"Change is manifest and inevitable, but it will not be powerful except in the context of our defining values."
On June 16, Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum charged 617 graduates at the 129th Commencement ceremony to embrace both challenges and opportunities of the future while upholding the experiences that shaped them at Caltech.
"Caltech's honor code provides a moral compass," Rosenbaum said. "You have weighed your actions in light of the needs of others, in the broadest sense of community, refined by the challenges of the pandemic. … No matter which direction your travels take in global society, you will be prepared to find true north."
The Friday morning ceremony marked a momentous occasion for Caltech's newest graduates. Among an audience of family members, friends, faculty, and trustees, the Institute awarded 233 bachelor's degrees, 155 master's degrees, and 228 doctoral degrees.
After the class of 2023 processed into the ceremony, David Thompson (MS '78), chair of the Caltech Board of Trustees, shared opening remarks and reflected on the Institute's accomplishments over the past year.
Among them, Thompson highlighted Caltech's Space Solar Power Project, which recently demonstrated that solar power can be harvested in space and beamed back to Earth; the development of a vaccine that provides protection against a variety of SARS-like betacoronaviruses; and the creation of Caltech's new Center for Science, Society, and Public Policy.
He noted the achievements of Caltech students, which included organizing a 36-hour sustainability hackathon and winning the 2023 MIT Mystery Hunt. Thompson also mentioned the Institute's new fundraising campaign, the Initiative for Caltech Students, which will support scholarships and other elements of the student experience.
"As you move forward, I hope you will take with you the depth and breadth of your experiences here in Pasadena, including the challenging, the uplifting, and the transformational," Thompson said to graduates. "Just as you take lessons away from the Institute, the Institute will take lessons from you, applying what you have done to improve and advance our mission for decades to come."
He then introduced Commencement speaker Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard, director of Harvard's Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, and author of several books, including Our Democracy: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality. On June 5, Rosenbaum hosted a community read event to discuss Our Democracy with Professor Allen and students.
In her Commencement speech, Professor Allen called on Caltech graduates to uphold democracy and human dignity in an age of technological development and artificial intelligence.
She spoke to her experiences growing up in the "age of the great pulling apart," highlighting the nation's political polarization and her career efforts to foster an effective government in the service of its people.
Professor Allen described technological advances that transformed the nature of power, economics, and democracy in America. "We've already seen how social media has knocked the pillars of our representative government out from under us," noting engineers will have a vital role to play in the future.
"You are graduating into the age of AI and possibly into the age of AGI [artificial general intelligence]. On top of the ‘great pulling apart,' artificial intelligence and artificial general intelligence can add tremendous new challenges or provide real opportunity to change those dynamics of the great pulling apart," she said.
Professor Allen issued graduates a call to service to ensure the safe deployment of AI technology with robust regulation, evaluation of risks and ethics, and the prioritization of humanity.
"The call to serve is also a call to see and hear and seek out the opinions of the people—so many different people in so many different places who will be impacted by the extraordinary powers you now wield," she said.
Professor Allen added later: "I'm here to ask you today to wield your power for the sake of human flourishing. Hold sacred the dignity of the human beings in front of you. Hold sacred their need for empowerment and autonomy."
After Professor Allen's speech, Caltech's undergraduate houses represented their members with lively traditions during the conferral of degrees.
Each time the name of a graduate from Fleming House was called, Fleming's president rang a bell; Venerable House graduates were acknowledged with a whistle, and Lloyd House members with the ringing of the Lloyd gong. Other houses wore Commencement stoles in their house colors, and the boom of the Fleming cannon marked the end of the event.
Bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees were conferred to joyful cheers from the crowd, after which Rosenbaum announced the recipients of four awards.
First, Aditi Seetharaman received the Mabel Beckman Prize, honoring a female student for academic excellence, leadership, and service to the Institute community.
Seetharaman served as the president of Venerable House and worked alongside peers, administrators, alumni, and faculty during the house's renaming process.
"In navigating the complex conversations surrounding the renaming, Aditi also opened broader discussions on making the Institute a more welcoming place for all," Rosenbaum said.
Abigail Jiang and Jolly Patro received the Frederic W. Hinrichs, Jr., Memorial Award, which recognizes the seniors who, in the opinion of the undergraduate deans, made the greatest contribution to the student body.
Jiang was recognized for their work to foster a more inclusive STEM community. They co-founded and served as president of Caltech APIDA+ (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Plus) student group, raised funds to combat anti-Asian hate in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and served in many support and advocacy roles across campus.
Patro, who also held several leadership roles during her time at Caltech, was recognized for her outstanding efforts as co-president of Caltech's Science Olympiad planning team. For several years, Patro helped coordinate the Science Olympiad event, which drew thousands of middle and high school students to engage in STEM on campus and virtually.
Jin Ming Koh received the George W. Housner Prize for Academic Excellence and Original Research, which recognizes a senior who has demonstrated excellence in scholarship and in the preparation of an outstanding piece of original research.
Koh has published more than 10 first-author papers and 20 co-authored papers—a prolific publication record for an undergraduate. His "landmark" project, currently in press at Nature Physics, has achieved the first experimental realization of a measurement-induced entanglement phase transition on superconducting quantum hardware.
Finally, Carmen Amo Alonso received the Milton and Francis Clauser Doctoral Prize, which honors a student whose PhD thesis reflects extraordinary standards of quality, innovative research, and the potential for opening new avenues of human thought and endeavor.
Alonso's thesis in control and dynamical systems, "Distributed and Localized Model Predictive Control," provides a unifying theory for control that can be applied across diverse fields from neuroscience and language processing to biology and cancer treatment.
"In her bold and cross-disciplinary approach, and in helping launch a rich new field of study, Carmen exemplifies and extends Caltech's legacy of transformative research," Rosenbaum said.
The president concluded the ceremony with a message of congratulations and inspiration to graduates.
"We have prepared you, our graduates, to be engaged and contributing members of our democracy, as you heard in the Commencement address, to bring your scientific and technical talents to bear on the problems of the world. This graduation ceremony, and Professor Allen's words, are a harbinger of hope for the future."
Written by Julia Ehlert