Grads hear Nobel laureate speak

Graduate students in the School of Arts and Sciences traditionally hear a member of the SAS faculty speak at their graduation ceremony, and this year, choosing the speaker was not difficult. Dean Samuel Preston said that SAS has known who their speaker would be since last fall when Chemistry Professor Alan MacDiarmid, along with two other chemists, was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. MacDiarmid, 73, shared anecdotes and advice with the graduates. Success, MacDiarmid said, was explained best to him by his mother. "Success is not obtaining an A grade," he said, quoting his mom. "[Success] is knowing you've used all of your capabilities to the utmost." For MacDiarmid, it's all about working harder than what is expected, and he has tried to stress this principle to both his own children and, on Monday afternoon, to the SAS graduates as well. MacDiarmid connected personally with the graduating students by relating the experiences he gained working with the graduate students in his laboratory. One student in his Chemistry research group was diagnosed with a terminal illness and died before completing his degree, for which he was awarded his degree posthumously. But MacDiarmid held the late student up as a model for others. "He said to me, I have so much work to do, and so little time to do it in'," MacDiarmid said of the student, noting he did not waste the time he had before his death. Much of MacDiarmid's speech referred to people who had been influential to him, and he reminded the graduates that their achievements will be influenced by others as well. "We're all students, we're all continuing to learn, we all stand on the shoulders of giants," he said. And in looking back at the past, we must also not forget about the people who will come after us. "The debts we owe are to those who will come along after us," MacDiarmid said. As to the future, MacDiarmid asked students to keep an open mind. "Our minds are the greatest limiting factor in our lives," he said. "If we think properly, though, minds can be a wonderfully liberating part of our daily lives." For MacDiarmid, the term "commencement" is much more appropriate than that of "graduation". "I myself prefer the term commencement," he said. "Commencement is not when you finish your education. Commencement is when you begin your education."