Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday is scheduled to make his first official visit to Harvard since he dropped out seven years ago and moved to California to build Facebook.
Earlier today, Zuck also stopped by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to chat with students. At both universities, he will discuss start ups as well as recruitment opportunities for Facebook.
"If you've seen the movie the Social Network, you know that when Zuckerberg attended a talk by Bill Gates it was a pivotal moment," Harvard senior Michael Wong told the Boston Globe. "This could be another iteration of that. The next Mark Zuckerberg could be in the audience."
Wong, who started EventPlease, an online calendar for the Harvard community, was one of 200 students who were invited to meet with the Facebook wunderkind in an invitation-only event.
Zuckerberg will host a press conference at 4:30pm before the 5pm meeting with Harvard students.
A Facebook spokesperson said Zuckerberg "is eager to connect with computer science and engineering students from some of the best schools in the world, and may well be tomorrow's Facebook innovators."
Last week Zuckerberg spoke at Y Combinator's Startup School, where he said if he were starting Facebook again today, he would have stayed in Boston rather than going to Silicon Valley. According to the Globe, he clarified those statements to reporters earlier today.
"There are so many smart people out here," he said, referring to Boston's intellectual community.
Zuckerberg hasn't officially visited Harvard since 2004, back when he was running Facebook out of his dorm room. Since then, Facebook has grown into a behemoth, the first name in social networking with upwards of 800 million members. For a look at vintage Zuckerberg, check out this 2005 interview in which he discusses the site's beginnings.
Zuckerberg will also appear in a joint interview with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on Charlie Rose's PBS show on Monday evening.