Engineering Commencement

Tufts University honored the Class of 2020 and the Class of 2022 during this year's ceremonies. Learn more about the commencement celebrations and speakers below.

Class of 2020

Tufts welcomed back the Class of 2020 on May 27, 2022! Watch a recording of the commencement ceremony and check out Tufts Now coverage of the day.

Commencement Speaker

Neil Blumenthal, A02, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, will deliver the all-university commencement address to the Tufts University Class of 2020. Blumenthal was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. While studying for his MBA at Wharton Business School, Blumenthal ran VisionSpring, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income men and women sell affordable eyeglasses to people in need with limited access to eyecare. In 2010, Blumenthal co-founded Warby Parker with a focus on designing stylish products and developing technologies that help people see, without charging a premium for eyecare.

Class of 2022

The School of Engineering hosted the Graduate Programs Ceremony on May 21, 2022. The event was held in Gantcher Center on the Medford/Somerville Campus. PhD students were hooded by their thesis advisor and Master's students were individually recognized. Watch a recording of the graduate ceremony.

The All-University Commencement Ceremony was held on The Green, between Ballou Hall and Bendetson Hall, and streamed live May 22, 2022. All Tufts schools participated in the ceremony. It included the Academic Procession, the awarding of honorary degrees, the All-University Commencement address, recognition of faculty emeriti, presentation of degree candidates by school and the granting of degrees by the Tufts University Board of Trustees.

Watch a recording of the all-university ceremony and read Tufts Now coverage of the day.

Commencement Speakers

Award-winning historian, scholar, and author Erika Lee, J91, delivered the all-university commencement address to the Class of 2022. Lee is one of the nation’s leading historians of immigration and the Asian American experience. The author of four award-winning books, she is Regents Professor of History and Asian American Studies and director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Asad M. Madni delivered the School of Engineering's commencement address during the school-specific ceremony on May 22. From 1992 until the completion of its $600 million acquisition by Schneider Electric in 2006, Madni served as president, COO, and CTO of BEI Technologies. At BEI, he led the development and commercialization of intelligent sensors, systems, and instrumentation, including work on the Hubble Space Telescope and in passenger vehicle stability control and rollover protection. Prior to BEI, Madni was with Systron Donner Corporation for 18 years in senior technical and executive positions, eventually as chairman, president, and CEO. He is currently on the faculty of his alma mater UCLA, and also holds a Ph.D. from California Coast University. In recognition of his nearly 50-year career, the honor society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers named its top award in his honor in 2019. Madni will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree.

Dr. Brett Boghigian, E07, EG10, delivered the School of Engineering's graduate programs commencement address on May 21. Dr. Boghigian is the Vice President, Biology Platform at FL79, a new biotechnology start-up company incubating at Flagship Pioneering. Prior to joining the start-up, he was one of the first employees at Indigo Agriculture, a privately held agricultural technology company based in Charlestown, MA, where he helped build the company from a 5+ person organization to one with more than 1,000 employees that has raised over $1 billion dollars in venture capital financing. He earned his BS in chemical engineering with a minor in philosophy and went on to complete his PhD in chemical engineering in three years with 14 publications, all here at Tufts. His research and work span the fields of biochemical engineering, microbiology, computational biology, and protein science, with applications in pharmaceuticals, nutrition, and agriculture.

Questions?

Call the Commencement Office at 617-627-3636 or email us at commencement@tufts.edu.