 Good afternoon. It's an honor to be speaking today at the investiture of my friend and colleague Dr. Suresh Garamella, the 27th president of the University of Vermont. Let me recognize the faculty, staff, students, as well as Dr. Garamella's family, friends, and colleagues. This is an important day for everyone who has been a part of Dr. Garamella's journey. It's an opportunity to look forward to a new era with his presidency. For a long time, I've been a student of institutions in what makes them successful. From institutions the size of a department or center, to the size of an entire university or even a country, what stands out as the principal ingredient for success for all is leadership and engagement of those you serve. You are very fortunate. The University of Vermont has found a great leader in Suresh Garamella. Let me tell you about my first encounter with him. At the time, I was president of Purdue. I saw that the engineering school was featuring a special lecture by one of its faculty who had just returned from serving a year in Washington, D.C. as a Jefferson fellow at the State Department. I was eager to learn more about the benefits and insights gained from this appointment and made time in my schedule to attend the lecture. Suresh, of course, was the speaker. I was impressed by his thoughtful analysis of his year with our State Department, what he had learned about international diplomacy and the relevance of science and technology to economic growth, our nation's science portfolio in foreign affairs. I thought to myself, there's a person we could use in the office of the president, the Purdue president, and next thing I knew, Suresh was on our leadership team. My successor at Purdue recognized his talent and drive and made him executive vice president for research and partnerships. In that role, Suresh increased the research portfolio of the university tremendously and formed several stunning partnerships with industry throughout the state. Now, the University of Vermont has recognized these achievements and the character that drove them and made him its president. You are fortunate indeed. Dr. Guermilla is stepping up an important time for higher education, perhaps even a defining moment in our history. This mirrors the time in American history in the 1800s when the effects of the Industrial Revolution were transforming society. There was an urgent need for educational opportunities that would give people the knowledge and skills they needed to navigate new frontiers in manufacturing, engineering, and agriculture. That led to the creation of the land grant university system in 1862. The University of Vermont became part of that nationwide system and as a former chancellor and president of two land grant universities, I've seen close hand how a land grant university connects to the wider community. I can only imagine that you too are proud of your land grant tradition. The frontiers of science and engineering have expanded far beyond what anyone could have imagined in the mid-1800s and the roles of education and research have become even more important. The University of Vermont once prepared students for the Industrial Revolution and now it will prepare students for the Artificial Intelligence Revolution, the Quantum Computing Revolution, the Bioengineering Revolution, and many more groundbreaking opportunities that science, technology, and engineering have made possible. Unless you think that I'm only talking about science and engineering, this age also demands a revolution in creativity, in combining scientific and humanistic traditions in new ways to encourage creativity and innovation. It demands the skills of social and behavioral scientists to help ensure an ethical framework for how new technologies are used. One of the hallmarks of Suresh's career has been this interdisciplinary approach to both science and administration. The lines between different fields in science and engineering are blurring more and more every day and bigger breakthroughs and bigger breakthroughs are now made possible by cross-cutting collaborations. This approach is becoming one of the defining characteristics of today's successful and productive endeavors. The coming together or convergence of disciplines of science and humanistic approaches introduces new perspectives and generates new ways to solve even the most difficult questions. At Purdue, Suresh conceived and implemented an ambitious life sciences initiative in which he brought together faculty from many disciplines to study integrative neuroscience and inflammation, immunology, and infectious disease. He also assisted a new integrative data science initiative which applied data science research to pressing fundamental and socially relevant issues. This was important to prepare students for the future. I'm excited for what the future holds for your new president, Suresh Garamalla. He will enable the convergence of ideas and people that are at the heart of the University of Vermont. Congratulations to Suresh and congratulations to all of you.