Each year, Virginia Tech holds commencement ceremonies at the end of the academic year in May, as well as at the end of the Fall semester in December. Since 1990, a separate Graduate School Commencement Ceremony has been held to confer degrees to master's and doctoral students. Fall commencement is held in Cassell Coliseum, and Spring Commencement is held in Lane Stadium.
Academic Year | Semester | Speaker(s) | Degrees Conferred |
---|---|---|---|
1958 - 59 | Spring | John N. Thomas, professor of systematic theology, Union Theological Seminary | All |
1959 - 60 | Spring | Albertis Harrison , 28th Attorney General of Virginia | All |
1960 - 61 | Spring | John M. Devine , commandant of cadets, Virginia Tech | All |
1961 - 62 | Spring | Colgate W. Darden , former governor, Commonwealth of Virginia | All |
1962 - 63 | Spring | Mills Godwin , 28th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia | All |
1963 - 64 | Spring | J. G. Farrar, president, Rockefeller Foundation | All |
1964 - 65 | Spring | Albertis Harrison , 59th Governor of Virginia | All |
1965 - 66 | Spring | Dr. T. Marshall Hahn, president, Virginia Tech | All |
1966 - 67 | Spring | Mills Godwin , 60th Governor of Virginia | All |
1967 - 68 | Spring | Dr. T. Marshall Hahn, president, Virginia Tech | All |
1968 - 69 | Spring | Warren W. Brandt , president of Virginia Commonwealth University and former executive vice president, Virginia Tech | All |
1969 - 70 | Spring | Dr. T. Marshall Hahn, president, Virginia Tech | All |
1970 - 71 | Spring | Linwood Holton , 61st Governor of Virginia | All |
1971 - 72 | Spring | David Brinkley , NBC News correspondent | All |
1972 - 73 | Spring | Bill Moyers , former White House Press Secretary to President Lyndon B. Johnson | All |
1973 - 74 | Spring | G. Burke Johnston, C. P. Miles Professor of English, Virginia Tech | All |
1974 - 75 | Spring | Sam J. Ervin , former U.S. Senator from North Carolina | All |
1975 - 76 | Spring | E. F. Shannon , former president, University of Virginia | All |
1976 - 77 | Spring | Milton Friedman , recipient of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences | All |
1977 - 78 | Spring | John N. Dalton , 63rd Governor of Virginia | All |
1978 - 79 | Spring | Eric Sevareid , correspondent, CBS News | All |
1979 - 80 | Spring | Dr. Jean L. Harris , 2nd Virginia Secretary of Human Resources | All |
1980 - 81 | Spring | Dr. William Edward Lavery , president, Virginia Tech | All |
1981 - 82 | Spring | Christopher C. Kraft Jr. '44, director, NASA Johnson Space Center | All |
1982 - 83 | Spring | Clifton C. Garvin Jr. '43, chairman of the board, Exxon | All |
1983 - 84 | Spring | Chuck Robb , 64th Governor of Virginia | All |
1984 - 85 | Spring | Alexander F. Giacco, rector, Virginia Tech Board of Visitors and chairman of the board, Hercules Inc. | All |
1985 - 86 | Spring | Neil Armstrong , astronaut, first person to step on the Moon | All |
1986 - 87 | Spring | Gerald Baliles , 65th Governor of Virginia | All |
1987 - 88 | Spring | David Roselle , president, University of Kentucky | All |
1988 - 89 | Spring | Mary Sue Terry , 38th Attorney General of Virginia | All |
1989 - 90 | Spring | Douglas Wilder , 66th Governor of Virginia | Undergraduate |
1990 - 91 | Fall | Mark O. Hatfield , U.S. Senator from Oregon | Undergraduate |
Spring | Sheikh Saud Nasir Al-Sabah , Kuwaiti ambassador to the US | Undergraduate | |
1991 - 92 | Fall | W. Ann Reynolds , chancellor, City University of New York | Undergraduate |
Spring | Jack Nelson , Washington Bureau chief, Los Angeles Times | Undergraduate | |
1992 - 93 | Fall | Samuel D. Proctor, professor emeritus, Rutgers University and pastor emeritus, Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York | Undergraduate |
Spring | Dr. John Ashworth , director, London School of Economics and Political Science | Undergraduate | |
1993 - 94 | Fall | John Kelly, registrar (provost), University College Dublin (Ireland) | Undergraduate |
Spring | George Allen , 67th Governor of Virginia | Undergraduate | |
1994 - 95 | Fall | Paul Antonie "Tony" Distler, Alumni Distinguished Professor and director of the Division of Performing Arts, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Beverly H. Sgro , 8th Virginia Secretary of Education and former dean of students, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate | |
