Harish was born and raised in the city of Chennai, India. He completed his undergraduate degree in India from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli which is recognized as one of the top 10 technical institutions in India. He then moved to New York to pursue his Master of Science from Columbia University. He is currently working on his Ph.D. from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. His academic interest is in cryptography, an area of computer science. He was inspired by his desire for a queer community at NIT Trichy which then evolved into him establishing a virtual safe space with friends called uNITTy and Qolk 2.0. His first Pride experience was with Chennai Pride in 2017. He has since volunteered for the Pride March as a Dispersal Lead and as a volunteer for the Human Rights Conference. He was most recently a panelist at the Asian LGBT+ Movements Global Summit and at Out and Abroad 3.0. He served as the Director of the Diversity, Accessibility & Inclusion committee of Heritage of Pride and served on the Executive Board of the same for a term of one year. He also served as a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Jiteshraj Scholarship for Promising Freshmen. He aims to create safe (and secure) spaces through both his work in cryptography and his word by advocating for spaces that transcend the traditional definitions of accessibility, inclusivity, and diversity.

P.S. Harish appreciates cryptic crosswords, coffee, and cooking; books, beers, and British humor; travel, the number three, and the Oxford Comma. He enjoys alliterations (clearly) just as much as traveling but not as much as referring to himself in the third person. He also used to quiz back in India. He loves puns and the metric system which makes him punny-wise but pound-foolish (Didn't get it? Click here). If you laughed at that line, remember to get your tickets to his Netflix comedy special.