2002 Honorary Degree Recipients and
Commencement Speakers
click on the names below to view bios or on “remarks” to view speeches.
Kip Thorne, Commencement Speaker (remarks)
Kevin S. Groves, Student Speaker (remarks)
Marilyn P. Sutton, Distinguished Alumni Service Award Recipient (remarks)
Kip Thorne
The Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology
World-class physicist Kip Thorne has earned international recognition for his contributions in the field
of gravitation physics, theoretical physics, and astrophysics. He received his B.S. in physics from the
California Institute of Technology in 1962 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1965. Thorne
returned to Caltech as an associate professor in 1967 and is now The Feynman Professor of
Theoretical Physics.
Thorne's research has focused on Einstein's general theory of relativity and on astrophysics, with an
emphasis on black holes and gravitational waves. Thorne initiated modern research on whether the
laws of physics permit the existence of wormholes. In 1984, he cofounded the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) Project-the largest project ever funded by the National
Science Foundation. The project is designed to allow scientists to "see" the gravitational waves
predicted by Einstein's relativity theory. LIGO will begin its search for cosmic gravitational waves this
summer.
Throughout the years, Thorne has served as mentor for many leading theorists who now work on
observational, experimental, or astrophysical aspects of general relativity. He has written and edited
books on topics in gravitational theory and high-energy astrophysics. In 1973, Thorne coauthored the
textbook Gravitation, from which most of the present generation of scientists have learned general
relativity theory. Thorne's landmark Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy,
written in 1994, has been published in six languages, and editions in Chinese, Italian, Czech, and
Polish are in press. Thorne has published more than 150 articles in scholarly journals.
Kip Thorne is also known for his ability to convey the excitement and significance of discoveries in
gravitation and astrophysics to both professional and lay audiences. His work has appeared in
magazines and encyclopedias such as Scientific American, McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and
Technology, and Collier's Encyclopedia among many others, and his presentations on subjects such
as black holes, gravitational radiation, relativity, time travel, and worm holes have been included in
PBS shows in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom on the BBC.
Thorne has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of
Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He has been
recognized by numerous awards including the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award in
Physics and Astronomy, the Phi Beta Kappa Science Writing Award, and the American Physical
Society's Lilienfeld Prize. He has been a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Danforth Fellow, Guggenheim
Fellow, and Fulbright Fellow.
Remarks by Kip Thorne
Science and Society in the Twenty First Century∗ Commencement Address by Kip S. Thorne at
Claremont Graduate University
May 18, 2002
Chairman Glenn, President Upham, Trustees and Faculty, Families, Guests — I join with you all in
congratulating the graduates on this happy occasion. And it is to the graduates that I will address my
remarks.
Few of you have chosen careers in science, but you will all deal with the products of science in the
twenty first century. You will encounter great opportunities from science, and dangers and moral
dilemas as well. And you will face these not just as individuals, but as leaders of American Society —
in leadership roles for which you have been trained in your years here at Claremont Graduate
University. This morning I shall speculate about some of these opportunities, dangers and dilemas.
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My generation leaves you a mixed legacy from the science of the twentieth century. We leave you the
technology underlying modern civilization — automobiles, airplanes, television, the internet. And we
leave you weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, biological and chemical weapons that you must
control in a world of mounting terrorism.
Perhaps our greatest legacy to you is the technology for world-wide communication: the internet,
satellite television, cell phones, and nearly unbreakable cryptography in the hands of the people.
Cryptography lets to buy things safely on the internet with credit cards, and lets you move money
from one bank account to another — and it protects your privacy. If you want to communicate with
friends, without any danger of eavesdropping, you can do it; and if terrorists want secure
communication, they can have it as well. Our Federal Government tried hard to deny us unbreakable
cryptography; but, for better or for worse, a few clever mathematicians outwitted the Government.
Late in my century they invented a technique called “Public Key Cryptography” and disseminated it
world-wide so quickly and so broadly that our Government’s efforts to stop it were ludicrous and
fruitless.
Our communication technology is now so powerful that our radio telescopes can pick up ordinary
television transmissions from planets around distant stars, if there are such transmissions — alien
analogs of Jerry Springer, perhaps, or an alien tutorial on the design of spacecraft.
Most stars, in fact, have planets. Some of them must be as habitable as earth, and life has likely
arisen on many. Some of that life may have created civilizations far more advanced than ours, and I
do think it likely we will receive signals from them in your lifetime. You can contribute to the search for
such signals yourself, by making your per- sonal computer available to analyze data from radio
telescopes. Just go to the web site http://setiathome.sslo.berkeley.edu/
The search for extraterrestrial signals seems like science-fiction fun. But stop and think for a minute.