1995 - 96 | Fall | Dr. James I. Robertson Jr. , Alumni Distinguished Professor of history, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | John Wilson, retired president, Washington and Lee University | Undergraduate | |
1996 - 97 | Fall | Lucinda Roy , Gloria D. Smith Professor of Black Studies, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Raymond J. Lane , president and chief operating officer, Oracle Corporation | Undergraduate | |
1997 - 98 | Fall | Charles "Jack" Dudley, director, University Honors Program, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Jim Gilmore , 68th Governor of Virginia | Undergraduate | |
1998 - 99 | Fall | James R. Craig, professor of geological sciences, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Dr. Eric Schmidt , chairman and chief executive officer, Novell Inc. | Undergraduate | |
1999 - 2000 | Fall | Dr. Paul Torgersen , president and John W. Hancock Jr. Chair of Engineering, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | John Warner , U.S. Senator from Virginia | Undergraduate | |
2000 - 01 | Fall | Arthur L. Buikema Jr., Alumni Distinguished Professor, Department of Biology, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Rick Boucher , U.S. Representative, Virginia's 9th congressional district | Undergraduate | |
2001 - 02 | Fall | Dr. Charles J. Dudley, professor of sociology and director of the University Honors Program, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Mark Warner , 69th Governor of Virginia | Undergraduate | |
2002 - 03 | Fall | Dr. L.A. "Andy" Swiger, dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Leroy R. Hassell Sr. , chief justice, Supreme Court of Virginia | Undergraduate | |
2003 - 04 | Fall | Dr. Ezra A. "Bud" Brown, professor of mathematics, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Pierre Thomas '84, justice correspondent, ABC News | Undergraduate | |
2004 - 05 | Fall | Dr. Diane Zahm, associate professor of urban affairs and planning in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Dave Calhoun '79, president and chief executive officer, GE Transportation | Undergraduate | |
2005 - 06 | Fall | Minnis E. Ridenour, former executive vice president and chief operating officer at Virginia Tech and Senior Fellow and director of the Office of Government and Non-Profit Organization Management, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Tim Kaine , 70th Governor of Virginia | Undergraduate | |
2006 - 07 | Fall | Henry J. Dekker '47, former president of North American operations, Louis Féraud, past member of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors | Undergraduate |
Spring | Gen. John Abizaid , U.S. Army (ret.), former Commander of the United States Central Command | Undergraduate | |
2007 - 08 | Fall | E. Scott Geller , Alumni Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Applied Behavior Systems in the Department of Psychology in the College of Science | Undergraduate |
Spring | Hoda Kotb '86, Dateline NBC correspondent, co-anchor of NBC's Today show | ||
2008 - 09 | Fall | Dr. Gary Downey, Alumni Distinguished Professor of science and technology studies | Undergraduate |
Spring | Gen. Lance L. Smith '69, U.S. Air Force (ret.), former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation [1] | Undergraduate | |
2009 - 10 | Fall | Dr. Rosemary Blieszner, Alumni Distinguished Professor of human development/associate dean, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Bob McDonnell , 71st Governor of Virginia [2] | Undergraduate | |
2010 - 11 | Fall | Dr. Jacqueline Bixler, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Spanish, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Kenneth Feinberg , administrator of the 9/11 Victims Fund [3] | Undergraduate | |
2011 - 12 | Fall | Dr. Edward F. D. Spencer, former vice president for student affairs, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate |
Spring | Michelle Obama , First Lady of the United States, and Mark Warner , U.S. Senator from Virginia | Undergraduate | |
2012 - 13 | Fall | Dr. Annie Hesp, professor of Spanish, Virginia Tech [4] | Undergraduate |
Spring | Dr. Charles Steger '69, president, Virginia Tech | Undergraduate | |
