Left, graduates glide into position as the Institute’s combined inaugural and commencement ceremony gets underway. Middle, before the start of Caltech’s 113th commencement, planetary scientist David Stevenson, head of the faculty presidential search committee that selected Jean-Lou Chameau, formally invests him with the hood originally worn by Caltech’s first leader, Robert Millikan, as Chameau’s predecessor, David Baltimore (center) looks on. Right, Chameau is congratulated by Board of Trustees chair Kent Kresa (left), and his inauguration is greeted with applause from vice chair Wally Weisman (in shades) and Caltech president emeritus Tom Everhart (right).

New Beginnings—
Class of ’07 and Caltech’s 8th president are on the march

Institutions, like individuals, have their rites of passage. On June 8 Caltech combined two momentous occasions in the life of a university, seeing off its graduates and installing its president in a buoyant, sun-splashed ceremony on the Beckman Mall. At the start of Caltech’s 113th commencement, before an exuberant Caltech crowd, the graduates’ families and friends, and invited guests and dignitaries, Jean-Lou Chameau was invested with the hood (as the medieval nomenclature has it) of Robert A. Millikan, the Institute’s first president (or, as Millikan’s personal nomenclature had it, “the chief”), and sworn in as Caltech’s eighth chief executive. All this was in line with Chameau’s wish that his inauguration not be a lavish, expensive affair, and that pride of place go to the graduating students reaping the rewards of their years of hard work. In fact, the new president had barely finished his inaugural remarks before he too was put to work—handing out diplomas to the parade of nearly 500 newly minted graduates, each of whom crossed the stage to shake his hand.

“We are all starting a new chapter in our lives,” a beaming Chameau told the class of 2007. “You, by leaving Caltech, I by staying here.”

Graduates share their enjoyment of the festivities.

Inaugurations are typically more solemn affairs than graduations, which invariably feature clowning classmates, restless infants, a gowned rowdy or two, and camera-toting parents packing the aisles like paparazzi. In uniting the two events, the Institute seemed to bring out the best elements of both, honoring its graduates, celebrating its president, and paying tribute to Chameau’s idea, articulated shortly after he settled into his job last summer, that Caltech’s small size and rich traditions create conditions ripe for a more inclusive, communal atmosphere on campus. The inaugural event was very much a Caltech family affair, underscored by the new president’s affectionate introduction of his wife, Carol Carmichael (“Carol and I are a team, and she’s working very hard for Caltech”), and by the presence at the podium of an undergraduate student speaker, Ruddock House president Ricky Jones ’08.

Jones told the audience how he “and my friend Dvin [Adalian]” had been pruning olives from a tree on Caltech’s Olive Walk last fall when the Chameaus happened by on an evening stroll. Out of this chance encounter came a challenge to distill campus-grown olive oil in exchange for a home-cooked meal at the president’s house. The rest is, if not quite history, readily searchable on Google. A few months ago, Jones had been looking at a heap of black olives, trying to figure out what to do next. Now he stood before rows of (mostly) black-robed graduates, talking about a campus-wide harvest festival that will bring Caltech’s own bottled olive oil to market this fall. Profits, should there be any, will be channeled toward the support of students and staff. If ever there was a classic example of the tendencies that make Caltech unique, this was it. (For the full olive-oil story, go here.)

Following the ceremony, Ricky Jones ’08 (center), who spoke at the presidential inauguration, shared a moment with Chameau (left) and his wife, Carol Carmichael, senior counselor for external relations and faculty associate in engineering and applied science.

Chameau has frequently said how much he enjoys the irreverence of Caltech students, and Jones did not disappoint. “Caltech students are terrible French speakers,” the self-described Francophile told his audience. When they’re not mispronouncing their new president’s name as “Shamu” (the orca) or “chamois” (the soft suede), they’re mistaking it altogether for Jean-Paul Revel (famous Caltech biologist) or Jean-Luc Picard (famous starship captain). On a more serious note, Jones praised Chameau and Carmichael for their commitment to the welfare of students and for giving the Caltech community a renewed sense of a campus alive with possibilities. “I’m certain that Jean-Lou will continue to encourage the growth of Caltech in ways we never thought imaginable and will continue to teach us to appreciate Caltech in ways we never thought of before.”

