Students at Caltech’s 115th graduation ceremony clowned a bit for the cameras before listening attentively to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s engaging and witty commencement address.

As Caltech moves forward with an enhanced commitment to sustainability on many fronts, June 12 arrived with the timely reminder that few traditions sustain a university more profoundly than commencement. Although the day was cloudy and a bit chilly, with tendrils of cool mist drifting down, the crowds who gathered on Beckman Mall for the Institute’s 115th graduation ceremony brought with them the usual array of festive sights and sounds: bouquets of flowers and balloons held by proud parents; the procession of faculty, administrators, and trustees looking, in their extravagant robes and caps, like they were headed for Mardi Gras; graduates sporting flip flops, leis, or purple hair—and, in at least one case, a karate robe—the soon-to-be alumna with the mini teddy bear perched on her mortarboard; the cymbal crashes; the trumpet bursts; and the triumphal cannon shot followed by streamers descending over the rows of banked seats while newly minted graduates tossed their mortarboards into the air. 

In fact, sustainability was the watchword of the day, which featured a commencement address by Secretary of Energy and Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, and a major announcement by President Jean-Lou Chameau that the campus was about to embark on an ambitious new sustainability initiative.

Speaking a few moments before Chu began his address, Chameau announced the establishment at Caltech of the $90 million Resnick Sustainability Institute. The institute, which will focus on innovative science and engineering developments required for groundbreaking and scalable energy technologies, is named for Caltech trustee Stewart Resnick, and his wife, Lynda, who have a long history of philanthropy to Los Angeles institutions. The couple’s $20 million gift establishing the first phase of the initiative is coupled with a $10 million gift from the Gordon and Betty Moore Matching Program. The gift also includes support for a second phase of funding, which will begin next year as part of a challenge grant. The Resnicks are the owners, and Stuart Resnick the chairman, of Roll International Corporation, whose diverse interests include Paramount Citrus, Paramount Farming, and Paramount Farms, growers and processors of nuts and citrus; and POM Wonderful, the world’s largest grower of pomegranates and makers of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice. Moore, who received his Caltech PhD in 1954 and went on to become a cofounder of Intel, is chairman emeritus of the Caltech Board of Trustees, on which he continues to serve as a senior trustee.

“At Caltech, a small group of extraordinary people do extraordinary things,” Chameau said. “This small group has a history of addressing difficult and fundamental scientific questions that can have a major impact on society. I have enjoyed many conversations with Stewart and Lynda on this initiative and the potential of scientific developments to help address our environmental and economic challenges. This generous gift reflects their passion, courage, and commitment to making a difference in the world.”

Secretary of Energy Chu touched on the same themes in his address, as he focused on the potential of this year’s graduates to make significant and world-changing contributions to some of the most pressing problems facing the planet, particularly in the arenas of global climate change and new energy technologies. Chu, who won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing techniques for cooling and trapping atoms using laser light, has long been interested in alternative energy research. As director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from August 2004 until last January, he helped the center become a leader of investigations into biofuels and solar-energy technologies.

The speaker began his remarks on a light note, assuring the graduates that they would never again have to listen to Caltech’s finals-week staple, Ride of the Valkyries—unless of course that particular Wagnerian wall of sound had become a personal favorite. “Your quantitative and intellectually demanding training will allow you to venture wherever your curiosity may take you,” Chu said. “Finally, you should be proud to be graduating from an institution where nerds are welcome.“

Confessing that much of his speech was borrowed from a commencement address that he had delivered the previous week at Harvard, Chu said that Boston-area newspapers couldn’t resist reporting that he had called himself a nerd. Citing a Wikipedia entry that claimed that nerds are obsessed with Star Trek and Star Wars, Chu then launched into a spirited defense of nerdiness.

