Alumni in the News: May 11, 2026

Supreme Court justice Neil M. Gorsuch ’88 was featured in the May 6 New York Times Opinions interview, “Justice Neil Gorsuch on the ‘Miracle’ of Agreement on the Court.” Writer David French spoke with Gorsuch about the radical nature of the country’s founding and its continuing influence on the court.

The 2026 Tony Awards nominations were announced on May 5; Lamar Richardson ’15 is a producer of Ragtime, which scored 11 nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical. (Ragtime’s book was written by Terrence McNally ’60, who died in 2020.)

A new book about Paul Auster ’69, GSAS’70 by his widow, novelist Siri Hustvedt, was reviewed in the Times on May 4. Ghost Stories: A Memoir details the couple’s marriage, from 1982 until Auster’s death in 2024: “Hustvedt writes so intimately about their physical and intellectual companionship that she makes you feel, in a way not all memoirists can, the dimensions of the crater he left behind.”

The May 1 Times feature “The Audacity of the Art at the Obama Presidential Center” detailed the works of 30 artists commissioned by Michelle Obama and Barack Obama ’83 for the Obama Presidential Center. The campus, located on the South Side of Chicago, began visitor previews on May 4 and will have its grand opening on June 18.

Artist Tom Sanford ’98 wrote the April 24 Artnet op-ed “The Tabloids Are Fouling Mayor Mamdani Over His Knicks Art. Here’s the Story.” Sanford was invited by Mamdani to loan his series of Knicks Cutout paintings to City Hall in recognition of the team’s 2026 playoff run.

Supriya Ganesh ’19, who played Dr. Samira Mohan on two seasons of the award-winning HBO Max series The Pitt, was interviewed by Vulture on March 13. In the Q&A Ganesh discusses a particularly awful day her character experiences in the March 12 episode “4:00 P.M.”; it was announced in April that Ganesh would not return for Season 3.

Down Time, the latest novel by Andrew Martin ’08, was reviewed in both the Times and in Vulture on March 10. Martin’s book about a group of 30-something friends navigating life after the pandemic was described as “keenly observed” and “talky, literate and funny.”

Rolando Pujol ’95 was included in a March 3 Times article about fervent Pizza Hut fans: “That Red Roof! Those Tiffany Lamps! It’s a Pizza Hut From the Past.” Pujol is a journalist who documents American highway culture for his website, The Retrologist.

On Feb. 4 it was announced that Neil Shubin ’82 was elected the next president of the National Academy of Sciences. Shubin, the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and vice dean for academic advancement at the University of Chicago, will serve a five-year term.