For his part, Chameau spoke of the sense of “honor and privilege” he felt at being entrusted with the stewardship of Caltech. He told how another university president had congratulated him on winning the lottery, saying “You have the best board of trustees in the country, the faculty [ranges] from outstanding to genius, and you don’t have to worry about a medical school or a football team.” Looking toward the future, he called for leveraging the Institute’s small size and abundant intellectual resources to promote new opportunities for interdisciplinary research, to maximize student-faculty interaction, and to “address the toughest challenges we face in society.” Chameau said that Caltech must be the “home of faculty and students who will do big things” and “the preferred destination for young people who can make a difference.” He warmly praised Caltech’s supportive alumni while acknowledging that their relatively small numbers made it imperative to expand Caltech’s base of support by placing new emphasis on fund-raising through friend-raising.

“We must ensure,” he said, “that we have a foundation that sustains and enhances excellence and that will allow the Institute to be the leader in creating new knowledge.”

As commencement drew to a close, he returned to the podium with a few parting thoughts for Caltech’s graduates, urging them to actively embrace challenges “outside your comfort zone. Do work you love,” said Caltech’s president, “and do it well, and the rest will take care of itself.”

UCLA professor and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jared Diamond reminded graduates that their future and the planet’s are inextricably intertwined.

The care and keeping of Earth itself was the theme of the commencement address presented by UCLA professor Jared Diamond. “It’s a privilege to join you for this double celebration,” said the eminent physiologist, ethnologist, biogeographer, and evolutionary biologist whose reputation as a wide-ranging thinker and eloquent popular science writer is perhaps eclipsed only by the panoply of Greek prefixes orbiting his name. A recipient of the National Medal of Science, and author of the Pulitzer prize winning Guns Germs, and Steel, and the bestseller Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Diamond asked Caltech’s assembled graduates to think about the future roughly 32 years hence, when the Institute’s graduating seniors would, on average, be about the age that Caltech’s newly inaugurated president is now. What can you and Caltech do, he asked, to ensure that the world awaiting you in 2039 is worth living in?

Standards of living, global sustainability, population growth, energy issues, and some numerical byplay all came into view here, as Diamond noted that “an average citizen of the First World consumes 32 times more resources, and generates both 32 times more waste and 32 times more money than does the average citizen of poor Third World countries.” With Third World populations aspiring to First World standards of living, and the world as a whole already straining under the twin burdens of finite resources and seemingly infinite expectations, said Diamond, “these disparities will have to be resolved—either in pleasant ways of our choice, or in unpleasant ways, not of our choice.”

The encouraging news is that technological advances and enlightened social engineering hold out the promise of arriving at peaceful and constructive solutions, beneficial to the future of the planet. Diamond challenged Institute graduates, “a talented bunch, with an outstanding education, and a president whose specialty is sustainable engineering,” to get actively involved in these efforts, utilizing such avenues as research, policy making, innovative business practices, political participation, and philanthropy. In closing, he said, to loud applause, “Do something that makes a contribution as a whole and that you can look back on with pride 32 years from now.”

Grizzly Man, the sequel.

The number 32 also figured in a postscript to the day’s festivities, although in a fashion few could have foreseen. Among the dozens of Caltech faculty and trustees seated on the commencement stage this year was renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch, cuddling a somewhat dilapidated Steiff teddy bear, whose name he later disclosed to be Winnie-the-Pooh. As Koch was in the front row, he drew media attention like eye candy—both the Pasadena Star-News and the Los Angeles Times ran pictures of the Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology and his beguiling ursine companion. The Star-News also carried a comment by Koch, explaining that inasmuch as Winnie had been with him for—yes—32 years, through good times and bad, the bear’s presence on such a joyous day seemed only appropriate. Rumors that a collection has been taken up to provide Winnie with a Build-A-Bear graduation gown and mortarboard in time for next year’s commencement have yet to be confirmed.

Heidi Aspaturian