2013 - 14 | Fall | Dr. Gerhardt Schurig, professor of biomedical sciences/dean, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine [5] | Undergraduate |
Spring | Terry McAuliffe , 72nd Governor of Virginia | Undergraduate | |
2014 - 15 | Fall | Dr. Thomas M. Gardner, Alumni Distinguished Professor of English, Virginia Tech [6] | Undergraduate |
Spring | Dr. Eric Schmidt , executive chairman, Google | Undergraduate | |
2015 - 16 | Fall | Tom Tillar '69, vice president for alumni relations, Virginia Tech [7] | Undergraduate |
Spring | Dr. Marc Edwards and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha , lead researchers in the Flint, Michigan water crisis | Undergraduate | |
2016 - 17 | Fall | Ben Davenport Jr. '64, chairman of Davenport Energy, former member/rector of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors [8] | Undergraduate |
Spring | Sheryl Sandberg , chief operating officer, Facebook [9] | Undergraduate | |
2017 - 18 | Fall | Dr. Art Keown, Alumni Distinguished Professor and the R. B. Pamplin Professor of Finance, Virginia Tech [10] | Undergraduate |
Spring | Ralph Northam , 73rd Governor of Virginia [11] | Undergraduate | |
2018 - 19 | Fall | Josiah Showalter Jr. '84, chief judge, Virginia's 27th judicial circuit [12] | Undergraduate |
Fall | Dr. William Hopkins, professor of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech | Graduate | |
Spring | Frank Beamer '69, former head coach, Virginia Tech Hokies football [13] | Undergraduate | |
Spring | Melody Barnes , co-director, U.Va. Democracy Initiative and former director, U.S. Domestic Policy Council | Graduate | |
2019 - 20 | Fall | Dr. John Seiler '84, the Hon. and Mrs. Shelton H. Short Jr. Professor of Forestry, Virginia Tech [14] | Undergraduate |
Fall | Patricia Raun, director of the Center for Communicating Science and professor of Theatre Arts, Virginia Tech | Graduate | |
Spring | Camille Schrier '18, Miss America 2020, Bud Foster , former defensive coordinator, Virginia Tech Hokies football, and Nikki Giovanni , University Distinguished Professor of English, Virginia Tech | All | |
2020 - 21 | Fall | Dr. Linsey Marr , Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech [15] | All |
Spring | Dr. Francis Collins , Director of the National Institutes of Health [16] | All | |
2021 - 22 | Fall | Dan Maguire '94, entrepreneur [17] | Undergraduate |
Spring | Glenn Youngkin , 74th Governor of Virginia [18] | All | |
2023-2024 | Fall | ||
Spring | Mehul Sanghani, Chief Executive Officer of Octo Consulting | All |
The main campus of Virginia Tech is located in Blacksburg, Virginia; the central campus is roughly bordered by Prices Fork Road to the northwest, Plantation Road to the west, Main Street to the east, and U.S. Route 460 bypass to the south, although it also has several thousand acres beyond the central campus. The Virginia Tech campus consists of 130 buildings on approximately 2,600 acres (11 km2). It was the site of the Draper's Meadow massacre in 1755 during the French and Indian War.
Alberto Bustani Adem is a Mexican academic and entrepreneur of Lebanese descent (Boustani). His grandparents emigrated from Lebanon at the beginning of the 20th century, in the second period of Lebanese immigration to Mexico, and dedicated to commerce in hardware and the workwear clothing industry. On his mother's side, a family of notable scholars, mathematicians José Adem, es:Julián Adem, Alejandro Adem, Luis Casian Adem, physicist Esbaide Adem and cardiologist Abdo Bisteni Adem.
Marc Edwards is a civil engineering/environmental engineer and the Charles Edward Via Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. An expert on water treatment and corrosion, Edwards's research on elevated lead levels in Washington, DC's municipal water supply gained national attention, changed the city's recommendations on water use in homes with lead service pipes, and caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to admit to publishing a report so rife with errors that a congressional investigation called it "scientifically indefensible." He is considered one of the world's leading experts in water corrosion in home plumbing, and a nationally recognized expert on copper corrosion. He is also one of the whistleblowers in the Flint water crisis, along with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.
