WEBVTT

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Chancellor: The special time that we take
today to praise and honor our

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graduating seniors also affords us a
special opportunity to recognize an

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individual whose body of scientific work
and life of achievement we honor

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today. We want to show the pride of this
institution, our faculty,

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students, staff, and alumni who recognize
the accomplishments of this

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special individual in his role as citizen
and leader.

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And we will be presenting him today with
an honorary degree.

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And our recipient today is Dr. Larry
Smarr.

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I would ask that Dr. Smarr join me at the
podium.

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[Applause]

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Dr. Smarr is a renowned scientist, a
devoted researcher, innovator,

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a venerated pioneer, and notable educator.

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Larry Smarr is a native Columbian and a
graduate of the University of

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Missouri College of Arts and Science.

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We salute you today for your many
accomplishments.

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And we're so pleased to be able to award
you the degree of Dr. of Science,

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honoris causa. Let me share some of the
background with this audience today

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that has commended you for this
recognition.

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Larry Smarr is the founding director of
the California Institute for

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Telecommunications and Information
Technology and the Harry E.

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Gruber Professor in the Jacobs School's
Department of Computer Science and

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Engineering at the University of
California, San Diego.

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Dr. Smarr is principal investigator on the
National Science Foundation

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OptIPuter Lambda Grid Project, and is co
PI on the National Science

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Foundation LOOKING Ocean Observatory
prototype.

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As founding director of the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications,

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established in 1985, and the National
Computational Science Alliance,

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beginning in 1997,

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Dr. Smarr has driven contributions to the
development of the national

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information infrastructure, the Internet,
the web, the emerging

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grid,

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collaboratories with the private sector,
and scientific visualization.

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His views have been quoted extensively in
science, nature, the

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New York Times, the Wall Street Journal,

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Time, Newsweek, Fortune, and Businessweek.

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And he gives frequent keynote addresses at
professional conferences and to

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popular audiences. Dr. Smarr received his
PhD from the University of Texas

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at Austin and conducted observational,
theoretical, and

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computational based astrophysical sciences
research for fifteen years before

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becoming director of the NCSA.

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He's a member of the National Academy of
Engineering and a fellow of the

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American Physical Society and the American
Academy of Arts and Science.

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In 1990, he received the Franklin
Institute's Delmer S.

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Fahrney Gold Medal for Leadership in
Science or Technology.

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He was a member of the President's
Information Technology Advisory Committee

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and serves on the Advisory Committee to
the Director of the National

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Institutes of Health and the NASA Advisory
Council.

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He served as chair of NASA's Earth System
Science and Applications Advisory

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Committee and was the first chair of the
newly formed NASA Science Advisory

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Council.

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Dr. Smarr, we're honored that you're with
us today, and we thank you not

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only for the glorious achievements you
have made in your professional

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career, but for being with us and
accepting our honors.

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For all now... For all your
accomplishments, your public service, and

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your generosity, the University of
Missouri is proud to confer upon you the

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degree of Dr. of science, honoris causa.

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[Applause]

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Now by the virtue of the authority vested
in me by the Board of Curators of

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the University of Missouri, I hereby
confer upon you the degree of Dr. of

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science, honoris causa, with all the
rights, privileges, and

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responsibilities pertaining thereto.

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Congratulations.

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Larry Smarr: Thank you.

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[Applause]

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Chancellor: I'll extend the podium to Dr.
Smarr.

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Larry Smarr: Thank you very much,
chancellor, and welcome to all of the

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honors students.

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You know, in 1929, my grandparents came to
Columbia

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to have a... Set up their home because my
grandfather had an eighth grade

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education and he wanted to be close enough
that his kids could walk to the

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University of Missouri and get the first
college degree.

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Since then,

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this is the thirteenth MU degree in our
immediate family.

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My niece, Stephanie, among the honors
students, will be the fourteenth, and

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my niece, Melissa this afternoon when she
gets her MD will be the fifteenth.

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This university has been totally

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responsible for setting the foundation on
which my career was based.

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As a student here, I was able to not only
get the deep research

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training in mathematics and physics that
my immediate career was

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based on, but also the breadth.

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I was the first Bachelor of Arts

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degree in physics because I insisted on
having that breadth that has stayed

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with me and made so much of my career
possible.

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My first course in programming a computer,
which my father insisted I take

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in 1966 because he believed that these
computers were going to amount to

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something,

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was maybe one hundred million to one
billion times slower than the

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fastest computer today.

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Now, we're handing off to you the next
thirty or forty years

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during which you're going to see not only
that kind of increase, but you're

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going to see the Internet which didn't
exist, the Web which didn't exist,

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the social networks which didn't exist for
decades after I got

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your... My BA degree.

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Those... The Internet is now moving
throughout the physical world.

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You notice with your cell phones, can be
on the net anywhere, but all the

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inanimate objects are going to have
microprocessors inside of them hooked to

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the net. The Internet will be everywhere,
anytime.

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The world essentially will develop a whole
new virtual

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character in addition to the physical
character built of atoms that it

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already has.

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Now most of the folks up here on the
platform are a little too old

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to appreciate the profound impact this is
going to make

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on every aspect of your world.

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But you are young enough that you grew up
assuming bits were everywhere and

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all they had to do was be manipulated to
make whatever you wanted to happen

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in the next second happen. So you're the
bridge to the world of the future.

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You're the people who know that this is
going to change everything and

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you're going to be able to take the values
that you've learned at Mizzou

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and apply them. And what's important is
that each of you realize

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that what you decide to do in your
particular area, your particular

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discipline, is going to be critical to how
the world as a whole transforms

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because you're the leaders, you're the
honor students that have made the

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extra effort to get that education.

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So I wish I could see what you're going to
see when you're my age.

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It's going to be a world that looks
nothing at all like the world we have

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today and hopefully it will have the power
to deal with the challenges

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that you're going to have to deal with
that no other generation has ever

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dealt with that will be induced by things
like global warming.

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So good luck to you. We're counting on
you.

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Don't let us down. Bye bye.

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[Applause]

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Chancellor: Dr. Smarr, thank you for those
inspiring and very challenging

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remarks, not only to the great future that
our honored graduates have, but

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those challenging remarks of survival for
those of us that have passed 30.

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So we're all going to be in here fighting
together, and we're really

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depending on you, the graduates, to look
for those policies that help us

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all. That's wonderful. Thank you so much,
and what an honor.