“First, I dispute that a fondness for Star Wars is at the opposite end of the intellectual spectrum,” Chu said. “Second, I claim that many of my fellow nerds are widely read, socially engaging, talented musicians, and good athletes. You might think, if a person is athletic, socially graceful, and has broad interests, then they’re not nerds. Well, perhaps. But I want to celebrate people of intelligence, focus, and technical achievement. The ability to understand details does not mean you’re incapable of forming deep insights. In your future life, it is important that you develop broad interests to help you see the forest as well as the trees. But it is also important that you cherish your skills to understand something deeply.”

Chu directed his advice to the 214 bachelor of science candidates (130 of them graduating with honor) made up of 156 men and 58 women; 117 masters of science (87 men and 30 women); two engineers (one man and one woman); and 193 doctors of philosophy (140 men and 53 women). Many of these young scientists and engineers will likely soon be on the front lines in the battle against climate change and the search for renewable energy. And at times, Chu’s speech sounded like a rallying cry for action.

The secretary of energy offered enough facts and dire predictions about global warming to sway perhaps all but the most die-hard climate change deniers. Pointing to a 50 percent decline in the size of the polar ice cap in the last half century and a steady rise in sea levels since the 1870s, he said that “if the world continues on a business as usual path, a number of studies predict that there’s a 50-50 chance that the temperature will rise somewhere between four and five degrees by the end of this century. This increase may not sound like much, but let me remind you that in the last ice age, the world was only six degrees colder. During this time, Canada and the United States down to Ohio and Pennsylvania were covered year-round in glaciers. A world five degrees warmer will be a very different place. The change will be so rapid, that many species, including humans, will have a hard time adapting.” And if that wasn’t enough, he added that the thawing of the permafrost and the resulting rotting of organic matter will release so much greenhouse gas that “a runaway effect could begin.”

Despite these ominous trends, Chu said that he refuses to accept the judgment that “it is impossible to transition to a sustainable world of nine billion people where the standard of living of everybody can be substantially elevated.”

Like his boss in the White House, Chu said that he is hopeful.

“Most scientists are optimistic by nature, and if they’re not, natural selection determines that to be so,” he said. “Without optimism, we would not have had the audacity to believe we can go beyond the discoveries of the giants that went before us. Nor would we be willing to take on challenges where others have failed.” The DOE head went on to call for a green revolution to make current agricultural practices sustainable and a “second industrial revolution” to replace fossil fuels.

“In this revolution, there will be no single magical discovery that will rescue us,” he said. “We will need a wide assortment of solutions in both the demand and supply side of energy. A price on carbon, energy-efficiency standards, and other policy mechanisms are necessary tools to align technology directions with environmental necessities. However, it is science and innovation that will provide the path forward.”

Chu outlined a number of strategies that his department is advancing, including improved fuel-efficient automobiles, innovative car batteries, dramatic improvements in energy efficiency in buildings, and support of biofuel and photovoltaic research. But he reminded his listeners that success depends largely on them and their peers among the rising new generation of scientists and engineers.

“As we begin to lay the foundation for a sustainable energy future, we can frame the challenge, but the real answers will come from you, the graduates of 2009. As our future science and engineering leaders, take the time to learn more about what’s at stake, and then act on that knowledge with your considerable intellectual horsepower.

“When you are old and gray, and look back on your life, you will want to be proud of what you have done,” he said. “The source of that pride won’t be the things you have acquired or the recognition you have received. It will be the lives you have touched and the difference you have made. I hope you will develop the passion and the voice to help the world in ways both large and small.”

Although celebration and festivities were the hallmarks of the day, this year’s commencement was also marked by a somber note. Early in the ceremony, Caltech Board Chairman Kent Kresa called for a moment of silence to honor the memories of two students who had recently died. Junior Brian Go, a computer science major, had been the president of Page House, and senior Jackson Ho-Leung Wang, a gifted musician, was to have graduated that day with honors in mechanical engineering. At the ceremony, Wang was posthumously awarded his Caltech degree, to the prolonged and heartfelt applause of his peers and other assembled guests.