Madam President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and theBoard of Overseers, faculty, family, friends, and, most importantly,today’s graduates,
Thank you for letting me share this wonderful day with you.
感谢你们，让我有机会同你们一起分享这个美妙的日子。
I am not sure I can live up to the high standards of HarvardCommencement speakers. Last year, J.K. Rowling, the billionairenovelist, who started as a classics student, graced this podium. Theyear before, Bill Gates, the mega-billionaire philanthropist andcomputer nerd stood here. Today, sadly, you have me. I am not wealthy,but at least I am a nerd.
I am grateful to receive an honorary degree from Harvard, an honorthat means more to me than you might care to imagine. You see, I wasthe academic black sheep of my family. My older brother has anM.D./Ph.D. from MIT and Harvard while my younger brother has a lawdegree from Harvard. When I was awarded a Nobel Prize, I thought mymother would be pleased. Not so. When I called her on the morning ofthe announcement, she replied, “That’s nice, but when are you going tovisit me next.” Now, as the last brother with a degree from Harvard,maybe, at last, she will be satisfied.
Another difficulty with giving a Harvard commencement address isthat some of you may disapprove of the fact that I have borrowedmaterial from previous speeches. I ask that you forgive me for tworeasons.
First, in order to have impact, it is important to deliver the samemessage more than once. In science, it is important to be the firstperson to make a discovery, but it is even more important to be thelast person to make that discovery.
Second, authors who borrow from others are following in thefootsteps of the best. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who graduated from Harvardat the age of 18, noted “All my best thoughts were stolen by theancients.” Picasso declared “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.”Why should commencement speakers be held to a higher standard?
I also want to point out the irony of speaking to graduates of aninstitution that would have rejected me, had I the chutzpah to apply. Iam married to “Dean Jean,” the former dean of admissions at Stanford.She assures me that she would have rejected me, if given the chance.When I showed her a draft of this speech, she objected strongly to myuse of the word “rejected.” She never rejected applicants; her lettersstated that “we are unable to offer you admission.” I have difficultyunderstanding the difference. After all, deans of admissions of highlyselective schools are in reality, “deans of rejection.” Clearly, I havea lot to learn about marketing.
My address will follow the classical sonata form of commencementaddresses. The first movement, just presented, were light-heartedremarks. This next movement consists of unsolicited advice, which israrely valued, seldom remembered, never followed. As Oscar Wilde said,“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never ofany use to oneself.” So, here comes the advice. First, every time youcelebrate an achievement, be thankful to those who made it possible.Thank your parents and friends who supported you, thank your professorswho were inspirational, and especially thank the other professors whoseless-than-brilliant lectures forced you to teach yourself. Goingforward, the ability to teach yourself is the hallmark of a greatliberal arts education and will be the key to your success. To yourfellow students who have added immeasurably to your education duringthose late night discussions, hug them. Also, of course, thank Harvard.Should you forget, there’s an alumni association to remind you. Second,in your future life, cultivate a generous spirit. In all negotiations,don’t bargain for the last, little advantage. Leave the change on thetable. In your collaborations, always remember that “credit” is not aconserved quantity. In a successful collaboration, everybody gets 90percent of the credit. (
Jimmy Stewart, as Elwood P. Dowd in the movie “Harvey” got itexactly right. He said: “Years ago my mother used to say to me, ‘Inthis world, Elwood, you must be … she always used to call me Elwood …in this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’”Well, for years I was smart. ... I recommend pleasant. You may quote meon that.
My third piece of advice is as follows: As you begin this new stageof your lives, follow your passion. If you don’t have a passion, don’tbe satisfied until you find one. Life is too short to go through itwithout caring deeply about something. When I was your age, I wasincredibly single-minded in my goal to be a physicist. After college, Ispent eight years as a graduate student and postdoc at Berkeley, andthen nine years at Bell Labs. During that my time, my central focus andprofessional joy was physics.
Here is my final piece of advice. Pursuing a personal passion isimportant, but it should not be your only goal. When you are old andgray, and look back on your life, you will want to be proud of what youhave done. The source of that pride won’t be the things you haveacquired or the recognition you have received. It will be the lives youhave touched and the difference you have made.
After nine years at Bell labs, I decided to leave that warm, cozyivory tower for what I considered to be the “real world,” a university.Bell Labs, to quote what was said about Mary Poppins, was “practicallyperfect in every way,” but I wanted to leave behind something more thanscientific articles. I wanted to teach and give birth to my own set ofscientific children.
Ted Geballe, a friend and distinguished colleague of mine atStanford, who also went from Berkeley to Bell Labs to Stanford yearsearlier, described our motives best:
“The best part of working at a university is the students. Theycome in fresh, enthusiastic, open to ideas, unscarred by the battles oflife. They don't realize it, but they're the recipients of the best oursociety can offer. If a mind is ever free to be creative, that's thetime. They come in believing textbooks are authoritative, buteventually they figure out that textbooks and professors don't knoweverything, and then they start to think on their own. Then, I beginlearning from them.”
My students, post doctoral fellows, and the young researchers whoworked with me at Bell Labs, Stanford, and Berkeley have beenextraordinary. Over 30 former group members are now professors, many atthe best research institutions in the world, including Harvard. I havelearned much from them. Even now, in rare moments on weekends, theremaining members of my biophysics group meet with me in the etherworld of cyberspace.
I began teaching with the idea of giving back; I received more thanI gave. This brings me to the final movement of this speech. It beginswith a story about an extraordinary scientific discovery and a newdilemma that it poses. It’s a call to arms and about making adifference.
In the last several decades, our climate has been changing. Climatechange is not new: the Earth went through six ice ages in the past600,000 years. However, recent measurements show that the climate hasbegun to change rapidly. The size of the North Polar Ice Cap in themonth of September is only half the size it was a mere 50 years ago.The sea level which been rising since direct measurements began in 1870at a rate that is now five times faster than it was at the beginning ofrecorded measurements. Here’s the remarkable scientific discovery. Forthe first time in human history, science is now making predictions ofhow our actions will affect the world 50 and 100 years from now. Thesechanges are due to an increase in carbon dioxide put into theatmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The Earthhas warmed up by roughly 0.8 degrees Celsius since the beginning of theRevolution. There is already approximately a 1 degree rise built intothe system, even if we stop all greenhouse gas emissions today. Why? Itwill take decades to warm up the deep oceans before the temperaturereaches a new equilibrium.
If the world continues on a business-as-usual path, theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that there is afifty-fifty chance the temperature will exceed 5 degrees by the end ofthis century. This increase may not sound like much, but let me remindyou that during the last ice age, the world was only 6 degrees colder.During this time, most of Canada and the United States down to Ohio andPennsylvania were covered year round by a glacier. A world 5 degreeswarmer will be very different. The change will be so rapid that manyspecies, including Humans, will have a hard time adapting. I’ve beentold for example, that, in a much warmer world, insects were bigger. Iwonder if this thing buzzing around is a precursor.
We also face the specter of nonlinear “tipping points” that maycause much more severe changes. An example of a tipping point is thethawing of the permafrost. The permafrost contains immense amounts offrozen organic matter that have been accumulating for millennia. If thesoil melts, microbes will spring to life and cause this debris to rot.The difference in biological activity below freezing and above freezingis something we are all familiar with. Frozen food remains edible for avery long time in the freezer, but once thawed, it spoils quickly. Howmuch methane and carbon dioxide might be released from the rottingpermafrost? If even a fraction of the carbon is released, it could begreater than all the greenhouse gases we have released to since thebeginning of the industrial revolution. Once started, a runaway effectcould occur.
