Dr. Alex Cameron Harvey

Dr. Alex Harvey, MS, PhD, 31, passed away peacefully on May 29, 2026, surrounded by his loving family at the University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel Hill, NC, after sustaining a traumatic brain injury while horseback riding and playing A grade polocrosse, a sport he loved. Alex was born at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on October 20, 1994, and raised in Sandy Spring, Maryland. He attended Barrie School and graduated from Landon School in 2013 where he was starting catcher on the varsity baseball team senior year. Alex earned a BS in Chemistry from Davidson College in 2017 and MS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Georgetown University in 2018.

He spent many years as a camp counselor at Summer at Sandy Spring, and later as Chief Medical Scribe in the Emergency Department at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Alex was a Redland Hunt Pony Club graduate HB/C1 member who participated in United States Pony Club games, dressage, show jumping, eventing, tetrathlon and polocrosse at the regional and national levels. He was also an American Polocrosse Association member who was selected by APA to play international polocrosse in New Zealand and Australia.

Alex dedicated his life to studying traumatic brain injury to help people, working first in the laboratory at Georgetown University’s Integrative Neuroscience Program and then going on to complete his PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics in January 2026 at the Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience (DANDRITE) at Aarhus University in Denmark. There he earned a prize for excellence in his PhD research and published many peer-reviewed journal articles, with several more on the way. During his PhD program, he interned at the biotechnology consulting firm Stradoo in Munich, Germany, and continued consulting there afterward. He was in the process of founding a startup drug company to develop a medication to treat stroke and traumatic brain injury at the time of his death.

Not only a brilliant scientist, Alex was an accomplished artist, a gifted athlete, and a beloved friend and colleague known for his generosity, kindness, and joy for life. He is survived by his fiancée Sarah Hofmann, his parents Brian and Elisa Harvey, brother Duncan Harvey and sister-in-law Adrianna Brannon, and many other loving family members. He was an adventurer, traveling all over the world with his family, Sarah, friends and on his own. He had a contagious laugh, the biggest smile, and adored the dogs, horses and cats in his life who adored him back.

He embraced life’s adventures with an enthusiastic “yes.” Whether running a marathon in Copenhagen, scuba diving in Mexico, skiing La Vallée Blanche in France, hiking Mont Blanc amid a snowstorm, trekking through New Zealand’s mountains, playing polocrosse in Australia and New Zealand, or moving to Denmark to pursue a PhD, he approached every challenge with enthusiasm and determination. Alex was larger than life and a light for so many. We are so grateful to have had him in our lives. Alex’s legacy is one of love and extraordinary generosity as he donated his organs to save the lives of multiple people in need.

A celebration of life is planned for a later date.