Brown challenges new graduates to rise to the occasion

5/26/2020 Maddie Yang

Written by Maddie Yang

Alumnus Eric Brown was invited to give a speech for MechSE’s graduate student virtual commencement ceremony this year. After earning his BS (’98), MS (’01), and PhD (‘03) in theoretical and applied mechanics, he joined Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he currently holds the position of Division Director for its Explosive Science and Shock Physics Division.

He began his recorded remarks by saying “you are now an alum of one of the most esteemed engineering programs in the world,” congratulating the new MS, PhD, and M.Eng.ME graduates. “Over the recent years, you have undoubtedly worked hard. You have grown, you have done spectacular things, and yet your adventure and impact on the world is still beginning.” 

He described his personal experience while at Illinois, describing the changes happening in the world at that time. “When I completed graduate school, as you are today, the world seemed different than when I’d started. Not necessarily better or worse, but changed, both because I had grown in how I viewed the world, and because the world had continued to change alongside me. Just as I went off into that world with the benefits of earned knowledge and an ability to learn in new ways, and a network of friends and colleagues, as you graduate from the MechSE department you have undoubtedly also been changed. I challenge you, as you now go off into the next stage of your life, to embrace opportunities to impact and nurture that world you’re going off into.”

Brown, one of MechSE’s 2020 Distinguished Alumni, challenged graduates to improve the world: “The world needs you, as the next generation, as engineers, in many ways, more than any time in recent history … We need you to go off into the world and help us do better. As Illinois graduates, that’s what we do: we respond to the call when it comes and rise to the occasion when needed.”


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This story was published May 26, 2020.