每年的哈佛毕业典礼都在5月份举行。而每一年担任哈佛大学毕业典礼的嘉宾，也像时代周刊的年度封面人物非常受社会的关注。记得我在2007年356届毕业典礼上毕业时，上午的演讲嘉宾是比尔·克林顿，下午的演讲嘉宾是比尔·盖茨(上午的演讲嘉宾只给本科生讲，下午的演讲嘉宾被称为为“Principal Speaker，校长特约嘉宾”)。在演讲的时候，盖茨先生还非常幽默的自嘲，“大家知道为什么我被邀请参加哈佛的毕业典礼而不是开学典礼吗?因为如果我在开学典礼上发言的话，估计第二天就没人了(辍学创业去了)”

　　对于这两位演讲嘉宾，哈佛非常挑剔。将社会声望和社会影响力放在第一位。比如克林顿被邀请，是因为他做艾滋病的防治孜孜不倦地奔走;盖茨被邀请，是因为他和夫人一起经营着全世界最大私人的慈善基金。

　　而在哈佛校园内，学生们也早早开始申请毕业典礼时拉丁语、英语的演讲者。这个竞争非常激烈，被选上之后，学校会专门对这个学生的演讲稿、仪态、服装等进行系统培训和提升。我当时还竞争过这个殊荣。但是华裔的语言劣势让我吃亏不少，最后落选。

　　刚刚收到哈佛《Harvard Monthly》的邮件，今年下午的演讲嘉宾是华裔的美国诺贝尔奖获得者、奥巴马征服的能源部长朱棣文(Steven Chu)先生。哈佛在解释邀请理由的时候说，“之所以邀请朱先生，是因为哈佛正在加深环境和能源保护的项目与研究，同时致力于校园节能等可持续发展”。

　　把这篇文章转载这里，让国内的朋友第一时间知道这条消息。

　　Energy Secretary and Nobelist Steven Chu to speak at Commencement

　　Nobel laureate in physics will be the principal speaker at Afternoon Exercises

　　U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Nobel laureate in physics and a leader in the pursuit of alternative and renewable sources of energy, will be Harvard’s principal speaker at the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard’s 358th Commencement on June 4.

　　An eminent scientist whose work at the crossroads of physics and biology has now brought him to prominence on the national and international policy stage, Chu was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in January to serve as the nation’s 12th secretary of energy.

　　“Steven Chu is a brilliant scientist and an eloquent exponent of thoughtful, creative approaches to meeting the challenge of global climate change,” said Harvard President Drew Faust. “His own career combines leadership at the forefront of both disciplinary and interdisciplinary science with a passionate devotion to education and to the public good. It will be a pleasure to welcome and hear from him on Commencement day.”

　　A past professor at Stanford and then the University of California, Berkeley, Chu was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997 for his role in developing methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. From 2004 to 2008 he led the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the nation’s pre-eminent scientific institutions, directing its intensified focus on energy and the environment.

　　“How to use science and public policy to confront the environmental consequences of energy use is a matter of enormous interest and importance to Harvard as a university, and to our alumni as citizens concerned about the future of the planet,” said Walter H. Morris Jr., president of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA). “Steven Chu stands front and center in the nation’s effort to rise to that challenge, and I’m very pleased he has agreed to join us for Commencement.”

　　As is traditional at Harvard, Chu will speak during Commencement day’s Afternoon Exercises, which serve as the annual meeting for the Harvard Alumni Association and during which the HAA welcomes newly graduated students to its ranks. The exercises will take place in the Tercentenary Theatre of Harvard Yard, between the Memorial Church and Widener Library.

　　Early in his tenure as energy secretary, Chu has identified among his major goals the intention to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, to use energy in the most efficient ways possible, and to lower carbon emissions.

　　As director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Chu guided its growing focus on the search for alternative and renewable sources of energy, aiming to extend the lab’s leadership efforts in climate science, the search for new fuels, and the development of energy-efficient technologies. He emerged as a champion of bringing together investigators from the life sciences, the physical sciences, and engineering to work on biofuels, solar energy, new battery technologies, and other innovations.

　　A native of St. Louis, Chu attended the University of Rochester, graduating in 1970, and received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1976. He spent his early scientific career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he did the principal work later recognized with a Nobel Prize.

　　He served from 1987 to 2004 as a professor of physics and applied physics at Stanford, where he twice chaired the Physics Department and helped launch the interdisciplinary initiative Bio-X. He joined the University of California faculty in 2004, when he became director of the Berkeley Lab, serving concurrently as professor of physics and of molecular and cell biology.

　　His own research has ranged across important areas of atomic physics, biophysics, and polymer physics. In recent years, he has increasingly turned his attention to how insights and discoveries in physics and biology can be applied to problems of energy and the environment.

　　Chu’s numerous honors, in addition to the Nobel Prize, include the American Physical Society’s Arthur Schawlow Prize for Laser Science, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Senior Scientist Award, and membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academia Sinica, and the Korean Academy of Sciences and Technology.

　　The invitation to Chu comes at a time when Harvard has stepped up its efforts to address issues relating to energy and the environment, both in its programs of research and education and in promoting sustainable practices on campus.

　　For more about Harvard’s sustainability efforts,

　　来源：