Announcing our 2025 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipients
April 02, 2025
Dear Members of the CMU Community:
I am thrilled to announce our distinguished honorary degree recipients and keynote speaker for Carnegie Mellon University’s 2025 Commencement, which will take place on Sunday, May 11, in Gesling Stadium.
It is a CMU tradition to award honorary degrees to exemplary leaders whose lives and work inspire our community. This year’s recipients have profoundly impacted our world through their contributions in business, the arts, research and engineering and are introduced below.
Salman Khan, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters and Commencement Keynote
Sal Khan is an educator and the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit dedicated to making a free, world-class education accessible to all. Today, Khan Academy is a highly regarded personalized learning platform, engaging over 180 million users annually. Its high-quality instructional materials are available in 190 countries and more than 50 languages. Khan Academy has pioneered the use of AI in education — including piloting an AI-powered teaching assistant and tutor called Khanmigo — in over 450 schools and districts in the United States.
In addition to Khan Academy, Khan has created Schoolhouse.world, a free peer-to-peer tutoring platform on the internet. He is also the founder of Khan Lab School, a K-12 school in Silicon Valley. In 2024, he released his second nonfiction book, “Brave New Words,” which Bill Gates has described as “a timely masterclass for anyone interested in the future of learning in the AI era.”
Khan’s commitment to leveraging technology to revolutionize education access and improve learning outcomes has earned a number of honors and recognitions, including a Heinz Award for the Human Condition; a Gold Medal from the American Academy of Achievement; and a spot on TIME’s list of the most 100 influential people in the world.
Edward Feigenbaum (ENG 1956, TPR 1960), Honorary Doctor of Science and Technology
Ed Feigenbaum, a computer scientist and graduate of the Carnegie Institute of Technology (later CMU), is widely regarded as the “father of expert systems.” As a doctoral student mentored by Professor Herb Simon, Feigenbaum developed one of the very first computer models of human learning. He later joined Stanford University, where he helped establish the school’s computer science department and led the development of DENDRAL, the first AI heuristic program capable of interpreting mass spectrometry data as correct organic chemical structures. This work paved the way for machine-aided scientific discovery, hypothesis formation and some of the most exciting advances in chemistry and biology today. Feigenbaum’s career awards and recognitions are numerous, and include the ACM Turing Award (1994) and election into both the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Deborah Kass (CFA 1974) Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts
Carnegie Mellon University alumna Deborah Kass is a celebrated Brooklyn-based artist whose work explores the intersections of pop culture, identity and art history. Her pieces appear in some of the world’s leading museums — including the Met, the Museum of Modern Art and the National Portrait Gallery — and have been popularized through a number of public art installations and print campaigns. Among Kass’s most iconic pieces to date are double-sided sculptures displaying the pop culture term "YO" from one view and the Yiddish "OY" from the other, permanently installed in front of three major museums across the United States. Kass has earned a number of accolades throughout her career to date, including induction into The National Academy of Design as well as the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame.
Lip-Bu Tan, Honorary Doctor of Science and Technology
Lip-Bu Tan is a veteran in the semiconductor industry as well as a widely respected venture capitalist who has both led and invested in some of the world’s greatest technology companies. He is the founding managing partner of Walden Catalyst Ventures and chairman of Walden International and was named CEO of Intel Corporation in March 2025. Prior to joining Intel, Tan spent nearly two decades at Cadence Design Systems, including 12 years as its CEO. At Cadence Design Systems, Tan led the company’s transformative shift toward customer-centric innovation, ultimately doubling revenue and significantly increasing its stock price. Today, Tan serves on a number of external boards, including for Credo Technology Group, Schneider Electric and Carnegie Mellon University. His career accomplishments are many and include earning the Semiconductor Industry Association's highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award.
I am grateful to the members of our Honorary Degree Review Committee, led by Richard Scheines, the Bess Family Dean of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. This committee’s thoughtful consideration and review process has resulted in an extraordinary lineup of honorary degree recipients, and you can learn more about the ceremony on our Commencement webpage.
While Commencement is still a few weeks away, we are already looking forward to welcoming these distinguished leaders to campus and — of course — celebrating the many achievements and talents of our outstanding graduates!
Sincerely,
Farnam Jahanian
President
Henry L. Hillman President’s Chair