Sort all alumni lists in reverse chronological order by start year

Added _parse_start_year() helper and applied reverse chronological
sorting to all alumni categories (postdocs, grads, managers, undergrads).
Previously only undergrads were sorted (by CV order); now all categories
are consistent. Undergrads use start year as primary sort with CV order
as tiebreaker.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: jeremymanning

people.html

@@ -267,13 +267,17 @@ <h3>Undergraduate Researchers</h3>
                     <p class="alumni-list">
                         Evan Mcdermid (2025-2026)<br>
                         Andrew Richardson (2025-2026)<br>
-                        Jacob Bacus (2024-2026)<br>
                         Kevin Chang (2025-2026)<br>
                         Jackson C. Sandrich (2025-2026)<br>
                         Luca Gandrud (2025-2026)<br>
                         Annabelle Morrow (2025-2026)<br>
                         Owen Phillips (2025-2026)<br>
                         Rodrigo Vega Ayllon (2025)<br>
+                        Keene Dampal (2025)<br>
+                        Jaysen Quan (2025)<br>
+                        Joy Maina (2025)<br>
+                        Emmy Thornton (2025)<br>
+                        Jacob Bacus (2024-2026)<br>
                         Chelsea Joe (2024-2026)<br>
                         Harrison Stropkay (2024-2025)<br>
                         Miel Wewerka (2024)<br>
@@ -287,6 +291,7 @@ <h3>Undergraduate Researchers</h3>
                         Kaitlyn Peng (2024)<br>
                         Everett Tai (2024)<br>
                         Andrew Cao (2024)<br>
+                        Matthew Givens (2024-2025)<br>
                         Jake McDermid (2023-2025)<br>
                         Michael Chen (2023-2024)<br>
                         Grady Redding (2023-2024)<br>
@@ -325,6 +330,7 @@ <h3>Undergraduate Researchers</h3>
                         Zachary Somma (2022)<br>
                         Dawson Haddox (2022)<br>
                         Swestha Jain (2022)<br>
+                        Molly McQuoid (2022)<br>
                         Kunal Jha (2021-2024)<br>
                         Daniel Carstensen (2021-2024)<br>
                         Brian Chiang (2021-2022)<br>
@@ -381,13 +387,7 @@ <h3>Undergraduate Researchers</h3>
                         Sheherzad Mohydin (2016)<br>
                         Peter Tran (2016)<br>
                         Gal Perlman (2016)<br>
-                        Jessica Tin (2016)<br>
-                        Matthew Givens (2024-2025)<br>
-                        Keene Dampal (2025)<br>
-                        Jaysen Quan (2025)<br>
-                        Molly McQuoid (2022)<br>
-                        Joy Maina (2025)<br>
-                        Emmy Thornton (2025)
+                        Jessica Tin (2016)
                     </p>
                 </div>
             </div>

scripts/build_people.py

@@ -350,9 +350,18 @@ def generate_alumni_entry(alum: Dict[str, Any]) -> str:
     return f"{name_display}{paren_display}"
 
 
+def _parse_start_year(years_str: str) -> int:
+    """Extract start year from a years string like '2019-2021' or '2021'."""
+    if not years_str:
+        return 0
+    return int(str(years_str).split('-')[0].strip())
+
+
 def generate_alumni_list_content(alumni: List[Dict[str, Any]]) -> str:
     """Generate HTML content for an alumni list (postdocs, grads, managers).
 
+    Alumni are sorted in reverse chronological order by start year.
+
     Args:
         alumni: List of alumni dictionaries
 
@@ -362,7 +371,12 @@ def generate_alumni_list_content(alumni: List[Dict[str, Any]]) -> str:
     if not alumni:
         return ""
 
-    entries = [generate_alumni_entry(a) for a in alumni]
+    sorted_alumni = sorted(
+        alumni,
+        key=lambda a: _parse_start_year(a.get('years', '')),
+        reverse=True,
+    )
+    entries = [generate_alumni_entry(a) for a in sorted_alumni]
     return "<br>\n                    ".join(entries)
 
 
@@ -417,16 +431,19 @@ def generate_undergrad_list_content(
     if not alumni:
         return ""
 
-    # Create position map from CV order (lower = appears first)
+    # Sort by start year descending (reverse chronological),
+    # falling back to CV order for ties
     cv_position = {}
     if cv_order:
         for i, name in enumerate(cv_order):
             cv_position[name] = i
 
     def sort_key(a):
+        start_year = _parse_start_year(a.get("years", ""))
         name = a.get("name", "")
-        # Use CV position if available, otherwise put at end
-        return cv_position.get(name, 99999)
+        cv_pos = cv_position.get(name, 99999)
+        # Negate start_year for descending; use cv_pos as tiebreaker
+        return (-start_year, cv_pos)
 
     sorted_alumni = sorted(alumni, key=sort_key)