Graduation 2026: Caltech’s 132nd Commencement embraces ‘peripheral vision’ in an uncertain world

Caltech held its 132nd commencement on Friday, June 12, where a Class of 2026 full of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral candidates made that walk into a new chapter, with the support of family and friends and buoyed by knowledge that Einstein would be proud of.

(He would know. He taught there.)

The event, at the institute’s Beckman Hall, was underpinned by a theme delivered by Kip Thorne, who gave the commencement address.

Thorne, a seminal figure in theoretical physics and co-winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work leading to the first direct detection of gravitational waves, mused on a tool he called “peripheral vision.”

He meant it as a widening lens that graduation should exercise in the world outside of campus — to seek what might be unconventional opportunities in a world where the job market has been upended for graduates and “chaos in government for science.”

Thorne exhorted graduates to use that “peripheral vision” to see and take hold of opportunities that might not have been on their initial path to making a living and a career.

And when they see it, he added, and it’s something they might like to try, “try to transform it,” he said.

They will have had a good foundation, after all, where researchers have been exploring the connection between drought and the rise of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms; how to make plastic using only water, carbon dioxide and electricity; where students have been looking at how emotions such as guilt and disappointment can influence decisions by buyers and sellers; and where there’s aspiration of developing a quantum computer by the end of the decade.

The event was Caltech President Thomas Rosenbaum’s final commencement before stepping down after 12 years in office.

For Rosenbaum, who will remain as a member of the faculty, he leaves touting a doubling of Caltech’s endowment and a capital campaign that raised $3.4 billion from more than 14,000 donors. And in a time of increasing affordability issues in college enrollment, he started programs to make programs more affordable, even as the campus looked to strengthen connections with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech manages for NASA.

So with goodbyes and hugs, tears and smiles, Caltech’s 132nd graduation happened.

As Thorne said: “Congratulations. You did it.”