{"55585":{"#nid":"55585","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Chu, Byers and Nuti to Give Commencement Addresses","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech celebrates its 236th commencement with approximately 2,800 undergraduates and graduate students during ceremonies on Friday, May 7, and two ceremonies on Saturday, May 8, at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESecretary Stephen Chu\u003C\/strong\u003E will be speaking at the Ph.D. and Master\u2019s ceremony to be held on Friday at 7 p.m.\u0026nbsp; A distinguished scientist and co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physics, Chu was appointed by President Barack Obama as the 12th Secretary of Energy in January 2009.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EChu has devoted his recent scientific career to the search for new solutions to America\u2019s energy challenge\u2013a mission he continues with even greater urgency as Secretary of Energy.\u0026nbsp; He is charged with helping implement President Obama\u2019s ambitious agenda to invest in alternative and renewable energy, end the country\u2019s addiction to foreign oil and create millions of new jobs.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EPrior to his appointment, Chu was director of the Department of Energy\u2019s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at the University of California.\u0026nbsp; He successfully applied the techniques he developed in atomic physics to molecular biology, and since 2004, motivated by his deep interest in climate change, has led the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in pursuit of new alternative and renewable energies.\u0026nbsp; Previously, he held positions at Stanford University and AT\u0026amp;T Bell Laboratories.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EChu holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and physics from the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as honorary degrees from ten universities.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBrook H. Byers\u003C\/strong\u003E will give the address for the morning undergraduate ceremony for the Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Management, Sciences and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, which starts at 9 a.m.\u0026nbsp; A venture capital investor since 1972, Byers is the managing partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield \u0026amp; Byers in Menlo Park, California.\u0026nbsp; He has been closely involved in more than 50 new technology-based ventures, more than half of which have already become public companies. \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EByers formed his first life sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare and biotechnology sectors.\u0026nbsp; KPCB has invested in and helped build more than 110 life sciences companies that have developed hundreds of products to treat major underserved medical needs for millions of patients. \u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EByers was the founding president and then chairman of four biotechnology companies that were incubated in KPCB\u2019s offices and went on to become public companies with an aggregate market value of more than $8 billion.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ERaised in Atlanta, Byers holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Stanford University.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWilliam R. Nuti\u003C\/strong\u003E, chairman and chief executive officer of NCR Corporation, will give the commencement address for the undergraduate ceremony for the College of Engineering.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; Under Nuti\u2019s leadership, NCR is transforming itself into \u201ca self-service giant,\u201d leading how the world connects, interacts and transacts with business.\u0026nbsp; NCR\u2019s assisted- and self-service solutions and comprehensive support services address the needs of the financial services, retail and hospitality, travel and gaming, entertainment, healthcare and public sector, and software and technology services industries in more than 100 countries.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENuti has a wealth of global and industry-specific experience in high technology.\u0026nbsp; Before joining NCR in 2005, he served as president and CEO of Symbol Technologies, where he led a challenging but highly successful turnaround effort.\u0026nbsp; Under Nuti\u2019s leadership, Symbol returned to profitability for the first time in five years, and from 2002-2004 increased revenue growth by 24 percent.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENuti joined Symbol following more than ten years at Cisco Systems, where he held positions of increasing responsibility, advancing to the dual role of senior vice president of the company\u2019s Worldwide Service Provider Operations and senior vice president of U.S. Theatre Operations.\u0026nbsp; In these roles, he led Cisco\u2019s field operations and technical operations, professional services, marketing, and U.S. sales divisions.\u0026nbsp; Prior to that, Nuti served as president of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and more than doubled Cisco\u2019s revenue to more than $7 billion in the region.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENuti holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in finance and economics from Long Island University.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Georgia Tech celebrates 236th commencement"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech celebrates its 236th commencement with approximately 2,800 undergraduates and graduate students during ceremonies on Friday, May 7, and two ceremonies on Saturday, May 8, at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"More than 2,800 graduates celebrate Georgia Tech\u0027s 236th commencement."}],"uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2010-05-05 15:34:46","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:05:57","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-05-05T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2010-05-05T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"54703":{"id":"54703","type":"image","title":"Tech Tower","body":null,"created":"1449175459","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:44:19","changed":"1475894481","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:41:21"}},"media_ids":["54703"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.commencement.gatech.edu\/","title":"Commencement information"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.energy.gov\/","title":"U. S. Department of Energy"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.kpcb.com\/","title":"Kleiner Perkins Caufield \u0026 Byers (KPCB)"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.ncr.com\/","title":"NCR"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"9261","name":"236 Commmencement"},{"id":"9260","name":"Georgia Tech Commencement"},{"id":"629","name":"graduation"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["mattnagel@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}