during the height of the Cold War. Most notably, he showed how tacit cooperation can emerge between two conflicting parties.
[Learn more about the theory](https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/in-memoriam/schelling)
Important innovators
--------------------
[Explore the work of all of Harvard’s innovators](#news)
### **[Paul Farmer](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/02/remembering-paul-farmer/)**
Through his work with Partners in Health, Paul Farmer [transformed the global health equity landscape](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/02/remembering-paul-farmer/). Today the organization is present in 12 countries, supports 230 facilities in collaboration with local governments, backs a global health equity university in Rwanda, and runs a modern teaching hospital in Haiti.
### [Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin](https://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/history)
In her 1925 doctoral thesis, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin proposed that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Although her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected because it contradicted the science of the time, her work on the [nature of variable stars was foundational to modern astrophysics](https://astronomy.fas.harvard.edu/history).
### [William Hinton](https://hms.harvard.edu/news/portrait-pioneer)
Working at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1912, William Hinton was tasked with performing autopsies on those suspected of having died from syphilis. He became an expert on the disease and [created a new blood test for diagnosing syphilis](https://hms.harvard.edu/news/portrait-pioneer) that was adopted by the U.S. Public Health Service.
### [Raj Chetty](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/a-tool-to-provide-policymakers-with-real-time-data/)
As a founding director of Opportunity Insights, Raj Chetty [helps create tools to identify barriers to economic opportunity and work on scalable solutions](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/a-tool-to-provide-policymakers-with-real-time-data/) to empower people to rise out of poverty.
### [Elliott Joslin](https://joslin.org/about/history/our-founder)
Elliott Joslin was [one of the first physicians to introduce insulin as a treatment for diabetes](https://joslin.org/about/history/our-founder) in the United States. His three-pronged approach to diabetes care—diet, exercise and insulin—was not validated until after his death. His Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston continues to treat thousands of patients each year.
### [Karen Mapp](https://www.gse.harvard.edu/hgse100/story/improving-our-schools-one-family-time)
Karen Mapp was tasked with helping the U.S. Department of Education find a better way to build and sustain partnerships between educators and families. Her [Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships](https://www.gse.harvard.edu/hgse100/story/improving-our-schools-one-family-time) offers guidance on how stakeholders at state, district, school, and family levels can best support children in their educational journeys.
### [Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl](https://www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/news/mcb-faculty-matthew-meselson-and-colleague-franklin-stahl-featured-in-ibiology-video/)
An iconic 1958 experiment by Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl [provided some of the first concrete evidence supporting the “double helix” model of DNA](https://www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/news/mcb-faculty-matthew-meselson-and-colleague-franklin-stahl-featured-in-ibiology-video/). Today, their work is recognized as one of the most beautiful experiments in modern biology.
1988
Harvard teamed up with Hollywood
--------------------------------
In 1988, Harvard’s Center for Health Communication launched a campaign to prevent alcohol-related traffic fatalities which included working with TV writers to insert drunken driving prevention messages, including frequent references to designated drivers, into scripts of top-rated television programs, such as “Cheers,” “Dallas,” and “L.A. Law.”
[Learn more about the campaign](https://hsph.harvard.edu/research/health-communication/harvard-alcohol-project-designated-driver/)
### The first printing press in the British colonies
Two Native scholars, Wassausmon, also known as John Sassamon, and Wawaus, also known as James Printer, were printing apprentices who translated and printed the first bible in North America.
Learn more about the pioneering print
[Learn more about the pioneering print](https://peabody.harvard.edu/galleries/digging-veritas-literacy-and-printing-press)
### Translating ancient scrolls
Frank Moore Cross was one of the experts who pieced together and deciphered the Dead Sea Scrolls. His scholarship is still the essential resource for analyzing and dating these important texts.
Learn more about his work
[Learn more about his work](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/10/frank-moore-cross-91/)
### A press for pressing issues
Founded in 1913, Harvard University Press is the publisher of enduring works of scholarship, including 12 Pulitzer prize-winning books.
Learn more about Harvard University Press
[Learn more about Harvard University Press](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/about)
### Bringing the past to life
For more than 100 years, Harvard has been working to bring ancient Egypt to life for people all over the world.
In the 1920s and 30s, artist Joseph Lindon Smith, a member of the “Harvard Camp” dig house headquarters near the Pyramids in Egypt, was tasked with [painting the finds of the excavations](https://hmane.harvard.edu/hu-mfa-expedition). Today, his brightly colored renderings of the sites can be seen in museums and remain valuable to scholars.
A [full-scale reproduction of an ancient Egyptian throne](https://hmane.harvard.edu/recreating-throne-of-egyptian-queen-hetepheres) belonging to Queen Hetepheres, dating to about 2550 BCE, was created at Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East in 2016.
The [Digital Giza project](http://giza.fas.harvard.edu) at Harvard gives anyone with an internet connection access to the largest collection of information, media, and research materials ever assembled about the Pyramids and related sites on Egypt’s Giza Plateau.
* * *
### A second home for the Bauhaus movement
Beyond hosting the first Bauhaus exhibition in America, Harvard was key in the reception, documentation, and dissemination of Bauhaus ideas through the work of its students, museum curators, and émigré faculty.
[Explore the movement](https://harvardartmuseums.org/tour/325/slide/6339)
### The first art history department
In 1874, Harvard President Eliot appointed Charles Norton as inaugural lecturer in the new Department of Fine Arts, the first art history department in the United States.
[Read more about the beginnings of Art History](https://harvardartmuseums.org/article/the-beginnings-of-art-history-at-harvard-part-1-charles-eliot-norton-john-ruskin-and-the-teaching-of-art-history)
### The first landscape architecture program
Harvard's Landscape Architecture program's mission is to advance research and innovative design practices in the natural and built environments, as they intersect with processes of urbanization and the present realities of a changing climate.
[Learn more about the program](https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/landscape-architecture/)
### Creating the foundation for digital mapping
In the 1960s, Harvard's Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis pioneered a number of important theoretical concepts in spatial data handling, leading to survey software used all over the world.
[Learn more about the initiative](https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/2024/11/a-new-way-of-seeing-the-laboratory-for-computer-graphics-and-spatial-analysis/)
### A new way to restore paintings
The Harvard Art Museums used a new, noninvasive digital projection technology to restore the appearance of Mark Rothko’s murals to their original rich colors without risking the integrity of the paintings.
[Explore the process](https://harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/4768)
[Harvard College](https://college.harvard.edu/about/news)
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