We invite you to recommend a convocation speaker for Case Western Reserve University's Convocation Ceremony in May. We are seeking someone with broad appeal—a speaker who recognizes that a convocation audience is a large group of individuals with diverse values, interests, and concerns.
A suggestion for a convocation speaker should be based on the following considerations:
- Outstanding achievement in an academic field, the arts, business, etc.
- Innovative and creative achievements
- Humanitarian deeds and the degree to which the candidate’s activities have touched various lives
- The extent to which the candidate’s achievement represents sustained efforts throughout their career
- Extent to which the candidate represents an outstanding model for our graduates
- The honor brought to CWRU should the candidate accept the nomination
Lists of nominees will be compiled and shared with university leadership. Please be aware that identifying and securing external speakers is a complex process involving many considerations and requiring a firm commitment on the part of those invited.
Please include with your recommendation a brief identification of the individual being nominated
Our 2024 Convocation Speaker: Dr. Vinton G. Cerf
Cerf earned his B.S in mathematics at Stanford in 1965 and M.S. and Ph.D in computer science at UCLA in 1970 and 1972 respectively
Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. He has served in executive positions at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICAN), MCI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. A former Stanford Professor and former member if the US National Science Board, he is also the past President of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Internet Society and serves in advisory capacities at NIST, DOE, NSF, NRO, DOD, and NASA
He is a member of both the US National Academies of Science and Engineering. Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards for his work, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, US National Media of Technology, The Marconi Prize and Lifetime Achievement Award, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Japan Prize, the Charles Stark Draper award, the ACM Turing Award, the Vinfutures Grand Prize, the ACM Systems Software Award, The ACM SIGCOMM Award, the Marconi Fellowship, the Legion d'Honneur, the IEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the IEEE Medal of Honor, the Library of Congress Living Legend Medal, the Terra Mariana Medal (Estonia), the St. Cyril and St. Methodius Medal (Bulgaria), the Arete Medallion (Elon University), the Murillo Toro Medal (Colombia), the Catalunya International Prize, the George C. Marshall Innovation Medal and the Franklin Medal.
He is a member of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, the Worshipful Company of Stationers and a Freeman of the City of London. He is a Fellow of AAAS, ACM, IEEE, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the British Computer Society and the Hasso Plattner Institute. He is a member of the Halls of Dame of the Internet Society, the Consumer Technology Association, and member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He has delivered the Romanes Lecture (Oxford), the George Gamow Lecture (University of Colorado) and Shannon Lumniary Lecture (Nokia, Bell labs). He is a foreign Member of the British Royal Society and Swedish Academy of Engineering, Eminent Member of Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE) and holds 29 honorary 29 degrees
Past Speakers
Dr. Cerf joins a long list of distinguished speakers including:
- Michael Osterholm, Phd and Author
- Justin Bibb, Mayor of Cleveland (Law '18 and MGT '18)
- Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League
- William F. Baker (ADL '66, GRS '68 and '72), Emmy Award-winner, past president and CEO of New York Public Television
- Beth Mooney, KeyCorp Chairman and CEO
- Toby Cosgrove, MD, past President and CEO of Cleveland Clinic
- Fred Gray (LAW ’54, HON ’92), celebrated civil rights attorney
- Mark Weinberger (LAW ’87, MGT ’87), EY Global Chairman and CEO
- Barry Meyer (LAW ’67), Retired Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO
- Mohamed Ibn Chambas (LAW ’84), Joint Special Representative of the African Union – United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur
- Katie Couric, journalist and author
- Peter B. Lewis, Philanthropist and former Chairman of Progressive Insurance
- Julie Gerberding (WRC ’77, MED ‘81), previous director of the Centers for Disease Control