If the search succeeds — and I think it will — how will you and your friends and humans around the
world deal with that success? If we learn with certainty that we are terribly primitive compared to other
civilizations, how will that affect us? If the signals bring knowledge far beyond human capabilities,
how will we deal with that?
And what of interstellar travel? Can extraterrestrial beings come here and can we go there? The
distances are so great that to reach there in a human lifetime, one must travel at nearly the speed of
light, and the laws of physics make such travel exceedingly difficult. I strongly doubt that humans can
do it in your century or the next, or that extraterrestrial beings have ever traveled to earth.
In films such as “Contact” and “Star Treck,” wormholes are used for interstellar travel. You enter a
wormhole here, and find yourself suddenly on the other side of the Galaxy. We don’t know, today,
whether the laws of physics permit wormholes—but we may find out soon:
We physicists are struggling to discover the laws of quantum gravity — laws that will unify Einstein’s
warped space and time with the quantum world of atoms and molecules. That quest will likely
succeed, and the resulting unified laws will tell you whether worm- holes are possible. If they are
possible, then the technology to build them will almost certainly be far too difficult for the 21st century,
but at least you will know for sure what the laws of nature permit and what they forbid, and whether
civilizations far more advanced than ours could use wormholes to come here.
The laws of quantum gravity will also tell you whether backward time travel is possible. Can we go
back in time and try to change history? Probably not. With colleagues I have discovered an explosive
mechanism that might always destroy a time machine at the moment anyone tries to activate it, but I
don’t know the explosions’ strengths and whether time machines can survive them. The new laws of
quantum gravity should reveal the answer. If time machines survive, then a very advanced civilization
might create them, but our technology is surely too puny.
Science in your century may teach us the secrets of creation. The quantum gravity laws should
reveal, in detail, how our universe was created, and whether there are other universes besides our
own. And biology will likely show us how to create life. How will American Society, with its deep
religious underpinnings, deal with firm scientific knowledge of creation? Will we handle that
knowledge more wisely than the Catholic Church handled Galileo’s discoveries in the 17’th Century?
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My century was filled with prejudice and discrimination, bred from fear of people who are different —
African Americans, Jews, Moslems, Asians, Latinos, women, homosexuals. We struggled to end
discrimination, and I’m proud of our progress.
But the struggle may become much more complicated in your century than in mine, because of new
types of individuals (androids and human clones), and because of new insights about animals.
Many of us fear the prospect of human clones. The new Star Wars film plays on those fears, and a
Federal law against human cloning will surely be passed soon. But just as laws in my century could
not stop abortion, so laws in yours cannot stop cloning. Cloned animals today have serious genetic
abnormalities, but that will likely be solved within ten years; and with evidence that cloning can be
safe, the pressure to clone may become irresistable. If your daughter were killed in an automobile
accident and you could recreate her by cloning, would you do so? Would any of your neighbors do
so? How will Society treat illegally cloned children? Will they suffer discrimination, or will they be
loved and respected like any child should.
Biologists are trying to understand human consciousness, and find out whether an- imals, like
humans, are self aware and have a sense of their own mortality. Suppose, as seems likely, we get
firm proof that animals are self aware. How, then, will we deal with animal rights? with the eating of
meat? with research on animals for medical purposes? Will we halt research that is essential to the
cure of human disease, so as to protect the lives of self-aware animals?
Research on consciousness may show us how to endow a computer with self awareness, with a
sense of its own mortality. How will we, as a human society, treat brilliant, self- aware computers, or
self-aware androids? Will we accord them rights similar to our own, or will we discriminate against
them, treating them as subhuman slaves?
To deal wisely with such questions, the citizens in your century will need superb educations and a
strong moral compass.
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In my century, by careful breeding we produced new varieties of plants and animals, and thereby
increased the world’s food production and reduced human hunger. In your century, breeding is being
replaced by the direct manipulation of genes—genetic engineer- ing. The result will be a huge further
increase in the world’s food supply, and perhaps an end to world hunger, if genetic engineering is
allowed to move forward.
Today much of America’s food has already been influenced by genetic engineering. Food production
is increasing, with no sign of harm. But Europeans are in a panic and the panic is spreading to
America.
This is another legacy from my century to yours. We give you the tools for manipu- lating genes, with
which you can improve the world mightily. But we have not given you an ironclad guarantee that the
improvements are safe.
Scientists also manipulate genes in humans. For example, they have replaced flawed genes in
children who have nearly fatal immuno-deficiency diseases, and this genetic repair will likely allow the
children to lead normal lives. This is just the beginning. Gene therapy on humans holds promise of
wiping out all genetically based diseases early in your century. But it also poses dangers.
