Fusion-Ignition Physicist Tammy Ma to Keynote Caltech Convocation Friday

Caltech will formally welcome its incoming undergraduate and graduate students Friday morning at its annual Convocation in Beckman Auditorium, where fusion physicist Tammy Ma, a 2005 Caltech graduate and member of the team behind the December 2022 fusion-ignition breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility, will deliver the keynote address.

The ceremony, themed “Ignition: The Science of Beginning,” is the first Convocation since Ray Jayawardhana took office July 1 as Caltech’s tenth president. It closes graduate orientation week, three days before fall instruction begins Sept. 28.

The program also includes remarks from Kevin Gilmartin, vice president for student affairs and faculty dean of students, a welcome from Jayawardhana, and Ma’s keynote. Caltech says the program’s discussion will explore the pursuit of ambitious scientific goals and the opportunities and challenges of tackling some of the world’s most complex problems.

Ma is deputy principal associate director for science and technology for NIF and Photon Science at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to the laboratory, which says she previously served as founding director of its Livermore Institute for Fusion Technology.

New students will process into the auditorium from the south end of Beckman Mall, and Caltech encourages current faculty, staff, students and postdocs to arrive by 8:45 a.m. A community brunch will follow immediately afterward on Beckman Mall, according to Caltech’s Student Affairs office; the Graduate Studies Office has scheduled it for 10:30 a.m. in the tent on Beckman Lawn.

Convocation will be held Friday, Sept. 25, at 9 a.m. in Beckman Auditorium, on Michigan Avenue one block south of Del Mar Boulevard in Pasadena (GPS: 332 S. Michigan Ave.). Parking is available on campus near the auditorium.

For more, email vpsaoffice@caltech.edu or visit studentaffairs.caltech.edu/convocation.