Nominees will have advanced their field of endeavor in significant ways or made compelling contributions to society. Past recipients include alumnus Sanjay Gupta and economist Robert J. Shiller.

U-M commencement speakers have imparted wisdom, warnings, predictions, and platitudes to graduates since 1845. A common theme: Each class inherits the great events, problems, and possibilities of the time. Plus: 2020 Commencement.

She completed her U-M Law degree while being treated for cancer. In late 2019, Tara Ogunde’s father, Kunle, BSE ’78, and mother, Angela, accepted their late daughter’s diploma and memorialized her at the Rogel Cancer Center.

Gov. Whitmer tells U-M graduates they’re ‘in the driver’s seat’ at 2019 Spring Commencement. The governor received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the ceremony.

Football legend Charles Woodson urges new Michigan grads to reject hate and view one another as human beings, “nothing more, nothing less.”

U-M celebrates distinguished graduates of 20 years or fewer as part of 2017 Spring Commencement.