Charles Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and president emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will in May deliver the 2011 commencement address to this year's graduating senior class.
Vest served as president of MIT from 1990 to 2004 before taking the top position at the NAE in 2007.
"Chuck Vest is perhaps the most powerful voice speaking in the United States today on behalf of continued investment in science and engineering," University President Lawrence Bacow said in an e-mail to the Daily. Bacow served for three years as MIT's chancellor while Vest was president there.
Bacow recounted Vest's accomplishments at MIT and his skill as a public speaker.
"During his tenure as president of MIT, he was widely regarded as the nation's best college president. He is a true moral leader — courageous, down to earth and inspiring.
"He also has a fabulous wit," Bacow added. "I think he will give a memorable speech."
Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler said Vest's extensive experience in higher education administration makes his selection pertinent to students.
"His selection as this year's speaker is based on his extraordinary overall record of leadership and innovation, not specifically because of his engineering credentials," Thurler said. "I think that he will give people something to think about."
According to a press release from Thurler, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on May 21 will address graduates of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy during the school's annual Class Day ceremony on the Saturday prior to Commencement. Kerry is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Thurler said that the commencement speaker, selected each year by the university president in collaboration with the Board of Trustees, is based on a number of qualifications.
"We look for people who are going to have something noteworthy to say, people who have modeled achievements that they can use to inspire the graduates and people from a variety of different fields," she said.
Vest chaired the former President Bill Clinton's NASA Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station in the early 1990s. Former President George W. Bush in 2004 also named him to the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction and in 2006 awarded him the National Medal of Technology.
Vest will receive an honorary doctorate of science at the ceremony on May 22. Six other honorary doctorate degree recipients, including director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (E '88) and Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow, will join him in receiving honorary doctorates.
