KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Degree candidates at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville summer commencement may get one more science lesson before they graduate Friday.
Dr. John H. Gibbons, former science advisor to the Clinton administration and a former UT-Knoxville physics professor, is the scheduled speaker. He is a senior fellow at the National Academy of Engineering and a lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Approximately 1,350 graduate and undergraduate degrees will be awarded at the ceremony, set for 9 a.m., Aug. 13, in Thompson-Boling arena. Commencement is open to the public.
Gibbons earned the Ph.D. in physics from Duke University and worked 15 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
He was director of the Federal Office of Energy Conservation for two years before returning to Tennessee to join the UT faculty and direct the university’s Energy, Environment and Resources Center from 1973 to 1979.
After 13 years as chief of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment he was appointed the president’s science advisor in 1993 and served until April 1998.
Gibbons is president-elect of Sigma Xi, the national scientific research society. His one-year presidency will begin July 1, 2000.