By manipulating genes, somebody might try to reengineer the human species, to make some sort of
super race—a frightening prospect. Fortunately, such wholesale reengineering would require
manipulating the genes of a large pool of people, and then controlling their mating choices for several
generations. Such control is unthinkable in America today. It is prevented by democracy and our
respect for human rights. If we can spread democracy and human rights throughout the world before
wholesale reengineering becomes possible, then your century may be protected.
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Another legacy from my century to yours is a map of the human genome. That map is almost
complete, and will trigger enormous improvements in human health. But it will have other,
complicated consequences: It will help doctors predict each person’s susceptibility to a wide range of
diseases, which could make us all uninsurable due to preexisting conditions! And it will help predict
each person’s behavioral patterns — whether he or she has a genetically inbred talent for music or
mathematics, or a genetically wired tendancy for depression or agression or even murder. How will
we deal with such knowledge? Imagine the legal issues, the privacy issues, the implications for our
individual rights and freedom.
In 1900, life expectancy in America was 47. This year, it is close to 80, thanks to enormous strides in
nutrition and biomedicine. In your century, all disease may well be conquered, raising life expectancy
beyond 100.
With disease gone, then death will be solely due to the aging of our bodies. But the aging seems to
be programmed into our DNA, and what is programmed may be reprogrammable. Such
reprogramming could stop the aging process in your century. The result would be eternal life here on
earth.
As fabulous as eternal life might seem, imagine the problems it could bring, with an earth and solar
system of limited size, and interstellar travel exorbitantly difficult.
My century was simple compared to the possibilities and prospects for yours. May you, your children,
and your grandchildren meet the challenges with educated wisdom and humanity. If you do so, then
science may transform your world in wondrous ways.
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Congratulations on your graduation today! and warm wishes for your future in this, your 21st century!
∗The biomedical portions of this address were much influenced by conversations I have had with Caltech
biologists David Anderson and David Baltimore. I thank them.
Remarks by Kevin Groves
Fellow students and guests, faculty, administrators,and board members:
On behalf of the graduating Class of 2002, I would like to sincerely thank our friends and families who
have supported us throughout our graduate education and have traveled great lengths to join
today’celebration. Your unwavering support and encouragement has been instrumental to our
successes at Claremont Graduate University.
I would also like to thank those faculty members and administrators whose great commitment to
student learning has provided us the knowledge and analytical skills that will prove essential in an
ever-changing job market. CGU’s emphasis on student-faculty interaction has been central to our
education, and I want to acknowledge those faculty members who provided us invaluable mentoring
throughout our tenure at this institution. Your service is greatly appreciated.
CGU has prepared us as scholars and professionals, however, we face incredible challenges as we
begin service in our selected fields. Whether we have been trained as managers, economists,
psychologists, or educators, we are confronted with new political, economic, and environmental
challenges that shape our post-September 11thworld. The mission of this institution is to prepare a
diverse group of outstanding individuals to assume leadership roles in the worldwide community
through research, teaching, and practice in selected fields. This morning I would like to say a few
words about the leadership challenges we must face as we begin our professional careers.
First and foremost, in the wake of the most significant corporate scandal in recent history, an
increased emphasis on social responsibility will challenge us as professionals in our respective fields.
Economist Milton Friedman advocated the classical view on social responsibility by asserting that
decision-makers’ primary responsibility within an organization is to maximize financial return and
enhance shareholder wealth. However, today’s organizations cannot be merely economic institutions,
as they are necessarily involved in social, political, and environmental issues. Consequently, as we
enter organizations in the coming months, we must challenge ourselves to accept social obligations
and the costs that go with a true commitment to our society’s welfare. At the expense of short-term
financial gains, we must protect employees and other stakeholders from unethical business practices,
involve our organizations in addressing community-based problems, contribute to charitable causes,
preserve the environment with strict pollution standards, and engage in other ethical and socially
responsible actions as leaders.
As we begin our professional careers, we are also challenged to be effective leaders during a period
of changing values and expectations. The authoritarian, command and- control approach to
leadership is antiquated, and has been replaced with an emphasis on collaboration, interdependence,
and stewardship. Stewardship is a form of leadership that involves giving people at the bottom and
boundaries of an organization the power to decide how to serve a customer, a citizen, or a
community. The real challenge lies in our willingness to be accountable for the well-being of our
organization by operating in service, rather than in control, of those around us. Acting as steward in
service not only involves a balance of decision- making power but also in making a primary
commitment to the larger community. This accountability to the larger community involves new
priorities that extend well beyond profit management, including environmental protection, employee
and consumer protection, and community development. I challenge my fellow graduates to consider
these issues as they assume leadership positions that entitle them with the power to make decisions
for society’s well-being.
