showcasing some of Harvard’s stellar graduates.
Nelson LaMarche arrived at immunology in an unexpected way. Growing up in New Jersey, he said, he idolized his Dominican physician father and wanted to become a doctor.
So, LaMarche, who received his Ph.D. from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in November 2020, attended an honors high school with a specialized premed curriculum, where he studied anatomy and physiology, did rotations with clinicians, and became an EMT, which he continued to work at throughout college.
“If you had met me in college, you would not have thought there was anyone more gung ho about going into medicine than me,” said LaMarche. “But it turns out that I’m a huge germophobe.”