President Ray Jayawardhana waves as he walks to Convocation with faculty members (Photo – Caltech)
Caltech welcomed its newest students and postdoctoral scholars Friday during Convocation at Beckman Auditorium, where President Ray Jayawardhana urged them to remain calm, and curious, as they begin life at the Institute.
By News Desk
“DON’T PANIC,” Jayawardhana said, drawing on Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. “Sound advice when setting off across the galaxy. I suspect it may also prove useful at Caltech.”
The ceremony marked Jayawardhana’s first time welcoming a Convocation class since becoming president. This year’s incoming community includes 255 undergraduate students, 173 graduate students and 40 postdoctoral scholars.
The undergraduate class includes students recognized for national chess mastery and a gold medal in the International Economics Olympiad, as well as students with experience in security research and entrepreneurship. One student turned a robotics project into a business that sells components worldwide. Another co-founded a startup after contacting a researcher while in 10th grade.
Jayawardhana told the students they had earned their place at Caltech and urged them to preserve the curiosity that brought them there.
“At Caltech, a course outside your field, an unexpected result in the lab, or a conversation with someone who thinks very differently may send your work in a direction you had not considered,” he said. “Don’t mistake that for a distraction from your path. Exploration is the path.”
Caltech alumna Tammy Ma (Photo – Caltech)
The keynote address was delivered by Caltech alumna Tammy Ma, a plasma physicist and deputy principal associate director for science and technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility and Photon Sciences Directorate. Ma was part of the team behind the facility’s historic 2022 fusion-ignition breakthrough.
Ma described the achievement—in which researchers “created a star in the laboratory”—as the product of decades of cooperation among scientists and engineers.
“The achievement of ignition is not the product of a single experiment or a single moment,” Ma said. “It was the result of sustained collaboration, big-team science, perseverance and a shared commitment to bold, audacious science.”
Ma also recalled nearly leaving Caltech during a difficult period in her first year. Support from her community persuaded her to stay, she said, and she urged incoming students to rely on one another when facing challenges.
“So take care of each other,” Ma said. “Earn what you’re here to earn. And when it gets hard, remember someone is going to be sitting in a dorm room one night wondering if they belong, and it might be you who keeps them from filling out those forms.”
Kevin Gilmartin, vice president for student affairs, emphasized the importance of cooperation alongside individual achievement. Student leaders Bisrat Kassahun, president of the Associated Students of Caltech, and Adele Breer, chair of the Graduate Student Council, also addressed the incoming class.
Kassahun encouraged students to take risks and pursue new opportunities. Breer compared life at Caltech to cultivating a garden, telling students that steady, daily effort is more valuable than occasional bursts of activity.
The ceremony concluded with a new tradition: Students turned on light sticks and sang Caltech’s alma mater, “Hail C.I.T.,” led by choral director Nancy Sulahian.
The Convocation followed more than a week of orientation activities that began Sept. 17 and included local volunteer projects and scavenger hunts. Afterward, new students joined current students, faculty and staff for a community brunch on Beckman Mall.
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