Matt DelSesto, PhD, is a sociologist with over ten years of experience in higher education and the nonprofit sector.  He works in the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships at Harvard, where he manages Harvard's Laidlaw Scholars program. He also, advises students on the risks and ethics of their research in coordination with the IRB, assists with management of URAF research grant applications, review and administration, and contributes to coordination of URAF programming. He is especially interested in working with students on ethically engaging with partners outside of academia to develop collaborative projects, communicating the broader societal implications and results of their research, or connecting research to social impact. Outside of URAF, Matt has led collaborative research projects, developed community engaged learning programs at universities, consulted with nonprofit organizations on outreach initiatives, taught experiential learning courses on college campuses and in community-based settings, and worked to strengthen public engagement and accountability in city government.  Matt’s writing appears in more than a dozen publications in academic journals and other outlets on topics including human relationships to the environment, crime prevention, design for social innovation, and community engaged learning. His book on the sociology of community engagement and applied research, Design and the Social Imagination (Bloomsbury, 2022), describes models for research and practice from the 20th century to the present.

I'm a second-year at Harvard College concentrating in Neuroscience with a secondary in Psychology, on a pre-med track. My research at Massachusetts General Hospital focuses on cerebrovascular diseases and the early detection of Alzheimer's Disease. As a member of Harvard's inaugural Laidlaw Scholar cohort, I'm combining faculty-mentored independent research with leadership development through Oxford's Ethical Leadership Programme and an international Leadership-in-Action project — all in service of becoming a physician-leader who approaches healthcare with both scientific rigor and ethical grounding. A core conviction of mine is that lifestyle and nutrition are underutilized tools in chronic disease prevention. I hold a Plant-Based Nutrition Certification from eCornell, serve as Treasurer of Harvard Undergraduate Plant-Based, and am a Fellow of Harvard's Food Literacy Project. Outside academics, I'm a Board Member and Company Dancer with the Harvard Ballet Company, continuing a 13-year classical ballet background. I also founded Taylor Bears Inc., a DFW-based 501(c)(3) that donates teddy bears to children at Cook Children's Medical Center and supports pediatric cardiovascular units. Looking forward to connecting with fellow Scholars who are thinking boldly about science, leadership, and meaningful impact.