The College of Architecture, Arts, and Design formerly the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech consists of four schools, including the School of Architecture, which consistently ranks among the best in the country. Headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, the college also has sites in Alexandria, Virginia, and Riva San Vitale, Switzerland. Spread out among these three locations, the college consists of nearly 2,200 students, making it one of the largest schools of architecture in the nation.
Tim Leaton is an assistant editor, editor, and filmmaker of several short films.
The College of Science at Virginia Tech contains academic programs in eight departments: biology, chemistry, economics, geosciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, and statistics, as well as programs in the School of Neuroscience, the Academy of Integrated Science, and founded in 2020, an Academy of Data Science. For the 2018-209 academic year, the College of Science consisted of 419 faculty members, and 4,305 students, and 600 graduate students. The college was established in July 2003 after university restructuring split the College of Arts and Sciences, established in 1963, into two distinct colleges, the other half becoming the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Lay Nam Chang served as founding dean of the College of Science from 2003 until 2016. In 2016, Sally C. Morton was named dean of the College of Science. Morton served in that role until January 2021, when she departed for Arizona State University and Ronald D. Fricker—senior associate dean and professor in the Department of Statistics—was named interim dean of the College. In February 2022, Kevin T. Pitts was named the third official dean of the College of Science.
Robert A. Bradway is an American businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of Amgen.
Richard E. Sorensen was the former dean of both the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech and Appalachian State University’s business school. He had been a dean for over 40 years. He was a professor emeritus at Virginia Tech.
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine is a public medical school of Virginia Tech and located in Roanoke, Virginia. The medical school is associated with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute. Formed as a public–private partnership with the Carilion Clinic, the medical school grants the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree to its graduates. Initially a private institution from 2008 to 2018, the medical school became an official college of Virginia Tech in 2018.
The R.B. Pamplin College of Business, is Virginia Tech's business school. Founded in 1965, it has more than 41,000 alumni. The current Dean is Saonee Sarker. In 1986 the college was renamed following a donation from alumnus Robert B. Pamplin and his son Robert B. Pamplin Jr.
The Virginia Cyber Range is an educational and research institute funded by a $4-million grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia to promote education in cybersecurity across the state. Currently, the Cyber Range is based out of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center.
William Addison Caldwell (1856-1910) became the first student to enroll in the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (V.A.M.C.) in the school's inaugural year in 1872. V.A.M.C. was later named Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University. Caldwell hiked as much as 28 miles through today's Jefferson National Forest in the Allegheny Mountains from Sinking Creek, Craig County to Blacksburg, Va. to enroll as the school's first student on October 1, 1872.
Linsey Chen Marr is an American scientist who is the Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. Her research considers the interaction of nanomaterials and viruses with the atmosphere. During the COVID-19 pandemic Marr studied how SARS-CoV-2 and other airborne pathogens could be transported in air. In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and named a MacArthur Fellow.
Whit Babcock is the current athletics director at Virginia Tech, a position he has held since 2014. Previously, he was the athletics director at the University of Cincinnati from 2011 to 2014. He previously served in the athletics departments of the University of Missouri, West Virginia University, Auburn University, and James Madison University.
Robert "Bob" J. Bodnar is an American geoscientist. He is a University Distinguished Professor and C. C. Garvin Professor of Geochemistry at Virginia Tech.
Nancy L. Ross is an American geoscientist. She is a professor of mineralogy at Virginia Tech and former head of Department of Geosciences in College of Science.
Matthew Vollmer is an American writer, editor, and professor at Virginia Tech.
Pavlos P. Vlachos is a Greek-American engineer, scientist, academic, and entrepreneur. He is professor in Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering and in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, and the St. Vincent Health Professor of Healthcare Engineering. He serves as the Director for the Purdue Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE).
Amanda Morris is an American chemist who is the Patricia Caldwell Faculty Fellow and professor of inorganic and energy chemistry at Virginia Tech. Her research considers next-generation materials for catalysis and light-harvesting. She was elected chair of the American Chemical Society Gay and Transgender Chemists and Allies committee in 2021.