Finally, the question of how we will approach diversity as business, academic, and community leaders
must be addressed. A true commitment to diversity involves not only human diversity, but also
intellectual diversity by emphasizing inclusiveness and the willingness to embrace perspectives and
opinions that are different from our own. The omnipotent view of leadership has been replaced with
an emphasis on valuing divergent perspectives and embracing people with different academic and
professional backgrounds and values. My fellow graduates: we must embrace both human and
intellectual diversity as we assume leadership roles in the worldwide community through research,
teaching, and practice in our respective fields.
In closing, I would like to congratulate all of the graduates and wish them luck as we embark on this
challenging and exciting journey of leadership. Thank you.
Remarks by Marilyn P. Sutton
Honored Graduates,
We are members of an accomplished community—now approaching 17,000 alumni who include
among their number countless leaders of business and education, two current members of Congress,
30 college presidents, three MacArthur Fellows and members of the cabinets or parliaments in 35
countries. I bring you the alumni greeting, traditionally known as the “charge.” Charge can carry many
meanings—a load, a burden, or weight. Or, a pecuniary burden (graduate students know ‘pecuniary
burden’ well).
A charge might be played out in another mode, say on a trumpet, signaling imminent attack.
Charge also carries the meaning of significance, and today this ritual bespeaks the heightened
significance of transition, your transition from focused inquiry to application. It is a transition, however,
that I will urge you to resist. Charge can also mean the accusation on which a person
is brought to trial. You are charged with "being learned" and learning is itself a sacred trust, a
commission and a responsibility.
I choose as my point of departure, however, the notion of charge as in all charged up or as Benjamin
Franklin put it, electrical fire. When I think of what gets me all charged up, where I
find my electrical fire, it is in being an inquirer who seeks to make a difference. And that leads me to
my charge to you. Allow me to draw from the medieval world that so mirrors ours. I charge you to
continue to SEEK, to resist this transition, to stay the course of inquiry. Poised as you are at this
moment of accomplishment in your professional fields, you have completed a journey and you are
about to begin again. You are much like the archetypal seekers of the medieval Romance tradition,
the great heroes who set out on perilous journeys in unknown climes, all the while plumbing the
psyche in search of deepest truth. You are gifted with ability and privileged with graduate training
(joining a scant fewer than 8% in this country and a far smaller global elite).
Take your skills of focused inquiry forward, asking the unasked question, challenging the received
answer, and pushing against the apparent limits of inquiry. I charge you to IMPACT. I charge you to
make a difference.
You have power. With graduate certification, your power increases. The Romance heroes always
returned, harrowed, with earned scars, with wisdom too rich to convey but with knowledge to impart—
they impacted the community (whether routing a predatory beast, or healing a blight).
The Romance heroes had set out with plans. But even then, the gods had a sense of humor. You will
make a difference in ways you plan, but also in ways that would now surprise you. Be open to the
moment. We will be called upon by our multiple communities to strengthen their bonds and
to re-imagine their parameters as together we move through decades of unprecedented change.
I charge you to WONDER. I charge you to reach deep within to MARVEL. The medieval world is filled
with marvels—resplendent giant-like warriors, winged beasts, and fiery comets bespeaking the Divine
will—marvels which led the viewer at best to suspend known intellectual strategies, accessing the
phenomena in their own terms and, in the process, discovering new ways of knowing and new ways
of being.
There is much to perplex in our time as Kip Thorne so eloquently put it earlier this noon. I marvel that
orderly patterns emerge from chaos and find mathematical description. I marvel that ancient texts
hold timely wisdom. I marvel that children learning language speak poetry.
And I have to believe a sense of wonder and mystery drew our distinguished speaker to his stunning
descriptions of the physical world, or Peter Drucker to his sense-making patterns of global economy.
And, as all of you engaged in education know (and we are all engaged in education), wonder and
marvel is the apt response when a learner actually “gets it” for the first time.
All great discoveries begin in a fresh respect for the puzzle, begin in a sense of wonder. Treasure that
sense. Leave space to marvel.
Alas, I have been granted only three wishes for you. The load or weight I would like to leave you with
has no pecuniary burden. It does urge you to imminent attack, attack on the dilemmas of our time. It
is a call of heightened significance, charging you with knowledge and wisdom
(for you are people of power), charging you to resist this transition, charging you in all that you do, to
SEEK, to IMPACT, and to MARVEL.