I am pleased to announce our speakers for RPI’s 219th Commencement on May 10: Lisa Su, chair and CEO of AMD, and RJ Scaringe ’05, founder and CEO of Rivian.

I got to know Lisa very well when I was on the MIT faculty and Lisa was pursuing her Ph.D. at MIT in electrical engineering, and so it was no surprise to me that she was named CEO of the Year by Time magazine recently. As CEO, Lisa transformed AMD into a leading high-performance and advanced computing company. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, vice chair of the board of directors for the Semiconductor Industry Association and is on the Department of Homeland Security’s Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board. The IEEE awarded Lisa the Robert N. Noyce Medal, the highest semiconductor honor. She is a pioneer in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and business, and we are proud to honor her groundbreaking work in these fields.

Those of you who attended the fireside chat with RJ Scaringe during last year’s Reunion & Homecoming know what an extraordinary career he’s had. RJ founded Rivian, which develops and manufactures electric vehicles for the consumer and commercial markets, in 2009 to help accelerate the shift toward carbon neutrality. His strategic vision and leadership in vertically integrated technology platforms and multi-program manufacturing capabilities made Rivian’s IPO the largest worldwide in 2021 and the 12th largest in history. Their first consumer product, the R1T, was named MotorTrend’s Truck of the Year for 2022. RJ has also placed one percent of Rivian’s equity into Forever, a philanthropic organization dedicated to addressing the climate crisis, making nature itself a stakeholder in the company. He earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering from RPI in 2005 and a Ph.D. in mechanical Engineering from MIT in 2009.

Lisa Su and RJ Scaringe embody our mission of applying science to the common purposes of life, and RPI is delighted to honor them in May. Please mark your calendars and join us at EMPAC on May 9 to hear and learn from our speakers during Colloquy.