Convocation Address: Dr. Schneewind
Dr. Olaf Shneewind, M.D., Ph.D.
A Selection from The Opportunity of Graduate Education in the 21st Century by Olaf Schneewind, M.D., Ph.D., the graduation speaker chosen by the graduate students of the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago.
So, what are you going to do now?
Simply find a job and get on with it? Well, this is not what we at the University of Chicago trained you for. We taught you to identify the most challenging problems, to use the right tools and to recruit the best team for those decisive discoveries. So, go, look for that ferment of research expertise, intellectual esprit and restlessness that will drive you and your colleagues on forever to new discoveries. Your challenges, frontiers and competition are not confined to Chicago, the Midwest or even America. International, global or universal, the further you get the prouder we are. We dare you to travel lightly in the company of unknowns; however we do not want you to stand still or become complacent with what you know already. Hence, as I cannot tell you what you are going to do, I shall suggest how you ought to be--inquisitive, innovative, inventive and most of all resilient. Your society needs you, but it does not always know that. You need to push on and earn your place as a scientist in this community, as your future discoveries are essential to fuel society's economy, to improve our health and our standards of living, and to challenge our vision for the future. In other words, your drive for discovery will determine your value as a scientist and your contributions to our lives!…..And then with all of your aggregate successes, I implore you to remember the humility learned here at the laboratory benches of the University of Chicago -- Scientia pro bono humani generis -- science for the benefit of mankind, let this be your motto! Ready then? Go on into the world and show them your maroon colors. Godspeed, and congratulations to you, our Ph.D. graduates!