The climate problem is the unintended consequence of our success.We depend on fossil energy to keep our homes warm in the winter, coolin the summer, and lit at night; we use it to travel across town andacross continents. Energy is a fundamental reason for the prosperity weenjoy, and we will not surrender this prosperity. The United States has3 percent of the world population, and yet, we consume 25 percent ofthe energy. By contrast, there are 1.6 billion people who don’t haveaccess to electricity. Hundreds of millions of people still cook withtwigs or dung. The life we enjoy may not be within the reach of thedeveloping world, but it is within sight, and they want what we have.
Here is the dilemma. How much are we willing to invest, as a worldsociety, to mitigate the consequences of climate change that will notbe realized for at least 100 years? Deeply rooted in all cultures, isthe notion of generational responsibility. Parents work hard so thattheir children will have a better life. Climate change will affect theentire world, but our natural focus is on the welfare of our immediatefamilies. Can we, as a world society, meet our responsibility to futuregenerations?
While I am worried, I am hopeful we will solve this problem. Ibecame the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, inpart because I wanted to enlist some of the best scientific minds tohelp battle against climate change. I was there only four and a halfyears, the shortest serving director in the 78-year history of the Lab,but when I left, a number of very exciting energy institutes at theBerkeley Lab and UC Berkeley had been established.
I am extremely privileged to be part of the Obama administration.If there ever was a time to help steer America and the world towards apath of sustainable energy, now is the time. The message the Presidentis delivering is not one of doom and gloom, but of optimism andopportunity. I share this optimism. The task ahead is daunting, but wecan and will succeed.
We know some of the answers already. There are immediate andsignificant savings in energy efficiency and conservation. Energyefficiency is not just low-hanging fruit; it is fruit lying on theground. For example, we have the potential to make buildings 80 percentmore efficient with investments that will pay for themselves in lessthan 15 years. Buildings consume 40 percent of the energy we use, and atransition to energy efficient buildings will cut our carbon emissionsby one-third.
We are revving up the remarkable American innovation machine thatwill be the basis of a new American prosperity. We will invent muchimproved methods to harness the sun, the wind, nuclear power, andcapture and sequester the carbon dioxide emitted from our power plants.Advanced bio-fuels and the electrification of personal vehicles make usless dependent on foreign oil.
In the coming decades, we will almost certainly face higher oilprices and be in a carbon-constrained economy. We have the opportunityto lead in development of a new, industrial revolution. The greathockey player, Wayne Gretzky, when asked, how he positions himself onthe ice, he replied,“ I skate to where the puck is going to be, notwhere it’s been.” America should do the same.
The Obama administration is laying a new foundation for aprosperous and sustainable energy future, but we don’t have all of theanswers. That’s where you come in. In this address, I am asking you,the Harvard graduates, to join us. As our future intellectual leaders,take the time to learn more about what’s at stake, and then act on thatknowledge. As future scientists and engineers, I ask you to give usbetter technology solutions. As future economists and politicalscientists, I ask you to create better policy options. As futurebusiness leaders, I ask that you make sustainability an integral partof your business. (
Finally, as humanists, I ask that you speak to our common humanity.One of the cruelest ironies about climate change is that the ones whowill be hurt the most are the most innocent: the worlds poorest andthose yet to be born.
“This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concernbeyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for anall-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oftmisunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed bythe Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has nowbecome an absolute necessity for the survival of man … We are now facedwith the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confrontedwith the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life andhistory, there is such a thing as being too late.”
The final message is from William Faulkner. On December 10th, 1950,his Nobel Prize banquet speech was about the role of humanists in aworld facing potential nuclear holocaust.
“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He isimmortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustiblevoice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion andsacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to writeabout these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by liftinghis heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and prideand compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of hispast.” (
Graduates, you have an extraordinary role to play in our future. Asyou pursue your private passions, I hope you will also develop apassion and a voice to help the world in ways both large and small.Nothing will give you greater satisfaction.
Please accept my warmest congratulations. May you prosper, may youhelp preserve and save our planet for your children, and all futurechildren of the world. (