Video: Commencement 2011 honorand remarks

Video of Commencement 2011 remarks by honorary degree recipients:

  • Frank Glazer, pianist and Bates artist in residence
  • Evelynn Hammonds, scholar of science and race who is dean of Harvard College
  • Robert Langer, renowned MIT bioengineer and prolific inventor

Frank Glazer: “We are dealt a certain hand at birth over which we have no control. But we have a lot to say about how we play the game.”

Internationally known for his artistry and dedication, beloved for his generosity and celebrated for his artistic longevity, pianist Frank Glazer made his concert debut on a vaudeville stage in 1927. The event began a performing career that’s still in progress.


Evelynn Hammonds: “I’d like you to try your hand at failing, and, by failing, to discover something more about your own fortitude.”

Considered one of the leading scholars in the field of the intersection of science and race, Hammonds is dean of Harvard College and also the Barbara Gutman Rosenkrantz Professor of History of Science and of African and African American Studies.


Robert Langer: “Dream big dreams. Many people may tell you that you’ll never achieve it. But I think that’s very rarely true.”

Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, is a bioengineer with some 760 patents issued or pending worldwide, in use by 220 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies.